Activity for System
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: How do you verify information? Starvation The information you seek is in the Wikipedia article on starvation. There it is explained how starvation leads to death (because important organs are "digested"), how long it takes (though the exact number of days will differ from individual to individual), and you can infer that after a ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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How to express Nihilism without explicitly stating it? In my novel, the character is sitting in a café sipping coffee, and she is watching a busy street of people rushing towards London underground after the office hours. I want to express the thoughts in my characters mind about Nihilism and/or Existentialism without explicitly stating 'Life is meaningl... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Foregone conclusion of novel's first part Read Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. 1. Not every recruit makes it through training or into the unit they wanted. 2. The training is fun to read in itself. 3. The training narrative serves to relate the backstory for the later battle. (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Any software for video game non-linear story design? A free open-source tool for telling non-linear / interactive storylines is Twine Another non-free alternative to articy:draft is Chat Mapper From the forum posts and reviews I read, most that tried to find a free alternative to articy:draft, ended up paying for that software, because apparently i... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How do I make "foreshadowing" more relevant in the early going? It is good that you have identified a problem that seems to permeate your writing. If I understand the feedback you are getting correctly, the problem is that your beta readers simply don't care for the first third of your novels. The reason, as you describe it, seems to be that for some reason you... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Likeable characters with deplorable professions? To me the answer depends on why was slavery not abolished? If slavery remains in practice because enlightenment failed in America and economic and racist interests won, then (from the perspective of a reader today) anyone supporting slavery must be "bad", and your protagonist can only be good if he ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How can I convey an absolute truth from the author to the reader without a mentor character? You can tell the reader directly and that is how it is commonly done. > The world wasn't as bad as Jamie thought, but he didn't know it at the time. That's why you call it an "omniscient narrator". (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Who translates made-up words from popular fiction into other languages? All aspects of translation, including the treatment of proper or made-up names, are the decision of the translator.[1] Firstly, as you correctly stated, the author cannot be expected to know the target language and to be able to give any insights on the subject.[2] Secondly, the treatment of names ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Trying to figure out the correct type punctuation for dialogues Direct speech is in quotation marks, non-verbal communication, such as telepathy, is in italics, and thoughts are not marked up. > Hello John. > John turned around, looking for who had spoken in his head. "Where are you?" he asked the empty room. > I know you, he thought. For more detail, see m... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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What is the most fundamental advice when it comes to writing? Looking back on your career as a writer, what is the most fundamental piece of advice you wish you had known about – or that you had taken to heart – when you set out to become a writer? Before you answer, please note the career tag and the absence of the fiction tag. The question is intentional... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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How can you make "evil vs evil" interesting? Let's say you have two sides who are basically no better than the other. Both are criminals with no redeeming qualities, and both are at war. Think COBRA and HYDRA going to war. They both have plans for world domination and are ruthless in their pursuit of it, willing to kill or corrupt anyone in th... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A novel in which the only dialogue is internal? I am mulling the idea of writing a novel in which the only dialogue is internal. Has anyone yet published such a novel? I define "dialogue" here as any kind of speech addressed by a fictional person to a fictional person. This includes monologue insofar as a person who speaks to themselves, either o... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Dead parents: something to avoid? I have a son who is eleven years old. He reads most of his books on his own, but sometimes, just for fun, I read a chapter or two to him at night – or I even read some of his Middle Grade fiction myself, if it looks interesting. So I have read a lot of Middle Grade books in the last years, and what ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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Is it ok to reference names of real world people? The protagonist in my autobiographical novel is a girl on spiritual adventures. I have the idea of her looks in my mind, but I don't want to dedicate words to explicitly express her looks, so is it OK if I just mention in one line that she looks like some real world actress? Also, can I mention names... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Moving away from a gender-based analysis In psychology, the tendencies you have described are termed internatlizing and externalizing behavior. In extreme cases those tendencies lead to internalizing disorders, which were long thought to be more prevalent among women, and externalizing disorders, some of which still appear to be more preva... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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British style guides from the early 20th century? This is more or less a follow up to a question I had previously asked. Reading British writers from the last 19th century, like Bram Stoker, and the early 20th century, like Bertrand Russell, Winston Churchill, and George Orwell. They were all very economical writers. Is there an early 20th century ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Larger structure - followup to Sense of Style by Steven Pinker The misconception at the heart of your question is that there has to be coherence between chapters, similar to the coherence between paragraphs. In technical and academic writing there is indeed coherence, usually, and then the same principles apply for the transition from the last paragraph of the ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Does my constantly sad character make a terrible main character? Apparently it will all depend on the kind of book you want to write. Literary fiction is full of difficult characters. I don't think Captain Ahab is very likeable, and yet the book's a classic. But in genre fiction (romance, fantasy, thriller, etc.), readers usually expect a character that they want... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Can I make a character make a philosophic observation or say their opinion, even if it's unnecessary for the plot/story? This will largely depend on the kind of book you are writing and your writing style. Contemporary genre fiction is often rather focussed and almost concise. The rule that everything you write should either serve the plot or characterization is reflective of that. Many readers appear to be impatient ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What are some clear differences in theme/story between children's, middle grade, and young adult fantasy? Yes, there are distinct differences between pre-school-age, Middle Grade, and Young Adult fiction. If you look at how children develop from infancy to adulthood, certain ages are distinguished by certain developmental "tasks". Very simply put, during early childhood (aproximately from birth until th... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Should I write scared? What K. M. Weiland writes there is complete and utter nonsense. 1. Fear is a signal to avoid danger. Once the danger is past, fear will subside. If you experience lasting fear, that is pathological (e.g. an anxiety disorder). 2. Fear causes stress. Your body is put into a state of heightened alertn... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: I feel like I'm plagiarizing my story? The question whether or not you may use ideas, characters, stories, and so on from other works has been addressed multiple times on this site; you will find them if you use the site search. The short answer is: It is a normal aspect of writing to be inspired by other works of art, and a certain am... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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Software to draw plot structure charts When I plot my own novels or analyze other works to understand their structure, I like to visualize the dynamic of the storyline(s) in a diagram. Usually I draw this by hand. A first version of such a narrative chart might look like this one (which shows part of the plot for Mary E. Pearson's Remnan... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Is there a tactful way to give advice to a writer who needs it, but doesn't think so? 1. While honesty is an admirable trait, I feel the prime "purpose" of friends and family is to offer support, not criticism. People who make it in the world usually have close relations who stand by them without ever doubting them. Even if your friend explicitly asks for an honest judgment, as long a... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How do I write LGBT characters without looking like I'm trying to be politically correct? Depending on how you ask, between one and ten percent of the population of Europe and about five percent of the US population identify as LGBT. About two thirds of them come out beyond their family. Despite the fact that only a few percent of the American population are opently LGBT, Americans think ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How to get valuable feedback on the quality of my storytelling? Not receiving feedback from publishers, or receiving a rejection, does not tell you anything about the quality of your work at all. Publishers reject good books because they don't fit their catalogue or because they don't see a market for that kind of book currently, and sometimes out of error (see t... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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Is it better to avoid names with a difficult pronunciation in Middle Grade fiction? Many languages are written using Latin letters, but often these seemingly familiar letters aren't pronounced in the way that we are used to. For example, an English speaker might read the name Siobhán as siob-hen, pronounce Jorge like George, and Erdogan with a "g" as in "green", while the correct p... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What language should I write my programming blog post in? Which language do the French use when they search programming related information on the web? My mother tongue is German, but when I search information on the web on topics that aren't specific to my country (such as German law or German movies) I invariably search in English, expecting to find more... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What pronoun should a hermaphrodite species use? Unlike the engineered hermaphroditic humans in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan universe, who might be speaking a future version of English, your hermaphrodites are an alien species and do not speak English among themselves. They will therefore have a pronoun in their language that has no correspond... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What should I do when I am stuck on names during freewriting? I seems to me that no one really took into account that we are talking about freewriting. The whole point of freewriting is that you don't stop to reflect, but write down your stream of consciousness without editing it in any way. From the rule that, while freewriting, you shouldn't correct orthogr... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Ramifications of using real public people as characters in fiction? It is completely unproblematic, if real people are part of the world that your fictional characters inhabit. For example, your detective Smith might see President Trump on tv and hear part of a speech that the real president actually held. If you make sure that you represent these real people accurat... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How do you tell a character's backstory without explicitly telling it? Simply think about how you learn the background of other people in real life. You get some hints from what people do, what others say about them, and from the context in which they appear. Then you get to know them, but at first your don't directly ask them for the story of their lives (unless you'r... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Does my protagonist *have* to succeed? It really doesn't matter IMO. It depends on how you feel with your story. It sounds to me like you have it planned well. Do you know what it will be called? (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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Structure for software documentation: long vs short pages For online, developer-centered documentation for a complex software product, which structure is going to be more usable: a smaller number of long, comprehensive pages, or a larger number of more granular pages? Which organization should I choose to make finding information easier and more user-friend... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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How do I translate into a gendered language where the gender would be a spoiler? I'm (amateurly) writing the subtitles for an English TV show. I'll illustrate my question using a small example, but I'm hoping to receive answers as general as possible. One episode has a sentence such as "How are you?", addressed to a person who is behind a sealed door. In English, one who watch... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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Describing body language? This is something I've pondered before. I asked about one gesture on yahoo answers long ago. All I got was a guy saying that even he didn't know the term for it (it was the gesture where someone holds something in front of them towards someone else to indicate that they want the person to take it). ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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Is there any way to get around having everyone in the world speak the same language? You see this a lot in fantasy fiction, where everyone on the planet (and sometimes beyond) speaks the same language, even though it makes absolutely no logical sense for them to have any knowledge of each other's languages. Of course, if you try to avoid this, then you run into the problem of charac... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How can I make a case for toning down the "rah rah" marketing tone around technical content? I believe the key question to ask yourself - and your marcomm colleagues - is the aim of each piece of documentation you are producing. Using your example, you can have two kinds of introductory material for your product: the why should I use this and the how do I start using this. For the second t... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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How to derive a storyline from a beginning? I have an idea for the beginning of a story. I have the setting, the protagonist, and the events that set the story in motion, including the inciting incident and the first plot point. I have, in short, what might become act one. But I don't know how to go on from there. I know how to plot (when I h... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: A mix of the Medieval Age and the 21st century period If the technology was transported from the future to the age in question, it might be considered time-travel sci-fi. If the technology was developed in the Medieval period independently of temporal interference (some mad genius just happened to invent this stuff half a millennia ahead of its time) th... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Is it better to repeat steps listed elsewhere in a manual, or to refer the reader to where the steps are listed elsewhere in the manual? I concur that Does DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) Apply to Documentation? pretty much answers the question on what is best for the user. However, the question was: > Which one is more futureproof? (This tool is here to stay so there is no replacement option.) In your case, as much as I don't want to ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Can "numbers" be good doc performance metrics? Is there a way to meaningfully interpret the quantitative user data we gather? Qualities of the documentation itself , even quantitive ones, usually have little intrinsic value. However, quantitive impact of docs on other areas can be often precisely measured and meaningfully interpreted. Some of the companies I worked with used the following quality metrics for documentatio... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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Is excerpts from an in-universe book, presented between chapters, a good way of handling exposition? A book that I'm currently writing called Surge features an enemy faction called the Degenerates that are heavily inspired by the Scythians (Indo-Iranian horse nomads that ruled the Eurasian Steppe and Central Asia from the 9th century BC to the 1st century CE) and consists mostly of humans that have ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to communicate character desire? One way to demonstrate a character's desire implicitly is to examine the consequences. What is at stake? What does the character stand to lose if she can't reach her goal? If the character fails to achieve her desire, then what will be the result? If the result is unpleasant, and the character wishes... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Where would I specify which user is required to run an administration command? My rule of thumb is "the right information at the right time", especially in content that's supposed to be consumed on a topic rather than a chapter/book basis. Sure, this leads to some repetition but with the latest and greatest reuse mechanisms in doc tools it shouldn't be a problem. I would proba... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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How do you handle violence in a story with a female as the main villian? I watched a semi-popular movie called deadpool, in which the "hero" comes across this dilemma while fighting female assassins, and we are not shown the results of his introspection. Here is the problem as I see it: Men fighting women. Then you have to deal with inter-gender violence. "Your good guy ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Bridging the gap between colloquial usage and technical meaning of terms In language, when a mistake becomes common enough, it's standard usage. One way to check whether the original meaning of a word has evolved beyond your preferred usage is to check a dictionary or other relevant reference. Representational state transfer (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How much humour is effective in technical documentation? The Microsoft Manual of Style puts it well: > Don’t try to be funny. Jokes, slang, and sarcasm are context-specific and hard to translate and localize. What’s funny to you might offend or alienate some portion of your audience, so it’s best to avoid these rhetorical approaches. The Dummies books ar... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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How to perpetuate the plot-driving riddle without frustrating the reader? Usually, at the end of a crime, thriller, horror, fantasy, science fiction, or other action genre novel, the identity of the antagonist is uncovered and the riddle that drives the plot is resolved: the murderer gets caught as the detective understands why he committed the deed; the secret agency ward... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to get past the cringe factor of reviewing my earliest writing attempts? For desensitizing yourself, I'd question the wisdom of that. If it's bad writing, it should hurt. Let it hurt if you want to learn from it. I purposefully read bad fiction in order to keep my critical reading skills sharp, but generally I read other people's bad fiction. I pace myself, reading a chap... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |