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Q&A Is it best to make a description metaphorical, or upfront?

It is better to be a straightforward as possible in all descriptions. The aim is to form an image in the reader's mind, and the simplest language that does that is the language you should choose, s...

posted 8y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to handle translation of a language in a comic, while preserving a sense that the language is significant?

This has been handled a few ways in comics: Have the text in word balloons be a translation of the original, with a footnote indicating "translated from other-language-name". You can graphically...

posted 8y ago by Neil‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to handle translation of a language in a comic, while preserving a sense that the language is significant?

This is how it was handled in the Asterix comics. Specifically Asterix and the Goths:

posted 8y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to write a character that isn't who they claim?

You can create a character that is a fraud, and seems to have inherent weaknesses, but once in a while they act out of character and against their supposed weakness, in some situation that is criti...

posted 5y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A What are effective methods for getting reviews for a non-fiction business book?

There is probably nothing you can do that will get publications like the Economist to review a self published book. Major outlets like this are bombarded with more book review requests than they co...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Cite letter and article separately even though both are on the same webpage?

The letter is a primary source, as you already know. This is the actual artifact, the letter the young woman received from NASA. The article about the history of these events is a secondary sourc...

posted 7y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How similar can I make fictional and real cultures?

Well, if you garner enough attention to get any critics interested in savaging you, you will already be doing well. But critics qua critics are unlikely to savage you for it unless you do it clumsi...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to handle translation of a language in a comic, while preserving a sense that the language is significant?

You have two choices that I can see, and which one you use will likely be dependent on the amount of foreign-language copy you have versus the amount of space you have in the panel to display it: ...

posted 8y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I figure out my main character's overall goal?

Story is driven by desire and that which stands in the way of achieving desire. If your character had a strong desire, she would have a goal. If she does not have a strong desire, that means she ha...

posted 8y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A What is the best time of day to write? Day or night?

and welcome to Writers. As has been pointed out, this is likely a duplicate, but I will offer my opinion. A lot of writing is done via writer preference. This means it's up to you what works and ...

posted 8y ago by Thomas Myron‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to describe a kiss between the protagonists in third person?

I suspect that you don't really want to describe their emotions in the clinical sense. Rather, you want the reader to know how they feel, and to feel how they feel, or at least to feel sympathy for...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Where to break paragraphs in dialogue?

You should follow normal paragraph rules, which are, essentially, that a paragraph contains a complete thought. Of course, this is a fuzzy definition. What makes a thought complete? A sentence, a c...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Formatting multiple languages while avoiding italics for native speakers in their POV

So, does the attempt to not italicize for native speakers make sense? Would having it not italicized for native points of view but italicized for non-native be reasonable? I think this is a go...

posted 7y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Formatting multiple languages while avoiding italics for native speakers in their POV

It strikes me that this difficulty in deciding how to format all of these languages is just a canary in the coal mine keeling over to let you know that this is all going to be too confusing for the...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I get my readers in the gut?

As you rightly perceive, the moments that have a potential for gut emotional appeal are well known, but merely creating the moment does not always produce the emotion -- precisely because we all kn...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Documenting the no-args call of a command line program

Arguments modify the behavior of a program. Running it without arguments means you get is default, unmodified behavior. So the help should describe the default unmodified behavior first, in the bod...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it a bad habit to reveal most of the information still at the beginning of the story?

Good stories are not created by withholding information from the reader. They are created by constructing a satisfactory story arc, by creating the desire to know what happens next. The desire to k...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Pay rate and terms for writing book series under contract

If this were a conventional commercial publisher that was in position to distribute the books widely it would be a very good deal. If it is a purely speculative venture by someone with no previous ...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should each book in the series be a similar length?

Artistically, each book should be as long as it needs to be. Commercially, there are certain limits determined by salability and risk. A thin book may not be perceived by the reader as value for m...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do I gather enough material to write a close reading essay?

The basic material for a close reading is the text itself. Literally, you read it closely, line by line. Is it clear what is being said? Are there allusions to things outside the text that may affe...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How does one write a misanthropic character likeable?

You'll find a lot of good answers here: How do you make a story succeed in spite of an unsympathetic main character? On top of that: If your character is a misanthrope out of disappointment, that...

posted 7y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Creating clues for a mystery subplot

Think of your objects first. Sit down and brainstorm a bunch of things. Things which can be hidden reasonably well in a school. Things which might have thematic links to your characters, things wh...

posted 7y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Do 'text walls' scare off readers?

There are two kinds of density of text. It is common to find one author (e.g. Karl Marx) writing text that is dense in both senses, but let's tease the two types apart: One way of making text de...

posted 7y ago by aparente001‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Where does the "black moment" fall in a novel?

I think it's the Snowflake Structure guy who plots out his books as "Three Disasters and an Ending." He likes a four-act structure rather than three (or five as on stage). So you have your initia...

posted 7y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Where does the "black moment" fall in a novel?

You can create an average of any data set. If you average out enough story data than you can describe an average story arc and assign names to all of the moments in that arc. This exercise is not w...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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