Posts by System
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...
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 alienat...
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? ...
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 ...
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 m...
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...
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...
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 criti...
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...
There is only one correct way to learn how to write and that is by trying out what works best for you. The mistake most aspiring authors make is to think that there is some kind of standard proced...
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...
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...
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...
I'm German. The process of submitting manuscripts is almost identical to the one in the USA. I assume it will be similar in Italy, too. What you are expected to do is usually: Find an appropriate...
A year or two ago I was leaning towards self-publishing, mostly to have more creative freedom over my work, but with how the market is so over satuated with books, I feel deterred because I see no ...
I know this isn't the conworlding forum, but I'm not asking for a critique on my conworld. I'm asking how people would receive such a thing as a constructed world not based off of ancient cultures,...
