Posts by Cyn
A common market for shorter pieces is anthologies. You didn't give a length but "long poetry" is probably still not novel length. Anthologies tend to have themes based on the subject of the work ...
You have a few choices here: 1. You can group each person's actions together more (I've also edited a couple errors). The tall figure was overwhelmingly tall. It stood in the corner of the r...
No. Winds are not waves. You can describe each of them if you wish. Billowing and petulant have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. Billowing means "filled with air and swelling outward....
Yes. It's your story, so it's okay. And I can't be the only American who wasn't all that aware of the difference and whose eyes gloss over the two (I can only see them as different now that you'v...
I see it as if you were reporting the dialogue between a couple of people sitting a table over from you in a public place. If you want the words, write it as dialogue. Quote it normally and attri...
Your issue is common to many novels and other long works. Your characters aren't just dropping into and out of your MC's life (like you often see in, say, TV shows where the MCs have friends for o...
It's all about context and the full portrayal of the characters and culture. My daughter's ballet teacher is a 90 year old woman. Short to begin with, she's shrunk to under 5 feet. Thin and frai...
I belong to a terrific critique group (writing group) that has dealt with a lot of attrition. We started with 6 people and currently have 4, one who joined after the first month or two. We also h...
Get thee to a writer's group! Find yourself a group that meets in person (or by video or phone, if you must). Where you take turns reading your work out loud to each other. If that doesn't come ...
Your story sounds interesting. But even the best ideas can be awful when written up and some of the simplest, done-to-death, plots can be amazing. It's all in what you do with it. If a book se...
I would recommend a PDF. I normally believe in converting files to text (marked or unmarked) for emails because so many times that Word file or whatever is just a couple paragraphs that don't need...
(This answer was written during the first iteration of the question. The author's changes invalidate much of my answer. My conclusion stands: this is not a juvenile book, but I could only base it...
Author of Paper, A., and B. Author of Paper. Year. "Title of Paper." Paper presented at Title of Conference: Subtitle of Conference, Location, Date. https://doi.org/10.XXX/XXXXX.XX So in your cas...
I said what I did in the other thread because of a little word that no one has actually said. Just. Some genres are descriptive: Mystery, fantasy. And those plus others are treated as "genre fic...
Get permission from the copyright owner to republish. It's nice to ask the author too but contact whoever owns the copyright, which isn't always the original publisher, especially for an older wor...
Yes...but... Yes, of course you can use your pen name. Your audiences need never hear anything different. None of your marketing materials need give your real name. The issue comes when you nee...
Unnerving and insane are not the same thing. Unnerving is how the character makes you feel. A little uncertain, maybe even unsafe or suspicious. Insane is about the character's relationship to r...
Tell someone. The act of speaking (or writing) an idea will reinforce its memory. You can tell whoever you happen to be with. Or call someone and leave them a message. Or call yourself and leav...
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
I second the idea to use videos astronauts have made. Some are made for school children to teach about the concepts (worthwhile for adults too) and others are on different topics/for different aud...
Several comments, in no particular order: 1) Sometimes the problem with pacing is in the transitions from scene to scene and not in the actual pace of the action. A few extra words at each transi...
