Activity for Cyn
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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A: Using ”as” after dialogue tags Commas tell you when to breathe. They can be for actual pauses (as when you read it out loud and take a brief pause) or they can be to tell your brain how to break down the sentence. Either way, add a comma in both places. 1. After dialogue that is followed by a tag. 2. Before an "as" clause. (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Can I use a TV sitcom name as part of my book title There are 144 books with the word "Seinfeld" in the title. Most are about the TV series, about the creator, or by him or his family. But a few use the name as part of the phrasing and/or to refer back to the show. Examples (some are nonfiction and reference Seinfeld, but are not about the man or the ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Referring to different instances of the same character in time travel Pick a name and go with it. If the fact of the new character being future Adrien isn't a secret from the reader, you don't have to worry about names that spoil the surprise. Use whatever name Adrien himself will use. He's not going to refer internally to his future self by his own name or by someth... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: What's it called when the bad guy gets eaten? Just Desserts From TV Tropes: > A villain ultimately finds their evil deeds come back to bite them. Literally—they end up getting eaten. > > This does not include a Heroic Sacrifice. But may be subverted with a minor character being killed and eaten in obvious foreshadowing of what is going to hap... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Is it stylistically sound to use onomatopoeic words? Unlike with comics, you wouldn't want to use sound effects as dialogue or dialogue adjuncts (in comics the letterer makes them separate from actual speech), though you can get away with it in something humorous. You can, however, evoke sound effects. > The door slammed shut. > vs. > She shut th... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How important is it for multiple POVs to run chronologically? Here's an example of multiple timelines done in a way I found not just confusing, but random and unnecessary. Chronological can mean in order by date and time, or it can mean that the different POVs line up with each other (even if each story is moving forward). My example is more of the former but a... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Is it bad to suddenly introduce another element to your fantasy world a good ways into the story? If you've established your world as one with fantasy species, it's okay if you don't mention every one early on. Lots of novels and screenplays throw new species into the mix later on and that's fine, so long as you've established that your world is one where similar species already exist. Novels su... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: What can a novel do that film and TV cannot? The main difference is the ability to be published. To break into TV, you need to live somewhere that produces a lot of TV shows (in the United States, you'd move to Los Angeles and try to hang out with others in "the industry"). I'm not sure how else you break in, but it's not easy. You can self-p... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Are there advantages in writing by hand over typing out a story? I remember what a huge deal it was when I graduated from elementary school (6th grade, age 12) and got my first typewriter as a gift. It was even an electric one! I already knew how to type because, when I was in 3rd grade, there had been an experimental program to see if teaching kids young how to t... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Citing a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute in MLA? The 8th Edition of the MLA has changed the approach to citations: > Like earlier editions, this handbook includes information on evaluating sources, avoiding plagiarism, using quotations, constructing abbreviations, and other topics important to the scholarly writer. But what is different about the ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Can I use spoken English at some places over 'technically accurate English' in a general fiction? Yes, your characters should speak naturally, not as if they were reading a formal piece of writing out loud. But that doesn't mean you won't edit it. Take the example of radio interviews. They routinely edit out pauses, um's, and you knows. This creates speech that is easier to listen to. After all,... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Does it make sense to (partially) create a conlang that you don't intend to actually use in the story? To me, the answer is more about you and your writing process than about constructed languages. I am not constructing a language but I've done lots of worldbuilding that will never be visible to my readers. I feel more grounded having done it. And when I write new chapters, I never know which charact... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Will writing actual numbers instead of writing them with letters affect readership? While you don't need to follow a style guide here (except your publisher's of course), it's helpful to look at them. The AP Style Guide (Associated Press) is a good one because it's for American newspapers. Newspapers work hard to bring in a large range of readers, so they aim most of their articles ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Should fiction mention song names and iPods? Lots of novels go into detail about music, movies, TV shows, and other art and culture relevant during the setting of the book. Also technology. In some cases the cultural details are important to the setting. High Fidelity is all about the music; failing to mention it would have ruined the book. In... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: What is the art of designing names? Have more faith in your process, but run it by others. Rufus Drake is a great name. It has personality, it's easy to pronounce and it's memorable. It's not uncommon but the combination isn't going to be used much. There's nothing wrong with the name Michael Brown. I bet the million other Michael Bro... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How can my story take place on Earth without referring to our existing cities and countries? Creating a world is a lot of work. It doesn't matter if your world is a single town over the course of a year or an intercontinental saga over several generations. Either way, you need to map out the geography, features, characters and their genealogies, and history. How detailed you get depends bo... