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Posts by Monica Cellio‭

318 posts
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Q&A Is it okay to write a story where the protagonist is a Terrorist?

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. In other words, your main character probably doesn't see himself as a terrorist, so a first-person or close third-person story focusing on tha...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Can I write a book of my D&D game?

Plagiarism would be taking exact text from the various game manuals and representing it as your own. So don't do that. But you probably weren't going to anyway, because you want to tell a story,...

posted 5y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What language shall they sing in?

These are songs, and we learn songs differently from spoken language. Have you ever found yourself singing along to a favorite song in a language you don't even speak, but you've listened to the r...

posted 5y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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

The light is inside him; it just needs a path out. Not a big gaping doorway that opens all at once, but small tendrils. Think "many drips carve a rock", not sudden change. How do you do that? I...

posted 5y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I start in media res and provide enough back-story to hook people, all in the first chapter?

My story (novella?) starts in media res, in the middle of the conflict that will set the rest of the story in motion. Currently I am "scene-cutting" between that event and some earlier events that...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A I'm afraid that my setups will be overlooked

Setups are most rewarding when the reader realizes after the fact that that detail was important but doesn't figure it out too early (i.e. it's not more obvious than you wanted it to be). If a rea...

posted 5y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to keep darkness from piling up

Have a lighter "B" plot. Yes, your main character is getting deeper and deeper into a dark place because of the struggle with the evil overlord -- and in the midst of it all she also finds herself...

posted 5y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Citing an unknown primary source?

Only cite sources you've actually seen. In this case, it sounds like you have a secondary source (your link) that quotes from and does not cite a primary source. All you can say with certainty is...

posted 5y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can show that my cold hearted character is coping with grief?

The heartlessness you describe is "externally facing" -- the actions he takes and the way he interacts with others. That doesn't mean there's no heart at all in there; it just means he doesn't all...

posted 5y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I get a technical writing job for software apps without a degree?

In many (most?) companies you do not need a degree or certificate; what you need is demonstrated skill. Technical writing is not a super-common degree to begin with; many technical writers have de...

posted 5y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Can I include a short biography of the person to whom my book is dedicated?

It sounds like you want to introduce your readers to one of your inspirations (since you said this person is connected to one of the characters in your book). This is sometimes done in a preface, ...

posted 5y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A 'for example' and 'e.g.' in a thesis

"E.g." is an abbreviation for the Latin "exempli gratia", which means "for example". The abbreviation is fairly common in "advanced" writing, like theses, in my experience. However, it's an other...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Rewriting User Guides as Stories

As noted in this answer, you do need to be mindful that for a user guide your reader's goal is information, while for a rulebook it can also be entertainment. If the entertainment gets in the way ...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Scientific article: How to say that with our result something could be done but hasn't

I don't have citations, but I've seen a couple approaches to this problem: "One possible application of (this work) would be to..." -- by casting it speculatively like that, using "would be", you...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should creativity or eloquence in a technical document be removed during review?

This is a supplement to this answer. Readers, especially technical readers, notice small variations and especially inconsistencies. If you talk about "removing" a resource in one place and "delet...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Using colloquialisms the reader may not be familiar with

Dialect used in dialogue can work well, especially when the writer is fluent. (Writers who aren't fluent in the dialect they're trying to use can make a mess of it.) Dialect is another aspect of ...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to handle bad source texts in technical translation?

In the translation work I've seen for user-facing documentation, the translators stuck to the organization of the source but sometimes rephrased entire paragraphs, particularly if the source used i...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should software product release notes be in marketing voice or technical voice? (software documentation)

Release notes should describe what changed as seen by the users. That doesn't necessarily mean "all the gory technical details", though; as with other technical writing, you want to tell the user ...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What's the least distracting method to inform editors I'm a woman?

I once saw someone in your situation address the problem by adding a (gendered) middle name to signatures. This could either be your real middle name if you have one, or a nickname that you're pre...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What will be the copyright situation if I self-publish an anthology of my unpublished short stories?

If you live in one of the 175 countries that are signatories to the Berne Convention, then your work is automatically copyrighted when you create it. Registration is not required to have copyright...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is Wikipedia Trustworthy?

Wikipedia is a crowd-sourced site where anybody can contribute, just like this one. Wikipedia strives for verifiability and neutrality and has an active user community, but that doesn't mean that t...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  edited 3y ago by Monica Cellio‭

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Q&A How can I establish the nature of a person/group without action?

Referring to history, as noted in other answers, is a good way. You don't have to depict the action to have it come up -- in conversation, when a character reads about something online, when a det...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How should I start to write a flash fiction story?

Flash fiction gives you very little leeway. 100 words won't allow for extended plot, character development, scene-setting... really, it's enough for one scene. I've seen people pull off more in t...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Citing Oracle documentations of Java

The general format for a reference citation in Harvard style is: Last name, First Initial. (Year published). Title. City: Publisher, Page(s). For a web site, this guide gives the following fo...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Do I always need to use linkers and connectors?

Use transitional phrases when you need to clarify or highlight a connection. Especially in technical writing (where concise is better), don't use them just to use them. In your example, the secon...

posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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