Posts by Stu W
I started a book about 2 years ago, got about halfway through, and then got sidetracked. I know this is a typically bad habit of novelists... Fortunately, the book idea that distracted me made it t...
Western audiences are into heroic self sacrifices in "brother v. brother" conflicts, such as the archetypal death of Ben Kanobi at the hands of Darth Vader in Star Wars, Episode 4. Some, like the ...
Medieval men typically worked a trade. Make him gifted in his trade so that commoners come from miles around to acquire his goods. Even nobility have heard of his skills. You can add artistic mast...
If this is fiction, and you are unknown, your book should start with Chapter 1. No matter how clever you are, readers don't really give a rip about your process. Just start the story the best you c...
The good-girl-bad-boy thing has always bothered me philosophically. Yet, this scenario fulfills itself endlessly in real life. Perhaps it is a benefit to the OP she exercises this part of her psych...
I think a better example of "what the people want" would be Tom Clancy. His research, whether it be military, medical, or engineering is meticulous, and its presentation is thorough. He's not afrai...
Describing a psychedelic experience is inherently difficult. You might try weaving in some behavioral changes seeming out of place as your hints something is amiss. If you wait to the reveal, you'l...
Prose should slide off your fingers like warm butter. If your brain screams "discombobulated" at you, you don't have to ignore it because it's a big word. There is of course a limit based on your w...
Although different fields will assuredly have variation in formats, doctoral candidates are expected to design their own research protocols and report them in a meaningful way. As such, I don't thi...
Punctuation is a style issue. As such, you can determine as the writer the message you want your readers to understand. A nonessential clause is an unnecessary piece of information which adds expl...
I'll be brief as the other answers are thorough and valuable. 1) Novels succeed because they are good stories. Three-act stories are consistently successful, but many books become bestsellers with...
Use your characters. What are their lives like? Working plumbing? Toilet paper? Are the streets safe? You can use dialogue rather than prose. "What do you mean there was no milk at the store? They...
I'm having a problem that is not addressed by The Chicago Manual of Style or the AP Style Guide I have access to: How does a writer express laughter in fiction? I have seen no consistent answer. I...
I would suggest working backwards following completion of book 1 after outlining book 2. This of course requires you to finish book 1 and make alterations before going into query mode (or self pub...
Like many answers in life: it depends. I'm not sure how Ulysses works, but I imagine it can splice/paste ideas, keep virtual notecards, and whatnot Some writers draw out long outlines and try to ...
There's a similar question right now, and I have an issue: How would one write the grade of A in plural? For clarity, my smart device isn't smart enough for italics. I will use bold. In general, I...
Tough question--especially if you've never experienced that type of thing. You might get quite a few suggestions here. My own conclusion is to say that, by the end of the book, the reader wants th...
OK, I admit to dinosaur-era technology. My first computer was the Radio Shack Color Computer 2 with a tape deck for memory storage (seriously). Websites were in DOS (let's just say you were lucky t...
The oxford comma is the second comma in the sentence I like the colors red, white, and blue. Every grammar textbook I've ever seen, as well as the major style guides, feels that this is "proper" de...
My favorite performance of this task was Magic Kingdom For Sale--Sold! by Terry Brooks. It spends about a chapter in the Ordinary World and then goes back a couple of times. To answer your questio...
I thought of three things. From least to most appealing: 1. Letting it linger As you say, once person X is found, the story is complete. You can write an epilogue like you mentioned, but you can ...
Difficult concept and varies with style guide. In general, 1) It Is appropriate to capitalize the first word of a full sentence within a quote (motto s have different rules). 2) All versions of T...
Gosh, I really think I'm quite clever sometimes. But what about those situations where the readers (audience) can be told, and they feel completely satiated and entertained by not going into the nu...
