Activity for dmmâ€
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A: Avoid blending Fantasy and Sci Fi Sci-fi and fantasy don't NEED to be fundamentally different. If the people in your fantasy world approach the magic that exists in their world in a "scientific" way, then your fantasy elements become soft sci-fi. That is, you are proposing a made-up world in which there are laws of magic that operate... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Can a plagiarist sue one who plagiarized them? Adding to the answer by @laurenipsum: Her answer applies also to an original that is out of copyright. For example, anybody can make any story they want using the original characters and setting from Les Miserables, since that is out of copyright. The writers of Les Miz can't sue you for that (well, ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: Name of a subsection and its parent section clash The short answer to your general question is "no." If the subsection is titled the same as the section, then either one of them is named incorrectly or else your outline is incorrect. An outline is supposed to be like this: Title: Great Cities of the World I. American Cities A. Large Cities ... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: How to indicate that a single letter was removed from a quotation Agree with "cut the Gordian knot" answers recommending you change your lead-in to the quote so you don't have to change the quote. The problem with that solution is that you can't always do it. So we're back to your original question. If this is a scholarly essay/paper for a class/journal, then AFAI... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: Is pantsless writing practical for NaNoWriMo? The writers Margaret Mitchell, John Irving, Graham Greene, Mickey Spillane, Richard Peck, Edgar Allan Poe, J.K. Rowling, and Agatha Christie all famously write/wrote their endings first, according to this website. So, you might want to reverse your thinking. Concoct the previous scene from the bones ... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: Alternate universe vs. historicity: how to set the threshold/expectations? You only have to watch Downton Abbey to realize that the 1920s were a period of rapid social upheaval in the UK. Some people clung to the old ways with a death-grip; others cast aside all conventional behavior (and mostly got ostracized for it). Most people sought a middle ground, which was tricky be... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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A: My Hero is captured, now what? Unless your hero's enemies are all intensely stupid, he and his companions will be totally unarmed, and will have been carefully searched for anything valuable. Really, unless your goblins are nobler than those in most stories, readers will expect goblins to take everything from their captives. Your ... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Examples of Successful Rule-Breaking in Novels I just finished "The House of the Seven Gables" by Hawthorne. I was struck by how often he switched tenses. Mostly the narration was in past tense, but then he would switch to present or even future tense. Sometimes the tense would change for a sentence or a paragraph; other times it would change for... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How can we have foreshadowing in a story that takes place in a universe where the future can't be known beforehand? Foreshadowing occurs even in real life. Suppose you know some 10-year-old who is mouthy and disrespectful to adults, including his own parents. You say to yourself, "He'll turn out badly." You're not surprised to hear, 10 years later, that he's been convicted of armed robbery. His early behavior gave... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How to invoke my creative side without investing too much time? Your main problem/complaint seems to be that your thoughts don't automatically organize themselves. Take comfort. You are normal. Try the following (in order): 1) First, just get ideas down. I like to use FreeMind for this phase, and also a spiral-bound notebook that has no purpose except to jot dow... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Indicating a word choice you're unsure of 1) If the ? is for yourself, then use two in row, which would never show up in regular text. That way you can search for them before submitting. 2) If the ? is for the reader, then I'd say never ever do that. It's the writer's job to find the right word or phrase! You don't put a placeholder there w... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: How do you call the non-writing parts of creating a text? I beg to differ with you. For lack of a better all-inclusive word, I call all of that "writing." The actual setting-down of the words is just one part of writing. And even once that is done, you still have to edit the words, which is more writing. Really, we should have a proper word for the whole p... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Alternative to mindmap software How about Powerpoint (or similar)? Advantage over word-processors is you have "slides" that you can move about. Slides can contain pictures or text. You can label each slide with a large label. Then you can look at a bunch of slides in "slide view" and rearrange them. Disadvantage is that this only h... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Does excessive use of prepositions make writing unclear? > "The principle of keeping nouns and verbs as close to each other as possible for the benefit of readers has many benefits" That has 6 prepositions. Replace with: > Don't separate subjects and verbs unnecessarily. Your readers will benefit, in many ways. That has 1 preposition. (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: How similar is too similar? I'm hoping those weren't restaurant reviews! Also, IMHO, your phrase is a nod to Tolkien, a literary allusion. That is not plagiarism, any more than it would be plagiarism to say at the end of a review of a robotics show, "Next year, for sure, I'll be back." (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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A: How to write a reminder LinkedIn email to a stranger? Several possibilities: 1) Your (second set of?) questions turned out to be more time-consuming than the responders thought they would be, based on your original contact. So, they don't want to do it, but are too cowardly to tell you, and they are hoping you will just go away. If you can determine th... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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A: Do romances need to have a happy ending? "Love Story" by Erich Segal. (Book and movie) "The Way We Were" (movie only) "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell (book and movie) "Romeo and Juliet" by...really, I could have just led with this! Do I need to go on? (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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A: How do I avoid tech/social errors in near-future fiction? The web has lots of research trade e-zines, with articles written by and for laymen, that would help you. Then there are magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. Also magazines like Scientific American, Science News, Science Daily, and Wired Science. Omni magazine is coming back, suppose... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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What are the 3 all-time best-sellers in each genre? NOT your personal favorites (subjective)! The best-sellers (objective). Group book series together. Anyone know? Educated guesses are OK, but documented answers are preferred. For example, I'm guessing that, for sci-fi, the top 3 are the Dune series, the Foundation series, and the Ender series. Or m... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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A: How do I do literary research on an unresearched topic? Maybe I don't understand, but (I think) the whole point of a Guardian is that they DON'T change, they DON'T undergo a journey. At least, classically. The hero is the one who changes, who undergoes a journey, who experiences peril. The Guardian is above all that, which is why the Guardian is usually a... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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Problem: Scenes that are unavoidable, but boring More specifically: Two of my book series' main characters are (temporarily) diplomats. It's unavoidable to the progress of the plot. But diplomacy is inherently slow and boring. So, the general question is: How does one handle boring but necessary scenes? Both general and specific answers welcome. Ex... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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A: How do I evaluate an unwritten plot/story? When you're done the outline, send it to me. If it's good, I'll steal it. Haha, just kidding, but seriously don't work for a year on an awesome detailed outline and then show it to just anybody on an online forum. That's a job for people you'd trust with a big envelope full of $20s and $50s. For sta... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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A: How can I catch more errors when I proofread? Use text-to-speech software. It's available on almost every computer nowadays, for free. The advantage of this is that the computer is stupid and will read whatever you have written, even if it makes no sense. (Of course, this approach assumes you will recognize the mistake when you hear it.) Human r... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |