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As others have pointed out in comments, it's too much to cover in just 1 answer (I won't be shocked if this gets closed as too broad) but I will attempt to cover the basics. There are two things th...
This is a big question, and depending on the type of character arc you're writing you might have to alter your process, but here's a simplified look at the different facets of a character arc and h...
You don't. Turning a life into drama will almost certainly cause pain to those who remember that life. Life is more subtle than drama. Drama needs a definite shape that life lacks. That is why we v...
In my view what makes a character irredeemable is doing something that cannot ever be forgotten, that they cannot atone for even by sacrificing their own life. But that also becomes a matter of o...
Short answer: maybe nothing. Just because you "hate" two different characters doesn't mean you hate them for the same reason. Empathizing with a character, or considering them nonredeemable, is a...
I think there are two dimensions to this. The first is: what makes a real-world person irredeemable? A fictional character with the same traits will then, presumably, also be irredeemable. I thin...
There's an ambiguity in the OP's question which we need to consider first. When we say a character is irredeemable, do we mean in and of themselves (without external reference), or to a neutral th...
Short answer: The Writer Long answer: No character is beyond redemption in fiction, though some will be a much tougher sell to the audience than others, because some things are more easily forgiv...
The source of the intent. Did the character turn to actions or goals that the reader finds unsavoury as a REACTION to something? Redeemable, and often used as a plot device. Did the character do ...
Human beings are complex and flawed creatures. We do not each have just the one flaw. We have multiple failings, and multiple lies we tell ourselves. Now, for a story one has to simplify reality so...
By inviting the relevant people (or their families) to your creative team. Many books and movies are made "with the cooperation of" so and so. This can mean a single interview, or just permission...
It's impossible to write anything about anyone at all without offending someone, potentially. Say you're writing something positive about a person, let's call him X. Now, X has a detractor named Y...
Don't introduce them all at once --that's not a story, that's a cast list. Bring them in one at a time, or in small groups, when needed by the storyline, and describe them in ways that illuminate ...
Sometimes characters surprise you. And that's okay. You're absolutely right to worry about a deus ex machina situation where a solution comes out of the blue with no rhyme or reason. This is the...
I think you don't have to show her USING the dagger, you can hide the skill in plain sight: She knows about daggers, she knows about dagger-fighting, the terminology, the stances, the holds, the mo...
A story is an experience. The reader has to trust that experience. If they stop trusting the experience, they essentially drop out of the world created by the experience, and once that happens, the...
I would take this as an expression of what I think of as knowing the difference between history and story. Every story is embedded in a history. A history is a sequence of event connected by causal...
Show the visible effects of the pain. Let the reader feel it. I think the issue is that you're being sidetracked into trying to describe the feeling of pain. Pain is a very subjective feeling. It ...
I've always struggled with sensory details in my writing --I'm a dialog-and-plot kind of writer. But for me, writing details really came alive when I discovered your number three approach. When d...
I think the textbook answer is: Does the detail contribute to the story? If you describe how a character's house is filled with guns and bombs, that tells us something very different about him than...
I'm not sure that it is a given that the numbering needs to be different from the original footnote numbers. Footnotes numbers are not necessarily a canonical part of the text, and since it would b...
1) This kind of formatting may be something which would have to be done manually by the end typesetter/layout person before publication. You would run everything in numerical sequence regardless of...
Four chapters in, your readers should have an idea what they're in for. Not everything that's going to happen, but certainly a hint. Once you've hinted that there is darkness, you can skirt it, tur...
Foreshadowing is your friend. Your example of Harry Potter isn't quite right. Chapter One is titled The Boy Who Lived. Now that's a bit ominous. Magic is hinted at on page 1* and is outright on...
Anthologies are often different from other publishing. It is common for small publishers or even individuals to put together a call for an anthology to include any short work: comics, artwork, poe...
