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When referring to a paper with multiple authors by using the name of the first author and "et al.", how does one indicate possession? For example, is it correct to write, "Einstein et al.'s paper ...
I drafted a book two years ago that I'm now polishing to publish. When I drafted it, for speed's sake, I named one of my primary characters after an old school friend who I'm still in contact with ...
In the point-of-view culture in my story, all of the women in priestly families have two-syllable names beginning with vowels. (There are reasons for this, but they're completely tangential to my q...
In my sci-fi novel, some people have the ability to talk via telepathy so how do we distinguish telepathy from other types of communication? I would like to do it, because it's not the same, and I ...
Yes, I know that - in theory - any exercise is a good exercise. Context: Lately I've been running a writing group were multiple creative-writing/reading enthusiasts meet. As a group activity, we'v...
You're unconsciously limiting yourself within your rules I decided to go to a baby name website and find some real names that fit your restrictions. Anna Amber Amy Audrey Alice Adele Angel Ali Ap...
Direct answer: Some consonants in English sound similar. They tend to fall in groups: b, d, p, t, th, v c, ch, g, j, k, q, s, sh, x, z f, p h l m, n r w ...
The most common and easy way to identify which stories belong together is the genre as you have already identified. Therefore I won't say anything more on that topic. The next common way is to ha...
Evil doesn't exist... I'm always reminded of a fairly recent Doctor Who episode (link): Bill: Is everything out here evil? The Doctor: Hardly anything is evil. But most things are hungry. Hu...
The other answers talk about how you can approach keeping the name, if you choose to do so. I'll chime in by saying the alternative isn't as bad as it seems. I have used my imagination to come...
I don't think reader's necessarily like characters for their names. It is true that the poetry of some names seem to imply more altruistic, or harmless, or villainous intent. Frodo Baggins just doe...
The thing you have to understand about writing a novel is, it's impossible. It can't be done by any method known to science. Sure, you can try writing an outline. It won't have any heart. Your ch...
Everything Monica said, and then this: There are, at very least, three components to this. Are your ideas exceptional? Most people's aren't, of course, but some peoples are. No one can tell you h...
If you read closely you can very often identify certain words and phrases that authors prefer to use. Those will be used far more often than in writing from other people that you read. Sometimes it...
I definitely think it can be "too diverse", because ticking every box in the diversity matrix may feel forced and distract from the story itself. Diversity should not be gratuitous. If the story i...
Dreaming up story ideas is like wandering through a farmer's market. Every stall is piled high with wonderful ingredients. Honey! Turnips! Croissants! Pork Chops! Limburger cheese! Brussels Sprouts...
One of the things that every writer has to accept is that they pay far greater attention to every aspect of their work than any reader ever will. Sure, the writer can set up a joke on page 7 and gi...
I would argue that you shouldn't, nor should your writing require training the reader in the first place. At least not in a work of fiction. At its heart, fiction is about telling a story. (Which m...
For your industrial revolution era character, the whole of their upbringing, education, and training would be designed to develop a high sense of duty in them. It is only after the first world war ...
Q: What about heist movies? A: John Dillinger's character in Public Enemies is an excellent case study of a tragedy within a heist movie. Dillinger does not have a moral dilemma of choosing, "Shoul...
"The tale how..." is wrong is because "tale" needs to be accompanied by a certain kind of preposition in that context. A "tale" is a story. A story is about some topic. The noun "story" (or "tale")...
While emotions do show on the face and in the movement of the body, those are not the major ways that we judge people's emotions in real life. In particular, they are not the principle means by whi...
In general, do not give a laundry list of features. The reason for this is you are asking the reader to memorize a lot of stuff that is disconnected from the story. In order to connect their featu...
The author doesn't need to have the same tactical genius of those characters, because the writer has a serious advantage. As an author, you know everything and you can change everything of your s...
Well, your teachers were talking rot, as they often do. Though, to be fair, the aim of their teaching was probably not give your the full art of writing, but simply to introduce a little elementary...
