Activity for AGirlHasNoName
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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A: How do I sound like Thanos when I write? Thanos is a narcissist of the highest order. He speaks in such a commanding way because he believes unwaveringly that his every idea is superior to that of any other being. He twists every action, every event, every failure or victory or random coincidence into evidence that he is right. Because tha... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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How to write a nice frame challenge? When answering questions on Stack Exchange, some of us challenge the assumptions of the author. These frame challenges can often be quite popular answers. This popularity, however, can simply be a measure of entertainment value, and not quality. Often the popular ones are even scolding the OP, making... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How to trick the reader into thinking they're following a redshirt instead of the protagonist? Write from the POV of the monster. This way the prey can be described in more dismissive terms. You can then add inner thoughts of the monster. Dismissive thoughts about how this one does what they all do. First they get scared and their blood makes them easier to find. Then they run, and tire themse... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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Picking a theme as a discovery writer When I write I often don't have any great meaningful moral to share. I don't have a message that I want to convey to the reader. I often don't write about the nature of the battle between good and evil. Or what constitutes good. Or coming of age in a society that devalues adolescence. In fact I am of... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Writing about oneself objectively I was recently updating some of my Stack Exchange profiles and I remembered how much I hate writing about myself. It isn't just Stack Exchange profiles either. It's resume cover letters. It's college application personal statements. It's blog and book jacket blurbs. It isn't the easiest thing in the ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Elongated vowel sounds When we speak sometimes we draw out certain sounds for emphasis. We also see this technique in song, for both emphasis as well as expanding the meter to make the words fit a certain rhythm. One way I have seen done, and I don't want to use, is simply a repetition of the vowel in question. Like so: ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: When blogging recipes, how can I support both readers who want the narrative/journey and ones who want the printer-friendly recipe? You can put your content into a `` nested normally within your blog post. Then you can load the content to a print page dynamically. Now you can print from your original page, with its images and story, or from your print page, which is more printer friendly. You can also modify your recipe from one ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Is wanting to ask what to write an indication that you need to change your story? I couldn't disagree more! I almost argued in the comments but restrained myself because that would have been tangential and unproductive. Sure, asking what to write and not being able to write about something could coincide, but they aren't causally related in any way in my view. Let's look at the ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Changing the meaning of well-established symbols Can we change the meaning of a well established symbol and use the newly defined symbol in our writing? If so how do we go about doing so? It am not talking about using a symbol in the context of its antithesis. That still relies on the original meaning. In such cases playing symbols in juxtapositio... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Describing a person. What needs to be mentioned? When describing the physical features of my more important characters, I often don't add much. I of course describe important features, especially if they will be relevant in the story. For example Harry Potter's scar. Part of my problem is my mental model of my characters is their personality and no... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Indicating multiple different modes of speech (fantasy language or telepathy) Many publishers set their own standards for justification and the choice may not be up to you. On top of that many books are simply justified. As time passes on your work may end up on different platforms and mediums under different publications and for that reason I would be loath to use right justi... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: I'm trying to figure out whether to discovery write or outline. How do I choose which is right for me? Outlines are a tool. Nothing more. Should you use it? I don't know, that depends on you. Does the added structure help you focus and develop your story? or is it needless distraction that you frequently go off-script from anyway? Does building an outline help you brainstorm and develop your creativ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Delivering sarcasm Most of us who have spent more than a few days reading things and interacting with people on the internet know how difficult it is to convey sarcasm. There is no tone there is only the words on our screens. Surely there is a way to express oneself in text in such a way that sarcasm is understood. He... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Does success imply validation and agreement? When I write I always want to deliver a message. Not matter what I'm writing I ultimately have something important (to me,) to say. For that reason I try to be very careful about how I deliver certain themes. But sometimes I also want to portray things in my story that I find distasteful. For example... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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When must a character grow beyond their archetype? A good well-written three dimensional character requires a lot of work. You need to really show them through their ups and their downs. You have to flesh out their strengths and weaknesses. You have to get to know them. I often find myself developing backstory that I never share with the reader but t... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Mortal danger in mid-grade literature I had a similar experience with The Hobbit. But I don't think that's because of the target age of the audience. I think it is because of the style of story that it was. Plucky adventurer full of pluck and mirth bounds off on their adventure, unaware of the true trials and tribulations about to befall... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Rules about breaking the rules. How do I do it well? There are rules to writing and we often talk about them here. But sometimes a good writer will break the rules. And to be honest some of my favorite pieces of writing are from when this is done well. So how do we do it well? Is there some way to measure whether our own application of rule-breaking i... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: What challenges are there in writing a fantasy cookbook? First, consider the characteristics of the fantasy element in a world-building sense. Then you have a baseline understanding of what your dragon steak is like. You could do a one to one comparison. Dragon steak is the same as Bison steak. Thick, rich, hearty, earthy and grassy. Or you could decide it... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
| Question | — |
