Activity for Neil‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Answer	—	A: What is the difference between a novel and a documentary [non-fiction]? Sometimes it may be difficult to tell if a book is based on real events, but often the book makes this explicit. "Documentary" is a term generally applied to films, not books. But there are books based on true events, and they're generally just called "non-fiction". There may be references to "novel... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: Scrivener capitalization issues Go to Preferences \> Corrections, and uncheck this: Sentences will no longer automatically capitalize the first letter. (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to write a cover letter for The New Yorker fiction section? Unfortunately, the magazine's website doesn't have anything useful to say. So one would imagine that standard cover letter advice would apply here. (I got some of this information from the links at the end of this answer, but have condensed, and reworded significantly.) - Your name, contact info, an... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: Which skills should an editor have? You become a book editor by getting a job as an editor, and you do that by demonstrating competence and getting references. It's the same chicken-or-the-egg dilemma as in any field. Editors of manuscripts need a fairly consistent set of skills. There's no standard educational background for an edito... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is it common to bring in a developmental editor when you are at the stage of synopsis? It's probably useful to think of a developmental editor as a project manager. While it's often associated with non-fiction, but it's not unheard of for novelists to hire a developmental editor. (I see job posts like this every so often.) Whether you should hire a developmental editor for fiction is a... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: Good idea to write a scene with just pure dialogue exchange? There's no reason you can't do this, as long as it's the reader understands the information you're giving them. The clearer way to do something is nearly always preferred. Writers have formatted scenes as screenplays within a novel, but it's a rare, experimental device. It also evokes a cinematic fe... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: Simple rules for separating paragraphs in books? What paragraphs accomplish Text that isn't split up into paragraphs is often referred to as a "wall of text" and can be very difficult to read. Paragraphs are used for a few reasons: Organization, pacing, and to give the reader a chance to pause, similarly to what the end of a sentence does. Paragr... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: Does this text flow smoothly (description of suicidal thoughts)? The transition seems fairly smooth to me, probably because the action doesn't feel like action: It feels like the continuation of the musings in the earlier paragraphs. Maybe this is because we're not seeing the setup, but I think the entire excerpt feels rushed. This is someone who's thinking throu... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: Does the word "Its" get a capital in The Economist Style title case? As far as I can tell, no. Use normal sentence case, where you capitalize the first word of a headline only. The exceptions are proper nouns, or other capitalized words listed in the style guide's section on capitals. The guide doesn't address words like "its"; The Economist has little patience with ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: Defining a Prologue I agree with Lauren's answer: A prologue is anything before the main body of a text, and can be whatever the author wants it to be. What matters is that it reads well. However, in my experience, an introduction, preface, or forward is usually written in the writer's or editor's voice; prologues are ... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: Jumping between points in time in narrative Nonlinear narratives are a particular favorite of mine. Yes, it's possible to do this, but it can be tricky to set things up so they're not confusing to the reader. But if you have a good reason to present things to the reader out of order, it can be a very powerful way to set up a book. You'll have... (more)	—	almost 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Improving my English TL;DR - Read. Learn. Write. Finish what you write. Never stop repeating the cycle. Reading Reading and writing is a cultural conversation. People write books to say something. Other people read those books and a few of those write books in return. As Rhyous has pointed out in their fine answer, yo... (more)	—	almost 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Please evaluate the effectiveness of both voices, which better brings the character to life? I much preferred reading the first-person excerpt, but that doesn't mean much when taken out of context like this. There's no simple answer here. First person has certain advantages, third person has other ones. Which you use depends on the story. Can you tell us more about the larger work? Is it a p... (more)	—	almost 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Preventing units from being "broken" to the next line I believe you need a nonbreaking hyphen. It'll keep the characters before and after it from breaking across lines. From Butterick's Practical Typography: > Your word proces­sor as­sumes that any hy­phen marks a safe place to flow the text onto a new line or page. Sim­i­lar to the non­break­ing space... (more)	—	about 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Bullets vs. Numbering: which to use when? In everyday writing, (say on the web, or an email) I'd use bullets where possible. I think they're more accessible and quicker to scan. Unless there were some reason to actually number things. The Wikipedia style manual spells this out well: > Use numbers rather than bullets only if: > > - A need t... (more)	—	about 10 years ago
