Posts by Cyn
The given name I've been known by since High School is not the same as the name on my birth certificate or driver's license, but it is, like yours, a known nickname for my legal name. I used to us...
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...
Older meditations are almost certainly in the public domain. In the United States, anything published before 1924 is in the public domain as the copyrights have expired. Newer works may also have...
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 ...
Phonetic spellings. Or something similar to that. Phonetic rendering. Spelling phonetically. Etc. A few resources for you: How to convey accents in fiction writing: Beyond phonetic spelling ...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
In the comics world, this is normal. Each issue (the standard is 22 pages, not including the cover and publisher additions) comes out separately, either as an e-comic or on paper, or both. After ...
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....
The only issue to worry about is that your reader knows who is speaking and can remember who the characters are scene to scene. How you accomplish this is up to you. That being said, it's a littl...
Every book is going to play around with reality to some degree, though some do it more than others. Every case is different. Is this a story that would end up on a "I can't believe they survived!...
I've heard of Method Acting. But never Method Writing. There are two approaches to portraying a character on film or stage. Method Acting, where the actor gets into character by living like t...
You can't plagiarize yourself. It's actually pretty common for writers to turn a short story (or several) into a novel. Your only issues are about copyright. If you self-publish the stories, you...
This rapid scene-switching works in film because you can establish exactly where you are and who you are with in an instant, with a framing shot or something else that recalls one. In a novel, you...
I put a paragraph break in your question as an edit, but it's still a huge block of text (now two huge blocks). Chapter dividers are a grander version of that. They give your reader a chance to...
Write it as it is. When you write dialogue, you don't write it up as formal English (or another language). You write what the characters say. If someone squeals or rolls their eyes or starts cho...
I'm in agreement with Amadeus here. It's just not a technique that is going to work. I'm trying to think of an exception, and I can't. Already you're messing with things by having the 1st pers...
They're usually just called essays. Though in our modern age we often use names related to the platform. So on a blog, they're posts or blog posts. As Zeiss Ikon points out, in a newspaper, th...
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, ...
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...
