Posts by Cyn
What you're looking for is a non-traditional outline. Now a regular outline is very linear and has headings and subheadings and may either: Bring on terrifying flashbacks of high school English....
If the authors of the website produced the data, then cite them like you would the authors of a work published on paper. If the website is a journal, it will have a name that you can also use in t...
Go ahead and copy his style. Murakami is a brilliant writer who draws heavily on other writers (as does every writer, whether they realize it or not). Honestly, if you can manage to write so well...
Every reader comes at a work with a different perspective. One reader may not even notice the elements that are central for another. The only way to find out if your two beta readers were focusin...
Each chapter will open on something that sets the scene to come. A descriptive paragraph (or other length) that focuses on the setting is a perfectly legitimate way to do this, but it's not requir...
If you're internally consistent this can work. A variety of books are first person, or a third person style that shows the character's thoughts enough that it has the intimacy of first person, but...
You're running into problems because you're putting too much focus on the details of the transition, instead of just marking it as a transition and moving into the next scene. Try using a single r...
While it's okay to gender your robots if you really feel the need, it's not necessary. The first version with "it" instead of "he" read just fine. It's a bit awkward writing it, as we're trained ...
The general rule is to start a new paragraph for dialogue or action by a new character. Everything you wrote here is Lisa describing and thinking about what Jack has said or done. So, yes, it can ...
Focus on the character's experience. Your narrator feels distant from your character and that's why you're struggling with word choice (and I realize you are only giving us short bits from your na...
One generally doesn't read lyrics like poetry. Sure, you can, but it's not as common. One reads lyrics to understand a song. If you're reading to understand how to sing a song, punctuation is pa...
Put question marks when you have rising intonation. I suggest you read your poem out loud. Do this multiple times and really do it out loud, not just in your head. Try it with and without the qu...
Alternative history is a mainstay of speculative fiction. Redrawing countries' borders is very often a part of that. Sometimes countries that exist in the real world are missing. Sometimes new c...
Sometimes you don't. You can (and should) read it out loud to yourself. But there really isn't a substitute for having other people listen to it. In my critique group, we read a portion of our p...
