Activity for System
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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A: Why is having too many symbols a bad idea? I absolutely agree with @Mike.C.Ford. The importance of each individual symbol lessens in your reader’s mind the more you throw into your story. However, there is also a more practical aspect from the author’s perspective: it just takes a lot more work to explain why each symbol is critically import... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What is an alternative for "the size of a pack of cigarettes"? Often when trying to give a reader an approximate size for something that fits in your hand that they can visualize and quickly understand, a writer might describe it as "about the size of a pack of cigarettes". Unfortunately, many people today have a good deal of emotions attached to cigarettes and... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How to work on a new software feature that affects different topics We're working on a software manual with several chapters and topics and, so far, these are mostly self-contained. This means we have a dedicated chapter for "connectivity" and do not mention connectivity elsewhere, a dedicated chapter for "software upgrades" and do not mention upgrades elsewhere, etc... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Should I write the actual death scene? In addition to all the other excellent advice that was already given, I would like to point out that in our society (Western culture) violence towards children is a very strong taboo, so much so that in some countries it is even forbidden by law for parents to physically punish their children. While... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How do you visualize plot structure? As I've answered elsewhere I use sequence diagrams to map non-fiction (design) stories. Let us assume that I want to write a story about me and my mapmaking obsession. Then I would start like: My mapmaking story (if the diagram is not readable you can download the diagram and open it with a picture... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Where are the six honest serving men? A lifetime ago I learned about Rudyard Kipling's 5W1H framework: > I have six honest serving men > They taught me all I knew > I call them What and Where and When > And How and Why and Who (from The Kipling Method.) I don't hear about them anymore. Is this still in use in writing non-ficti... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: Naming a book in a language different from where it would be published: is it good? I cannot speak for Portugal, but in Germany, "American" (that is, US American) movies, music and books are considered to be great by default. In media, "American" is a label that signals great entertainment to German consumers, and the most popular films, tv series, books and musical recordings are "... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: What do I put on my copyright page when self-publishing? Legally, in the US that page is unnecessary. Since April 1 1989 the copyright notice has become obsolete in the US and you no longer need to register your copyright. You automatically own the copyright in your work upon creation. Today, the sole purpose of the copyright notice is to tell anyone inte... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: A climax where the goal is instantly achieved - Is it satisfying? Why should Steve make a stand? His decision must have some kind of effect for him. If it doesn't, he's not living his own life, and his decision will leave him and the reader feel empty. Translate your structure to everyday life. John grows up the son of a carpenter. But he is interested in writing ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: What to do with cliched metaphors? I think this all depends on how common the metaphor is. Some metaphors are so common that speakers don't recognize them as metaphors any longer, and replacing them is unnecessary. A very common metaphor is when you say that someone `breaches a subject`, meaning that this person gathers all their co... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: Should I completely eliminate passive voice The use of active or passive voice is dictated by where your focus is: on the subject or object of the actiin. Who is your sentence/paragraph/chapter about? John or Bob? If it is about John and what he does, use the active voice: > John killed Bob. If it is about Bob and what he experiences, use ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: How can I determine a genre's target audience? The published research is usually the other way around, that is "who reads what?", not "what is read by whom?". The best researched group of readers is children and adolescents. Results are usually broken down by age and sex, sometimes by socio-economic status. The next best reseached group are women... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: How to create good character names? What I do: I start with either a last name or a first name. Which one I start from depends on which one the narrator uses to identify the character, because that is what the reader will read most often. Katniss Everdeen is Katniss first; Dr. Henry Jekyll is Dr. Jekyll first. With this starting poin... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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How to start writing a book? I'm new to writing and I'm still young (preteen young). I want some advice on writing and help. How am I gonna start my book? What is the best way to begin writing a book? (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: General copyright - How much is actually copyrighted? Instead of wasting your time trying to understand how much you can take from other works and get away with it, you might want to rather invest that time into coming up with your own ideas and fleshing them out. Every idea anyone has ever had on this Earth is influences by everything that the person ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: How do you decide whether to use the infinitive or -ing version of a verb? Note: I am not a native speaker and know English mainly through reading the language. My feel for language is therefore more influenced by written than by spoken English, a confoundation that might confuse some of the native speakers here, or a lack which might lead to Germanisms influencing me. You... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: Are 'how-to write fiction' books full of it? Not my mother tongue, so bear with me :) In my eyes, 'writing' consists of (at least) three areas of abilities and knowledge. 1. The creative (what does happen in my, for instance, novel?) 2. The structural (When/ in what order should it happen for the most effect and to satisfy readers expectatio... