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Complete chance? Yes. That's a form of deus ex machina, where something outside the hero/ine's actions swoops in at the end to save the day. If something arbitrary outside the plot advances it with...
This is a common problem I face as well. Sometimes there's nothing you can do about it, and have to leave two that's together. But usually, you can fix it by using the following rule: Replace a '...
There is not one answer, as others have said. But I would suggest the following: How many rewrites it takes to make a competent writer is a very different question from how many rewrites it takes...
I really like the -ar plural, and I think you should keep it regardless. You don't always have to obey the rules of English if your original word isn't. English is rife with loan words from other l...
This is a Your Mileage May Vary question. There's no way for us to say if it's boring wthout reading it. Write your book, polish it, hand it to a beta reader, and ask if your backstory is boring or...
Generally speaking, quotation for purposes of criticism is an allowed use under copyright law. That does not necessarily mean all quotation in a review is permitted usage, though. You should make s...
In classical theory, this character is known as the trickster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster They are the chaotic character. They create problem for the protagonist because they cannot be...
Neither of the above. You can't act a scene in prose. Nor can you describe your way into a reaction. What you have to do to get the reader to have a reaction to events it to set them up properly so...
Situations that create a sense of urgency can be condensed to a running timer: there's the total amount of time, there's the time still left, and there's what is expected to happen when time runs o...
It depends on who your readers are and what they are trying to do with the information. Documentation about the same product could have very different levels/types of detail depending on whether y...
The acid test is this: Will the reader behave differently if they know this? If not, leave it out. The aim of user documentation is to enable the user to act correctly. Any detail that does not con...
I have four. I now profoundly wish I only had one. The idea of a "site" is now becoming moribund anyway. The essence of a "site" is a home page, but the importance of the home page is diminishing...
I wouldn't object to a half-page of pronounciation key at the front as part of the front matter. A six-page listing of characters, main houses, a glossary, etc. would be too much, but "Here's a qui...
You don't need to -- and shouldn't try to -- explain every detail of every bit of background you've come up with. If your writing says "I had to do lots of research to write this so I'm going to ...
There are different types of critique/editing, and different benchmarks for each. There is content editing, which can be more easily called critique, which deals with the actual story. Then there ...
A lot of this depends on where the focus is. If it is a psychological piece, the focus is on the psychology and inconsistencies in the use of technology won't matter much. If it is a love story, di...
You are confused about what's being shown. "Show, don't tell" means "show us that the hero is confused by describing the look on his face and how he stutters and drops things" rather than saying in...
Show vs tell is an overblown and misunderstood idea imported into fiction writing from screenwriting. It was originally coined to train novelists to write for the screen. (You can see how novel-lik...
I would start by making a distinction between a good speechwriter and a good speaker. Ted Sorensen explains it very well in this essay on Smithsonian.com. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ted-...
As others have said, most fantasy is set in a different environment, where the non-English-speaking inhabitants have different cultural and linguistic norms. So it's only natural to want to convey...
Names are part of language. However, they are normally not translated. A Frenchman named Pierre is not referred to as Peter in English, he keeps the French version of his name. We presume that En...
you could try Title by Relative with Aparente (I have also seen "as told to," which to me means the person in question sat for multiple interviews and the writer collated and wrote everything ...
The tense used in a story is relative to the temporal POV (point of view) of the narrator, not to the actual calendar date. The modern novel arises from traditional storytelling, meaning that the d...
No, you can't randomly switch to the present tense like that. You are telling your story in past tense, even if you're talking about the future relative to us. News stories can switch to the pres...
Let's say that you wanted to become a circus performer. You want your act to be juggling flaming batons blindfolded while riding a unicycle on a tightrope over a tiger cage. You recognize that yo...
