Activity for Chris Sunami
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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A: How can I establish the nature of a person/group without action? If you are writing a screenplay, you'll have all the visual and auditory resources of film at your disposal: Ominous music, a dark palette, etcetera, which is what Star Wars uses. However, please be aware that many of the old tropes used for "evil" are ethnocentric at best, and racist or otherwise di... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How do I mislead readers about a character in a story? Your basic strategy is the same as that of any magician: misdirection. Drop the clues while the characters, and hopefully the reader, is paying attention to something more interesting. A typical way of doing this is providing red herrings, or a plausible but wrong suspect to be hunted down even as th... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How can I capture the voice of an insane person? I've been told that, when acting the part of a drunk, a good approach is to make it appear as though you are trying to present yourself as sober and failing. Similarly, the insane person believes himself (or herself) to be sane, and is often desperate to prove that fact to others. Or, if not aware o... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How can I write God with a more feminine aspect and introduce it into my culture's mythology? I find myself giving versions of the same advice over and over, but it's applicable to so many situations. I call it the Sturgeon/Delany rule. Work out every last detail and implication of your new religion, for yourself. But then, only include in the actual story whatever details are immediately re... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Plot and characters conflict too much Don't let your friend scare you away from doing what you know is right for your book. Sure, it makes it more challenging to keep the audience's sympathies when the main characters do unlikable things, but that's where your skill comes in as a writer. Nabakov's narrator in Lolita is a monstrous child... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Using fake swear words without them seeming out of place to the reader I think this is a good technique, I've recommended it myself elsewhere here, but it needs to align with how people really create and use words. Curse words and oaths are generally used for shock value. Euphemisms are used to clean up or soften curses. And slang is used to establish an in-group (that ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Pitfalls of morally grey protagonists? In my opinion, when we read --or watch--, we are looking to learn something of value to our lives. We don't want a didactic lesson, but a visceral one, an emotional one. So we need a character and/or a situation we can identify with, that character needs to make choices, and those choices, for us, ne... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Building character trust Since the reader doesn't need to meet the groups, but they do need to meet each other, why not just do it "off camera." You could do a chapter break right after the meeting, and start in again with something like "After three weeks together, there was still some lingering tension between the two gro... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to be mindful of the reader when handling disturbing/distressing subjects? Something doesn't always need to be graphically described to be powerful, and sometimes less can be more. There's a scene, in the original novel version of the Godfather, relevant to today's headlines, where the mafia's lawyer goes to see a top Hollywood producer. While he is at the producer's office... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Writing garbage to see if the characters do something interesting? Something I've learned as a programmer that translates directly to writing is that quite a lot of what you write will not make it to the final product, and you have to be OK with that. A lot of writing is for your own personal learning or exploration. If that weren't true, we'd all just publish our f... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Are more or less details better for details that do not play a role in the story but describe where part of the story takes place? It doesn't really matter how much more experience he has than you: if he's asking you to testread, he presumably wants your opinion as a reader. And this case, he didn't provide enough detail for you, the reader, to visualize the setting. You can't stand in for all readers, but let him know, that fo... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What information about a fictional world is unnecessary? You have made a common mistake about world-building: believing that it all has to go on the page. World-building is for you, the author, to help you craft a story in a setting that feels real and unique, even though fictional. The actual details that make it to the page are only what the characters a... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Can a book be written without an antagonist? The answer to any "can I write" question is always "yes." But antagonists do a lot of heavy lifting in a book, they provide a lot of intrinsic interest, and useful narrative conflict. Readers tend to like works with compelling antagonists, and find them interesting to read. So, if you do want to wri... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Is protagonist identification/empathy influenced by the reader's gender? The opposite of this rule, that both men and women identify with a male protagonist, but only women can identify with a female protagonist, has long been used as a standard pretext for focusing exclusively on male protagonists in movies and books. The logic is that you halve your audience with a woma... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: I am losing significant word count in the second draft of my novel. How might I use that space to deepen the characters and story? First, 90K is a very respectable word length for a novel, so make sure you're not just trying to meet an artificial goal when your book is already complete. Personally, I much prefer books lean, and with no extra fat on them. Second, it's hard to give generic advice without knowing where exactly you... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to handle a character's failure? Readers enjoy moral dilemmas they can identify with, because it helps them form their own moral intuitions. But a dilemma must seem balanced in order to be compelling. In this case, perhaps you've spent too little time establishing Mike's relationship with his mother, and too much establishing Mike's... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Is putting Heaven in my book title a bad idea if the book isn't religious? Giving your book a misleading title gives it an unnecessary extra hurdle to overcome in finding an audience. This title runs the risk both of attracting religious readers who will be disappointed by the actual content, and of turning off non-religious readers unnecessarily. It isn't necessarily a pro... