Activity for ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHereâ€
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| Answer | — |
A: Proofreading a novel: is it okay to use a question mark with an exclamation mark - "?!" I agree with others here that if you've been told not to make changes in style, it's likely that the writer's interpretation was that you should leave things like this alone. But you're the proof reader in this case, so I wanted to give you an "out" in case you hated the sight of it. If "The style ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How can I make distinctions between a hive-mind and a super consciousness? Simplest answer - give the superconsciousness a character. You've mentioned this could be the deity that created the other gods. If that deity is still around, this could be straightforward - if not it could be represented as a spirit, an administrator (I like Cyn's employee / company idea), or some... (more) |
— | almost 6 years ago |
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A: How can I mention errors in the data that I received in my thesis? Where to mention it? With four weeks still to go, the emphasis on your thesis has shifted from one of presentation to one of finding out what went wrong. This will lead you to three probable outcomes : 1) You discover exactly what went wrong, and it's a simple factor with no effect on the measurements. A note in the met... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How to manage getting depressed by what my main character goes through? Even if there's nothing uplifting or redeeming, the protagonist's death will have a positive interpretation - you've thought enough about his life to tell that story. It's not death itself that's a problem - it's the idea of a meaningless death, and if your story has brought home the futility of war ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Why do readers enjoy reading about "bad" or evil characters? It can serve both base and higher instincts. On one level people appreciate a character whose response to provocation is more dynamic than the response they think they would have themselves. This seems to work best when supported by a compelling back story (Hannibal Lecter, Dexter Morgan), though th... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Is it better to avoid names with a difficult pronunciation in Middle Grade fiction? I'm also going to agree with the third suggestion. The idea of a pronunciation guide is a good one, and you could do as others have done and make it part of the dialogue (for example "My name's Shawn, but it's spelled s-e-a-n"). Susan Cooper did something similar with Welsh names in "The Grey King". ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Would George Orwell get hired in today's expert climate? It's a simplistic answer, I know, but the qualification both Orwell and Wodehouse shared was that they were excellent writers. There's a tendency to think of qualifications as pieces of paper issued by an academic body, but it's a much broader term. When the question comes up in an interview a skill... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Using colloquialisms the reader may not be familiar with In dialogue and first person narration, I think this sort of thing would be a nice addition (then again, I always hear the phrase "this sort of thing" in Dermot Morgan's voice, so I'm probably not one of the readers that are concerning you). You will gain the affection of some readers, while others m... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Should I repeat character descriptions if a character reappears the second time too far into the story? I wouldn't repeat them, but there's nothing wrong with referring to the description to remind the reader (though there's a good chance this is what you meant - apologies if so). If your character has hair which is - in the earlier section - "so grey that it was almost white", when he reappears this ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to evoke wonder in the reader, when there isn't an incredulous character? For first person narration by one of the characters, the idea that they find nothing special in what they're seeing or doing can be used as effectively as specifically mentioning it to give the reader the impression they are in a different place to the world they know. For third person narration, th... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What are the advantages and disadvantages to leaving the narrator unnamed? Two good answers already, so I'll concentrate on the word "relevant". If the narrator is relevant (someone who personally participated in the events of the story) but his name is not, there might be an advantage in preserving an air of mystery or avoiding distraction from the main characters, but th... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: What's a shorter way of saying, "If you had asked me, I would have said, 'I suppose'"? I'm getting the impression that if you were to ask the narrator now, they would say that Rebecca was not, and had never been, much of a friend. If that's correct, you could try something like : > "... and at the time I believed she was one of mine." though "supposed" is more subtle - my suggestion ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Where should I put my tl;dr? I'd be inclined to put a summary at the beginning, similar to an abstract in an academic paper. That way people would see it first, those who were interested could read further, and those who were not would still see the summary. Putting it at the end might lead those who weren't particularly interes... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to remove generalizations from a sentence? I'm seeing three big generalizations there : - Women want to have a baby - Women want to be with a guy - Money is important in relationships Any one of those will alienate a significant part of an audience. If you're looking for a variation on the old idiom "marry in haste, repent at leisure" (whi... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Housing fictional characters I'm not sure a fictional character needs a real house. Even if the address is specified, interior and even exterior details can be different. You might find particularly fanatic readers asking awkward questions (for example turning up at 221B Baker Street and saying "Show me John's room"), but even i... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Writing a full conversation in free indirect speech Since free indirect speech relies on the narrator picking up the dialogue instead of relying on a lot of "John said that he thought that..." or similar, it's going to make it difficult (but not impossible) to hold an argument with the narrator apparently putting forward opposing views. Free indirect... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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A: Present tense or Future tense (When writing articles or technical guides) I usually use the present tense. Future tense works too in the way you've used it, but I would use it sparingly. This might be a "know your audience" answer, and I have more experience in technical guides than articles, but I also tend to avoid pronouns. I would say "Use a very clean font" and "it w... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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A: How long does a first draft have to be if the essay i'm writing is 300 words long? There's no hard and fast rule, and it depends how many drafts you're thinking of doing before the final version. If this is the only draft, I would aim higher than the limit. If there will be second or third (etc.) drafts, the first draft is whatever gets your ideas in writing. [I tend to think of ... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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A: How does one write fluff? With lighter stuff the trick is not to play down the importance - someone thought it significant enough to write about it, so thinking of it as fluff could be counterproductive. It could be something ridiculously mundane, but if written well it can attract more readers than heavier plots. I'm second... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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A: Is it necessary to use words like "said", "asked," etc in dialog? I like what you did there. Looking at the painting made it clear in the relevant paragraph that "he" was speaking. I'm a big fan of this approach myself. A whole bunch of "he said", "she said" looks excessive quite soon, and trawling for different ways of saying "said" can look contrived and possibl... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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A: Is it OK to introduce a character to leave it simmering to a later date? If the readers already love him, it will be important to have a plausible reason for why he's not around at the moment (Law shows set in New York seem to have the meme that someone is "in London" - a trick they apply with varying levels of plausibility). Other characters might mention his absence, an... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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A: How much per page? Is this a ripoff? You're not crazy - it happens, but this sounds particularly odd. Some likely possibilities : 1) As Dale suggested, the price was misheard - it was either $3.00 per page, or $300 for the lot (which could be a bargain at "mates' rates" since they're part of the same group, or because the person is jus... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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What are the risks and benefits of using humour in business/commercial writing? I know the basics here, and in technical circles it usually comes down to locking the Engineering Manager and the Sales and Marketing Manager in a small room and seeing who makes it out, but I would be interested to hear anyone's thoughts. Does forbidding it always come over as stuffy, and will enco... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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A: How can I explain my world if the character is technologically not yet capable of understanding it? Pretty much what Tom said, and you could give the reader enough to pick up on a hint that the plants are affected by infra red radiation by introducing a temporary source. Someone could light a fire in the cave, and a plant that was looking limp could look more healthy. Someone could stroke the leaf... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |