Posts by Cyn
The Bechdel Test (which was originally about movies, not books, not that I know which your work is) is meant to apply to the work as a whole. It's not about individual scenes. Look at your work a...
Events will have less emotional impact on the reader if you write them in the background and not for specific characters, especially not your main characters. For example, compare a scene descri...
Are you happy with your story and character in other ways? Is the only problem your worry that she's too much like you? If so, then I suggest you just keep writing. I assure you that the charact...
I'm going to complicate this even more for you. Every printer is different! So, yes: More pages cost more. More copies costs less per copy. A larger page costs more. So you're going to have to...
Something in the range of $50/hour (assuming US dollars within the US or the equivalent in industrial countries) is reasonable for professionals. It's about what artists charge to do illustrations...
I like this version of the question better than the last one. There are many ways to be considered a jerk. The most common is someone who deliberately says or does things that are cruel or obnoxi...
Like others, I don't recommend it. Why? Because people who read resumes do not treat them like a book. Your resume will go into a big pile (or the electronic equivalent) that someone has to go t...
Make sure you start a new chapter or section when you make a switch in either direction, unless it is short. Make it obvious to the reader. In some cases you might want to set aside the page with...
I would do this the same way you introduce multiple characters: slowly over time and as needed. If you give the reader too much information up front, they will not remember it. It's hard to remem...
I have 25-30 "main characters," (feel free to quibble over the definition) and more supporting ones, though of course only a few are really central. Two of the main 5 characters I don't even intro...
You do it by limiting the narrator's gaze. You can describe things from the point of view of one or more characters, who haven't yet figured out the secret identities of the celebrity characters. ...
What kind of a writer are you? I tend to write more than I need, then I hone the work in the editing process. So for a 300 word essay, I would probably first write a draft of 600 words. I wouldn...
The amount of exposition appears totally fine to me. But I think you're using more words than you need to in order to provide it. I would cut the length of the section in half, and probably put i...
The same way you write about anybody, from personal experience. That experience doesn't have to be your own, but you should go out into the world and meet people with disabilities. Online as a se...
Don't make it about him. If it works in your story, switch to her point of view. If you need to stick with your main character's point of view, then focus on him describing her actions as a nar...
Yikes! Does Amazon allow you to change your name after you've put up a book? You may want to add a middle initial or middle name. People who choose pseudonyms have an ethical responsibility to...
I agree with others. Don't change your story to remove diversity because you are worried you can't write those characters. Embrace diversity in your writing and your life. The best way to write ...
Noticing it is the first step. Your line: “I- I thought I was being polite,” he mumbled. is enough. You don't need to say the prince looked abashed. You are already conveying his uncertainty and...
Wetcircuit is right. Use the person's name. Even if it's never stated out loud in the entire screenplay. Because the role still needs to be cast.
I don't know about the user reviews but a very good source of publishers is the Writer's Market (by Writer's Digest). There is also a version just for fiction. The publishers are in alphabetica...
Write up the lyrics in the usual poetic style (with line breaks and also stanza breaks). Insert in the text by starting a new paragraph then indenting the lyrics on both ends. In a published book...
So why is the first half of that sentence a quote and the second half your paraphrase? That's the part that seems odd to me. I would either make it all a quote (using ... to indicate that you lef...
Yeah, you have to plainly label this as fantasy. Not science-fiction. Because the fantasy elements are ones that would jar the reader if they were expecting reality. And I think it will turn off...
You've pretty much got the 3 choices. Use first person with active voice, use passive voice, or use 3rd person stating "the author" (or "the writer," "the researcher," etc). I will say it depends...
As it happens, I'm also writing a middle-grade novel with an unlikeable character. He's not the main character but he's one of the secondary ones. He has a full arc where he changes and so far tw...
