Posts by Mike.C.Ford
This seems like a great idea, and possibly the best way to approach this would be to have the time of disorientation be relatively brief. I've not written dream sequences ever, so I don't have any...
Jokes are just humor where you provide both the set-up and the punch-line yourself. A stand-up comedian talking to a room full of people has to reel off jokes one after the other, as they have no ...
It's possible that you have 2 problems here. The first is that you're trying to find convincing arguments in support of someone who rules through fear, power and intimidation. Generally, these typ...
Personally I believe the reason not to use real people in fiction is very simple: the writer already knows them too well. When you write about a person that you know first-hand, it is very difficu...
In situations like this, my instinct is always to completely rephrase the entire section (whether that's just a sentence, a paragraph or even more). If you want to emphasize that both the building...
There are so many different plots that can be written. The majority of them can be narrowed down to even more broad terms until every story is just a variation of around a dozen different types. T...
If you would like to immediately disprove your friend about the fact that female readers prefer a protagonist that is an ordinary person, I'll refer you to the works of Jane Austen, which are favor...
I should think that alternating paragraphs should be enough, as long as the tone/ voice that each character uses has been sufficiently different. It's not too dissimilar to two different people ha...
It kind of sounds like you have a group of characters that you want to remove their plot armor. If the reader realizes that anyone can die, then they will be unsure who could be next, as any of the...
Seeing an axe murderer at the end of a hallway is scary, but not seeing them and knowing they're somewhere nearby, maybe round the corner, or maybe behind you, is much scarier. This is because, as ...
You don't have to write good arguments for two characters arguing opposite points in a debate, you need to write good characters. As someone writing a debate, it's likely that you will favor one s...
I actually asked a similar question to this in a different SE site, and I think that GRRM actually provides enough evidence to prove that he is an incredibly accomplished swordsman. However, you a...
I'm writing a fantasy novel, in which the story progresses over a number of years. Throughout the story, I want to display an evolution of the magic, much like technology evolves in our world. The...
I actually think that this story would work better with someone who is 18-20. I haven't read any YA novels for a few years now, so I don't know at which point plots and themes might be deemed too ...
The terms are bandied around quite often to describe fictional characters, generally in order to help describe how developed a character is in terms of personality and backstory. However, are ther...
I'm attempting to write one or two chapters with one of my main characters in a jail cell. It's important to the character development that he is isolated for an extended period of time, antagonize...
I don't think it's altogether a bad idea, it depends on how you implement it. One of the ways it can be achieved is to have the present day story and the past story running in parallel. This would...
Worldbuilding SE can help you with a specific solution to your logic problem, but in terms of writing I'll offer a general solution to how to solve such a problem. If you're not sure how to move t...
I think it entirely depends upon the pacing you require from the scene. If you're writing it with the action in mind, I would have around a single line of dialogue for every action that takes plac...
I would say simply pick a really specific way to change the language, and then change it that way consistently. Like with your example, it uses words that rhyme with the word they mean in English,...
English is full of homophones that can cause confusion when speaking, but if the two similar sounding words are spelled differently they can be clarified as soon as they are written down. However, ...
The main character of my novel (third person limited) is an outlaw, on the run from government agents and living from day to day trying to survive. In the first quarter of the story, she doesn't r...
I have built a world in which to write my fantasy book, and I'm currently writing my first book about it. I have it all planned out and am in the process of writing it. I have plans for a further b...
My story features two software developers who discuss computer-based things in the first chapter. It's not a significant part of the story, but it helps to establish who the characters are and what...
I'm currently writing a novel, in which two characters who are old friends are having an argument. I'm writing the argument to establish who the characters are and what their values are (the argum...
