John Smithers‭

You can work together at the same document with tools like Google docs, but that maybe gets a little bit messy over time if you want to track all the changes. To make the changes visible (I'm not ...

posted 12y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Most important part is, reducing the story to the core plot. Some say you should only need three pages to summarize your story, some say one page should be enough. But if you can reduce its core to...

posted 14y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Get a woman! Yeah, for proofreading, what did you think? This irking notion is not so much different from all the other irking notions which assail your mind during writing. If you write about a ...

posted 13y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

I think underlining for emphasizing is a little bit old-fashioned. But if you write for an audience which is used to it, why not? If you want to publish your writing online, I would advice against...

posted 13y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Punctuation marks where invented to increase readability. So for God's sake, get rid of these semi-colons; my eyes are bleeding. If you really need the differentiation which shall be achieved with...

posted 12y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

If it is ok for your personal style (or specified company style) than yes, it is. Otherwise leave it. As I have learned it in school (and I'm from Germany so it does not refer directly to English)...

posted 12y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Because I said so myself, let me answer your question: No, you do not have to. If you look at the answer you linked to or at mine above, you see that they suggest techniques which aren't easy to ...

posted 12y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

I've read a lot of novels in my life and I cannot remember one, that uses bold for emphasizing. But maybe that's just my memory problem. I prefer italic, but honestly, that is a matter of taste and...

posted 12y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

You can do both. You can start from an existing city (maybe give it a new name) and change the areas which do not fit (GTA comes into mind). If you have already an idea for the setting like "Oh, t...

posted 12y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Your novel should be as long as it needs to be. Not shorter, not longer. Too vague? Well, that's writing ;) Honestly I think we already answered this question, but I can't find it. To summarize ou...

posted 12y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

If I can interpret "I'm still very new" as "writing my first novel", then skip this, go back to your story and keep writing. Ignore everyone telling you anything about how to write. Because all thi...

posted 12y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Writer's block is a myth. Talent? Well, it's a problematic and often misused term if you ask me. Replace it with "skill" and then you have something to work on. Skill you can train, skill you can ...

posted 11y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Do you want to piss your readers off? No? Then call a tragedy a tragedy, a drama a drama and a romance a romance. This question is all about customers' expectations. You can call your story a roma...

posted 11y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Keep in mind that a book is not a movie (yes, this sounds trivial and stupid, but bear with me). Movies uses images so they are easy imaginable. Opposite to that producing images in the reader's h...

posted 11y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Let's come down to your real issue: You are deleting your novel starts without even getting close to the end. You want to get rid of other ideas. They threaten to replace other ideas. what's co...

posted 7y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