Activity for System
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question | — |
What is the purpose of version control? Just that: What do you need version control for? I've never had the feeling I needed to undo any changes in my (fiction or academic) writing. So what is version control good for? How do you write that you need it? (I am not asking about backups, which I make.) Inspired by this question: Do You Use ... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Can a book be written without an antagonist? Of course there is narrative fiction without conflict. Example: - Adalbert Stifter's novel Der Nachsommer describes the idyllic life and growth from childhood to maturity of a young man during Biedermeier. The story is completely devoid of any kind of conflict. Many children's books tell tales that... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: How similar is too similar? When a phrase from a novel or movie becomes so widespread that it can be considered a common figure of speech, using it is no longer plagiarism. No-one in their right mind would accuse you of plagiarism when you opened a review with: "To read or not to read, that is the question." Tolkien's Lord of... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Putting a dialogue a tag before a quote I really love the dialogue in the Guest translation of the Mabinogion, it adds to the feeling that you are reading a text from a different time: A horseman spoke to Pwyll. "...," said he. "...," said Pwyll. "...," said he. "...," said he. "...," said he. etc. No variatio... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Question | — |
YA bestsellers by reader's gender There are lists with YA bestsellers. What they don't tell me is which books are bought by girls, and which by boys. Are there any resources showing (YA) bestsellers by reader's gender? (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Question | — |
How do screenwriters earn money, if none of their scripts get turned into movies? I just saw a documentary featuring interviews with a few Hollywood screenwriters. Many of them said they had been working as screenwriters for around a decade, yet had never had any of their scripts turned into a movie. How do these people make a living? Do they get paid for their unused scripts? (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Can my work be stolen if I post excerpts and ideas on critique sites? Even when no-one steals my ideas, I don't want the bones of my book exhibited on the internet for all my readers and critics to pick over. I only post ideas and excerpts in closed forums with a small number of members that I personally know. If I hand out text for feedback, I have the recipients sig... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: How can I make a person sound sick? Many children's books have scenes where a character talks with an obstructed nose (e.g. head in bucket). Usually what they do is a combination of: - k, p, t =\> g, b, d - n =\> ng/g - m, v/f =\> b This works well only if you restrict this to a sentence or two. Then it is funny. Otherwise it becomes... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Is it bad idea to directly state the message/moral of a story? Many of my favourite authors are my favourites because their novels are ripe with great philosophical ideas. What you call your "message" is a philosophical idea. Reading your story, I might not understand it as the message of your story at all, but rather as a bonus, that does not prevent me from un... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Is it possible to write a novel completely devoid of dialogue? The following English language novels have no dialogue: - Journey to the End of the Millennium by Abraham B. Yehoshua - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend (turned into a tv series) - The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein The following German novels have no dialogue: - Ex... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Question | — |
On the role of "accidents" in "realistic" stories Accidents are a part of our real life. It is possible to see an old friend accidentally. It is possible to find a fallen comet accidentally. It is possible to kill someone by an accident, etc. Many stories of our real life are based on an accident. Also many good "realistic" stories begin by occurren... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Good idea to describe the heist place before the heist begins? In many movies and novels there is a scene where the heist is planned. Bankrobbers don't usually spontaneously draw their guns when they pass a bank on their way to the supermarket. They have to have a pretty good idea of who will be where at what time, if the heist is supposed to work. So they plan.... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Good idea to describe the heist place before the heist begins? Location, in a novel, is a protagonist. Protagonists act. If they are not taking part in an action, they don't appear in that section of text. If the location does not take a meaningful part in the action, it must not appear in the text. Example with person: Your novel is about John and Hannah. In ... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Using capital letters for shouting There are different styles of emphasis: underlining, spacing, italics, bold face, all caps and small caps, change of font face, color etc. Some of them can be found in printed magazines, others have been in use in the past, yet others are common on the internet or in typewritten manuscripts. The que... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Question | — |
How explicit can violence and sex be in a YA novel? Many of the most popular YA novels are pretty brutal, rape and murder are a common ingredient. Many show teenagers having sex. But how far can you go, before you cross the line into adult fiction, simply by being too detailed or too extreme? I'm writing a novel about a young woman who gets drawn int... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Can I plug a loophole in my magic rules without rewriting the whole novel? The intriguing thing about magic is that you can imagine being able to do things that you cannot do in real life. But characters that can do anything are exceedingly boring. What drives a plot for me is the limitation that the character has to work under. The story of an all-powerful god would be bo... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Do romances need to have a happy ending? I am German. You will soon understand why I state this up front. In German cultural theory a difference is made between so called 'serious' literature, music, painting and so on, and 'entertaining' literature, music etc. 'Serious' works are 'art'; 'entertaining' literature is called 'trivial literatu... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Elmore Leonard said Avoid Prologues... Why? I don't know about your prologue, but as a reader I seriously despise prologues that don't feature the protagonists, for two reasons: I read novels, because I am interested what happens to the protagnonists that I identify with and care about. When I alread know what and who the novel is about, I do... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Question | — |
How can I write a tragedy for children? In direction of one of the most famous stories of Hans Christian Andersen "The Little Match Girl", I want to write a tragedy for children; a story dealing with children who are suffering and who may not even have hope for the future. I want to acknowledge such children, who are rarely mentioned in ma... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Problem: Scenes that are unavoidable, but boring The other answers have shown how diplomacy can be interesting. But lets assume your question means that it is important to your plot that your characters are diplomats, but that their work as diplomats is not important to your plot, for example because their role as diplomats allows them to easily c... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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A: How to handle a character when she is lying about her name There are many stories where characters take on false names. In the dialogue, this person goes by the fake name. In the narrative (the part of the text not directly quoted from the speech of the characters) the person goes by the true name. No confusion for the reader about who this person is, becaus... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: How to style a film or book title? Chicago, MLA and APA all italicize book titles. Chicago and MLA "quote" journal articles, APA uses no markup for those. Since these reference list formatting styles are most common, I would adhere to them even in non-scientific texts: italicize book titles, quote journal articles. (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Question | — |
What connotations do these character names confer? I'm currently brooding over good character names for a novel I want to write. I was looking at some of the books I read recently, trying to understand why the authors picked the names they gave their protagonists. In "Before I die" by Jenny Downham – which is one of the best books of my life, by the... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Question | — |
Software to organise world building? There were a couple of other questions about this, but they were asked many years ago, so I thought I'd start a new one. For a long time, I used Wiki on a Stick to organise my worlds and allow for easy access. That software is no longer supported and doesn't work with more recent browsers. From ther... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Question | — |
Software for developing and organizing characters I'm looking for a software that helps me develop and organize the characters for my novel. What I want: - something like a filesystem, with a file for each character - it should have or allow me to create categories like name, gender, age, backstory, and so on - once created, these categories shoul... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Is muteness appearing without explicit reason acceptable? Neurological illnesses or a conversion disorder can cause muteness with no apparent reason. See this related question over at cogsci.stackexchange.com: https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/4458/why-does-a-person-temporarily-go-blind-without-any-apparent-cause (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
| Question | — |
Iambic pentameter: how do you use words with 'secondary stressed' syllables? I'm trying to create textbook-perfect iambic pentameter. I may be wrong in my assumption of there being such a thing as a 'secondary stressed syllable', but in the word 'poetry', the rhythm of it seems to be this: STRESSED, unstressed, secondary stressed. Right? PO-uh-Tri. And with the word 'politi... (more) |
— | about 11 years ago |
| Question | — |
How to quote from a foreign journal that has not been translated? I need to quote from a journal written in Arabic. What should I do? Write it first in Arabic then followed by translation and indicating that it is my own translation (translated by author)? Can I avoid this by paraphrasing? I mean if I'm not quoting the original source directly would it be OK to not... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
| Question | — |
Citing foreign language sources (Swedish) in MLA7 bibliography? I'm unsure of whether or not I should cite a foreign language source (Swedish), with the original (Swedish) title, or use a translated English language title. The paper is for university-level coursework. For example (using: http://debatt.svt.se/2012/08/17/svenska-journalister-ljuger-om-assange/): ... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Should one use the legal "shall" in requirements documents and specification documents? With requirements, shall / shall not. Nothing else. "Shall" is a very specific; it's a keyword I can search for. Must, must not, will, will not: That's for the explanatory text. (And no shalls in the explanatory text. That defeats making "shall" a search term.) How not to do it: I helped write a pro... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
| Question | — |
Problems with past tenses in formal paper on a novel with MLA Format I have been writing high school English paper on a novel in MLA format. Is there any rule about using past participle or past imperfect? Throughout the essay there have been many places that can be changed from past to present, but there are some areas where there seems to be no way to changed to pre... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Do parentheses inhibit clarity? Sparingly is good. Most commonly, a pair of parentheses is useful to set off a strong or weak interruption, rather like a pair of dashes or a pair of bracketing commas. As a rule we prefer parentheses, rather than dashes or bracketing commas, when the interruption is best regarded as a kind of "asi... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
| Question | — |
Deaf speechmarks? > Possible Duplicate: > How does one present spoken dialogue as a secondary language to signed speech? I want to write a novel and I was thinking of including a deaf character. I want to know the best way to express what the deaf person is signing because I don't think using speechmarks would be a... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: Is Scrivener involved in the editorial process, or is it strictly a writer's development tool? I downloaded the trial version of Scrivener and began toying with it in the fall of 2011. I initially used it for outlining, I loved the corkboard feature. I then decided to give it a try for NaNoWriMo 2011. It was the first year I finished. Attribute it to the intuitive interface, great tools or jus... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: What is the difference between giving away my only print copy or my only electronic copy of a book? Here's my stab at brevity: I ran alone on the winter beach racing the storm home. (more) |
— | over 12 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: How can I effectively invent a language? I created my own language for a game, and I've come to learn a lot from it. I am no expert on linguistics, and my tips are a bit random/rambling, but maybe they might help. Here's some of what I would suggest: - Try to create something with only a few basic rules, so it is easy for you to remember.... (more) |
— | over 12 years ago |
| Question | — |
Unpunctuation: bug or feature? Cormac McCarthy's style is worthy of a topic all its own. I've read all his books. Hasn't written a bad one, though some owe more or less of a debt to Faulkner. Anyway, to the point: he doesn't use any "quotes", apostrophes, bold , or italics in his prose. His decision to do so certainly has the effe... (more) |
— | over 12 years ago |
| Question | — |
I have compiled a poetry book with poems of 4chan users. It has a lot of vulgarisms, is it possible to publish something like that? It has around 200 poems, a lot of vulgarisms, and many of them seem senseless. (more) |
— | over 12 years ago |
| Question | — |
Tense of Literary Essay When writing a literary essay in English what tense should be used: Past as in: > Gatsby’s parties were ostentatious and exquisite Or present as in: > Gatsby’s parties are ostentatious and exquisite Another example: > His house is a ‘colossal affair.’ As opposed to: > His house was a ‘colossa... (more) |
— | over 12 years ago |
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A: Which English grammar should be followed when writing for a global audience? Native speakers of English tend on the whole to write in the "written standard" of their native variety of English. Speakers of different varieties, or at least those who are "well read", are generally used to reading material in other varieties, and the difference between the written So I would su... (more) |
— | almost 13 years ago |
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Referring to oneself in first vs. third person in online profiles Suppose I am writing a post/blog, how should I mention myself? For example, > Ray Wenderlich (Site Admin) > > Ray is an indie software developer currently focusing on iPhone and iPad development. He’s the founder of a small iPhone development studio called Razware. Now another example from here. ... (more) |
— | almost 13 years ago |
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How should this ‘be going to’ be revised? I don't know if I can ask about this in this site. But anyway I'll give it a shot. (This question is a spin-off from EL&U.) Here is a skit from a radio English conversation program, dealing with American English. > A: guest B: front desk clerk C: A's wife > > (at the front desk of a hotel) > > A:... (more) |
— | almost 13 years ago |
| Question | — |
Is it wise to publish a novel as an e-book, and how would I do it? I'm considering publishing my novel as an e-book (since I'm very techy) before I take the usual "paperback" route. Is this a wise choice? Also what would I need to do? (steps). (more) |
— | almost 13 years ago |
| Question | — |
Is it safe to create a wiki for a book (or something featured in it) before the book is published? I'm working on a sci-fi novel, and it contains a lot of fictional creatures, which are in some ways separate from the novel because I came up with them a while before I actually got the idea to write a novel. Would it be safe to create a wiki for my creations before the book is published (and before... (more) |
— | almost 13 years ago |
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Third person POV Can writing in the third-person limited omniscient POV include internal monologue and character thoughts? (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Does a technical writer need a technical background? From my experience, not explicitly. But a technical writer does need to understand what they are writing about in order to communicate it effectively. If you'd like a book on the subject, Technical Communication by Mike Markel is an excellent resource for all aspects of technical writing and communic... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: How difficult is it to break into screenwriting? The odds are against you, but them some people do make it. They all use the hero's journey structure - see http://www.clickok.co.uk/index4.html (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
| Question | — |
Hardware-based Word Processor Do they still make hardware-based word processors? I would like a portable, no-frills dedicated machine for writing. The Neo from Alpha Smart looks close but $150 seems excessive for calculator power in a big case. A used laptop might be an option but I'm worried about the additional weight and proba... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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What does "Exposition and Ammunition – back story" mean in screenwriting? I am just starting my first screen writing class and I got an assignment that says: Exposition and Ammunition – back story. I have been searching online but I don't get it. Can someone explain it for me please? (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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How do evil protagonists win the reader over in dark fantasy stories? I thought about writing fantasy story from the perspective of the evil antagonist (think from Sauron's perspective). So my bad guy will be the protagonist and my good guys will be the antagonist. I want my main protagonist to be in general a bad guy. I don't like the idea of using the "but he thinks ... (more) |
— | over 13 years ago |