Activity for repomonster
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question | — |
Should I use acronyms in dialogues before telling the readers what it stands for in fiction? There are occasions where you basically just start a chapter with a short descriptive passage and go straight to dialogues, so in those situations I am not sure how to deal with acronyms in dialogues. > As Mike settled down for work, he noticed a strange note on the corner of his desk. Curious, he g... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Describing a chess game in a novel I have a scene in a upcoming novel where two people play a game of chess, and I realized how difficult it was to describe it. The problem is due to the fact that there are many pieces and you can't really tell your readers where every pieces are at a certain point, and you also need to make sure that... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How do we distinguish someone talking to another person via telepathy rather than via vocal means? In my sci-fi novel, some people have the ability to talk via telepathy so how do we distinguish telepathy from other types of communication? I would like to do it, because it's not the same, and I want to stress it out. Anyway, here's an excerpt I wrote just a few moments ago: > "It won't take too ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Using a possessive pronoun before using its antecedent in a poem I was seriously wondering if it's a problem to use the antecedent, which is "Mr Spooner", after the possessive pronoun "his". Also, I am wondering if we can use "his" without ever using an antecedent. > His blue eyes starred at the sky > > Under the bridge to nowhere > > His garment was gray as th... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Using spoonerism for a non-humoristic purpose I found this interesting figure of speech called spoonerism. Here's the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoonerism Now, I have been wondering if spoonerism can be used in a non-humoristic manner, because it would be a useful tool to make verses rhyme. There are words like angel that don't rh... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Picking a good story goal for a morally neutral character A blogger with the name of Glen C. Strathy said the following: > The first and most important element of any plot is the Story Goal or Problem. This is the organizing idea around which the entire plot of your novel will be based. Now, my problem is I want to try to create a character who is morally... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How do we properly show that a person is talking at the same time as something or someone else? I am not sure how to best handle this, do we skip over a part of the dialogue? When a person is cut, he can resume, but it's not the same thing for a TV. Anyway, here's an example: > The TV blurted out a news report: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offering a jo... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Is it a bad idea to use footnotes to describe new technologies in a science-fiction novel? I am wondering if we can use footnotes to describe technologies used in a science-fiction novel instead of describing it by switching from an omniscient POV, that describes everything in a poetic way, to a "historian" POV. I understand this is not something we see usually in a novel, but I am wonderi... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How can we incorporate poems in a novel? I am not sure if this is true, but I heard there were short poems in the beginning of each chapter in Lord of the Rings. Although, this could be done fairly easily, I am wondering if there are any other way to incorporate poems in a novel. I am thinking there are many instances of it in the rich hist... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Should the length of the different parts of a novel be distributed equally? Let's say that a novel consists of three parts: introduction, climax and conclusion. Is it ok if the conclusion is much shorter than the climax. For example, can the introduction be 20% of the novel, the climax be 78% of the novel, and the conclusion be 2% of the novel? Is it a bad thing? You would t... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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When should we redefine a term that's used in a different way in the book we're writing? Let's say I am writing a fantasy book where magic users doesn't use something called "magic", but use something called "Hermetic". Where in the book should we redefine (give a new definition to the word) the word "Hermetic", and should we redefine through a dialogue, through a descriptive passage and... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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In a novel with multiple authors, how do we determine in what order the names should appear? I am guessing there are many options, but I would like to know how the industry does it and which methods are the most popular. I am writing a short novel with 3 other friends and we haven't yet discussed in what order our names should appear, so I was wondering what you think we should do. (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How do we tell someone how to sing a lyric? People usually use a musical sheet to tell how a song should be sung, but when you read a lyric you have no idea how a song should be sung without having the musical sheet in front of you, so is there a notation system that exists that allows you to know how a song should be sung? The pacing is very ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How to cue in our readers that we are using an uncommon symbolism? We all know some common symbolism: For instance, red stands for anger, blood, and violence. The cross stands for martyrdom and sacrifice. Common symbols are easy to notice, but what if you decided to use uncommon symbolism, how do you cue in your readers that you are using a symbolism for a meaningfu... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How do we write a story about genocide committed by a fascist government without falling into the "Nazi Germany" cliché? Too often, when people make a story about genocide committed by a fascist government, the story often devolves into a Nazi Germany cliché, especially when the story is set in a modern or futuristic setting. Are there ways to avoid that? I feel it was done so many times that doing so would reduce the ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How do we write a good feedback as a beta-reader? If someone asks me to be a beta-reviewer for a book and I had to write a feedback for it, how should I organize the text, what do I need to do to not offend the author and give constructive feedback and what writing style should I adopt (formal, informal)? (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Should we avoid writing fiction about historical events without extensive research? I was thinking about writing about the Holocaust, but I am not sure if it's a good idea since I am not sure if people would feel offended if I exaggerate certain events or facts even if it makes the tragedy look more horrible. How can I go about setting my story in the midst of this event without cau... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How do we spread a story across several different media without alienating our readers? I thought about spreading a story across a video game, comic book and novel, but I am not sure if doing this will alienate my readers, because I don't believe people want to spend a ton of money to experience the whole story, so how do you manage to do this without alienating your readers? Is there s... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How should we write a passage where a character sings? I am wondering how to do this in a novel. Do you write the song (lyrics) in its entirety in one single spurt, or do you spurt a verse at a time interspersed with descriptions of the surroundings/actions/emotions? I really want to write a scene in my novel where the female character sings, but I have ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How do we edit a novel that's written by several people? Two other friends and I have been writing a fan fiction and we basically write a chapter each one after another every week. Now that we're nearing the end of the project, we've noticed that the writing style keeps changing and that's it's quite horrible, so what should we do? Should we elect someone ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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What is this device of using quotes to imply that a character represents or symbolizes someone else? In the movie Prometheus, David 8 quotes a passage from "Paradise Lost" said by Lucifer. He tells Walter, > Serve in Heaven or reign in Hell. One of the crew mate even insinuates he's the devil: > David, I met the devil when I was a child and I've never forgotten him. So in the film Prometheus we ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How do we succintly describe a boxing match? I am writing a short story, and the boxing match which comes after 2/3 of the story is likely to exceed the length of the entire story, so how do you cut the action short? Do you describe the match from beginning to end, or do you somehow describe the last 2 minutes, which is a lot more manageable? D... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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What do you call a fact that doesn't match the settings? I am not sure what you call them exactly. I don't think it's a plot hole, because it's not related to the story itself. Let me give you an example: Let's say your novel is set in Italy, but everyone speaks German or English. Is there a specific term to this? (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How do we properly manage the state of transition between unknown and known? I often have a passage that sounds like this. I don't know why, but I always found these passages a bit odd sounding. > A stranger was lying, face into the sands, belly down, on the beach all alone. As it turned out the stranger was Roberto, one of Isabella's many friends. Hearing someone approachin... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Writing a long description of a sequence of actions while still being impersonal When I try to do this, the description feels very dry, and I am not sure if it's possible to make it feel less dry while still being impersonal and super objective (because I am using a omniscient and objective pov). > Isabella walked through the corridor, she then reached the door to her room and o... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Finishing up someone else's novel One of my friends passed away about a year ago and left me some manuscripts. A rough draft and without a proper ending. I was wondering if I should finish it and how. Should I take the draft and just correct some spelling and grammar mistakes and plug the holes with makeshift sentences, or should I r... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Translating non-English lyrics to English I am wondering what are some guidelines when translating the lyrics of a song to another language, because lyrics depend a lot on musicality (rhymes, syllables), it's very hard to maintain the same meaning across languages, so should you try to keep the meaning as much as possible or not and for what... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Should the average length of a chapter depend on the length of the novel? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word\count#In\fiction This Wikipedia page tells you under which classification a fictional work falls under depending on its length, so we have 3 I am most interested in, namely: novellette, novella and novel. We could argue that all of them are novels, so would you agr... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Always sounding idiomatic as a non-native English speaker A lot of people use Google's n-gram to see if something is idiomatic, but for a lot of non-native English speakers even that doesn't really help, so what would you suggest non-native speakers to do so that everything they write sounds 100% idiomatic? (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Giving nonsensical names to things https://dgrayman.fandom.com/wiki/Innocence Well, I always thought that the name Innocence in D.Gray-Man never made much sense. It's not explained anywhere why it's called that, so I always thought it was really a bad example of how to not name things. Is there a convention on how to name things in ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Is using an 'empty' metaphor considered bad style? I just had this sentence off my head: > A crown of fire spread through the country consuming everything on its way. What I mean by empty metaphor is a metaphor that doesn't really have any meaning or even purpose. The same sentence could be replaced with the following: > A circle of fire spread th... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Can we have 2 parallel allegories inside a story? I have heard there can be an allegory inside another allegory (mise en abyme), but what about 2 concurrent allegories (at the same time) and how do you insure that people don't get confused by the fact you employ different symbolisms for 2 different allegories concurrently instead of one after anothe... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Writing dialogues for characters whose first language is not English I am seriously wondering how to go about writing dialogues for characters whose native language isn't English and who aren't very fluent in English. It's very hard, because people have different levels of fluency, and it may also be kind of offensive to write dialogues with several grammatical mistak... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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What are some ways of extending a description of a scenery? I find it very hard sometimes to describe a scenery, especially when the features are very bland, like you describe a city where all of the buildings are tall and look about the same or a plain with green grass with a sprinkle of green leafy trees. What are some ways of extending a descriptive paragr... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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What are some ways to make absurdity of certain ideas in fiction more palatable? I am writing a science-fiction short story where there are a lot of pseudoscientific ideas being dealt constantly. I was wondering how to reduce the absurdity of some of those ideas using literary techniques. (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Using time travel without creating plot holes There are different types of time travel (they have different rules and constraints) throughout literature, so I was wondering if you could list some of them here, and which ones are best for driving forward narration without creating plot holes. I would like a list, but I don't think it's good for a... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Adapting dialogue from a novel into a screenplay I would like to adapt a novel I wrote into a screenplay, and I was wondering if there are things to take into consideration before taking the dive. The novel doesn't have a lot of dialogue and I think it's going to be a big issue since a screenplay usually has a lot of dialogue. Is there a way to go ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Describing sex in a non-erotic fiction How explicit should the scenes be? When writing any type of fiction I just skip to the day after the sex took place and heavily imply that the persons in question had sex. Is this ok? Is it better to describe the scene as it takes place and how far should you go especially if you're writing a fantasy... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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What are the things to consider when writing a sequel to a novel from another author? I am talking about writing a sequel to a novel that's in the public domain. For example, Wizard of Oz. As far as I know, this is completely legal; however, the issue is how to deal with the fandom that exists. There are things fans want to see in a sequel and things that would be blasphemous to them,... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Are fictional inventions trademarked? I am wondering if I can include fictional inventions like the power suits in Iron Man. I believe that "power-suits" are used legally by a lot of media; however, what if the power-suit you're describing is very similar to the one in Iron Man? Let's say there are jets on both hands and feet and, to tak... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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What are some ways to implement multiple endings in a novel? I am thinking of implementing multiple ending to one of my novels and it would be done the following way: There's a scene where the main character is about to do something, but I leave it to the reader's imagination and then wrote 3 different last chapters to let the reader choose the ending that the... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Outsourcing people to make a cover I need some very specific art for my book cover and will probably not be able to find a generic one on a website, so do I hire someone for it and what's the average hourly wage for hiring one? How do I make sure he's the one who gets into legal trouble instead of me if he does something wrong and mak... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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How to tell readers your story is a re-imagination of a popular story? If for example, I were to rewrite a story heavily inspired by Romeo and Juliet, but placed it in a complete different setting. Do you have to say it? Also, do you mention it in the title that's it's a reimagining, or would you put it in the preface. I see it a lot in movies, but sometimes, they don't... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Does symbolism have only one level of depth? When I use symbolism, I think of replacing something concrete with an abstract idea, but can you use these abstract ideas and then tell a story inside a story that's inside a story? As in: > Using symbolism to tell an allegory and use the symbolism inside the allegory to tell yet another allegory. ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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What are the words that were used during Shakespeare's time that are seldom used nowadays? I would like to write a Shakespearean poem that reads and sounds like a poem written during that time period. However, I don't know where I can find an exhaustive list of words that were used during that time with the corresponding words used today. Could someone help me out? I don't want to use some... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Characters speaking different languages Let's suppose you can only write in English, and characters speak 2 different languages. How do you put it into writing. Consider 3 different situations: Person A speaks in language B, Person B responds in language B and then talks to Person C in language A. Person A speaks in language B, Person B ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Adding lines to a video game script to futureproof a project Sometimes, video game development can go awry, so I want to add extra lines in case there's a decision to add generic questlines and new game mechanics. So how do you come up with a lot of lines that are likely to be useful and that can be spliced in several ways to futureproof the project? (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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What are some techniques used to increase the melodicality of a lyric? Is there any trick, rule, principle for increasing the melodicality of a lyric? I want to write a lyric, but I don't really have a melody in mind and wish to just write a lyric that can fit a lot of different melodies? Is there a way to insure that? (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Is there a way to know if a metaphor is bad or not? > The rolling blades sank the ship. Here, in this example, blades is a metaphor for dangerous waves. > Above the noose I saw the sun. Here, noose means water. The water is slowly suffocating the narrator like a noose. > The noose slithered around my body. Here, noose is a metaphor for snake. The... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Showing that a character is in pain in a dialogue Do you add pauses? Do you add interjection? Which ones? Do you misspell certain words? What are some of the tricks writers use? I don't want to say it in the descriptive passage. I want people to feel it while they're reading the character's dialogue. I want them to really feel the pain. (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |