Matthew Dave
This user was automatically created as the author of content sourced from Stack Exchange.
The original profile on Stack Exchange can be found here: https://writers.stackexchange.com/u/32552.
Posts
See all 40 »If you want special areas to denote onomatopoeia, I have a great new medium for you to discover: The comic book. Unfortunately, the narrative medium was not made for the purpose you're proposing. ...
posted 7y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
While the other answers are great and focus on tangible assets of the world, I'll try and find an answer that focuses instead on stylistic elements. I would say that a good way to get across apathy...
posted 7y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
The novel I'm writing is third-person limited POV in style. This means that the narration's coverage is limited to what the POV character can observe, think, feel, while others' thoughts, feelings,...
2 answers · posted 8y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
If you're just doing it for its own sake to bask in your own 'cleverness', it stands out like neon in a windowless room (see: The recent fallout regarding the ever-'subversive' Season 8 of Game of ...
posted 7y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
Generally speaking, you want to offer consistency in your style, and erratically switching to a minor characters' POV for one random chapter can appear jarring. An example would be in Enduring Love...
posted 8y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
Life and death is actually a pretty low-stakes conflict in my opinion. Yes, of course, it's the ultimate thing we all want to avoid, but when it comes down to it, how many of us have experienced be...
posted 8y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
A simple answer for a simple question. Yes, at the end. That's how mysteries work. Edit: I'll elaborate. Mystery, as a genre, revolves around building suspense around an unknown factor, and the p...
posted 7y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
At the moment, your suggested dialogue is very dry. Every piece of dialogue should ideally serve one of two purposes: 1: Move the plot forward. 2: Expose something about a character/their relatio...
posted 8y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
I can recall a video game that did this in a very satisfying way; Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. In the final boss, you have Reflux the Knaaren, essentially the Big Bad, Andre's muscle. He's souped-up on...
posted 7y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
You can run into problems with publishers if you make the thing they're trying to sell for you for money free online. It's a direct attack on their business model, and if it was done by a pirate, ...
posted 8y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
There's a saying about writing fiction: You have a harder job than God. Because while coincidences and chance play a massive role in real life, in fiction, things generally need... a reason to hap...
posted 8y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
Well, I'd say that if the character is human, saving humanity is kind of in their best interests. It's not a motivation that's unique to him as a character, but it's certainly believable. If the v...
posted 8y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
If you establish it as a convention in your novel, no. Being honest, while there are uses for outright stating thoughts as streams of dialogue-like prose, it's still a very telly form of expositio...
posted 8y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
Torture Porn has a certain revelling tone to it, it enjoys the specifics for no other reason than, as Amadeus put it, its own sake. Instead of using torture as a device to show, say, that someone i...
posted 7y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
My answer to this is quite simple: Show proof that they're wrong in-story. Doesn't have to be blatant, doesn't have to be screamed, but if you have a reader who is detail-oriented enough to pick up...
posted 7y ago by Matthew Dave · last activity 7y ago by System
