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You have to do both at the same time. Here's the problem with World Building: It is engineering. Whether you are educated as an engineer or not; world building is devising a machine, an ecosystem,...
Generally, @MichaelKjörling and @HenryTaylor are right. Let me, however, look at the issue from a slightly different perspective. If you explain something, it has to make sense. If you don't expla...
I haven't ever tried such a thing, so I am speaking from ignorance, but my instinct (for a game) would be one I don't think you have mentioned: lean away from the dominant subplot toward the weakes...
There are two obvious concerns: One is being a plagiarist; the second is being derivative. Plagiarism has heavier consequences, but it's much easier to avoid. If your magic school is called Hugwor...
The Story Comes First. I think you are worrying too much about trivial points, and this can only make your story more difficult. When you want to portray a stereotype without seeming to do that, y...
A while ago, I asked a similar question about representation of national groups. I invite you to take a look at it here. The answers I got boiled down to this: you cannot possibly have every human ...
No, because you'd want your story to be as realistic and logical to the timeline your story is in. If you re-read that sentence, it would sound very weird because cars and swords were not used in t...
Speaking as an American, I think this is a difficult task in the current culture. Your best bet is likely a setting where the characters are a bit drunk, and the woman initiates the kiss. That wil...
The only way this is permissible (in my view, of course) is if the main character or the narrator is actually a time traveler from the future. It isn't the setting you need to stay faithful to, it...
Hmm. When I'm not sure about something, I like to look at some examples. All Quiet on the Western Front has the characters never win. In fact, they all die, and their side loses the war (something...
Whatever feels right. You could also write the start of each chapter and slowly fill each one out. This way you start with the rough outline, then move to a roadmap with small steps, and then you j...
A premise statement (read the link, it is short) is not typically IN your story at all, not before it, not in the prose. As the link says: Every story has one premise. Only one. This premise...
Normally yes, because you wouldn't really want the table of contents and the beginning of a chapter on one page. It looks neater, and easier to manage when you finally print it out.
I am not a lawyer, but I would ask a lawyer about the following route to avoid your problem. I am pretty certain (because I have disabled relatives) that you CAN earn a certain amount of money th...
I don't think philosophy and fiction are really opposites. The difference is that in fiction, you don't describe the philosophy, you show its consequences. For example, if your philosophy includes...
To answer, I must admit to the world: I am a carnivore. That's right, people! I eat meat. Bacon, beef, pork, chicken, turkey -- I shamelessly and without guilt consume them all, and enjoy it. I am...
ESP stands for "Extrasensory Perception". It is an abbreviation. The correct way to write it is therefore in All Caps: ESP, similar to how one writes NASA, USA and DNA. A potential publisher would...
I suspect you are too focused on your idea. Most ideas for good novel length (or series length) stories are actually pretty simple, and can be summarized in a page. That includes best sellers like ...
As noted in this answer, you do need to be mindful that for a user guide your reader's goal is information, while for a rulebook it can also be entertainment. If the entertainment gets in the way ...
I am a discovery writer (and find the term "pantster" as pejorative as "plodder" instead of "plotter."). All writers must go through a phase of discovering their story, whether it is inventing a de...
+1 Secespitus; I have little to add but to talk on writing mechanics. Game of Thrones is a saga, a long-format story with many main characters so the writers (7, led by George RR Martin) have ple...
As everybody else says, all options are viable. You can start from a scene that's bright in your mind and write to it and from it, you can throw scenes on paper and then connect them, you can start...
I start on Page 1, Line 1, Word 1: The main character's name. If you know this much about the characters, the first scene introduces the main character and her status-quo world. You have 5% to 10%...
The problem is that you are mixing two fundamentally different genres. If I want to read a funny story I am not in the mood for horror - I want jokes and the problem of not laughing out while on th...
The trope you're referring to, if I understand what you're saying, is "20 minutes into the future" (TV Tropes link here and onwards). Works based on this trope would usually focus on societal, rath...
