Activity for hszmv
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: How can I shorten a piece of writing effectively? Try looking for places where you're overly wordy. Your third sentence for example is clunky and seems to be trying to fit in words for the sake of getting close to the maximum. I'd re-arrange it and cut some of the excess. You shouldn't be using infinitive verbs (verbs that are written "to [verb]" wh... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How to start a story after the inciting incident? I highly recomend reading the novel "Holes" (the 2003 film is probably the only film to break the "book was better" rule, being 99% faithful, but I still recommend a read through). Long story short, the novel basically has three stories running through out, and the first starts in media res and the "... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: What style should I write a torture scene in? I would advise a dream like haze of blending reality. Dreams can be influenced by real world stimuli (I once had a dream that I was with Scooby-Doo and the gang and we were trying to solve a mystery that included an odd sound no one could find a source for. When I woke up, it turned out that it was m... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How to implement a fictional language in my novel? So, there are several ways to do this: First, translate into English everything except proper nouns (specific names of people, places, or things) or culturally unique concepts, and insulting words or expressive comments (Mein Gott! for a German who is fluent in English) and anything with counting or ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Can a normal person investigate a murder? Yes. Many cold cases (cases that remain unsolved and all leads provided by evidence have dried up) are kept alive by interested members of the public who want to find some closure to the victims, even if evidence does not exist to conclusively prove in trial or the criminal is deceased. Netflix has a... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: In which sections of a research report is it appropriate to include citations? It largely depends on the style you're writing your paper in, but typically you would include a separate page called works Cited that will give the full citation of all works used and is arranged alphabetically by first word in a citation (usually the author of the work, though other mediums may have... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How can I have a character introduce themselves as humble without making them seem arrogant? I would say that the humble person should down play a thing they should be proud of, only to be admonished after the down play. The animated film "Superman: Doomsday (2008)" has a great example... only there is one hitch. Lois Lane is visiting Superman in the Fortress of Solitude on a date and Super... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Intentionally misspelling words in dialogue I would also suggest the spelling change so that the first line is "Lookin' and lookin'..." as that is closer to how the word would be pronounced in a sing-song quality. If the speaker is the villain, you might want to show a quick progression through the first part, and a slower progression for the ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How to write intercut scenes in a novel? I do this all the time, and I tend to use short chapters that will contain one scene and break to the next chapter when done OR I will use a line break (either a center justified triple asterisk (\\\) or a long line (in word typing "---" and hitting enter will draw a line between text, though it does... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Writing a novel that is set (semi-)inside an established universe Another example that I'm fond of is acknowledging a work of fiction as a work of fiction within your own universe. This is frequent in the humor of "The Orville" where characters not owned by the series owners will frequently get discussed, and one of the regulars, a literal minded alien from a cultu... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Dangers of being sympathetic to the killer We tend to think of fictional characters in terms of "Hero" and "Villain" when this should not be a case. The character of focus in your story is the "Protagonist" and the element directly in his or her path from achieving his or her goal is the "Antagonist". These terms do not mean good and evil bin... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: What are the top most important key elements for a computer game story? As a life long player of the best known 4X game, Civilization, the "story" of the series is the rise to power of your "empire" and much of the play is about becoming the strongest world power on the map. Recently (Civ III and beyond) the games added features to make each nation unique in terms of pla... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Is anything like the propulsion systems (warp/impulse drives) copyrighted from being use in other sci-fi novels? As mentioned, the nature of what a Warp Drive does is a scientific possibility and considered a possible near future tech with NASA working on a similar in principle Warp Drive (in Star Trek, the Warp Drive creates a spacial distortion that makes space contract as the ship's bow moves towards it and ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Non-linear style used by *Arrow* "In Media Res" (literally "In the Middle of Things) would be a term used for any story that starts at some point in the plot that is not "ab ovo" (Trans: The beginning, Lit: From the Egg) and requires the readers to press forward in the narrative to find out what happened just prior to the beginning,... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How to deal appropriately with an inappropriate sexual relationship So a couple things, but the big problem is in the United States, the age of consent is usually 16, not 18 (It's 18 in California, which where most of the world's porn is filmed. It's also the home of a lot of writers of Crime Dramas). The most common age of consent in the U.S. is actually 16, but eac... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Should you only use colons and full stops in dialogues? So from your example, it sounds like the scene is a lawyer is advising a client, so with that in mind I would write the sentence: > "You need to record every action you make from now on, otherwise the federal agents will arrest you for questioning," she recommended. Keep in mind, Dialog is less beh... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How can I hint that my character isn't real? I would subtly manipulate the dialog so that your main can have scenes where the imaginary character and a real character are both talking and it seems like they are having the same conversation, but not really. For example, the imaginary character asks a question, with the next snip of the real char... