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You've already begun answering your own question by starting to establish the first critical point for how to deal with hinting at a character who is not what they first appear: Establishing what ...
Another difference between the two forms is that the first makes it clear where the patronising smile is directed, i.e. whom it's patronising. In the second, the smile could have been there before...
Print publications that are no longer in print are (were) still print publications. You would therefore cite them the same way you would any other newspaper article from a still-extant paper. (Ci...
Your character takes an action. It all happens in your imagination. Well, imagine then: could your character take the opposite action? Could they, proceeding with your example, choose not to help?...
Erotica is not a genre I read, but the lusting male gaze in some fantasy and sci-fi - I cannot say that I always find it offensive. On the contrary - I can find it quite pleasant. I want to be lust...
The problem I see is the double standard in sexualization. It seems much more acceptable nowadays for women to a have a lusty look on (attractive) men than the other way around. The cause for this ...
Something about the character's physical appearance doesn't seem quite right. If I recall correctly, the hallucinations in A Beautiful Mind never aged - that's how the MC was eventually able to te...
I would subtly manipulate the dialog so that your main can have scenes where the imaginary character and a real character are both talking and it seems like they are having the same conversation, b...
Another alternative is to have other characters question the existing of the friend, accuse the MC of making up stuff, and the imaginary character is never there when the MC could prove their exist...
I don't know if "best practices" are really a thing for writing, but I use the epigraph on top of every chapter to explain something is relevant to the chapter or something everyone in the room wou...
The pragmatic "Hollywood" answer is a film has a happy ending if it leaves room for a sequel. Although Tony Stark dies, they did have sequels with him, and in this particular case, another Iron Man...
The protagonist(s) win/s, the antagonist(s) is/are defeated (even temporarily), and the reader can imagine the protagonists continuing on to other adventures, or with their lives, in some positive ...
In this particular case, don't, because the term NASA is more well known than its expansion. Sometimes acronyms evolve into words, such as scuba and radar. Once they become words, use them as words...
In fiction, there are several possibilities: Have the narrator explain the acronym outside of actual dialogue, assuming that the narrator is written in a way to express their thoughts. Have a cha...
I agree with Mark Baker. If it is a real world acronym everybody knows, just use it. For real-world acronyms few people know, or made up acronyms, a common ploy used in fiction is to use the acrony...
Short answer, from Archibald MacLeish: A poem should not mean But be. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/17168/ars-poetica applies equally well to novels.
A character is not a human being. A character is a construct created entirely by the author for the purpose of telling a story. This works because stories are much neater simpler things than real h...
How should this fall from grace be represented and done better? "Better" is a subjective term, but the more general question "how do I represent a fall from grace?" can be answered. To me it ...
I can see why it feels hard. Almost all these symbolism tropes refer to a specific existing symbolism, rather than ways to create something new. So what are your options? Apples have other symboli...
"Concise" doesn't mean "very short"; it means "no more verbose than it needs to be". In your case, you have needs that establish a minimum length. Trying to fight against that will only lead to f...
The Comprehensive Rules of Magic is a reference document that holds all of the rules and possible corner cases found in Magic. It is NOT meant to be read beginning to end; instead it's meant to ...
As others wrote, you cannot make sure the reader interprets your novel the way you want it to be interpreted. However, you still can influence it. You might read your draft and explicitly look for...
At this point you need one of two things, either time or someone you trust to tell you the truth. The problem with most beta readers is that they are friends or acquaintances and they don't want ...
The ideal recourse, at this phase, is finding some good beta-readers. Beta-readers are fantastic because they give you a sense of how your novel is working; what's good and what isn't. Beta-reader...
I would recommend going to Webtoons and looking at what is there. On the main site are the featured artists and studying what they do is worthwhile. There are also competitions and a place for begi...