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: When/why are action lines broken up into different entries? Screenplays have very strict formatting conventions. These serve two purposes: 1) They make the screenplay easy to read and understand for people familiar with the conventions. 2) They make a reasonably consistent connection between screentime and script length. In this case the convention is a... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What should I do if halfway through a story, I am not anymore convinced with the plot and the storyline ? Although this may be a real issue, in which case Mark's advice is excellent, it could also be psychological. I have learned that I always think my writing is amazing while I'm working on a project (particularly in the earlier stages) and that I always think it's terrible right after I complete it. Th... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: I want to start writing again: original project or new one? As someone who loves starting projects, and struggles with finishing them, I recommend you stick with your novel-in-progress unless there is a really good reason to abandon it. The reason is that you can't publish something you don't finish, but you can start any number of books without ever finishin... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Offensive aesthetics and naming conventions? Is there a goal to all this, other than trolling your own audience? It seems that your alien character (and by extension, you) is trying to create a sort of "theater of the absurd" including blatant cognitive dissonances. But satire needs a point. You can't just dress the good guys up like Nazis and ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Can I use the same message over a series of novels? If your work is nothing but message, it isn't a novel, it's a polemic or an allegory. And reading the same polemic or allegory over and over would be excruciatingly boring, because there would be nothing new in each iteration. But if you've really done the work to make your message come alive with l... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: I wrote a novel, now what? - If you are going to have it professionally edited, do that first before you do any other steps. These days, manuscripts must be 100% print ready before submission. - A query is an introductory letter you send before submitting a manuscript so you don't waste your or your prospective publisher or ag... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Story content and audience Write your book now, and don't worry about selling it until after it's finished. By the time you finish it, you will be older anyway. And even if you never publish it, it will still be good practice. There's always a good reason not to write any given book at any given time, so sometimes you just hav... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How much work do you have to do after getting your novel published? You don't "have" to do any work, unless it's written into your contract. But if you want your book to be a success, you'll want to work on promoting it. These days, even the best and biggest publishers expect an author to put a lot of their own time and effort into book promotion --gone are the days ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: What is the best way to generate ideas? I find that some of the best, most personal ideas come from dreams. I've kept a dream journal on and off since I was a teenager, and a lot of the strongest ideas that have stuck with me have come from its pages. Even if you don't currently remember your dreams, it's a learnable skill. However, it se... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How can a book get a Kirkus Star, yet have no sales? There is no one single magic bullet that performs all the work of promoting your book for you. This is why it is so hard to self-publish successfully unless you are also a great salesperson. Most "name" publishers put some time and resources in to promotion, but these days, even with the best publish... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: What makes a poem a poem? There is a continuum between poetry and prose. Some prose is very poetic, and some poetry is deliberately prosaic. At one time, the distinction was easier to draw, because poetry was chiefly practiced in strict forms, with set rhythm and rhyme schemes, and thus easily identifiable. Absent the formal... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Will bookstores order a self-published book if customers request it? This depends greatly on the bookstore. Recently there has been a rebirth of small independent booksellers, which were once an almost extinct breed. A bookstore like that might be more inclined to accommodate a local author. The discount sounds right, but the non-returnable clause might make some peo... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: What happens with changing POV Irregularly? Any rule can be broken, the trick is to know why the rule exists. In this case, it is difficult (and potentially frustrating) for the reader to (a) follow/understand and (b) emphasize with too many different characters. It's also difficult for the writer to successfully distinguish them on the page. ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Writing for a broad spectrum of readers. How do you engage the elite whilst appealing to the base? If you try to please everyone, you please no-one. Finnegan's Wake (Joyce) has gained and retained a reputation as a great classic of the English language, despite working hard at every turn to confound and confuse the reader (and arguably not even being written in real "English"). If your writing is... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Variations of the same story? This can, and has been done (here is an example of something similar), but it takes your book out of the realm of conventional fiction, and reclassifies it as what is called "experimental literature," which can be influential, but which typically draws only a small niche audience. It essentially beco... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Can a person get bogged down by science fiction research? Research can always reach a point where it becomes excessive, no matter what field you're in (even if your field is research, you do want to occasionally turn your attention to publication!). But the real question here is whether the amount of research you are doing is excessive. The answer depends ... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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A: Characterization: is there any guidance for writing "the romantic interest"? Usually if the love interest is uninteresting, it's because the author isn't very interested in him or her as a character. There's any number of (often quite successful) books and movies where the love interest is basically a symbol, or a object, or plays a functional role in the story but doesn't ha... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How can I get in the Habit of Writing with Twists? For me, the key to a plot twist is whether it makes "emotional sense." If people feel like your character has earned their success, then plot twists will seem extraneous. If they feel like your character needs to do more work to gain their ending, then the plot twist works. Consider the Wizard of Oz... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Dynamic characterization: How do you show development/change in an inherently flawed character, like a psychopath? If the character is drawn starkly enough, even very small changes can be very noticeable. The best example I know of is in Nabokov's Lolita. The narrator is an unrepentant molester, who is basically wholly focused on his own wants and needs. Late in the novel, he gains what amounts to a single moment... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: I'm not enjoying my attempt at a science-fiction novella; should I continue? Many successful genre-bending stories are essentially one type of story in the setting of another. For instance, the original Star Wars is a fairy tale in space, and the early Harry Potter books are detective stories with a fantasy setting. So if you enjoy writing thrillers, but want to try sci-fi, ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How to sell books without giving up rights to my manuscript Traditionally, your rights revert to you after a specified period of time when the book is out of print. However, be cautious! In recent times, publishers have been able to circumvent this by placing books into perpetual "print-on-demand" limbo. If you don't want that to happen to your book, make sur... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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Editing an Anthology or Compilation I'm interested in putting together an anthology --a work containing some original material, but also lengthy excerpts and/or full text of previously published material by other authors, from a variety of sources. Assuming I'm pursuing publication by a traditional publisher (print, not self-published... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How can one not let their voice show through in all the characters? There are famous, well-respected writers whose characters all sound alike, so if the rest of the writing is strong enough, it might not even be a problem. But to fix it, the only real solution is this: You can only do well at writing what you love, so if you want to improve your dialog, you have to ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: A villain that doesn't even know the hero's existence? Remember that just because the villain doesn't know the hero --very likely in this scenario --it doesn't mean that the hero doesn't have a personal connection to the villain. Not only is this often found in fiction, it's not necessarily rare in real life: People tend to get fired up about a larger in... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How can I write a tragedy for children? There are actually quite a lot of popular and critically acclaimed children's books with tragic elements. Many kids dislike these, of course: I remember despising Bridge to Terebithia as a child, and Gordon Korman even wrote a book called No More Dead Dogs mocking the prevalence of the dead pet subge... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Can a first person protagonist be the writer's alter ego? Autobiographical fantasy is not unheard of --Borges practiced it in many of his short stories, and the Baron Munchausen novel was based on a real life autobiographical fabulist. The frame story for The Princess Bride is fictional autobiography. In practice, for the reader, there's no real difference... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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A: How do I make the downfall of a character moving without being cliche? Usually people find things moving when they identify with them. So your best bet is to start with an identifiable character, and then show that person making choices that, while they might be wrong, the audience can imagine themselves making. Consider the show "Breaking Bad." The main character is o... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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A: Why should I try to create realistic fantasy characters? Realism is just another style, fiction is never reality. With that said, unrealistic characters can make it harder to suspend disbelief, identify with the characters or care about them, regardless of genre. If you are discarding realism, you need to have a good reason. Most adults don't find charact... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Why is having too many symbols a bad idea? The more symbols you have, the more your story becomes an allegory --a conceptual or abstract argument conveyed through metaphor and narrative --and the less it functions in its own right as a piece of fiction. Having one or two symbols in an otherwise realistic story can add psychological depth and ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Term for stereotype stories The answer depends on the work's intent. If the characters are thinly characterized and stereotyped because the work's main attraction is a sensationalist plot crammed with dramatic events, then we call this a melodrama. Wikipedia reports that a Professor Ben Singer has identified "moral polarization... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: In a formal writing, does having a paragraph rewritten by another person make the style change noticablely? It's impossible to know for sure without seeing the paragraphs, but yes, formal writing is generally done in a "neutral voice," which tends to minimize the impact of individual stylistic differences. Of course, a gifted writer can still manage to convey a distinctive authorial voice, even in a forma... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How can I convey something without going into details? You could always elide the worst bits because the characters themselves find them too horrible to dwell on. > "Honey... did they?" > She nodded slowly, a tear trickling down her cheek. The advantage here is that it activates the reader's imagination, to produce the worst horrors each individual r... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: What is the fine line between "confidence" and "presumption"? I think the problem is less style itself than the fact that your readers are taking your writing style as indicative of a problematic attitude. Let's take the sentences you highlighted and the suggested improvements as a guide: > Two linguists have read this work and left positive feedback. Based o... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |