Posts by Tom Au
From what I understand, truth is a defense against a charge of libel. More to the point, I've been told that a statement need not be true if it represents a "fair comment" based on the underlying f...
Use the first three years for Part I. Part II begins with the notation: Twenty years later... Then use "flashback" scenes in Part II to catch the odd event of note that might have taken place betw...
Perhaps the "classic" example is Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Early in her journey through the land of Oz, she acquires the slippers that she needs to take her back to Kansas. But she doesn't reali...
Regarding the "homosexuality," just barely mention it. Maybe show one kissing scene, one love scene or one discussion, just to show who the characters are. Then have them go about their business ...
I tend to write my stories "backward." In a 12-chapter novel, I once wrote the first three chapters, then Chapter 12, Chapter 11, Chapter 10, Chapter 9, then chapters 4-8 in some random order. I k...
"The openings of my novels seem fine. This may be because they are generally only one scene long. But it may also be because I develop them differently than the rest of the plot." In that case, tr...
You seem to be interested in creating a "parallel universe" for your story. That is, a world slightly different from the "real one." In your shoes, I wouldn't sweat the "worldbuilding" part. You w...
You practically answered your own question. In these two cases, you should probably use a third party narrator. "very intelligent, like Sherlock Holmes (In the books, Dr. Watson is the point of v...
An example comes from a cartoon where there is a woman talking to her boyfriend. There's a "cloud" that comes from her mouth, and the text inside reads: "You're so handsome." But there is another ...
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were fictional, of course, but Lauren Ipsum has convinced me that if they were real people, a story about a "drug-using detective and his MD sidekick" might expose a ...
The sports term for "heavy handed" is "piling on." In American football, if the runner has been "tackled," there is no need for other defensive players to jump on him. Chris' example, " She had ...
Someone with a tactical bent quickly "resolves a problem into its clearest, simplest form" (Conrad Hilton). Someone of the other kind "overthinks." The second person is actually more analytical, ...
"The Great Gatsby" was told from the point of view of Gatsby's neighbor, Nick Carraway by name, with Nick using the first person. Nick gets to see a lot, but not all of Gatsby's dealings. A case in...
My recollection is that when I started reading romance novels in the 1980s, the majority (perhaps 60%) were written in the third person. This included some "young adult" romances with characters in...
Critics of my screen play tell me that I have done a good job of developing the story, less so in developing the characters. A couple examples follow: The main character is a woman who is the "fif...
In my screenplay, I feature a CEO of an advertising agency who is "pot shaped," shy, tongue-tied and a few other characteristics that make you wonder how he ever became an advertising executive, ne...
On another site, I wrote a critical review of a book that featured a "King Frederic II" of France who reigned between 1777-1819. I pointed out that this was a particularly unfortunate time to confu...
This question is a followup to my earlier question. Continuing the dialog with my one critic, I wrote back that I believed that certain "foreshadowing" was necessary. Then I added something like, ...
My understanding is that the toughest standard regarding plagiarism is the "five (consecutive) word" rule, which holds that, if there are five consecutive words identical to someone else's writing...
My understanding is that a "reflection character" is someone who acts as a "foil" for the hero(ine). This is someone the main character fights with, or at least interacts with, a lot. How is this...
In writing a screenplay, I created a bunch of scenes, with about twice as much material in total as I needed. So the job was to cut things down to size. In so doing, I found that a number of scene...
In my screenplay, I have my female protagonist wear Prada, and perhaps drop other hints of her character, but not act like Miranda Priestly for the first two acts, until she gets a promotion at the...
In one of my novels, I took two "contemporary" real life people, and sent them back to the 18th century to fight the American Revolution. (Yours truly is one of them.) My current understanding of ...
Stories that are told by an "all seeing" narrator are told in the "third person." Stories that are told by the main character, based on what s/he sees, are told in the "first person." Suppose a s...
I wrote a "take-off" on a French song using a technique that I believe is called "parallel construction." https://french.stackexchange.com/questions/6041/can-rustique-be-used-as-a-form-of-self-dep...
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