Question	—	Resources: Dictionaries of Australian English I know that Australian English has many spellings in common with British English, but (as with Canadian English) the two are not identical. Are there standard, authoritative dictionaries for Australian English? Now, I prefer Merrian-Webster when verifying spellings in American English and Cambridge ... (more)	—	about 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Capitalization of personal event names Something may be a one-time event, but that doesn't mean it's capitalized. I would refer to "the assault" throughout unless you're using the book's title. "The assault that takes place in The Assault assulted my senses." In English, aside from capitalizing the first word of a sentence, the only time... (more)	—	about 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Does excessive use of prepositions make writing unclear? Since we don't have the sample text that was analyzed, it's hard to answer this question in any specific sense. But I'd guess that this overuse of prepositions is actually the overuse of prepositional phrases. You can't eliminate prepositions, since English depends on them so heavily, but you can min... (more)	—	about 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is the following passage confusing? I think this passage works brilliantly to set the mood. The transition from the bolded paragraph back to the story is a little abrupt, but this may be smoothed over by the momentum of reading this in context. Your attempted metaphor - additive versus subtractive color - may or may not be obvious to ... (more)	—	about 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do screenwriters earn money, if none of their scripts get turned into movies? INT. STARBUCKS, LOS ANGELES People are sitting at tables and on couches, some on smartphones, many typing away on laptops. We pan to a man in his 40's, with a ponytail and reading glasses. He is concentrating fiercely, reading something on a Macbook. JOE (looks up at camera): Oh, hello there! I ... (more)	—	over 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Can my work be stolen if I post excerpts and ideas on critique sites? Yes , it's certainly possible that posting on the internet could lead to someone stealing your ideas. But will this actually happen? There are risks, however small, to showing your work to anyone. Most writers that publish know the benefits of peer feedback, and take the risk anyway. Many people ha... (more)	—	over 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Best way to write an article professionally I agree with hildred's answer that a review of the basics is in order here: Sentence structure, grammar, and so on. There are no standards for general-interest articles, but academic papers do have such standards. Without knowing what, exactly, you want to write, it's hard to give you advice on stru... (more)	—	over 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Listing names with titles When writing a list like this, you have several options for how you want to style the text. In business writing, such as an email, you can always format this as a bulleted list: > Please send the email to the following recipients: > > - Jason, Chief Information Officer > > - Sarah, President > >... (more)	—	over 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to write a reminder LinkedIn email to a stranger? Different roles call for different styles of writing, and how to phrase an email like this will hinge on whether you're a job seeker, someone who's networking, a recruiter, etc. But the techniques laid out in the question How to write a polite reminder email? will also apply here. I suggest that you... (more)	—	over 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Multiple Point of View characters in a short story I agree with Lauren's answer; there's no sense in "balancing" things for the sake of one scene. There are a few ways I can see to handle this: You can encapsulate narrators to keep a single viewpoint, sorta. I have an example from a friend named Joe, although I wasn't around when Phil told me about ... (more)	—	over 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Where should I put a minor action within a piece of dialogue? The answer to a question of style will always be, it depends. In the example given, I'd say that the minor action disrupts the dialog, but that's without knowing the context of this excerpt. And this is meant to be an example. There's no rule for how to place minor detail, but there are helpful ways ... (more)	—	over 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to style a film or book title? Book titles are usually placed within quotes or italicized, in order to set them apart. Which one you use is a matter of style. Assuming that your publisher has no style preference (some do), you can pick one or the other and stick to it. Whichever you use, be consistent. Please note that all title... (more)	—	over 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to indicate emphasis in plain text manuscripts There is no universal answer to this, as there are many ways of indicating emphasis in plain text. Your best bet is to read the submission guidelines of the publication that you're submitting to, as each may have different requirements. In the case of Daily Science Fiction, they have a page of story... (more)	—	over 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is it acceptable to use many footnotes to share additional ideas? The answer is: It's up to you, and it depends on the context. I normally wouldn't chime in on academic writing, since we have experts here in APA and MLA, but this question seems to involve none of the usual academic style guides. To back up a little: What are often called "footnotes" are, in acade... (more)	—	over 10 years ago
Answer	—	A: Why do authors start a paragraph in an indirect way? There's no one answer to this, and there might have been many reasons for the author tot write the article like she did. My guess is that it's an attempt to make the Dropbox CEO seem innovative and hip, like Steve Jobs was. Or it might be a comment on his attempt to seem innovative and hip by dressin... (more)	—	almost 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is the following allowed under the ungrammatical exceptions in fiction? Context is important, and this question is hard to answer. But I'll try. Sentence length is something that creates a rhythm in the text. For example, let's think of a situation where you have successively longer sentences, coming one after the other, and the reader has to parse them. Next, a short s... (more)	—	almost 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is it strange if a novel starts the first chapter without one of main characters? Introducing the protagonist later in the book is generally done when there's a large cast involved. In a situation like this, who the reader should consider the "main" character is less important. While there are no rules about any of this, it's generally a good idea for the reader to be able to ide... (more)	—	almost 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: What are the advantages of different date formats in resumes and CVs? The best date formats are the ones that are (1) clear and (2) familiar to your audience. You want your readers to focus on the content of your resume/CV, and this will be difficult if they have to "translate" dates to a familiar format in their heads while reading. In general, the two extremes - lon... (more)	—	about 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Tenses I should use in a translated-novel The best you can do, I think, is to try and pick up on the tone of the work that the original writer was trying to convey. Since your profile indicates that you're an Indonesian/English translator, I did a little research into Indonesian verb tenses, and I think I understand your problem. While this... (more)	—	about 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: How are multilingual scenes handled when the story's main language is translated into that of its minor one? There are, essentially, two choices here. Which is used would depend on the book, the complexity of the story, and how culturally French these section are. The translated text could simply all be in French, with understanding that the characters are not actually speaking French for some of the lines... (more)	—	about 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Getting details of a past century right There are many ways to research a location and a time: Books, the internet, even satellite photos and Google Street View. (Not really relevant for this project, but I've fixed some pretty basic errors with those.) However, when the place in question is interesting, you need to make sure that your res... (more)	—	about 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to tell or retell basic character and setting information in a series? From a story standpoint, you have, more or less, two choices: Recount what's come before the current book, or embed critical information in the narrative itself. The more realistic it is for characters to talk about past events, the less need there'll be for a summary of events at the beginning of th... (more)	—	about 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Does submitting multiple pieces to professional magazines (and being turned down) hurt chances of later stories that may be better-written? No, don't hold stories back unless you have a specific reason. Unless a publication specifically asks you to re-submit a specific piece at a later time (maybe they have a theme issue planned), holding stories back makes little sense. There's no secret to getting published aside from (1) Write beautif... (more)	—	about 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Do script readers start at the beginning? The short answer is, yes, although there's no rule about it, studio readers do seem to start on page one. Readers looking for scripts for their employers to film look for a lot of things: That there's a basic concept at work in the script, that the three-act structure is being followed... there's a ... (more)	—	about 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Describe all corrections as clearly and unambiguously as possible I've done this for brochures and other literature, and it's a bit of extra work compared to marking up a PDF with circles and arrows. But some publications have had problems with people using different PDF readers and these marks appearing in the wrong locations, so there may be a reason for this. "... (more)	—	about 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Should dull dialogue be removed completely? I agree with Lauren's answer: You need highs and lows in any story. As long as you're not boring the reader, maybe these excerpts are just low points. But momentum counts for an awful lot, and it's difficult to judge how "dull" these actually are out of context. For example, when Benjamin looked at ... (more)	—	about 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: It is a sign of bad writing to have many scenes that are disconnected with the main plot? A rambling narrative can be executed very badly or very well. Maybe it's tool to give color and depth to a world, but it can simply be a sign of an unfocused book. In all cases, what's important is how the reader will react, and that can be tough to estimate. It matters not a bit if you've planned th... (more)	—	about 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Writing about a subject on which you have no expertise? Writing a story in which math plays a pivotal role when you know little about mathematics would probably be a mistake. There is, unfortunately, no way to fake knowing something. You either have to do the research, or write the story anyway, hoping your guesses are right. Guessing wrong will make you ... (more)	—	about 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do authors gain strong familiarity with archaic and extremely rare words? The best way to expand your vocabulary is to read a lot of books with unfamiliar words in them, experiencing them in context. However, there are ways to make this easier: - Seeking out relatively modern authors who have a reputation for using their rich vocabularies well in-context will make these w... (more)	—	over 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is it worth reading book to learn more about topic of my story Yes, research is worthwhile - to a point. This is difficult to answer because you're asking people to make a value judgment about how worthwhile research is. My opinion is that if your story is based on a concept, it behooves you to know about that concept. If you want to base a story on a particu... (more)	—	over 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Text Editors. Suggesting & Tracking Changes to Plain-Text Documents This is a good question. Unfortunately, outside of the programming realm, there's no system for tracking changes at the character level that I'm aware of. (If there is one, I'd love to know about it!) I suspect there are many, many such systems that have been cobbled together by individuals, however.... (more)	—	over 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can people doing technical, archane work be portrayed interestingly? Writing biographies like these for a mass audience will require that the reader understand the subject's work. This can be handled by long expository passages, or, as is more frequently done, concepts can be broken up into small, easily digestible pieces. These can alternate with the story of the sub... (more)	—	over 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Can I improve my beta reading skills to aid a close person's writings? You're essentially asking if it's possible for a human being to be unbiased. The answer is no, it's not. Even in the case of professional manuscript evaluators working for total strangers, there is no such thing as truly unbiased feedback. But there are ways of improving the situation. Background: ... (more)	—	over 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is the first draft of a novel usually shorter than the finished work? The answer to your question is: It depends on how the writer works. This is a question that's impossible to answer in a general sense, since different writers will approach a story in different ways. Some will rough things out and add detail later on, some will dump everything down on the page and t... (more)	—	over 11 years ago
Answer	—	A: Are there any metrical (scansion) dictionaries? While I don't know of any straight dictionaries that organize words by number of syllables, many rhyming dictionaries will organize rhymes by how many syllables they contain, or by how many syllables rhyme. ("Example" is a three-syllable word that's a two-syllable rhyme with "ample" and a one-syllabl... (more)	—	over 11 years ago

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