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Change the story more (as you have already begun; sidekick isn't always invulnerable). Give the sidekick damage points that he can't recover for some turns after a battle: This becomes a part of st...
Wait. I am a discovery writer, meaning, I do not outline or plot or plan ahead, except in a minor way. I often don't know where the first Act ends, or what complications and setbacks will arrive, ...
Let me start with a disclaimer: some languages are naturally more tolerant of long names (and long words) than others. In Finnish, you've got names like Väinämöinen. In Hebrew, if something has mor...
A chapter can be long or short, it can be longer or shorter than other chapters in your novel, you might have a novel with no chapters at all. Think of it this way: a sentence isn't defined as 5-1...
In Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling alternates between "Aunt Petunia" "his aunt" and "she". In Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury has the following: Far off, the old man smiled. They ap...
I would do what people actually do, and call it something descriptive. Here is an Online Etymology Dictionary that can tell you when and how various words in the English language originated and evo...
Evil-happenings-in-childhood and similar "extenuating circumstances" are a trope referred to as a Freudian Excuse (TV Tropes link). The main problem with this trope is what it implies: because char...
Just because you can understand how the villain got that way doesn't mean you have to agree with the villain's actions. Most people can understand how Black Panther's Erik Killmonger turned out th...
Yes, if you want readers to be satisfied with your writing. You don't have to answer everything, or explain everything, but a story (long or short) has a central unknown that is the reason the rea...
I'll say what has been said in my own way: A long block of JUST dialogue is generally an under-imagined scene. The dialogue takes place in a setting, with its own sights, sounds, smells and temper...
What you are describing reminds me of The Lord of the Rings, once the Fellowship splits up. Different chapters follow Frodo, Aragorn, Merry and Pippin. To avoid confusion, Tolkien always devotes w...
My personal opinion is, don't make that mistake. I consider that similar to "world building disease". It is one reason I am a discovery writer, I first failed as a plodder. The error is that it is...
+1 to DPT and EBH, this is the only point I can think of to add to theirs. As the OP's link alludes, Magic appearing is typically (not always) a metaphor for puberty and the appearance of sexual de...
I think you jump in too fast, remind him of the circumstances first. Be more specific. In March we spoke about me doing some research on one of your projects, and I expressed interest in doing ...
If you had a larger number of plot branches, I would caution you about it, and suggest perhaps trimming one or two of them down. I can think of a few stories with 5-6 plot branches, or even more, a...
1) You had to have some plot (or situation) to begin the book. Although that obviously underwent revisions; you now have a beginning, and an end. Of the first character(s) introduced, how do they ...
Weird names are fine and tolerated, my personal rule is to ensure there is no ambiguity in how the reader should pronounce them; and "Nyuna" does have that problem, it is not certain whether to try...
You can't. You have a cast of characters that will work for your story. Now you see that those characters are not as diverse as today's media makes you feel is necessary. So you want to change som...
Proof of Peril. Some characters are killed as various kinds of proof for the audience. This can be proof of peril for the heroes, or for the innocent. This can be proof of the ruthlessness of t...
Happiness You can choose to go a more traditional route of having a succubus as a sort of dream eater. Instead of wet dreams you could then just make the Succubus long for any kind of nice dream. ...
Because maintaining suspense over who will live and who will die is only one of a story's many goals. And in most stories, it's not even a very important one. The fact that The Protagonist Survive...
If you can think of a third aspect, I would include it. I would not add to existing answers I thought were complete, unless I can bring in another aspect to them. Plus, your instinct to not have ...
While there is no one single way, here's a practical approach. You need to be capable of answering a few crucial questions about your work: What is the work's overall feel and style? What, about...
This may depend on the writer and their style; what I think is a great opening line, and what you think is a great opening line, may be quite different things. Speaking for myself, I write stories...
As you have already stated the most important part is to have the finished story ready so that you really know what will happen - plans are great, but they never survive the first contact with a be...