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: How does one avoid imposing one's own voice and preferences in critiques? Paul, thank you for asking this question. I have the same concerns, and thinking about them helped me clarify some things for myself. Maybe my thoughts can be of help to you, too. I assume that you are widely read. You have read both a lot and quite a few different authors, genres and styles. Your b... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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If the agency doesn't state specifically, should I send my query to a specific agent, or to it in general? I am in the process of querying agencies over a manuscript I have written. Some agencies' websites say something along the lines of "Please query agents directly", while others say "Please do NOT query agents directly. However, some agencies simply state: Please send queries to [address] On the one ... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: How to structure a sentence containing long code examples? I approach code in text in the same way I approach dialogue: the code is a quotation from another "speaker", so I set it off from the surrounding text. Since it is not spoken language, I do not use the conventions for spoken language (same font, quotation marks, etc.), so as to cause no confusion, bu... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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How to deal with online comments to published pieces? I mainly write for academic journals (and creative writing for my own amusement), but from time to time, I publish opinion pieces in various mainstream magazines and newspapers, for which I am modestly compensated. Recently, some of my pieces have generated a large volume of online comments, some cri... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: How can I have my characters do bad things, without sending the wrong message? Reality is complicated. Usually, in the case of domestic violence, many factors lead to it. For example, both partners have specific fears, both show certain behavior, and all this slowly builds up to the moment when one partner hits the other. Literature is not law. In law, one party needs to be fo... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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How can I have my characters do bad things, without sending the wrong message? I am writing a novel in which characters do bad things to one another. For example, I have recently been struggling over a scene of domestic violence. Essentially, a husband hits his wife, after the wife had provoked him, and intentionally tried to make him angry. I feel very strongly that verbal pr... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Using Present Tense to describe a Fact on a story that uses Past Tense Adding to Dale Emery's answer, and maybe clarifying it a bit, I would say that the tense depends on the narrator. If the story is narrated by an omniscient narrator, then the ocean is vast, because that is what the timeless and universal narrator knows about it. If the story is told from the perspec... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Originality of Writing In contrast to Neil Fein (in his comment) I understand the question to be: How can I be more original? When it comes to originality, there is a continuum, with plagiarism (and fan fiction) on the one end and originality on the other. But why is not all art original? Or why is not all art derivative... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Punctuation in a list To me, there are two options: 1. Your list is a list > The following fruits are healthy: > > - apples > - bananas > - cherrys > > I love to eat them. Lists don't have punctuation. Even if each list item is a full sentence, you don't need to put a full stop after it (unless it is a quote). > Wha... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Is it OK to use "I guess" in fiction? Word choice What words and phrases you can use in your narration is determined by the character of the narrator and the stylistic distance you choose to employ. If you chose a very distanced narrative style, you must use standard language and a neutral, almost formalised style. If you want to write... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Should embedded figures/images be placed before or after they are referred to in text? In printed books or journals, figures and tables are placed on the same double page as the first reference. Where exactly they are placed depends on how their placement affects page breaks. Typesetters try to avoid ugly "widows" and "orphans", that is, one or two lines broken from a paragraph and pus... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Past tense vs present tense I’m writing a short story. I am using the past tense, but I have sections where I describe people and places that are supposed to still be in existence. Should I continue to refer to them in the past tense e.g., “She had green eyes”, or should I switch to present tense e.g., “She has green eyes”? I... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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On offering feedback to stories/novels/poetry Very often, I happen to have to offer my feedback on friends' short stories or novels or poetry. However, I find it very difficult to give a throughout feedback on this kind of writing which is not "technical" so to say. I have read many books over the course of my life and have some experience with... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: How does the 10,000 hour rule apply to writing? The thing is that people tend to confuse writing with writing. Think, for a moment, of winning a marathon or singing an opera. Everyone can hurry along to a degree or sing under the shower, yet no one who has been hurrying to work for fifty years or singing under the shower every morning for decades... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Is it legal to share an index you made from someone else's book? I think if you create and publish an index to the copyrighted work of another person you are infringing on their copyright. Basically what you are doing is using their work to create a derivative work, similar to making a movie of a novel. Also you should note that giving your index away for free d... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Why one sentence per paragraph in these news articles? Single sentence paragraphing is perfectly acceptable, it is a stylistic choice. It's common in online journalism and tabloids. It's intended use is to make reading easier. Online newspaper articles and blogs are frequently viewed on mobile phones which make webpages look very narrow when compared to ... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: How can I learn the name of a colour to use in a description? I love the apps linked in the other answers, but I see a basic problem with this whole question. Let's try an experiment. 1. Choose three color names that for you describe a very specific color. 2. Now give these names to a few people and ask them to select all the colors that would fit that color ... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Is my opening chapter too short? I'm personally of the opinion chapters exist more to organize information and events. It's functionally identical in most cases to have 20 chapters to having 10 chapters twice as long. Of course formatting or specific requirements might come in (publishers wanting specific chapter lengths, for exampl... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Should I start work on a sequel before I have sold my book? Brandon Sanderson in lecture 13, Brandon's Revision Process (which is online on his YouTube channel), explains his process thus: 1. First draft 2. Continuity 3. Polish 4. Give to Alpha Readers 6 months break 5. Work in Feedback from Alphas 6. Give to Betas 7. Work in Feedback from Betas 8.... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Normal structure for Dialogue paragraphs You can insert narrative into dialogue wherever a speaker might pause : > "You," she finally looks at me, "have been," her finger touches me on the chest, "much too reckless with my heart." She pushes me away and stands. "Go!" She points at the door. "And don't come back." Where the speaker pauses ... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How to develop a story for a novel? Looking back at my own writing, my recommendation is: You'll have to find out yourself. There are two main directions writing can take, often called "outline" and "no outline". The no outline approach means that you sit down with the seed of an idea (a scene, a character, a first sentence) and just... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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Switching from past to present tense to increase narrative speed? In German, traditionally narrative texts are written in the past tense. When the pace of the action picks up, the narrator can increase immediacy and urgency by switching into the present tense. Is such a tense shift acceptable in English also? Example: > Last friday, I went to ... On my way home,... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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Outliner (software) with annotations for OS X or browser based (but offline!) Okay, there are like a billion outliners out there but I'm not sure if there is one that does what I want. Maybe you can help. - I want to write chunks of text without headline, numbering, bullets. Just text like in a text editor, one sentence/paragraph/fragment after another. - One chunk of text sh... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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How do you visualize plot structure? I want to visualize the internal structure of my plot. I noticed several contradictions, and want to better understand what's going on in my tale. I'm not talking about different characters doing parallel stuff in different places. My plot has one single chronological thread. What I want to visualiz... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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Genre conventions: Which end do readers expect? I need help with the concept of my story: My protagonists live in a mild dystopia. Think of your own country today ;-) They have the opportunity to kill about 20 persons, which will cause a fundamental change in their society that makes life much better for everyone. Imagine the effect being similar... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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Do UK or US based literary agents accept (unpublished) manuscripts in a foreign language? Do UK or US based literary agents accept (unpublished) manuscripts in a foreign language? For example the author could provide a rough translation of the whole text and himself pay for a literary translation of the first pages, so the agent could judge the story as well as the writing. Is such a th... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Is it OK to have two different POVs in a same paragraph (third-person omniscient narrator)? When I studied linguistics, I took a seminar on text linguistics. In that seminar, we learned about paragraph markers. Written text is not always visually structured in accordance with linguistic paragraph markers, of course. Often readability and layout concerns have an equal weight. But lets push t... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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How to distill a plot into a logline? A logline is a one to three sentence summary of a story, used to pitch a script to producers and other buyers. It should contain: - the protagonist - the goal of the protagonist - the antagonist - the stakes of failure Obviously the logline must hook the audience of prospective buyers by - irony ... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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How to Cite an Author Who Has a Pen Name If both the author's name and the pen name are known, should one cite by one name or both names? If one, which? (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Name of writing style or structure of novel that is in non-chronological order I've always called it "nonlinear multi-perspective". Rashomon is probably the best known example of this structure in storytelling. It's a movie based on Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short story "In a Grove" (the movie's title is from another of Akutagawa's stories). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In\a\Grov... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: How to invoke my creative side without investing too much time? The problem I see with writing (and drawing) is that people believe that they should be able to do it without any training. We all learn to write in school, we all can compose a coherent narrative, for example in a letter to our grandparents or a "what I did during the summer holidays" essay for scho... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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How do you call the non-writing parts of creating a text? When I sit down and put words on paper or type into my computer, that aspect of creating a text (like a novel or software manual) is called "writing": I store the content of my text in letters. But when I plan what I want to write, develop my "story", construct the plot, or research the facts, I'm n... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Indicating a word choice you're unsure of For my editing markup I prefer a style that does not overlap and interfere with what might be part of the text I am editing. Since square brackets indicate comments or amendments in quotes in some editing styles, e.g. > Rogers found in his study that "some [apples] are tasty". or destroyed text wh... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |