Posts by System
It seems to me that you might have begun to over-construct your characters (and maybe other parts of your narrative as well). Many aspiring writers look for rules and guidelines in how-to books or...
As a reader, the first thing I want to know about a character is why I should care about this character. In an action-adventure setting, without knowing more about what's going on, I'd suggest lett...
This is a difficult question to answer, as, in my opinion, this is largely a matter of opinion. The short answer is to do both and see what works best for you.
What are various ways to reduce reader fatigue by adjusting scenes? Make sure there is a point to the scene. Does the POV character have a goal? If not, consider adding one. A scene with a goal w...
As author Eric T. Benoit once said, your job as a writer isn’t to convey emotion, but to invoke it. Trying to convey emotion more often than not leads to tired clichés of clenched fists and sweat d...
All of reality exists inside the cosmic womb of the goddess. People, planets, animals, etc, were all created when she bled into the universe, birthing life to all things. The faith honors this even...
The rule is simple in general: use the present tenses when discussing events in literary works. One situation where this gets more complicated is where you have to switch timelines because, for exa...
I want to write a fantasy novel, but there are a few issues that I have with the way that I should write it. One of my questions lies in the problem of how I, the narrator/book-writer, can inform m...
Different tools use different algorithms to count words in a document. For example, Apple's Pages counts 2-7 mg/v as four words while Microsoft Word counts the same string as two words. Or if for ...
I do soft cover books and laminate the top side, and therein lies the problem. The cover keeps curling up too much. I have tried Ningbo 350gsm which works perfect except that now it's too stiff and...
Example of citation: Doe, Jane. “The House.” World Literature. Ed. John Doe. New York: Penguin, 1986. 25-30. Print. What I have in the text is the quote from the chapter in the textbook, the quot...
Some thoughts: I would ask the users instead of guessing whether they use the in-page popups. Do a (small) survey. Some users may not use the glossary because they are unaware of it but would if ...
It is legally unproblematic to use institutions that are of a quasi-timeless nature such as the catholic church, the United States, or the egyptian pyramids. If you have "a president of the USA" i...
Many authors avoid reading – or reading anything even remotely related to what they write – while they are writing, to avoid being influenced by the ideas and style of other writers. My recommendat...
No. We always think of authors and other artists as people who were excited by some media experience (e.g. reading books, viewing movies, or playing computer games) and began a career in their med...
Your question is too broad. I'll narrow it down for my answer. Procedure In the case of coauthored biographies, the coauthor typically interviews the primary author (and other persons), assembles...
"Text wall" is a term that describes user-generated content in internet forums or on social media sites that take longer to read than the average eight second attention span of internet users. The...
The question needs to be rephrased. Of course it is possible to write a story without any world-building. Here are some examples: War and Peace. Pride and Prejudice. The Autobiography of Malcolm X....
Some of the current answers are part of the problem that you have: they provide a cognitive approach. When your writing lacks "color" it lacks emotion. You cannot analyse other texts and conscious...
2. The one fundamental rule in scientific writing is clarity. Analogies, metaphors, and other figures of speech are never clear in their meaning but open to interpretation. When I say, for exampl...
I really think people are much too obsessed with not telling. Many of the novels I enjoy most, tell. Lots. If you have, for example, a group of characters recovering from a fight, just friggin' sa...
I won't repeat my answer to this related question here, but instead briefly remind you that writing about an alien world is exactly like writing about the real world. You are stuck on the idea that...
Readers of popular fiction (usually) want a clear protagonist, a clear goal, and a clear path of the protagonist to that goal. Readers also want the protagonist to struggle for his goal, so that wh...
Can men fall in love with characters in novels? Of course they can. Men and women fall in love with fictional characters of all kind. Think of the teen girl pining after a boy group, or the teen b...
