Activity for Chris Sunami
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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A: "Dear Stack Exchange, I am very disappointed in you" - How to construct a strong opening line in a letter? It depends on what your goal is --an open letter can have many different audiences, and the putative addressee may not be the actual target. With that said, the best structure for a persuasive argument is to start with common ground , and to show how the same things that all sides agree on lead inevi... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How do I introduce a large cast in an interesting way Don't introduce them all at once --that's not a story, that's a cast list. Bring them in one at a time, or in small groups, when needed by the storyline, and describe them in ways that illuminate their importance to the protagonist and the narrative: > There, standing outside the door was Rachel. H... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Detail vs. filler I've always struggled with sensory details in my writing --I'm a dialog-and-plot kind of writer. But for me, writing details really came alive when I discovered your number three approach. When done right, the details offer you so much opportunity for layered, immersive storytelling. Perfunctory, by-... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Resolving moral conflict This is not a problem, this is an opportunity. Great stories are written about insoluble moral conflicts. The fact that you've created one that you --and the reader --can't immediately and easily resolve means you're doing something right, not something wrong. You've accomplished something many writ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Is it a good idea to leave minor world details to the reader's imagination? It's perfectly fine to leave details up to the reader's imagination. But those comparisons are neither doing work for you nor for the reader. They have the look and feel of descriptions, but they are empty. Let's look at some ways of potentially using this technique: 1. > "The trees were full of ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: As a discovery writer, how do I complete an unfinished novel (which has highly diverged from the original plot ) after a time-gap? I'm largely not a discovery writer myself, but many --perhaps most --of my favorite authors are discovery writers. It seems like discovery writers almost universally struggle with endings --for obvious reasons --and I've read my fair share of horribly disappointing endings to otherwise great books. I... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Writing a love interest for my hero The kinds of criticisms you are encountering are not aimed against the concept of the hero having a love interest. They are aimed against female characters that that exist only as a motivation for the hero , and that are, as a consequence, generic, cliched, stereotyped, unrealistic, and unsatisfying ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Is this kind of description not recommended? Sometimes you'll see authors avoid constantly repeating character names by replacing them with descriptors. For instance (assume that all three descriptors are referring to John, the tall man who is Martha's son). > John walked to the window. The tall man looked across the field. Martha's son was fe... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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Transitional sections As I mentioned in my other recent question, my novel in progress has three main locations. I feel those three settings are strong, fully imagined places, with interesting storylines. However, they aren't side by side, and this is a setting where travel takes time and effort. So I have two more locat... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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Avoiding episodic writing I'm working on a novel that will have at least three distinct sections in three distinct locations (the two main characters start in the first location, travel through the second location, and one stays in the third location). I have an overall story arc that connects the whole narrative, and I thin... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: What's the point of writing that I know will never be used or read? For many years --decades actually --my goal with every piece of writing I wrote was that it be read and appreciated by someone. There were plenty of things I wrote that didn't achieve that goal, and ended up moldering away in some corner of my hard-drive, but I viewed those projects as failures. I wr... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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What's the point of writing that I know will never be used or read? Writing can be a very difficult, frustrating, stressful and effortful process. It can also be very isolating to the writer. Given that writing is a form of communication, what is the point of writing material that you're pretty sure no one else will ever read? Isn't it a complete waste of your time a... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: A torrent of foreign terms Realism is just a style --you're trying to give readers the feel and the flavor of this character, not give them an exact transcription of what his actual thoughts would be. That gives you several possible ways to attack this question: - Present him as though he was consciously addressing an audien... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Why do most authors shed their LitRPG elements as the stories go? Is it a genre convention? Current practice for attention-calling literary elements --I'm thinking primarily here of things like accents and dialects --is to start out with enough to give the flavor, and then to assume that the reader can extrapolate that those same things are continuing in the background , even if they are no... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How to display a duet in lyrics? I've seen this done several different ways. - Chorus in bold (typical in printed lyrics to be sung from if everyone, including the lead, sings that part together) > It was in nineteen hundred and twenty nine > Run come see > I remember that day pretty well > Nineteen hundred and twenty nine ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Should I describe a character deeply before killing it? The superficial problem is whether the readers will care about this character, but the deeper problem is YOU don't care about him. You even describe him as "it" --there's no emotional investment here. It's fine to start telling your story at the point where the father is killed, but you need to have... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: From reactive to proactive; When should the protagonist change tack? Readers typically prefer active characters, because one of the reasons we read is to learn , and one of the ways we learn is by seeing the decisions that characters make, and their consequences, dramatized. There's less to learn from a passive character who only reacts. Given that, and all other thi... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Is straight-up writing someone's opinions telling? All writing in print is (technically) telling. You can "show" in a movie or a play, but everything you're doing in a book is telling, if you want to get technical about it. A lot of times it is better to go with the more immersive choice, the one that puts you more in the head and the experience of t... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Can a successful book series let the bad guy win? Your girlfriend is correct that the bad guy winning at the end limits your audience, and will anger some readers. But it's important that you write your own book, not the book you think you should write. If you really connect with the material, and you execute it well, there are readers out there who... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How to describe POV characters? Most people don't constantly think about their own appearance, which can make first person appearance describing a little awkward. But there are some legitimate times we do think a lot about how we look --usually when we're insecure about our looks or self-critical for some reason, or when we have so... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Averting Real Women Don’t Wear Dresses The initial problem was that writers (mostly, we assume, male) were writing female characters that were thinly imagined, stereotypical, and largely there only to reflect glory at the male protagonist, to serve as window dressing, or to advance the plot. They were based on male fantasies, not on portr... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: If I wouldn't want to read the story, is writing it still a good idea? CON: The reasons to not write something you wouldn't read are pretty easy and straightforward: - You are a stand-in for your potential audience. If even you aren't interested in this idea, that audience may not exist. - It's hard to do a good job writing something that doesn't engage you. - If you... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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Co-branding a book with a website For the last several months, I've had a a professional assignment writing an ongoing series for a well-known website. It was repurposed from a book I wasn't able to sell to a publisher. It's been well-received as a series, so I'm thinking about working up a new proposal for a reworked version of the ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: I wrote a scene that the majority of my readers loved. How do I get back to that place while writing my new book? I've always been a "prisoner of inspiration," but I've at long last come to understand/accept that there are technical, skill-based things that you can do to create those perfect scenes --you don't have to wait for the stars to align and your soul to speak. First really understand your characters, ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: What is the most important characteristic of New Weird as a genre? Genre should be seen largely as a way of connecting a writer with the audience most likely to enjoy his or her book based on elements shared with other books. It isn't an exact science, and for this, a hybrid subgenre, you'll be looking for a signature combination of traits, rather than a single def... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How do I subvert the tropes of a train heist? Stripped of all the self-aware, meta jargon, the problem is that your hero isn't well suited to a big, action-packed showdown -- she's more likely to win with her wits than her fists. Given that, I'd lead the reader to expect the big, action packed showdown, allow her to be physically overpowered, an... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Lots of confusion over which story to write My first instinct was to tell you to write the "good" story first. After all, you'll definitely need to rewrite, so there's no reason you can't practice on something you're really enthusiastic about. (After all, what does it mean to "save" an idea?) But I've changed my mind. Trying to write the "perf... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Is writing literary devices in a narrative essay (reflective) always good? Writing is not real life. It is words on a page arranged to produce an effect, express a truth, or meet any of the many other possible goals of writing. So neither the non-naturalistic eloquence of some writing or the rough-edged bluntness of other writing is the point. The point is whether or not t... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How can I answer high-school writing prompts without sounding weird and fake? You can and should answer these prompts in your own style and voice. I do have my doubts and concerns about these kinds of tests, but if there is any legitimacy to the grading at all, it won't be based on you writing in the style and voice of the sample. (In other words, you're focusing in on the wr... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Should I release my novel now... or miss a golden opportunity? From experience , just hitting a pop-culture trend head-on isn't necessarily going to make people read your book. Keep in mind, when a trend is hitting, there's plenty of competition. The people who strike it big in those situations are the ones who were solidly ahead of the trend in the first place... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Picking a theme as a discovery writer As you've described it, successful writing, for you, has three phases. The first is a discovery phase, where you just write. The second is a clarification phase, where you discover your theme, and the third is a completion phase, where you continue to discover your story, but in the light of the them... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to transition from poetry to song-writing? Many of the most famous songwriters have either done just lyrics or just music. It's relatively common to excel only at one or the other. Personally, I write both but I tend to prefer only doing one or the other --I find it easier to write interesting songs with a collaborator. Since this is a writi... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Avoiding the "not like other girls" trope? The thing you're seeking to avoid is creating a character who is nothing but an inverted collection of stereotypes. That's arguably better than just relying on the original stereotypes, but not by all that much. You avoid this by putting the work in to create a three dimensional character. Some typi... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to collect scattered ideas on various topics in to a blog post/ writing article? As a long-time blogger, I can say from experience: It's much harder to get any traction with an audience if you don't have a specific topic or theme. But it depends on what your goals for the blog are. If your primary aim is to express yourself, and to have a place to keep your writing skills sharp, ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to choose ideal number of main characters? In general, I would go with the minimum number of main characters you need. As a reader, it's difficult and distancing for me to keep track of many characters, and hard for me to care. I'm willing to go to the effort, but only if the writer has made it worth my while. So, if you can combine some ch... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: What to look for when criticizing poetry? I have my own three-part rubric I've used for years for critiquing any creative project: - Craft : How skillful is it? What command of the technical basics does the creator have? In terms of poetry, if it is a formal poem, does it meet all the rules? If the rules are broken, are they broken for good... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Am I Breaking Too Many Rules? It's great that you're going to have 250K words to start from. Note that I said "start from." Keep writing, make your way all the way to the end of the story, and don't worry at all about the length, or any other publishing concerns --yet. Once that's all done, it's time to get ruthless. Get out yo... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How can I add more depth to my poem? The reason your 4th grade poems didn't have any depth is you weren't putting any in there. As you said, they were just fun bits of doggerel that rhymed. If you want deeper poetry, choose a deeper topic: Heartbreak, spirituality, acceptance, isolation, depression, love, hope, beauty, nostalgia, friend... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Does symbolism have only one level of depth? Yes, this is possible. It's called deeply nested fiction (and happens to be a particular interest of mine!). Many of the great classic works of world literature, such as the Arabian Nights, use this pattern. It's likewise common in modern metafiction. In general, in my experience, the more deeply yo... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to make clear what a part-humanoid character looks like when they're quite common in their world? If you are writing third person, you can always just provide a brief description up front if you really feel you need one. Otherwise, you'll need to find reasons for your POV character to notice these characteristics. The key is to integrate them into details that would be meaningful to the character... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How soon is too soon for a redemption arc? I believe this character can be redeemed, because I believe anyone can be redeemed. But I don't see you being able to do justice to that story as a sideplot. This character kills a family member and attacks a child. The audience isn't going to have any sympathy for him, or any desire to see him redee... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How do I respectfully write black characters in a 1930s Arizona setting? First, thank you for asking this question. All too often, I encounter things in the media where I desperately wish people had asked questions like this beforehand. It can be especially painful in the kids' sector (which has made less progress in the last 30 years since I was a child than I might have... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How can I make a talky, idea-based concept enjoyable I think your instincts are correct. This structure isn't going to work as is. But that doesn't mean you can't build a great novel out of these pieces. I'd suggest one of three paths: 1) Drop the ending entirely : Does the book work as a psychological piece about people finding the meaning of their l... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Multiple Books in a Single Query I recently decided to make a long delayed return to a genre where I had early publishing success, upper-level picture books. Given that I now have school-aged children, I have a number of stories that I made up for bedtimes that are ripe for being turned into books. In particular, I have three that I... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Tips and tricks to describe more This is also my problem. The trick to solving it is to understand WHY description is necessary. You're not just checking a box or jumping through a hoop. Description puts the reader inside the perspective of the character , giving a vital context for the dialog and the plot. The best descriptions eng... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is it bad if I don't like the "best" books in my chosen genre? It could be a good thing, if it means that you bring a fresh take and new ideas to a well-traveled genre. It's often NOT a good thing to write in a genre that you don't know very well, just because you're (ironically) more likely to use old cliches and worn-out tropes, because of not being aware how... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to write a memorial plaque? What about using synecdoche (a part for the whole)? > Doctor X was a polymath, who invented the Y medical procedure and composed the epic opera Z. He was just one of the 300 people, representing 400 years of culture and history in country W, who were all brutally murdered on this spot by V as part o... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Story that's too depressing? You're forgetting the power of contrast. What makes a grim or bleak story compelling is the moments of hope, the flashes of humor, the unexpected kindnesses, the oases of calm in the middle of the storms. If it's a tragedy, those are the moments that make the tragic parts heartrending. Absent those,... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Where can a new author sell the first chapter of a book? If you want to publish a shorter work AND get paid for it, then it almost certainly needs to be a complete stand-alone short story , not the first chapter of a longer work. If you can successfully rewrite your chapter into a stand-alone story, then there are actually plenty of both print and online o... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is no religion a bad thing? Religion is barely mentioned or touched upon in much, arguably most, general fiction. I've even read books like this by authors I know to be highly religious. As a religious person myself, I occasionally find that a bit odd, but much preferable to uninformed, offensive, overly pushy or otherwise poo... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |