Posts by Rasdashan
One thing you must decide is why is this torture taking place? Is the tormentor some unbalanced person who loves inflicting pain? Is he a seasoned professional who must extract the truth from the v...
Having a villain lop off an arm or leg ought not offend someone who either was born without them or lost them due to accident or combat. Losing limbs is not desirable. I have some disabled friends...
It would depend on the scenario. I suggest you just write, let the changes to history that you make lead you and the reader to interesting places. The movie Fatherland has an interesting scenario ...
I have had many friends from the Middle East and their skin tones ranged from essentially white to soft brown. I found a more telling feature that seemed to set them apart were some slight similari...
It can depend on your character and his experiences. I have been in life threatening situations - never a crashing plane - but multiple car accidents and I believe that my experience in learning to...
When I am writing an action scene - my Secondary Protag getting shot, for example, I use shorter sentences. It echoes the thought pattern of the characters, implies that everything is happening ver...
A few lines is not a problem. What you will want to do is cite the lines. As long as they are properly attributed and not used in a way that could be damaging to the work you should be fine. IANAL
Vampires and werewolves are such a staple of folklore that introducing the reader to the fact of their existence can be done in many ways. In Interview with the Vampire a nervous journalist saw s...
Dark humour is more about the situation. The theme can be anything - including death and dismemberment. A soldier in battle could notice a fallen comrade and remark about a poker debt he will never...
Word count is a useful tool, but to feel compelled to cram an ending in when you are still in full stride with much of the story as yet unrealized is folly. Your story will take as long as it tak...
Don’t worry about it. Race is a very minor consideration when it comes to characters. Focus on character traits, not skin colour. If you offend someone because you do not clearly state that charac...
There is nothing wrong with such a pairing - unless one is fifteen. A cousin of mine had been dating for years and finally found the one. He called me to tell me about her, but was initially emba...
My favourite definition or description of poetry is concentrated prose. Speaking only of verse, it uses fewer words to communicate its ideas than prose would use. The Moving Finger writes and...
You are creating a world and a society. Have faith in your choices and create your own names for months if you wish. What reason would your world have for having months named after Roman emperors? ...
If the reader will struggle to find their flow, you have work to do. Consider Paradise Lost - it flows seamlessly and once you accustom yourself to the Middle English, each line is a delight. When ...
I think you are fine provided that you do not bludgeon the reader with the sexual orientation of your characters. I do not mind reading about characters that happen to be gay or bisexual as part o...
Philosophy and religion can be beautiful. Khalil Gibran uses strong imagery and beautiful turns of phrase in his Prophet series and the whole thing is a series of conversations. Plato’s Dialogues a...
I would leave it out. There are two kinds of depression; clinical depression for which people ought seek help and depression that is a natural and normal response to bad things happening. My moth...
Passive arrogance, as others have mentioned, is about believing they know more than others and more than they really know. They are right and being wrong would be a sign of the coming apocalypse. T...
It works well when done well. I have a copy of The Mark of the Horse Lord by Rosemary Sutcliff and fondly recall it. It is set in Britain during the Roman occupation. The protagonist is a slave d...
I have a character who is a seasoned CIA agent and is part of the task force that is bringing in my MC. I have another character, a semi retired assassin who was one of my MC’s instructors. I wan...
My characters are well read and some like to recite poetry. My MC is particularly fond of Paradise Lost and is known to quote a few lines here and there. In one scene he is thinking some of the li...
My MC is an assassin by trade and has a military background - sniper, Special Ops, etc. He was raised partly by his sister after their parents died in a car accident. He normally listens to her as ...
Why not? Some games have little messages for the player and, if well done, they add amusement. Sometimes they are even further into the game and an alternate remark by an NPC.
Talented individuals can be seen as dangerous to totalitarian regimes. Stalin executed many very capable generals and when the crisis came, talented, experienced officers were in short supply and r...
- ← Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next →
