Activity for Ash‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Answer	—	A: How do I know when and if a character requires a backstory? Ultimately audiences don't need a lot of details about most characters' history, what they do need, in order for the story to make sense and be immersive, is justifications for their actions. If a character has clear (stated) motives, reasons for being in the tale and doing what they do that is enoug... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Storyboarding Approaches for the Non-Artistic First thing I just have to address "I have a great idea too long for a short story" you do realise there are lengths that fall between a typical short story and a full blown novel right? I'm a fan of the novella myself. Do a written storyboard, storyboards are, in my experience, for getting ideas in... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Has anyone ever written a novel or short story composed of only dialogue? It's been done a fair few time, I've written a short story this way myself, over two decades ago mind you. It can be done, my recollection is that it came out pretty stilted but I was only 12 so it could have been worse. The most recent example I can think of is World War Z which, as it is "An oral h... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I write a compelling villain-all-along twist? You have to make the character into a real person who the audience believe certain things about. In particular that the sidekick is loyal to the protagonist not the or some set of ideals but the person they're fighting alongside and yet determine to eventually betray, creating a strong bond between t... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	What's a moment that's more impactful on a reread called? I've met a few of these but the most recent instance was two characters discussing buying a third character a drink when they all got home, on the first reading this is a simple moment of comradery and thanks giving for what they owe that person. When reading the series again this moment takes on a m... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can one write good dialogue in a story without sounding wooden? There isn't one, fiction, both reading it and writing it is a subjective experience, everyone sees it differently so there's no single formula that works in all cases. The best way to learn good writing is by reading good writing. You need to find dialogue that you do enjoy reading, that doesn't caus... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	What's it called when the bad guy gets eaten? Is there a specific name for the plot device in which the story's "Big Bad" has a cunning plan to use some monstrous being to further their diabolical machinations. This may be something summoned from elsewhere, brought back from banishment after earlier issues, or even the creation of magic or mad s... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Are there advantages in writing by hand over typing out a story? Please note that I used to hand write everything and only type up what I felt was worthwhile later, largely due to a rather slow typing speed. Now I tend to do one or the other, typing some projects and hand writing others depending on end use (material purely for my own reference usually being hand ... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I tell the reader that my character is autistic in Fantasy? You'd need to highlight the challenges you think most typify the autistic experience. I'm an aspy my main personal challenge is reading body language, I have other issues but that's the one that has traditionally caused the biggest hassles. That's a common trait for those on the spectrum but by no me... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do you show, through your narration, a hard and uncaring world? Some elements that can be clearly seen and described occur to me: - Graffiti is common where people feel disenfranchised, it seems to form an outlet for people who feel they don't have a voice. - Dirt, filth is omnipresent when people don't care for the environment and people around them. This can... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: I have a dialogue that I can't write directly. What would be a good alternative? Tell your audience that the sparrows are cheeping and use italics for the translation. This is a technique that I've seen in a few books for communication that isn't verbal/audible the italics carries the meaning but it's stated beforehand that the character isn't hearing the dialogue, often used for... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Are there any established rules for splitting books into parts, chapters, sections etc? Short answer: break where it makes sense. Some points at which breaks are traditionally made or ways to define breaks include: - change of site, the place the action is taking place changes. - change in POV character, someone different starts telling the narrative. - change in auxiliary characte... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Question	—	How do you keep track of projects/ideas until you have time to write them down? I've read the answers to this question but they focus on getting ideas written down pretty much as they occur, that's not my issue, I have both digital and analog methods for doing so with me at all times. But I can't always use them right away and I often lose the thread by the time I can. This is u... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Should I write my book in first person's POV or third person's POV? Yes and then again no, there is no one answer to this question, write using whatever perspective gets your point across. Usually it's a good idea to pick a perspective and stick with it throughout a given narrative but even that is not an absolute necessity. I've read a good deal of work that uses mu... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How should a big universe be introduced without being boring? Explain what needs to be explained as it becomes relevant rather than trying to present all the information in one go. This has certain advantages: - it avoids dumping all the information on the audience in one indigestible lump. - it actually makes the world feel bigger. Info-dumps tend to bore r... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to avoid mentioning the name of a character? Sure, take the example of the Library story arc in Doctor Who, we see River Song tell the Doctor his name by way of convincing him she's trustworthy but we don't hear it. The audience only know what she told him because she says she's going to tell him and only know it's the right name because of the... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I avoid a predictable plot? Characters should view the narrative from the present, a good way to keep the reader in the dark about the future of the story is to present a first person narrative and have the reader only know what the character does about the situation. This may not keep the reader from predicting the plot but it... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: When should a supporting character be scrapped? A character need not have any impact on the plot, in terms of making things happen, to be an active player in the narrative as a whole. Take S.M. Stirling's Odard Liu; he spends three books as a minor character who serves as a reminder of where he comes from and something of a punching bag of fate, b... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: What kind of writing style works for a game? Here's some thoughts, I tried to write something cohesive but no dice today. If you have multiple storylines told from the perspective of different characters then you have two options: 1. tell separate first person narratives. 2. tell a single third person narrative with multiple points of focus.... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Changing perspectives It depends to what degree you change perspective, if you're switching from one first person narrative to another you can do this smoothly enough. Switching from first person to third can be, and often is, disruptive or jarring to the narrative. The only other thing I would note is that writing the w... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is it okay to use a lot of exclamation marks? I've been told, by professional teachers of creative writing no less, that the correct number of exclamation marks to use in any finished piece of writing is zero; I've also read the works of Terry Pratchett and know that this is not necessarily the case. In many ways it depends more on the target au... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I indicate that a particular relationship between two male characters is purely brotherly (Philia) rather than romantic (Eros)? The same way you can point out the same relationship between any pairing people think/assume are romantically involved, show how funny and/or gross they find the idea that they could ever be more than friends. Someone suggesting that they're together gets a laugh until they realise the person is seri... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How does an author write in hand gestures and non-verbal communication? The nicest way I've ever seen of pointing out hand gestures and body language in a narrative without disrupting it was to not specify what the hand gestures/body language are/is but simply to note that it exists. "X signaled the group and they [whatever]" as an example, or may favourite one when poin... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: "The more fleshed out the character is, the more the reader will care about him". Always true? Short answer no, you can get to know a character very well without actually getting invested in them, especially if the character is "a bit of a tool". To get people to care about a given character you need them to relate to that character. The reader should feel that in the same situation as the cha... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Misdirection for suspense/plot twists - what's acceptable and what's dishonest? The problem I always have with this question, and any other question that asks, directly or indirectly, about our readers' knowledge is that no two people ever come at a story from exactly the same place. What I see as a pointless attempt to disguise information or build tension for the "big reveal" ... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I design characters for an open-ended series? Don't write characters, find characters. I'm a strong believer that open-ended stories should exist in open worlds. Rather than telling a unique and pivotal tale of daring-do they tell the story of a group of people whose deeds may be extremely impactful but are also just the stuff that happens to t... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Which should come first, building my story or building my world? You need the broad strokes of the world filled out before you can really start to run characters through their paces. You can know what your characters are going to do long before you have a finished world but in order to have characters interact with the world as well as each other you need to know ... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: 'The Chosen One' paradox It's not really a paradox, the chosen one is seen as the chosen one because they succeed where others cannot, but they can only succeed because they are already the chosen one to begin with. To put it another way that character was always the chosen one but no-one can see it until they complete an im... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I add tension to a story, when the reader knows the MC survives? The reader doesn't actually have to know that the father survives, not past a certain point anyway, if you don't specifically identify the MC's mother then the MC may already be on the way before we ever meet his father. You need not state this categorically, in fact better if you don't, but it can b... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Anticlimactic ending as a surprise after climax? I'm not certain that this question is strictly on topic but I'll take a bat at it anyway. The demon king is either a threat or not, if he's a threat then he's worth fighting, if not then another confrontation is a pointless aggravation. This doesn't mean you can't have the structure you're are propos... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Publication: What to do about a high wordcount debut novel? Several of my favourite authors have told me the same thing about writing for publication, don't their advice is to "write yourself the story you want to write, the way you want to write it". If it's good enough to get the attention of a publisher you can fight over final styling and other compromise... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Will it be disappointing for the reader to not know who the main character is until the end? I'd say no, if they are well written you can get readers attached to many characters and as long as a main character is compelling and relatable they don't have to be particularly likable at all to be satisfying as a main protagonist. David Gemmell's Druss is, for example, a real nasty piece of work ... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Topic-based authoring vs. Modular authoring Topic-based authoring is actually a particular form of Modular authoring. Modular authoring is most common in technical works but refers to any writing practice where-in different authors are given parts of a particular project based on their expertise and ability to bring that part to fruition most ... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: What techniques do you use to maintain your writing focus and maximise your productivity? I don't think there is a better or worse way there is only the way that works for the person who is using it. Personally I have a writing setting, a place, and a set of media, that defines the situation as "writing time". I sit down to write in the same place, in the same chair, at the same table, a... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Can a mystery novel have more than one mystery in it? And does it have to be a "who dunnit" concept? Most mysteries don't exist in isolation, but rather they are manifold, take one of my favourites, Roanoke, there are several mysteries within the mystery of the Roanoke disaster: - where did the colonists try to go? - where did they actually end up? - when did they leave? - and most "interestingl... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	The role of the supernatural in hard science fiction The response to this question makes it clear to me that I haven't quite asked the question I had intended, the answers are useful but not quite what I'm looking for. So different but related question; to what extent can one include events that can only be explained in-universe as "supernatural", fal... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	The role of inexplicable events in hard science fiction The modern world has few true mysteries, among them the fate of the Roanoke colonists and the crew of the Mary Celeste but do such happenings have a place in futuristic settings? In settings with locally instantaneous communication and ubiquitous forensics using techniques we'd recognise but with eq... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How many characters are too many? I'm going to point out that the named casts in Peter F Hamilton's works often top the 30 character mark. Having said that those works are huge, don't commit to more characterisation work than you can actually accomplish, if you can't actually flesh out characters enough for them to do their job, with... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How much agency should main characters have in the plot? I have heard it stated as a fact on a number of occasions that people in general only make two serious decisions per year, the rest of the time they just go with the flow. Most of the time life happens and people do their best to get through it. Assuming that all these people are in fact more or less... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Finding a thematic setting I've always been told there are two ways to deal with setting: 1. write the story and the setting will follow, or not, several of the best pieces of writing I've ever been privy to are all character and dialogue and could be happening literally anywhere without the setting changing a letter. This is... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How graphic should a grimdark fantasy setting be? For what it's worth, because this is a pretty subjective topic, I think the less you show your audience in horror the more terrifying it becomes. You have to set a scene certainly but the more you get people to project their own fears into situations the more people you will scare and the better the ... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	To what extent can a first person narrative tell someone else's story? I've recently been working on some stories written in the first person from the point of view of what, in the grand scheme of things, would be called minor characters. Examples include a junior bridge officer's point of view while the captain of the ship tells most of the story or a minor functionary... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: First Chapters protocol I feel it would be appropriate to start with the something in the vein of "two years earlier" though you may just want to date both events and let the readers work it out, that's more of a personal style thing than a one size fits all. The issue I see is that if you put that much story between the t... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	Dead as a point-of-view, how can you write first person narrative if that person is dead? In short I'd like to write a story from the point-of-view of a character who ultimately dies within the narrative without the story being either A. a ghost story or B. a life/after-life retrospective narrated after the fact by the dead character. What techniques can I use to write a first person, pre... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to make a repeating plot "slice" not annoying Powered armour of some description is a boon to any author who doesn't want to kill off characters, the armour can take debilitating damage without ever harming the occupant making it easy to put characters out of action without killing them. With high-tech armour there are so many things that can go... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Question	—	Creating a logical framework for the concept of "decisional causality" I'm working on a science fiction universe in which time travel exists, in a very limited form, but it's useless, at least it's the intention that it be useless. To that end time travel, on the rare occasions that it occurs at all, can violate apparent physical causality but not "Decisional Causality"... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How should I introduce multiple characters without it being repetitive? You need to introduce you characters that's a given but do you need to introduce them to the readers as a separate exercise, there I'm not so sure. It's going to read a little flashback-ish but if you present them to each other and they tell their stories of how they got caught up in this whole saga ... (more)	—	almost 7 years ago
Question	—	Character pivots, where to put them Normally this sort of thing is easier than actually writing the piece for me but this time I can't get anywhere with the overall structure of the story: I want a character to win a great victory, at great cost, a cost that comes to define his continued existence, is there a way to place such a momen... (more)	—	about 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Creating a fictional place within an actual city? I'd replace the existing university myself it gives you a solid location but you can set your own rules. (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is writing in fragments bad practice? No-one can answer that for you but you, do you find that the end result justifies the practice? I can't write in fragments because they either A. don't fit when I come to stitch the whole together, usually because of incompatibilities of style, and I have to start again or B. they take on a life of t... (more)	—	over 7 years ago

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