Posts by Rasdashan
You wish to maintain the brevity of the names, so I would suggest inserting silent consonants at the end of some, changing Ara to Aragh or Arah to differentiate it visually from the other names. ...
While not mutually exclusive, the goals of my co protagonists do conflict and I need to keep them balanced. MC1 works for the CIA and is being burned. He needs help from someone so he can find out...
See your villain as a fully fleshed person who, while harsh and cruel for reasons of his own and having a dark past, is human. Dark doesn’t mean solitary. I was talking to a cousin of mine about ...
Antagonists are not necessarily bad guys. They prevent your protagonist from achieving her goals. Free yourself of the labels and write your characters true to themselves. What you seem to have i...
By not making her a victim. One friend I had lived most of her life in a wheelchair, had no motor control and would punch and kick her caregiver until her hands and feet were bound to the chair. P...
My current work is one where there are no heroes, no villains - just people doing things. I have characters remark that good versus evil is a naive concept. They go on to explain that so called vil...
There are more important things than physical perfection. It would depend on the genre. As has been stated, romances have handsome love interests. Also, we have been taught that beauty and virtue a...
As JonStonecash has said, the other choices would be jarring. I know that I expect quotation marks to indicate spoken dialogue. While all are sound, the traditional quotation marks have the weigh...
We all have our own reasons, unique to each. The magic of the written word is that it remains. The desire to write something worthy of lasting, whether it is read or not seems to be mine. I need to...
Bear in mind that languages do not have all names sounding the same. If you take my paternal grandfather's name Hyhory and his sons, Isydore, Anton and Kassian you will note considerable variation ...
My MC is in a dark line of work. He is an assassin. He is also someone with lines he does not cross. He has been duped or coerced to do things he would not, but still holds to some standards. I wa...
From what I have read elsewhere, unless they specifically mention that they accept multiple submissions, it is very bad form indeed. The publisher has a process that takes time. If he is impressed...
I am much like you in my process in that I see my characters’ persona but not their appearance unless it is important. I mention my MC’s height, his eye colour as that has bearing later on and tha...
I would suggest the main points to bear in mind are the mindset of the species as oppposed to our own. Of course, being human one cannot know the thoughts of animals. Dogs are more of a we species...
If the purpose of the cipher is encryption, use the substitution cipher. Have some character study it, know it is encrypted and that E is the most commonly used letter in English. Ah, E has been re...
That is a pickle. The sons of Levi are obeying the words of their prophet, which they believe to be the words of god. They have no choice. I suggest the kids see sudden activity, men and youths g...
Double U mentioned fairy tales - some of the most violent tales out there. Earlier versions were very dark and had been altered to make them child appropriate. I think that was a mistake. Bambi (t...
Might be helpful, but hardly essential. There were two brothers, both studying cereal chemistry. The elder brother went to Berkley and got the degree, the younger read all of the texts and was sel...
I know one couple - delightful folks with lovely kids; he is an American from Kentucky who was a chemical physicist. He sold cars in my town and I asked him why the career change. He told me he met...
First, love your character. If you don’t, why should the readers care? Make her more than just this skill she has - make her who she is rather than what she does. I have a hacker character who is ...
Go to a local university and speak with a writer in residence or a professor who is well-respected. Take creative writing courses and listen to the feedback. Join a writers group - but remember, b...
Unless you were given written permission to finish the MSS, leave it as it is. It was probably given to you to read, not rewrite. If you feel compelled to write it, use it to inspire your own wor...
I have a large assortment of walk on characters who appear briefly. Some of them might return, but most will at best be referred to by another character and just disappear. I find this realistic a...
I meet my characters. My MCs, I spend about a week or two imagining them in various situations. When they are fleshed out, I start writing them and see what happens and who they run into. The key ...
I think it depends on the character of your high born individual and the lower born (though not necessarily common) friend. If the higher ranking character is so used to hearing his title - essen...
