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Converting comments to an answer as suggested by @wetcircuit WHY BOOKS SUCCEED I was in the same place with my first novel. Many writers assume that the doors aren't open to them or there's some ...
No. Science fiction is defined as a form of fiction that draws imaginatively on scientific knowledge and speculation in its plot, setting, theme, etc. source A story could take place in an...
Embrace the conflict. Just like a screenplay, a scene can have an ACT I, ACT II, ACT III. And people get absorbed in conflict, there should be some conflict in every scene, and your scene is built...
From experience, just hitting a pop-culture trend head-on isn't necessarily going to make people read your book. Keep in mind, when a trend is hitting, there's plenty of competition. The people w...
You can and should answer these prompts in your own style and voice. I do have my doubts and concerns about these kinds of tests, but if there is any legitimacy to the grading at all, it won't be ...
As you've described it, successful writing, for you, has three phases. The first is a discovery phase, where you just write. The second is a clarification phase, where you discover your theme, an...
What strikes me is the lack of detail. I'm having trouble picturing the scene with what's given. There's more to a scene than just action. A character who's in danger shouldn't notice much besides...
Got to be honest with you. I hate it. It is choppy. Disjointed. fragmented. Unless you are describing a first person reaction scene where the hero was just hit by the blast wave of a mortar...
I say, ignore it. Sort of. I think you're right that the primary characteristics aren't the problem but it's all in how you flesh the race out. If your goal is humanoid aliens with human levels ...
If you format the email as separate from the narration, that will take care of most of the transition between the narrator and the text of the email. Set it aside in its own paragraph and do one o...
Alas, no. As an unpublished writer, you absolutely should not submit anything less than a complete novel. A few quotes to this effect: You have to have a finished novel. There are no except...
To me, the answer has always been pretty clear: fifty pages that happen to be double-spaced, i.e. an amount that would be about 25 otherwise. What would be really confusing is if they expected peop...
You really have two questions here. First, how do you write a story with no free will? Second, what would make someone choose to become a monster? For the first question, your character needs agen...
It'll depend pretty heavily on what type of story you're telling and what type of readership you're aiming for. Generic sex appeal does different things in different context: In a romance, they c...
There are more important things than physical perfection. It would depend on the genre. As has been stated, romances have handsome love interests. Also, we have been taught that beauty and virtue a...
There are two issues at play here, which I believe you are conflating. The first is the themes or "hook" which is conveyed by the imagery on the cover; the second is the professionalism of the cove...
I am a discovery writer; I don't usually look for a "theme", and my readers don't seem to miss it. There can be a problem with a story seeming to stall, and I don't know that there is an easy fix i...
I have floundered a bit on my second novel and finally realized I did not have a central heartstring, a big question. I had the 'good guy' and the goals; I had antagonizing forces, but no big quest...
However, if I just pick a random arbitrary theme by spinning the great wheel of themes, then I find myself struggling to develop it because there is nothing behind it. Then I fizzle out and ...
I would probably be categorized as a "discovery" writer. I certainly don't work from a formal outline, and only make occasional notes to remind myself of some particular minor detail or other I th...
How technology works is sometimes in a novel or movie or other work (some authors give you every last detail, like Andy Weir) and sometimes it's just there as a given. While avoiding explanations ...
The idea of "first drafts" and "second drafts" is a concept from our school years, from when we sometimes had to turn these things in labeled as such. It also comes from the way most writers used ...
Clickbait isn't like news where you tell someone the headline so they'll click for more information. Eggplant linked to lower cancer rates. Clickbait is where they have to click just to find ...
Depending on how you want to play that, both ways are viable. You could explicity tell that the character hadn't a name then: Ai remembered when the fire nation attacked. Of course, she hadn't...
The reader needs a connection when transitioning into the flashback. That transition can be either external or internal. By external, I mean introducing the flashback. In this case, the reader kn...
