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If I had to play out this scene from the POV of the protagonist, it would be hard to transition from "redshirt" to "heroine" in a first person narrative. She - as a person - is the heroine from the...
Since your novel is already practically finished, you can ask your beta readers if no character descriptions works. Ultimately, that's the only way you can really know if something works or not. A...
Make the character part of the setting. There are various methods for making a person in a story appear to be the main character (or at least a prominent one). For example: Giving her a name (o...
Misdirection works better if there is something to be misdirected to. To extend the metaphor you used in your question, if you want to make people think someone is a redshirt, it helps to have an a...
I'd rarely skim a fiction since it has some continuity, but articles are different. Article is supposed to provide information, and if the information density is low, I'll start skimming and lookin...
You need to go to Tools - Autocorrect - Autocorrect Options - Localised Options. There you can pick the kind of double quotes and single quotes you like. (Source. Note the source tries to do the ex...
I'd argue that quotation marks like “ ” are the ordinary ones, and quotation marks like " " are the strange ones. :) But if you prefer typewriter-style quotation marks, that's fine. According to t...
In English, the “ordinary” quotes are the “upper 66” quotes for opening and the “upper 99” quotes for ending a quotation. In other languages, it's often “lower 66” for opening quotes, or «quotation...
Augment your dialog with narrative and action. What is the most extreme thing he can do and/or say to communicate his dislike of her? Would he hurt her? Verbally abuse her? Why or why not? Write ...
Some of the ancient styles noticeable in several types of mythological or religious story include repetition and specific structure. One of these is almost palindromic: "Healthy is he who eats coco...
One element of religious texts is the antiquated language. Since the text has been canonised, it has not changed while the language moved on. If you look at the Book of Esther as an example, it is...
The same problem applies to writers who wear their research on their sleeve. Did you ever read a novel and realize that half of it could have been pared away, that half the book was unnecessary sce...
Just another quick point to add to the already excellent answers. I've been known to develop really in-depth worlds as well, and it can be hard to step away and only use the parts you need for a...
Two reasons I know of: Personal - some people are exceptionally private, especially in this day and age, and would like to remain so in their personal lives. Professional - much like other artist...
Zane hit the main ones: desire for personal privacy the other primary reason I know is marketing - same as actors, some authors will adopt snazzier-sounding names to sound good on the bookshelf. B...
To answer your specific question about Seanan/Mira, see http://seananmcguire.com/writefaq.php#mira. In her case, she's using different names for urban fantasy vs science fiction. There's also the ...
For example, to distantiate themselves from what they are paid for to write for good money from what they want to be proud of.
Reasons that I've heard of: (I'm overlapping other posters here somewhat but I'm trying to be complete.) The author doesn't want family, friends, or business associates to know that he is writing...
I see no reason for concern. The two words don't look the same, or even really sound the same. I don't see any reason anybody would get the two confused, certainly not on a scope that should worry ...
Taiwan Classified: The Sick Files
You may be confused because of accent: to native English speakers, sick and seek are very distinctive, and could not be confused, but to speakers of many other languages, these two vowels are diffi...
I read somewhere that if you are double spacing between paragraphs, no indent was needed. But if you were single spacing, an indent was needed to show a new paragraph was starting. That is the "rul...
Should I e-publish? It depends heavily on your goals, on the effort you're willing/interested in investing, and on your skill with the various abilities involved with e-publishing. If you aim to...
Do you know how to self promote? Are you already good at it? Are you interested in learning how? Are you highly disciplined? Are you a DIY kind of person? Those are important questions if you ar...
As far as UK style guides go, what you're probably looking for is the Oxford Guide to Style, formerly known as Hart's Rules (that link also contains a useful section outlining what the nearest US e...
