Activity for John Smithers
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A: How do I get rid of my excess ideas? 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 comment is coming closest to your problem. It's called fear. So everyone is feeling some level of fea... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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A: Good idea to describe the heist place before the heist begins? 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 head is the hard part. And you want to produce these images and make them rememberable without the intere... (more) |
— | about 11 years ago |
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A: Do romances need to have a happy ending? 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 romance and end it in disaster. But be prepared to disappoint a lot of readers (also be prepared for their r... (more) |
— | about 11 years ago |
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A: How to become a productive/accomplished writer? 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 improve. Read books about writing, blogs, take courses, on and on. There are many ways to get a better w... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: Is it ok to be autobiographical with a main character? 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 this good advice out there (like on this page) will be clearer after you've struggled through your first no... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: How long is a single-title romance novel supposed to be? 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 out of my head: - A novel starts around 50,000 words. That's a widely accepted figure no matter what genr... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: Deciding the setting: real or invented? 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, that should play in New Orleans" because of the (cliched) reputation of that city, then go with that. You... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: Some doubts on the use of Italicized words 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 totally up to the writer. I prefer italic words, because they stand out without shouting at the reader... (more) |
— | over 12 years ago |
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A: Do I have to revise my book on paper? 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 follow on screen. Both answers suggest to mark your printed text using pens one way or another. Printin... (more) |
— | over 12 years ago |
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A: Is it OK to use a single parenthesis after each number in a list? 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), periods were used for numbers, parentheses for letters: 1. Point one is divided into the subpoints a)... (more) |
— | over 12 years ago |
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A: A tricky serial semi-colon 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 the semi-colons (comma and a non-comma-punctuation-mark), I would suggest parentheses: > Speakers at t... (more) |
— | over 12 years ago |
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A: How do you track dependencies for your co-authors? 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 sure if that's what you mean with "dependencies", but I guess so) my best bet is a source control system... (more) |
— | almost 13 years ago |
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A: Is emphasizing a point by underlining still appropriate? 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 underlining. On the internet underlined text is associated with a link. If you do not really have a goo... (more) |
— | almost 13 years ago |
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A: The opposite sex in first person? 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 male politician, do you know how he feels and acts? Have you ever been a politician? How does it feel wh... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Am I too prepared to do NaNoWriMo? I had to laugh when I read the header of your question. We try to encourage people jumping into NaNoWriMo and just write, and with that we unsettle people who are already well prepared. One Monkey started to counter the other answers, so I will continue this wonderful practice :) First, his advice ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What's the distinction between "vanity publishing" and "self publishing"? I think JSBᾶngs’s last paragraph nailed it, but to add to the confusion let me show a German perspective: People in the whole world "love" German for its ability to construct long names. A vanity publisher is a Druckkostenzuschussverlag (Druck-Kosten-Zuschuss-Verlag). That’s a print-cost-subsidy-pu... (more) |
— | over 13 years ago |
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A: Advice on interface text in a videogame From your question I assume that the player knows the term "MP", i.e. it’s not for internal use only. Storm my brain: Out of MP for this task Needz more MP!!!1! X: insufficient MP to use [name of ability] More MP, less failure Get more MP, X, and try again Cost for manoeuvre exceeds MP ("maneu... (more) |
— | over 13 years ago |
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A: How little "fantasy" can be in a story and it still be recognizably fantasy? As little as it is recognizably fantasy for the editor. Ok, just kidding. First you have to be aware of the fact that the "not strong enough fantasy element" wasn't the real reason why the editor dismissed the book. Even editors have problems pointing always precisely to the real problem. It could j... (more) |
— | over 13 years ago |
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A: How does the 10,000 hour rule apply to writing? Easy answer: You need to practice writing. Complex answer: You can try for decades to carve wood and assemble it to a table; if you are doing it wrong all the time, you'll never become a carpenter. There is another saying: You have one million words of shit in your writing. Write them down and get ... (more) |
— | over 13 years ago |
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A: How Do you Stave Off Boredom While Writing? If all your stories started at chapter one and ended in the middle, then try writing the last chapter first. Then the chapter before the last. You also can jump to the first chapter in between. From last to first or jumping between end and beginning, but not your normal order. Afraid of a incoherent ... (more) |
— | over 13 years ago |
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A: Will my readers feel like they are reading a children's storybook if there are illustrations in my novel? I've seen novels with illustrations. But I wouldn't care too much about it, because I'm sure your publisher will tell you, if he thinks it is a good idea. If you want to self-publish, I would include them. I see no harm and you can use it as unique selling proposition. ;) (more) |
— | over 13 years ago |
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A: Should you read your own genre? After reading the questions, I have one question: Are you serious? You want to sell cars, but you have no clue about the different brands, the different models, which series is very often in the garage, because it's crap, which cars are reliable even after 200,000km, what extra is worth paying for an... (more) |
— | almost 14 years ago |