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Posts by Canina‭

50 posts
86%
+11 −0
Q&A HTML tags versus CSS classes: is one preferred over the other for the same styling?

As a general rule of thumb, CSS defines presentation, while the HTML should express semantic meaning and document structure. The HTML spec is clear that the <code> element represents a fragm...

posted 2y ago by Canina‭  ·  edited 2y ago by Canina‭

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Q&A Is there any benefit when writing out instructions to split it up into lots of little paragraphs, or is it better to leave it in one paragraph?

As already said, instructions are about helping the reader do the steps in the right order without missing any of them. This, of course, can take different forms in different contexts. Recipes is o...

posted 3y ago by Canina‭

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Q&A How to determine relative success of different, similar books published by different means?

This answer discusses how to choose between traditional print publishing, ebook publishing, self publishing, etc., and concludes by stating that You should publish your book using the channel wher...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by msh210‭

Question publishing
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Q&A How to keep track of worthwhile snippets from discovery writing, which don't work where they were first written?

Sometimes, when I write, I find myself writing down a path that ends up not leading at all where I wanted to go with what I was writing. That's to be expected when discovery-writing. Depending on t...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by Mark Baker‭

Question editing
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Challenges Writing challenge #4: Cats and dogs

Writing challenge #4 August 2, 2020 This is the fourth writing challenge on Writing Codidact. The previous one was Something new for July. The challenge for August is cats and dogs. Entries should...

3 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by Mithical‭

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Q&A How to train readers in Argot or Slang

I would argue that you shouldn't, nor should your writing require training the reader in the first place. At least not in a work of fiction. At its heart, fiction is about telling a story. (Which m...

posted 4y ago by Canina‭  ·  edited 4y ago by Canina‭

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Q&A Is page range inclusive or exclusive?

As already stated, page ranges would typically be inclusive. There's actually an even more illustrative example to show why this is what readers would probably expect. Suppose the text you're cit...

posted 4y ago by Canina‭

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Q&A How can I make a character sound condescending?

You should consider what makes someone sound condescending. I know – that's pretty much what you're already asking. But I really think it's what's at the heart of your question. One aspect of peo...

posted 4y ago by Canina‭  ·  edited 4y ago by Canina‭

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Meta What new data should we import from SE?

I'm honestly inclined to agree that what Writing Codidact needs isn't really another data import. It's to get actual people to come here, read, contribute, and remain. People who have posted on Wr...

posted 4y ago by Canina‭  ·  edited 4y ago by Canina‭

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+3 −0
Q&A How can I make a transition from third person omniscient to first person less jarring for the reader?

I'm working on a longish short story (I expect to hit somewhere around 5,000 - 6,000 words by the time I'm through) that starts out in third person omniscient POV, mostly because that allows me to ...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Monica Cellio‭

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Meta Writing Q&A RSS feed shows Internal Server Error

I tried to access the Writing main Q&A RSS feed at https://writing.codidact.com/categories/1/feed.rss (through the Category RSS Feed link at the bottom of https://writing.codidact.com/ and http...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by ArtOfCode‭

Question bug rss-feeds
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Q&A Describing the taste of food

I pretty much agree with what's been stated about the examples you gave. Writing, particularly fiction writing, usually focuses on evoking emotions in the reader. We often read fiction because we ...

posted 4y ago by Canina‭

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Q&A ...and then she held the gun

Have you considered doing something like skipping, then describing? Something like (but do consider this first draft quality): The man kept the gun pointed at her. Jane had trained for years, ...

posted 5y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A When blogging recipes, how can I support both readers who want the narrative/journey and ones who want the printer-friendly recipe?

CSS supports media queries since Level 2, Revision 1. That's from way back in 2011, so any modern web browser should support it. If you're able to specify custom CSS, and apply custom CSS classes ...

posted 5y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Can we "borrow" our answers to populate our own websites?

You have the legal right to reuse elsewhere what you post on Stack Exchange. It's your content. When posting to SE, you give SE a nonexclusive license to use it, and doing so requires that it's yo...

posted 5y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to present an alien culture with different morals, without it coming across as savage?

For a fiction story of mine (probably fantasy, if I had to categorize it), I've set it in a world that is in some ways similar to Earth, and in other ways very dissimilar from Earth. In place of ...

7 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to keep track of characters' location, within a longer narrative?

Looks like I came up with my own approach in the end. At least, nobody seems to have mentioned it. LibreOffice Writer (and probably most other word processors) supports adding comments. They are d...

posted 5y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Naming my characters

For me, if I can't think of a good name for a character (or for that matter any other world element), I hold off on naming it. Instead, I give it a temporary name. Anything that is reasonably easy ...

posted 5y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Footnotes for Translation purposes

First off, I basically agree with Cyn's statement that lots of footnotes can make a text feel more like an academic work than a novel. That said, you say that the purpose of these footnotes is to ...

posted 5y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How does a writer go about consulting experts?

I actually find it somewhat intriguing that you're asking this on Stack Exchange. Consider that by now, Stack Exchange has over 170 different sites on different subjects, which aim to draw profess...

posted 5y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to write a polite reminder email?

Regarding the bullet point on the message being "respectful", I would like to point out something which I don't see being stated explicitly in any of the previous answers. This goes equally for bot...

posted 5y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to think of a good beginning?

At this point: don't sweat it. You've got ideas, and you need to put something on paper (or the computer) to get yourself started. So take one of those ideas and go with it. Any half-way decent op...

posted 5y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is writing big facts about a character's background good when first introducing them?

This feels like a classic example of telling rather than showing. Think about it. In both of your examples, the narrator is telling things to the reader. There's no real story going on there; it's...

posted 5y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Does everything have to be accurate?

I kept coming back to this passage in your question I keep feeling the need to explain everything in hyper detail Please, consider just not to. There's a saying along the lines of that the a...

posted 6y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it ok to reference names of real world people?

Well, first off, like ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere mentioned, make sure to be careful with how you portray a real person. There are many possible ways to mess up, not least of which is libel which was...

posted 6y ago by Canina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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