Avoiding burnout As a writer, I sometimes have trouble seeing a project to the end. Sometimes it is because I reach an impasse. Sometimes it is because I choose to scrap it for whatever personal reason. And sometimes I get burned out. Part of the creative process, for me, is having a compulsory passion to create som... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Documenting story in a videogame How does one write a story for a story-based videogame. Is it done in the form of a screenplay? Is it written as any normal prose? Is it written as documentation that goes with the other early design documents? An outline as guidance until it can be implemented into the actual game itself? Is there a... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Too soon for a plot twist? In my story, I will have a hero begin a journey. It will be the underdog story as well as good-vs-evil story. Think Frodo vs Sauron for massive oversimplification. Except in my story the hero becomes corrupt. The hero wins. The hero becomes the villain of the next story. And this all happens fairly e... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Scansion tool for checking my meter Are there any software tools available that will help me dissect my meter? I have always been extremely poor at scansion and while my writing doesn't suffer terribly for it, it makes writing strict meter very difficult for me. In fact I don't think I've ever managed to write a sonnet in strict iambic... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Using rhythm to evoke emotion When writing there is one area I am not great at leveraging. That's rhythm or meter. I don't hear meter naturally like some people do so I have to really break down the meter in order to work on it. And then what? I'm not even sure what I'm going to convey if I do manage to restructure the writing in... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Writing effectively under very brief constraints I recently noticed a trend to a few of my questions. I am attracted to writing in places with extreme brevity. This makes sense to me on a personal level. I've always been attracted to one-liners and short but powerful works. I like reading and writing works that deliver a lot of value quickly and I ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Criticizing long fiction. How is it different from short? I recently asked about criticism regarding short pieces of fiction. What about longer works like novels? Surely no one can sit down and agonize over individual word choices in a larger work the way they can over something as short as three to four pages. So how do you approach longer works? What else... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Approaches to criticizing short fiction What is a reasonable scholarly approach to breaking down short pieces of prose? Is it word choice? Is it structure? Is it themes, and how well they are used? Use of symbolism and its efficacy? Meter, rhythm, style, verbosity? Are these all on topic? Do you have a rigorous guide you use to approach sh... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Knowing when to use pictures over words When writing about food, be it a cookbook or a food blog, as long as the media supports it, the use of pictures is going to make a difference in the quality of the work. So when I am writing about food where do my descriptions stop and the use of pictures begin. I don't believe it is best to leave ou... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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What is in scope for criticizing technical writing I'm not well versed in technical writing. I'm probably not going to be in a position to give anyone feedback for some time, but I would like to know how to approach it when I get there. I would also like to know how to consider the feedback I receive as I begin to develop technical writing. As a revi... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How to write a Stack Exchange Question? There are a couple questions out there on How to ask a smart question and the FAQ has its own tips, but lets assume you know how to ask what you want. From a purely writing perspective, most of the advice out there is rather beginner level. It's about getting people to use paragraphs and direct state... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Injecting creativity into a cookbook I'm a chef. I'm also a writer. It's inevitable that I would want to write a cookbook. In fact I've probably started a dozen that I just never got around to finishing. Partly because I'm not sure how to. Before I even get to my question I think it important to distinguish between two types of cookboo... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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What to look for when criticizing poetry? A recent question got me thinking about how to criticize poetry well and I realized I am not very good at it. I can do themes, and that's about it. And I'm not even sure that should be covered unless explicitly asked for as was part of the issue in the linked question. So what do you look for? Do you... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How to write a Stack Exchange comment? We all do it. We do it quite often. Some of us too often, to the chagrin of the mods who have to clean up after us. Many people out there have autocomments but I try not to. I find them impersonal and cookie-cutter and I like to interact with other users in my own voice. For the purposes of this que... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Methods for writing a code review I currently spend a good deal of time over at Code Review and I would love to improve the quality of the reviews I write. Can you give me any insight into the structure or approach you use when writing a Code Review (be it on Stack Exchange or otherwise.) While I do understand that professional code ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Critique vs nitpicking I think that the biggest problem here is that this was not critique. It was unconstructive criticism. That reader didn't enjoy the mood you set in your piece. That is fine. There are styles of writing I don't enjoy. There are times I don't want to read certain moods. But I don't criticize them for ex... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Strategies for writing software design documents I'm a self-taught programmer which means I started writing software by sitting down at an IDE and hammering out some code. When my decisions ultimately coded me into a corner I would refactor and rewrite. This was a great learning experience for me but I want better for myself now. I am starting to s... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Showing friendship between people of different ranks - maintain formality, or drop it? If you can, lose the formality. By definition, the familiar terms are, well, more familiar. Whereas formality is a constant reminder of rank. I for one felt the constant reference to Frodo as master by Samwise was jarring and anachronistic (to me at least.) It won't be jarring with royalty, like it... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Third person story, containing a first person backstory Are you changing narrators? Think of your Third-Person story as being told by a single narrator. Now when you get to the back-story, does the character who is being talked about take over the narration or is it still the narrator? In most cases it would still be the narrator. For instance, If I am ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Where do I start with C++ documentation? I am new to programming and am entirely self-taught. I have reached a point in my writing where a solid grasp of documentation standards would be greatly beneficial. My question is not how to add documentation, but when. And what to add. Doxygen seems to be the preferred method although I'm sure ther... (more) |
— | almost 6 years ago |