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Posts by weakdna says reinstate monica‭

51 posts
83%
+8 −0
Q&A Is a lawful good "antagonist" effective?

In my post-apocalyptic novel, my protagonist is not necessarily "good", and although the antagonist is an honest and kind person, my protagonist perceives her as "evil". My antagonist is the leade...

14 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Kevin‭

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Q&A What should come first—characters or plot?

I'm starting a new fantasy story, and although I had a loose idea of plot, I began sculpting my characters before writing anything. Creating images of them in my head, developing their personaliti...

7 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by ab2‭

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Q&A Basing my protagonist on myself

(I asked another question about this novella here.) In a novella I'm writing, I explore the lives of a young Hispanic woman, Ramona, and her brother, Rafael, in an Orwellian-esque future America w...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Amadeus‭

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Q&A Avoiding racist tropes in fantasy

I'm interested in starting a pleasure project: a fantasy story, along the lines of a witch delivering a prophecy to a king about a dangerous and deceitful foe who will overthrow him, and the king e...

9 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by James McLellan‭

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Q&A Giving a character trauma but not "diagnosing" her?

In my post-apocalyptic novel, my MC Eris is severely traumatized by the death of her family at her own hands. Because of this, she has extreme aversion to social interaction and even physical cont...

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Mark Baker‭

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Q&A Does my protagonist need to be the most important character?

In my fantasy story that I'm slowly getting into, my MC Sirena is an apprentice witch. Her two fellow apprentices, Aster and Keeva, study alongside her under their High Priestess, and they all som...

5 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Including disabled characters without "inspiration porn"

We all have seen the headlines: "Touching Moment Where Autistic Boy is Asked to Prom", "Watch This Child With Downs Win Her Heat During a Swim Competition", etc., that are touching at first glance,...

6 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Avoiding the "not like other girls" trope?

The "not like other girls" trope is pretty common in young adult fiction, arguably misogynistic, and usually applied to a female protagonist or love interest. Attempts to make a female character s...

7 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Where can I go to have my writing reviewed both in terms of style and technical content?

I've never used any online service for reviewing, editing, and/or critique. I always get it from peers and mentors. There are some advantages to having your writing reviewed online, like speed an...

posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
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Q&A How to clarify between imagined sensations and "real" fantasy events?

Think about how dream-like or drugged states are portrayed--hazy, halting, illogical. Nothing in an imagined state is solid; time skips around, scenery/environment changes very quickly, people and...

posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A When to publish satire of current events?

I'm writing a satirical novella of sorts, based on the current American political climate. I'm exploring themes of race, political polarity, and youth. I do want to finish and possibly publish th...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Do I have to pay royalties if I include excerpts from other works?

In a lot of books, at the beginning, the authors include quotes from poetry or songs that are relevant to the theme of their story or to their characters' situations. Obviously I would have to ask...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Music & Focus During Writing [closed]

I hate listening to silence while I write, so I usually end up listening to music, but then I lose my focus. I don't really like classical or lo-fi that much and they don't help me concentrate on ...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Casually inserting sexual orientation

EDIT: Many people who are attempting to answer this question are severely misinterpreting the circumstances and setting of the book, so here is some information about Eris that I thought I had incl...

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Pairing poetry with original artwork: is this done?

Many poets pair their artwork with their prose, probably the most notable is Rupi Kaur in her bestselling poetry collection Milk and Honey. Here, here, and here are some examples of her poetry and...

posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
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Q&A How to write painful torture scenes without being over-the-top

If the torture scene is happening to your MC or your current narrator, instead of focusing on all the blood and gore which can make a lot of readers queasy or uncomfortable, focus on the narrator's...

posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
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Q&A How soon is too soon for a redemption arc?

My character, Day, is the son of a dictator and the director of state-sanctioned and sponsored torture of mutated humans, one of whom is my MC. He killed his own sister to prove to his father that...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is bigotry always necessary in a story?

I asked a question here on how to avoid political issues when I have a witch MC named Kem who is nonbinary, and a few people suggested that instead of including any kind of transphobia towards Kem,...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Are run-on sentences always bad?

(TW, depression related stuff?) In my AP Lang class, we've recently started an activity called Visiting Author, where a student does a cold read of a piece they wrote and the others give criticism...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Not having any white MC's?

(For reference, I am not white. I've asked another question about race here). So I'm pretty far into writing my dystopian novel and I was reading over what I had. Something that helps me when I ...

9 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is the "hero guy saves girl" trope misogynistic?

(Question about my hacker (hacking??) novel.) Just an FYI, I am a woman. Edward is a cyber spy and works with an organization named Vox Populi to curate and release all data online, especially t...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A In-text citations for a source with no page numbers

I'm using online sources for an essay for my DE History course, and we're required to use in-text citations when we quote or paraphrase sources, with the format of author-page number, like (Johnson...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question citations essay mla
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Q&A How to transition from poetry to song-writing?

I've written poetry since I was nine, and I would say I'm pretty good at it. I also really like music, and I can create simple melodies that I hum to myself. But whenever I try to write a song, m...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is killing off one of my queer characters homophobic?

(For reference, I am queer.) In my post-apocalyptic novel and in the short story from the novel's antagonist's perspective, my MC, Eris' love interest, Caspian, has/had two mothers, Saskia and Ezr...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Realistically incorporating trans/nonbinary characters

In most books I read and movies I watch, there are rarely any LGBT characters, and the LGBT representation I do see is almost exclusively gay men, with a smaller amount of lesbians and a handful of...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