Dale Hartley Emery
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See all 44 »Focus on the character's reactions in that moment, given his intention and state of mind as he enters that environment. Different characters would likely attend to different details, and would rea...
posted 7y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
See if you can add a twist. One time Harlan Ellison wrote: She looked like a million bucks. Realizing what a horrible cliche that was, he changed it: She looked like a million bucks, tax ...
posted 9y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
These two examples make the scene more specific in a particular way: By adding modifiers. In these cases: By adding adverbial phrases. Your temptation to add the modifiers is telling you somethin...
posted 10y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
A different bullet to consider biting: Remove all of the headings. That gives the conclusion equal standing with the other parts. Now all that's left (hah!) is to mark the transitions.
posted 10y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
Partly it depends on whose idea of quality you want to enforce. If you want to enforce your own personal idea of quality, you will have to involve yourself personally in selecting writers and stori...
posted 9y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
Placeholders. (I'm explicitly focusing on my own reaction on this first point, because what I'm saying is very much a matter of personal taste.) I shudder at the idea of leaving placeholders in a m...
posted 9y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
In general (and in your question and example) it makes the text feel friendlier and more conversational. In some contexts, a more conversational tone can make your ideas less persuasive. Whether i...
posted 9y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
Editors often reject stories for reasons that have nothing to do with the “quality” of the story (whatever that might mean). A few weeks ago I watched seven editors select stories for anthologies....
posted 9y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
Lots of writers start writing with no idea where it will go, much less how it will end. Dean Wesley Smith has a book about that, called Writing Into the Dark. On the other hand, I once heard Richa...
posted 8y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
The choice of "mom" or "mother" or some other word helps to characterize the narrator. They differ in formality, and perhaps other attributes. This offers an interesting opportunity: Your characte...
posted 8y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
I think there are two questions here. The first (the OSC one) is about the helpfulness of a given writer's advice on writing fiction. The second (the Paolini one), if I understand it right, is abou...
posted 8y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
I don't know a lot of writers who write out of order. But Kristine Kathryn Rusch does, and her writing is awesome wins lots of awards in multiple genres. You will likely need some skill at gluing ...
posted 8y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
People who are way more successful than I am tell me this: Once you've published approximately ten books, your sales go way up. The reason is that you now have ten ways for people to discover you....
posted 7y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
A 100,000 word manuscript in standard format would be 400 pages long. At $300/page, the cost for this editor would be $120,000. Yuh. That's high. I'm guessing that your friend heard the editor's...
posted 7y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
The interest, I think, will be in the context around the game: What's at stake for her? What makes this game so important to her? What makes it so important now? Who is her opponent? What's at st...
posted 7y ago by Dale Hartley Emery · last activity 5y ago by System
| Reputation | 660 | |
| Number of top-level posts | 2 | |
| Number of answers | 42 | |
| Sum of received votes (up minus down) | 128 | |
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