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Real-world issues with using an alias Both J.K. Rowling and K.A. Applegate are examples of people who used simple pseudonyms to write for a target audience (middle school boys) who wouldn't initially pick up their books if they realized the author was a woman, which their given names strongly hinted at. Both women wrote the two most succ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How to differentiate between two people with the same name in a story? John specifically has a wide array of cross-cultural appeal, originating from Hebrew and having a variant in just about every European and Near Easter language family. It's super easy to solve your problem: They aren't spelled the same way John in English has a varient spelling of Jon, most famousl... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: The unknown and unexplained in science fiction Going of the "Lay person" comment, there are a lot of topics today where people may understand the fundamental basics of the system, but not the actual working mechanics. I recall a scene from the TV series "Transformers: Prime" where Jack (a human) is working on his science fair project about engine... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How can I indicate that a particular relationship between two male characters is purely brotherly (Philia) rather than romantic (Eros)? It's interesting that you identified Kirk and Spock as phillia as a lot of fan fiction terms are traced to Star Trek fandom having a Kirk Spok eros relationship as a core theme of Fan fiction. In fact in fan fiction the term "slash" fiction denotes that the work will deal with two characters in a rom... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Use of punctuation in song lyrics? As a general rule, lyrics will be written with little punctuation. When at a line break, it's not uncommon to use a slash to note the line is breaking and then begin the next line with a capital letter, regardless of whether or not it is a new sentence. If I wrote the four lyrical lines to the iconic... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Pronouns when writing from the point of view of a robot @CortAmmon hit the nail on the head and your answer partly confirms this. This is a story that is being told from a robot's perspective. To whom is the Robot telling the story too? English speaking humans, and thus the robot would construct the story into a language that humans would understand and b... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Do I have to mention my main character's age? Almost every Animorphs book opens with the first person narrator explicitly saying that their only Personal Identifying Information they would give the reader was their first name and until the final book, they were identified vaguely as teenagers, but not yet of driving age (between 13-16) and were ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Magic is the twist The best way to pull this off is that both the magical answer and mundane answer are plausible because the answer of "is it magic or scientifically explainable\ doesn't matter as the result would be the same. Consider the Climax of the Harry Potter series, where Harry is outwardly believed to be dea... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: I don't want to be introduced as a "Minority Novelist" Of the three best selling book series for boys of an elemenatry/middle school age, all three were written by authors who syled their name thus: first name initial [full surname] (J.K. Rowling, K.A. Applegate, and R.L. Stein, in order of most success to least). Of those three, only Stein was a man. Bo... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Character, plot, and setting conflicts A good Setting vs. Plot conflict I always like to use to demonstrate this is the Disney Film "Mulan". The Setting is Ancient China and the Plot is "Mulan must defeat the leader of the Huns, Shan Yu." Seems simple, hell, I'm old enough to remember the original trailer for the film, which basically giv... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Too eloquent characters I have characters like this, and a lot of teen characters at that. There are teens who will talk like this (Nerds who read. Socially Awkward kids. Motivational speeches trying to sound important, debate team nerds, drama nerds, and occasionally class clowns who are mocking the older diction). One of... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Is it a bad idea to have multiple bad endings and only one good ending? The game "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance" had a system where each side quest's outcome (and some choices that were tied to the main plot and couldn't be avoided) were recorded. At the end of a full play through, the marvel character Uatu tells you how each of these choices (including never acting on the c... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: 'The Chosen One' paradox This is the beauty of the Oracle scene in the Matrix and the Beauty of Breaking the Vase (Upon entering the Oracle's kitchen, the Oracle tells Neo not to worry about the vase. Neo looks around for the Vase, and ends up knocking it to the ground, shattering it. As Neo appologizes, she sums up your noo... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How does one add puns in another language? Puns, by there nature, have a weird translation issue. Sometimes they just don't work because, they are play on words, but the pun doesn't work in the new language because those words don't sound close. Other times, they work way more universally than anticipated because the format doesn't rely on si... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How can I make names more distinctive without making them longer? Another problem with this system is how the brain reading English doesn't require spelling to be correct, especially if the word has 4 or more letters. Basically, it's entirely possible to read the intended misspelling word so long as the first and last letters are in the correct place and the letter... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Capitalization after interrupted dialogue As a general rule, I tend to use dashes where the character is dramatically interrupted where as ellipses are used when it's a subtler interruption. I.E. > Tony:"But at least Thanos doesn't know where the final-" > > Steve: "OH CRAP!" vs. > Tony:"But at least Thanos doesn't know where the final.... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to write about a homosexual relationship when I haven't experienced one? Honestly, it should be easy for a straight guy. First, pick one of the couple who is the more main character... from which side do we experience the relationship (if the two are both secondary characters, which character is introduce first? Use her.) Now, write her experience in the relationship as i... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Why do professional authors make "consistency" mistakes? And how to avoid them? It could be that the author is highlighting the similarities between the two. It could be creative provincialism (A U.S. writer not knowing that a British person would not say that, or vice versa). It could be that strange minds think alike (An example from Spongebob Squarepants where both Patrick an... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How do I write a MODERN combat/violence scene without being dry? As someone with ADHD, I've always found that the best way to right action, especially in battles and combat, is fast. Use short sentances... this isn't the time you want to be descriptive because all hell is breaking loose. Say what you need to say and move on. With your third paragraph, I'd focus o... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Mortal danger in mid-grade literature I recall reading Animorphs as a kid, which featured kids describing in detail such gruesome things as losing limbs, bashing bad guys over the head with said severed limbs, and being completely bisected (all in one book no less... the bisection was actually the cause of the major conflict of the book)... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to write a chaotic neutral protagonist and prevent my readers from thinking they are evil? So it's important to note that morality (good vs. evil question) is not the same as legality (Lawful vs. Chaos). A prime example would be a Nazi solider who guards a concentration camp (Lawful) from a German resistance member, who tries to free the prisoners (Good). If we look at the Loony Tunes, we... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to choose ideal number of main characters? Super Sentai (better known as Power Rangers in the West, though not the same show) recently had a season which started with 9 core members of the team, and ballooned to 12 by show's end (Rangers mind you, we're not talking about secondary). They got away with it by making several unique elements. Fir... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How would we write a misogynistic character without offending people? I thought one of the best discussions in film on a topic like this occurred in Jurassic Park, the "Sexism in Survival Situations" scene. In this scene, John Hammond and Ellie Saddler (forgive spelling mistakes) are discussing where the circuit breakers in the park are located and how to turn them bac... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to write exciting updates? I used to run a Star Trek RP game and when doing cliffhanger-esque sessions all the time. Normally I'd start off the next game with a short recap about who was where and when and why.... Since this was Star Trek, they had a distinct format for this model and would always begin with "Previeously on St... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Finding out about other countries' military day-to-day I would recomend Yanks with Tanks and Brits with Battleships from TVTropes' UselfulNotes section (They also have a bunch of nations with weapons articles, all that detail the nations military set up, even if historical, like Rebs with Repeating Rifles, which is about the military of the Confederate S... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Do hard to pronounce names break immersion? I generally like to write that names are "anglicized" if they are indeed made up for the convience of the reader. For example, I once wrote an alien main character named "Kyron" and even then, I have at various times changed pronunciation in my head and had it pronounced it "1st syllable rhymes with ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to write a memorial plaque? Generally, I would start with "On this spot on/in [full date or year of deed] event occured i.e. 500 people gave their lives for the Union May we honor their memories/Continue their work/[Insert Pithy Pledge to remember for reasons here]. I would also recommend a famous quote either made by one of t... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is it bad if I don't like the "best" books in my chosen genre? I had a similar issue with a standardized story from genre. I'm writing a lot of Superhero-genre stories and one of the stories I hate is when the hero's friend or girlfriend or some other close relation gets the Hero's Powers and the friend is upstaging the Hero and they have to fight. I hate those ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How best to avoid the appearance of stereotype? So this recalls a Key & Peele sketch featuring two office workers, one who is an ordinary office worker and the other who is a flamboyant gay stereotype cranked up to 11 who believes that said ordinary office worker is persecuting him for being gay. The gay character is loud, obnoxious, and annoying ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How much realism do I put into a war simulation story for Young Adults? Hell, the Animorphs series could get very frank at times with the themes of war and the moral implications of a guerilla war on children... There was a point in my reading where the ploy of having one of the heroes lose a limb (in an animal morph) was kind of something the series had desensitized me ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: What are some conventions for creating a sense of urgency? I do have to comment that your first example is getting kinda laughable in it's ability to cause a sense of Urgency... we all know it will be the last possible second that the bomb will be defused, especially in the climax and the heroes are present. A better example would be a Hitchcock bomb where t... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: What is the voice called when the narrator is a secondary character? Typically, this is an Epistolary First Person (on wikipedia it's listed as Epistolary novel) if the narrator is presenting facts after they have happened in such a manner as to be read as a false document of events. The best known version of this is the character of Dr. Watson from the original Sherl... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How do you write boy & girl protagonists without turning them into a love story? As yet another male with a female best friend, this happens frequently (I think I'm more often than not better friends with women than with men.). And I can say that there are some people who will see romantic love no matter how much you stress there is none. And they aren't wholly wrong. Love manife... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |