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This is simply a bug, not intended behaviour, which is why nobody here can give you a definite answer about how to make it stop. If you see such a behaviour try to file a bug report on their bug re...
They aren't tropes, but both examples are indicative of common mistakes for beginners. "Utter" is an extremum word, like "absolutely", "completely", "devoid", "unbelievably", etc. These are shortc...
First person vs third person narration does not really change what can be narrated. In both cases, the narrator is the narrator and it is their role to tell the story. You can tell a character's th...
Although I have read a few things I liked written from the first person, I can't write that way myself; it is far too limiting and constrained. For one, the POV character has to be in every frikkin...
INT. HOSPITAL - DAY - 7 YEARS LATER BATHSHEBA MOANS as she gets to her feet. BATHSHEBA LAUGHS HYSTERICALLY. BATHSHEBA SNORTS BATHSHEBA (wheezing...
+1 To Sheila. A slightly different answer: Make him feel what they feel. When he meets the girl, he is as happy as he has ever been. He feels love and compassion for every stranger he sees as if th...
I think it would be fine; "Heaven" is not really a religious element, people use it all the time to refer to pedestrian real world things. (The same could be said for the word "pray"). "That desse...
You don't build a character around a psychological profile. The primary driver of character is desire. Do you know what this character wants? Do you know why they want that thing enough to overcome...
My opinion: Your book needs to end with closure on the Trilogy Setup. I think books follow the Act structure often used in film. Act I sets up the problem, introduces the characters, and ends with...
for the sake of extra detail There's your problem. Don't add extra detail which your POV character can't perceive. Find someplace else to put the pretty phrase or leave it in your slush file.
This site doesn't seem to be explicitly listed as a vanity/scam on the Writer's Beware list here: https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/anthologies/ , but I was thinking of...
I'm going to dissent from the spin straw into gold argument that others have made. It's not that I don't see merit in it, its just that I think prose rhythm is a heard thing, by which I mean that s...
If you can't adequately develop sympathy for a character over the course of an entire book, then there is little hope of your readers ever reaching the end of that book. Of course you should be a...
1) Might one ask why the character destined to die is named... Cancer? I'm just calling him "Charlie" for the rest of this discussion. 2) Does Charlie have any agency, life, personality, or backgr...
A good review means the reviewer liked it. It does not mean anybody else did. Something can be intensely liked by a small group of people and ignored by everyone else. It can be a very fine example...
1) Marketing a product is not "convincing someone to buy something they do not want" or "giving the people what they want." It is creating a need in the buyer which s/he either didn't have or didn'...
This is essentially a question of libel. Is what you say about these athletes libelous or not. The laws governing libel different from one country to another, so it is impossible to give a definiti...
It depends. How many of them are there? An RLC circuit is composed of a resistor, an inductor, and a capacitor elements. This means that an RLC circuit has exactly one of each of these three...
Well, it's a very old question, and one that is not likely to get a definitive answer. It is perhaps worth making a distinction between poetry and verse. Verse is a literary form that is characteri...
How many Harry Potters do you think there are in the phone book? Or James Kirks? Literature would be full of some truly strange and wonderful names if no character could have a name borne by any re...
I wouldn't just use fire and ice. The classic Four Elements (earth, air, fire, water) have been used for mythological and magical structures for many stories. Look at the Avatar: The Last Airbender...
There is story development and there is narration. You need to compose a story before you can narrate it. Some people are naturals at story development. For them the story flows so naturally that t...
Would this still be considered offensive by the majority of the readers? Nazis are offensive, period, so yes. The motivations of the good guys in Nazi garb will just come off as incongruous, i...
1) You're trying to write your final polished draft on your first shot. It won't happen. Focus on one goal at a time. First determine your substance. Then organize it. Then write it. Never mind how...
Is it ok to use fake words like that? If you are making up the culture, that is fine. Slang changes, year by year and city by city, all over the world. Some sticks longer than others, some eve...
