Activity for Andrey
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| Edit | Post #38931 | Initial revision | — | about 5 years ago |
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| Edit | Post #3667 | Initial revision | — | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to write strategy and schemes beyond my real-life capabilities? Your main advantage as a writer is that you KNOW what is going to happen. Dumb example first to make a point I have an IQ of 100. I am writing someone who has IQ of 1000. He says "I am so smart I can predict a coin flip!" The coin is flipped. "Heads!" my character calls. The coin falls heads. The... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to make a villain fall in love? There is nothing fundamentally good about love. It is a completely selfish emotion, a form of desire. If the character you are writing is evil, then he would act on this desire in evil ways. He may for instance just kidnap his target and use psychological tricks until they love them back. Or maybe se... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: When is using a simile better than giving a literal description? Descriptions in writing are two way streets. They describe the describer just as much as the subject. In first person, or third person limited descriptions always describe the point of view character. In third person omniscient, descriptions are a reflection of the setting. as a whole instead of jus... (more) |
— | almost 6 years ago |
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A: Re-reading and making changes to current work that makes everything worse? I always start my writing sessions with rereading. I use it as a tool to get into the right mindset and remind myself of the tone of the work. I find that if I don't i will end up copying tone and style from the last thing I read before this. BUT... i don't go to far back. I just l just read the las... (more) |
— | almost 6 years ago |
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A: Can my characters interact with my narrator? (and vice versa) Multiple personality disorder Maybe it's not a real condition, but in anything but the most serious work it may suit you well. And I am assuming this is not 100% serious if we are talking to the narrator. So just have a background personality tell the story. It can only see from the protagonists ey... (more) |
— | almost 6 years ago |
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A: Adding breaks in a novel—spaces, asterisks, or a chapter break? If you are looking for some sort of lowest common denominator, Kindle may be a good platform to target. Kindle has 2 concepts. Chapters, and \\\ breaks. You could in theory use blank lines on Kindle but because you have no guarantee that these lines won't be on the bottom of a page for some device a... (more) |
— | almost 6 years ago |
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A: How to write a good MacGuffin? Having a MacGuffin is not a good thing. A MacGuffin is a trap, a shorthand an author uses to make his characters do things. The best MacGuffin is one that does not exist. Characters need motivation, and an easy one becomes get a magic sword because only it can kill the dragon, or get a nuke away fro... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Proven psychological or scientific means of scaring people? Unfortunately while I don't have real science to back me up I am going to try using personal experience and understanding of psychology. There are many types of fear, used in many mediums. The cheapest one is the jump scare. This is trying to trigger someone's fight or flight response. To do this it ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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How long can a fantasy novel stay in metaphorical Kansas? I am writing a novel with the basic Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland or the Matrix if you want structure. The novel begins in perfect modern day, and at some point in a very sharp way takes a turn for fantasy. Right now Kansas currently takes up about 4000 words and aside from an end paragraph is ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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How do you tell the reader that the setting is normal modern day? I am getting some feedback on my writing but one of the questions that come back is that the readers are not sure about the setting. White the story was marked as fantasy, nothing fantastic had happen yet. The chapter describes a messy apartment, drug dealers, the mob, and mentioned Brooklyn. I mea... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to make side-characters look competent next to the chosen one? Let Dave save Bob's life. Bob is strong against super evil but he is just a guy. He lacks Dave;s experience, and inner strength. He also is not as strong at solving mundane problems. Have human enemies, followers of the super evil. Let those be a problem for Bob who's magic does nothing on them. T... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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How can I convey an absolute truth from the author to the reader without a mentor character? There are sometimes moments in works of fiction where the author needs to convey something to the reader without ambiguity. Let's say the situations around the characters get so weird that the author starts to worry that the reader will think it is all a dream. The author needs to convey an absolute ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to describe a character with changing features? I think you should give him a small win too show off his best. Maybe the detective is too depressed to do well at solving crimes, but he can still manage something small day to day. Let him solve who is stole his newspaper. Let him be so confident that when confronting his neighbor, the neighbor tri... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Is it okay to include world-building facts by "telling" instead of "showing"? Well first I would question giving readers information that no character knows. This creates dramatic irony, and while it has its uses is very frustrating to the reader who instead of feeling like he figured something out just sits there and waits for characters to discover what they already know. Th... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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Is show not tell less useful advice in first person Following the first answer for this question What does Show don't Tell actually mean I followed to the Chuck Palahniuk exercise and tried applying it to my current work. > From this point forward – at least for the next half year – you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Under... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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How to talk about certain anatomy without sounding vulgar or cowardly? Let's talk about butts, because butts are safe, but really this question is for other parts of the anatomy as well. There are 100s of words for butt. They seem to fall into one of a few categories. There are the cowardly words like "gluteus maximus", and there are vulgar words like ass. You can also... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How can I establish the nature of a person/group without action? The best way to show a character is to get in their head. If your writing style permits it you can let us know what they are thinking. What qualities do they consider virtues? what qualities are flaws? Do they look at a poor person and feel pity or disgust? Do they see a battle on the news and think... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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A: How to make "Joffrey like" characters for a "kick that son of a bitch " moment The trick is to never humanise the character, and this may be done a little differently than expected. THe trick is to never let the reader get to close to them. As human beings we have a huge amount of empathy, and we are ready to give it to any monster. Let's imagine a novel about Hitler. In an a... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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Do modern readers believe the first person narrator can't die? Back in highschool in the 90s we had an assignment to write an extra chapter for a book. After some discussion the teacher told us that under no circumstances can we kill the protagonist as the book was being told in first person and therefore the protagonist must survive to now be telling us the sto... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |
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Does misspelling words for the sake of bad English improve the immersion or distract the reader? I am trying to write a character that speaks English poorly. I do not want to grossly misspell words for sounds or use bad grammar. I find those techniques to sound juvenile and the bad grammar is never the correct bad grammar a language would use. From my bilingual experience, most people that spea... (more) |
— | about 7 years ago |