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Perhaps it would help for you to list what your character is not. Try to think of traits she doesn't have. What professional skills does she lack? Is she not a fighter, not a tech, not a magician?...
One of the strongest advantages of the medium of the written word (as opposed to, say, movies) is that you can describe something that is impossible to experience, and readers will still accept it....
Do not publish ANYTHING you know is untrue, or even suspect is untrue. I am a PhD, a research scientist and former college professor. You are just in trouble. You cannot publish conclusions that ...
Either can be used, as @DPT says. I heard a loud screech from beyond the gates, then silence. 'What is going on?' I thought. Here, effectively, you are presenting the thought as internal mono...
In my opinion, your story would be fine, and readers would be fine, if your characters exhibit a significant amount of agency once and early. If the hero (and sidekick or whatever) chooses to subj...
In general, bigotry is calling or assuming something inherent to a trait (gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, language spoken) that, even if it is true, does not have any rational basis for...
Sexism isn't a yes/no kind of thing, and it's a mistake to treat it as such. Saying that a story or an idea is "sexist" is shorthand. What it means is that it creates, encourages, or reinforces se...
At the heart of every story is a choice about values. The protagonist is brought to a point where they must choose between two things they value. This requires the ability to actually make the choi...
Conflict does not have to be grand, and the stakes do not have to be enormous. Consider a romance, like "When Harry Met Sally" or "Sleepless In Seattle" or "You've Got Mail". I'm not saying you sho...
I believe genre is primarily determined by plot, setting, and "justifications"; i.e. SciFi justifies fantastical elements (like FTL drives) by hand-waving some futuristic technology (or some techno...
From my POV, if I strive to make myself clear and unambiguous, and people take that the wrong way, that's on them. Not me. Virtually every revolution for the good has involved "illegal" acts, incl...
When you ask a question, people assume you are asking for a reason, that you intend to use the answer to make some decision. There is no such thing as "just a question". The reason they read betwe...
If you are writing the story, you face a choice between making the dialogue more natural, or emphasising foreignness. @Amadeus explains the first option in detail, so I will not reiterate. However,...
Speaking as a former division manager of a public company that has hired dozens of programmers and engineers and read hundreds of resumes: Use "I". It is expected. Stick to the facts, do not enga...
Q10 is How does she relate to other female characters? I think you misunderstood the question. One form of a weak female character is one that exists for men; is portrayed as, and acts as if, her ...
I use two approaches: First, like @ggx, I steer clear of metaphors and similes in describing anything about the physical parts. The characters think and use the words they are accustomed to using a...
There are two separate issues here: Are there legal repercussions if you do not change the names? Should you change the names in the absence of legal issues? For the first, I don't know the law...
Pitch it as New Adult (18-30) or Adult. The age of the protagonist is not the whole decision, the real decision is which age group can find the story entertaining. Adults are willing to follow the ...
If you don't want people rioting in the streets you should show how people are rioting in the streets in your novel - and how that way utterly fails to achieve what the people wanted to achieve. ...
Is this a bad idea? It would be odd for the protagonist to suddenly dwell upon those past events himself, Yes, I think this is a bad idea. Non-POV characters that come and go are foils for th...
I've been writing an actual visual novel for a few years, so I'm going to approach this from a game development perspective as much as a writing perspective. To help me with this problem, I borrow...
Skip the physical actions you find unrealistic (although most of them are metaphorical, not 'unrealistic'). Tears welling in eyes, trembling, etc are realistic enough. Also, go inside; physical sy...
Lamentably, a great many authors today are mentally acting out scenes in their heads because they are subconsciously directing a movie rather than writing a novel. Both the screen and the page ar...
A little background on introversion, to set the stage: Here is an article in Psychology Today that describes traits of an introvert (They are fully explained there; I took out the explanations for ...
That is probably up to an editor or publisher. If by "short" you mean a few paragraphs that won't cost them printing any extra pages, it is possible they will not object. But they are profit driven...
