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Q&A Can I state a fact in a first person story?

The subject of your sentence can be something other than the MC when you're writing in first person. For example: My phone rang or Footsteps were coming down the alley behind me You don...

posted 6y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Sensitivity with disorders/mental illnesses

My answer for this is my answer to any question about portraying an illness or trauma: talk to people who are suffering from it. People with depression and/or suicidal ideation may not always be w...

posted 6y ago by F1Krazy‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to research sex for writing?

IMO, pornography is realistic enough; seek out the "homemade" variety. I think you can tell if these are scripted or being "acted". Particularly if there is any hint of role playing; it isn't reali...

posted 6y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to convert a roleplay into a book?

The core novels of the Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman started out as this - a D&D campaign. You might find it useful to take a look at their work. In some scenes of Drago...

posted 6y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to make an email less "me" centric?

Maybe it helps if you just change your viewpoint. You probably have written the mail with the viewpoint “I want this job.” Instead, consider the viewpoint ”The company will need to refill that job,...

posted 6y ago by celtschk‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to indicate that the source language is gender-neutral?

The only way I see to maintain the effect you're talking about is not to use pronouns. You can use the character's name. You can use their profession / rank / etc. You can say "we did", "they did" ...

posted 6y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to indicate that the source language is gender-neutral?

In the 1990s, I was really hoping that the Z or X pronouns (zie & zir, xie & xir) would win for the non-gender-focused option - they follow the he/she pronunciation style, which indicates s...

posted 6y ago by April Salutes Monica C.‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Sensitivity with disorders/mental illnesses

My advice is to provide rough therapy in the book. Accompany your suicidal character with a counterweight character. This does not have to be somebody that loves them, nor does it have to be a main...

posted 6y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A What makes for a successful resurrection?

In writing a resurrection, you need to balance several conflicting ideas: on the one hand, the death of the character should be a possibility. Otherwise, this death is cheap, meaningless. "He died,...

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

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Q&A Is it Ok to make up places if I want the reader to think it’s set in the real world?

Jane Austen routinely did what it sounds like you want to do: she kept the big places intact (London, Bath), but the estates mentioned in her stories (e.g. Pemberly) are fictional, with only their ...

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

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Q&A Fiction Writing - has it all been done before?

And yet somehow, every year, new authors sell blockbusters and earn $millions. JK Rowling went from nobody to being worth nearly half $billion. So did Dan Brown, so did Stephen King, to name a few...

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

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Q&A Writing a Satisfying Ending

The hero fought the good fight, as best they could, and that fight is done. To me, for happy or sad endings (of a book or character within a book), and assuming the rest of the book makes the read...

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

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Q&A Fiction Writing - has it all been done before?

My personal creative mantra is cribbed straight from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: If it doesn't already exist, I should just make it myself. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever...

posted 7y ago by F1Krazy‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A 'for example' and 'e.g.' in a thesis

"E.g." is an abbreviation for the Latin "exempli gratia", which means "for example". The abbreviation is fairly common in "advanced" writing, like theses, in my experience. However, it's an other...

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

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Q&A Is it important to research the topic of your novel/story before writing it?

Make up anything you like (without violating copyrights and trademarks). Outside of intellectual property laws, the whole point of fiction is to exercise your imagination. That said, if you writ...

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

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Q&A How to go from an opening idea to a complete plot?

I'm a discovery writer; meaning I write without a plot, and see what happens. I don't have written character histories, or back stories, or a laundry list of traits or descriptions. If I need a phy...

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

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Q&A Sensory Information Overload

The Rule of Three. In another context, this has been studied scientifically by psychologists. AKA the 80/20 rule, and the law of diminishing returns. Specifically the study of mentality suggests ...

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

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Q&A Sensory Information Overload

@Amadeus and @DPT both provide great answers. I will add one consideration to their answers, an aspect @DPT mentions, but doesn't elaborate on. It's not just how much description you have, how man...

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

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Q&A Is it acceptable to use words like "heaven" and "god" when the narrator is agnostic?

There are two ways religious concepts appear in speech. First, there are common expressions: "Oh my god", "go to hell", etc. Those are a natural part of our speech, we hear them all the times and ...

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

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Q&A Is it acceptable to use words like "heaven" and "god" when the narrator is agnostic?

This depends on the character. You're quite right to realize that the set of images a character will use, should depend a lot on that character's "inner lexicon"; on the particular imagery that ch...

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

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Q&A Is it acceptable to use words like "heaven" and "god" when the narrator is agnostic?

Yes, agnostics and atheists can do anything they want with religious language! I am another atheist, and a practicing scientist at a university. I don't regard any entity in any religion as real o...

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

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Q&A Brands to use, brands not to use

Not using real brands can give you more creative freedom Funnily enough, I have an example of this from just the other day. I was writing a scene where my protagonist meets his soon-to-be love int...

posted 7y ago by F1Krazy‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Will traditional publishers force you to remove brands?

Publishers certainly don't always remove brands. Two example from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files: "I'm hungry," he said, his voice a low growl. "We can hit a McDonald's or something on the way h...

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

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Q&A On copyright infringement and plagiarism

It doesn't sound like either to me; if your words are different they are different. Plagiarism is straight up copying text from another writer. Copyright too. Similar ideas are quite common; the no...

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

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Q&A Should I focus on ideas which the market enjoys, or ideas which I enjoy?

Write what you enjoy. Even professional authors have written first books they couldn't sell, and even when famous wouldn't sell without rewriting them from page 1. It is difficult to sell a first ...

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

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