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Am I allowed to use art (album covers) in my book? Everything you put into a book that is not your original work must be done with permission. This refers to both artwork and text. Items in the public domain have blanket permission for others to use. That's what being public domain means. Sometimes a creator will put a work into Creative Commons o... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: MLA: Source Author has the same name as me I agree with Jason that you should also give a first name or initial with the last name to differentiate it from yours (or anyone else mentioned who shares that last name). This advice is geared for times when you cite two or more authors with the same surname, but it works when one of the surnames i... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Using published pictures for a book based on a true story Photographs belong to the photographer (or to a business which has a contract with the photographer such that they own the copyright). It makes no difference if the subject is alive or dead. A lot of stuff on the internet doesn't have proper attribution. You will need to track down the copyright hol... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: In a stage play, how should the script refer to minor characters whose names are irrelevant? Every character must have a name. The name doesn't have to be a real name, but it needs to be something that identifies that character as unique. In a novel, you can get away without naming characters. But a play requires casting. If you are going to have a person on stage, they need to know which ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Starting from future smoothing your way to present Exactly how you do it depends of course on your story. One way is to simply use them with no explanation and let the reader figure it out over time. Or you can indicate the past within the quotes themselves. The Queen of the Tearling does something similar to what you're doing. Each chapter opens wi... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How can I radically time-jump for my epilogue well? There are multiple ways to approach this and any of them can work. The important thing is that it's very clear to the reader. My novel is structured as follows: - Prologue set in 1939. - Body of novel set in 1995 (with time travel to 1350 BCE). - Epilogue set in 2020 (or so). For my transition fro... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Is it a bad idea to have a pen name with only an initial for a surname? Your name is fine. I would not choose an initial for a surname because people will wonder what you're hiding and you have to file extra paperwork for a pseudonym. But of course you can always tell people "just call me Ana N." when you want. Some of my daughter's teachers at her school go by "Mr. G" o... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How to write a character that knows a lot about explosives? Get cozy at your local library. Before the internet, this is where we all did our research. As long as it's a well-stocked library, there should be plenty of books on the basics of explosives. Use the central library where you live, not a branch. If your central library (or only library) isn't very ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Should we avoid "nonsensical" or "unclear" metaphors? You can't drift off into the distance when you leave a room. Unless it's a really big room.  You can drift out of a room, but you disappear rather suddenly, when the line of sight through the doorway is broken. Clouds don't disappe... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Breaking dialogue with actions from another character It's fine to use action to insert a beat in the dialogue, or just as a change of pace from tags. But you must separate out each person's actions (whether it's speech, thought, or something else) in to a new paragraph. What you wrote isn't clear. Amadeus' version is perfectly good. How you format it ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Past vs. present tense when referring to a fictional character The book exists in the present, so the characters do as well. The author, though, exists in the past, since he's no longer with us. > Mark Twain wrote about a boy, Tom Sawyer, who has adventures with his friends. It would not be wrong to write about the character in past tense if describing his ac... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: A flower's head or heart? A few alternatives: > She dived into the flower. > > She dived into the zinnia's flower. > > She dived into the petals. > > She dived into the zinnia's center. Or, simply: > She dived into the pollen. Add the rolling in pollen parts if needed. I realize you want to differentiate between zinni... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Co-branding a book with a website When I wrote this answer, it was borderline a true answer to the question. With a recent question edit, it doesn't really answer it all. I'll leave it up as a legacy answer, unless there's a movement to delete it. I'm trying to think of any relevant personal experience (or that of someone I know... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How do you transcribe a dialogue when abbreviations are used? AM and FBI are not abbreviations, they are acronyms. We know to pronounce them letter by letter because they are fully capitalized. In some cases, they also have periods after each letter (with no spaces). Never ever sound them out (unless it's to show the character is saying them wrong). > "It's 4... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Does every chapter have to "blow the reader away" so to speak? Your beta reader feels the chapter isn't pulling its weight. It's not about being blown away, it's about a chapter having a purpose and engaging the reader. Because your reader has put it in these terms, my guess is that the other chapters also didn't really engage as part of a larger story. They h... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Should I write in a style that is more conducive to a situation I am describing or write it the way I normally write? Ideally, the way you write is the right way for the story. It sounds like you have one basic style and it may be a nonfiction/essay style. That's the style most people develop first, because not only are we taught it in school, we practice it over and over. If this is the voice you used in your shor... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Should I explain the reasons for gaslighting? Make each of the three, full well-rounded characters who have multiple interactions with not just each other but other people. And with distinct and believable personalities. Show how the two treat the woman and how it changes over time. Your goal is for the reader to gradually figure out what is go... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How much web presence should I have? At a bare minimum, you need a central landing place to direct people to in your marketing. The important items you want to cover are: - Title and brief description (genre, audience) of your book. - Your name. - Where to buy it. This can be for just your book/series or for all your works. If you on... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How to represent jealousy in a cute way? This is something you need to be careful with. In popular Western culture, going back decades or further, jealousy is often seen as a positive trait. "His jealousy proves he loves me so much." Especially when it's a man jealous of interactions his female partner has with other men. In reality, there... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Exhaustive research vs artistic license? I do the same thing. This is how I've handled it. My novel is set in a variety of places and my aim is to use real places when feasible and realistic places when not. By coincidence, I also have a need for a central European train station, though one less modern and different from yours. I had the ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How to trick the reader into thinking they're following a redshirt instead of the protagonist? Make the character part of the setting. There are various methods for making a person in a story appear to be the main character (or at least a prominent one). For example: - Giving her a name (obviously even background characters can have names, but if the narrator refers to her by name, she's mor... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: What, if anything, can I do about Amazon reviews being one-sidedly censored? Coming to this question 2 years after it was posted, I find the following: Of a total of 11 reviews, there is 1 5-star review, 1 4-star review, and 9 1-star reviews. Nothing in-between. Of the low reviews, some are clearly against you because of your positions. > We will be attacked by the world a... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: What format should I use when beginning a chapter with the time and location of the events? The short answer is, you can do this any way you want. But how you do it will set the tone for the story. If you write it in a log format, it will bring to mind military experiences or a formal log for a job (like a medical record). For example, here is a World War II era U.S. Naval log. The starti... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: I have a dialogue that I can't write directly. What would be a good alternative? How do you know what the sparrows are thinking? I mean that sincerely. If you're watching them, you attribute dialogue to them because they're obviously communicating things to each other. They just don't use speech or other formal language. You know what they're "saying" because their body languag... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: When writing an error prompt, how do we tell the user the error happens in a specific tab? I think the weirdness you're encountering is that you're using technical speak to convey something to the user who doesn't need to know that. To you this is a tab. While many (most?) people who use computers are familiar with tabs, they probably won't think of their spouse or child as a tab. So use... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Too eloquent characters You still want your dialogue to be real speech. It's just cleaned up speech. If you have a critique group, read the scene out loud to them. Ditto if you have people willing to read drafts. You'll catch a lot of the worst sounding parts just in the act of reading. Your group will catch more. You can... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How do I write "Show, Don't Tell" as a person with Asperger Syndrome? "Show don't tell" is a general rule which basically means: immerse your readers in your story. It's not meant literally (as others have pointed out) and it doesn't just apply to body language. For example, don't state someone's personality then go into ordinary action and dialogue. Instead, have the... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Avoiding cliches when writing gods Similarities are not the same as cliches. Various pantheons have a lot of overlap because they draw on universal aspects of humanity. Food. Fire. Home. Love. Children (and childbearing). Protection. Etc, etc, etc. How these things manifest will change culture to culture. A nomadic group won't need ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: When writing an error prompt, should we end the sentence with a exclamation mark or a dot? In a technical manual or documentation or anything similar, you wouldn't put emotion into the text. The only reasons to use an exclamation point are to convey strong emotion or a serious warning. "Your password doesn't meet the criteria" isn't a dangerous situation. There's no need to use anything b... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: In one book can one narrator be in present and the other in past? I think it's a mistake. You certainly can do it and probably get away with it. But why make a tonal shift so severe if there's no real reason for it? Even though these are different characters, presumably interacting with each other, your reader will assume you're indicating different timelines with... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How crucial is a waifu game storyline? There are plenty of genres that exist solely for a particular purpose or to deliver a type of scene. - Pornography (no comment). - Slasher (mostly films, all about gory ends to stupid or unfortunate people). - Romance (two people get together, often against all odds. Characterization matters in this... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Can non-English-speaking characters use wordplay specific to English? One of the fun parts of learning a language is learning vocabulary, puns, turns of phrase, etc that just don't translate to your mother tongue. Any English learner (any learner of any language) is going to listen for those special things and use them as soon as the opportunity comes up (as long as s... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: 20 Minutes into the Future - problem with setting the period I'm not sure what you want is possible. You can set the time to be a bit ahead of right now. And do it by outright stating the date as the story begins, mentioning the date organically in the story, or, as you state, by alluding to events that haven't actually happened (yet or at all). Or you can s... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How to find different meanings behind metaphors used in speech writing? I wrote this before the poster indicated that this was a speech. My advice still applies, it just needs to be on a shorter timeline. Write what you want, show it to people you trust, revise, then show (or read) it to a more diverse group of listeners, especially those similar to your expected audienc... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |