Activity for Thomas Myronâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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How Can I Make a Great Plot? I'm a plotter, meaning I plan and develop my books before ever writing the first draft. I've given a good deal of thought to character, stakes, and the other parts of novel creation, and I feel like I have a solid understanding of those areas. The same can't be said for the plot. I don't think I cr... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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A: How to refer to clothes without modern words ? (e.g: t-shirt) Several people have said that you should look into the historical names for clothing. However, as you pointed out on what's answer, a name that the reader is not familiar with can confuse him. This has happened to me plenty. There are two things that you can do here, both of which I would recommend:... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How can I get in the Habit of Writing with Twists? I've always felt that my writing is very sequential. It's a chain of events. This happens, then this happens, then this happens, and so on. Not to say that the events are boring, but I just always felt that something was missing. I believe I've found what that something is: twists. I'm a plotter, w... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Can I Have My Own Website Separate of My Publisher? Background I studied writing in depth before ever seriously trying it myself. I read a lot, and I looked at reputable books on the subject. Over the years, I combined what I knew into a formula which I then honed and perfected through years of trial-and-error. Now that I have that formula more or le... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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What pitfalls and guidelines are good to know when picking character names? I'm getting close to writing my first novel (plotter here - I develop the book first), but I do not yet have names for my main characters. I found this question, which helped me in that area, but now that I'm starting to find names, I have another question. A comment on that question said that names... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How Can I Reliably Find Well Written Novels? Let me open by saying that I wasn't entirely sure how to ask this question and stay on topic. This is my best attempt. I do believe this question will help other writers. As an author, I want to read a lot. I don't want to read just anything though. There's some content I don't want. Beyond that, I ... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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A: Why use quotes on the word "Dad" when talking to someone? Any word with quotation marks around it which is not a direction quotation implies the word is false or the statement is not wholly true. If it's freezing outside and I go out, I might say that I'm entering the "freezer." I'm not saying I'm literally entering a freezer, but that the outdoors is simi... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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First Person when the PoV is not the Protagonist? I believe writing in the first person gets the reader closer to the character. As far as I know, this is generally accepted as true. That's not all there is to character development, certainly, but it gets the reader in a better mind-set for 'closeness' with the character. The novel I am currently w... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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A: How do I stop my writing sounding like a bad imitation of whatever author I've just been reading? The first thing you should do is look at the answer to this question. Then realize that this is not an issue, but something that you can use greatly to your advantage. However, you still have the problem of not having your own style. I will address that below. I am a natural mimic as well. When I st... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How to Explain the Pronunciation of a Conlang Within the Text of the Novel In novels which contain a constructed language (conlang), there are areas where the rules of pronunciation can be specified. These areas have the disadvantage of either being before the story and rapidly boring the reader (preface/prologue), or being after the story and likely being overlooked until ... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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A: using double negatives and sentence structure `Not infrequently` is a double negative, and is therefore technically grammatically incorrect. `Not` is obviously the first negative. The prefix `in-` is considered to be negative, as it means `not`. The same holds true for similar prefixes, such as `im-` and `un-`. That being said, a negative prefi... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Best Practices for Getting a Sense of Character I'm a plotter. I develop and plan my novels and characters well before I write them. When it comes to character development, I make sure that my characters (or at least the central ones) are people that the reader wants to read about. I make them people the reader will find interesting, and will chee... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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I'm using the same formula for stakes over and over - is this a problem? First of all, let me explain that I am a plotter, and that I am an extreme case. This means that I develop my novels basically down to the scene before I even think of writing a first draft. This is how I write. Every novel needs deep stakes. This is generally accepted by writers as a whole. There a... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Why do Popular Fantasy Novels of Today Feature Teenagers? This could be a misconception of mine, but I've noticed that the popular fantasy novels of today seem to nearly all have main characters who are children or teenagers. I have a list of some off the top of my head below. Why is this? Is there a drawback to writing a fantasy novel with an adult as the... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Just how Different are Male and Female Readers? It is my belief that male and female readers are more or less the same. There are differences in how we view things, but those differences do not stop us from liking the same book or movie. I can see this clearly on iMDB. If I look at the broken down votes for a movie, I can see that there is a diffe... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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How can I write a character whom I have no knowledge of? In my current novel, my main character has a rival for whom he has a deep personal hatred. Think Harry Potter and Malfoy, but with something solid at the beginning. I'm attempting to come up with a good reason for this hatred, but I'm quickly realizing that I don't know where to start. I don't know h... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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A: Word for a Female Teenager? Your best bet in this scenario will simply be to prevent the reader from forming any false impressions. You can do this by correcting him immediately after the word. > She saw another girl, about fifteen years old. You can use either girl or woman; be sure to use the word that you would use to desc... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Program for Tracking Scene Information Background I'm a plotter, meaning that I develop my novel before I start writing it. You could say that I'm almost an extreme variety of plotter, as I narrow my outline down to the scene before even starting the first draft. That's just how I write. When I develop, I come up with all of the things ... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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What Can I Do to Familiarize Myself with my Characters? I'm a plotter, meaning that I develop and plan my novels before I ever start writing them. In my case, this is almost something of an extreme, as I develop every part of the novel carefully and then create a very detailed outline scene by scene before writing a word. I generally have very little tro... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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How can I Avoid Being Frightened by the Horror Story I am Writing? Yes, I have to admit it. I don't like horror movies because (shocker) I find them scary. Unlike other people in my house, I do not like being scared. Especially right before I go to bed. I dislike going into haunted houses. I also dislike being alone in the dark. This is not to suggest I'm a paranoi... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Will what worked 'back then' work today? (Novels) Tokein. Jane Austen. Steinbeck. The greats of the past. I often come across people on this site and elsewhere who use the works of these great authors and others as examples and reservoirs of advice. These are the classics. These are novels that worked beyond a shadow of a doubt. Clearly, they did it... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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A: Section of a book that explains things This is called your setting Setting is a very real part of any book, and especially of fantasy novels, as they take place in an unfamiliar setting, and therefore require more explanation. Setting is more than merely the backdrop for the story though. Through its rules, you can create circumstances y... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Can Originality Sell a Book? I am currently occupied with the all-too-familiar pursuit of banging my head against a brick wall. In this case, I am attempting to make my novel original. Here's why: I've been developing the theory that originality is one of the main things that can turn a book into a bestseller in the short term.... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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How can I Switch Protagonists Between Books? Disclaimer: I am not intending on doing this. It is just a question I thought was fascinating and might be useful to other writers. Here's the scenario. You're writing a series of novels. After the first book, you decide to change to a new protagonist. The reason isn't important. What's important is... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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How can I determine the public opinion of an author? I recently asked a question which cited a book by Orson Scott Card, How to Write Fantasy & Science-Fiction. Orson Scott Card is the author of Ender's Game, as well as many other sci-fi and fantasy books, and I've always assumed he was generally respected as a reliable source on how to write, seeing a... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Can You Mix Readers of Fantasy and Sci-Fi? In his book How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, Orson Scott Card mentions the differences between fantasy and sci-fi readers, and even says that an author should stick to only one genre, as the readers of the other genre will not know who he is (to which my answer is to simply be a bestseller i... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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A: How to describe an angry voice in dialogue? Your trouble in finding a word is that it does not exist. You will need to use adjectives and other descriptions to properly describe it. My first piece of advice would be to find a good example of what you want and describe it. You've found a good example with batman, but you're obviously having tr... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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How to Introduce Something Potentially Laughable? Here's the set up. You're reading a traditional fantasy. Something is attacking the land of the elves. At long last the invaders are discovered, and they are... intelligent rabbits. My idea isn't quite that far out, but it is similar in nature. Assuming you aren't writing a comedy, how could you pul... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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A: Is describing the scenery important in unfamiliar places? It depends on the story. Is the scenery important to the events of the novel? Does it actually have an effect on things? Does it change the outcome? If so, then yes, you need to describe it. However, usually the scenery is not necessary to the story. In fact, scenery by itself is never necessary to ... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Best platform to run an online writing contest? First off, 'platform' might not be the best word. I am talking about what you construct a website with, as in Wordpress, vbulletin, etc. I can't seem to find what these are called. I will use the word platform for now, until someone enlightens me. I am considering creating a website to host online w... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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A: Can a protagonist with questionable morals be appreciated? What you are talking about is called a Dark Protagonist. Short Answer: Yes. This is possible, if handled correctly. If handled incorrectly, your main character will fail and take the book with her. Long Answer: The trick with any protagonist (and indeed any part of writing) is to consider what yo... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Writer's Block: How to Stop World-building and Start Writing? This is a question that doesn't directly apply to me, though I can easily see myself having this problem. I thought I'd run writer's block for a loop and find the answer before the problem arose. :) I like designing stuff. No, scratch that. I love designing stuff. It doesn't really matters what it i... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What do Readers Expect from a Fantasy Novel Here and there I've been hearing about what readers 'expect' from certain genres. Romance readers expect the hero and heroine to wind up together. Fantasy readers expect epic fantasy full of battles and otherworldly creatures. Mystery/detective readers expect an element of, well, mystery, and a satis... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Are there drawbacks to having previous fan fictions written before being published? I am not a published author, though I am nearing that stage. This is because I decided many years ago to learn all I could about writing, and hone my skill with practice, before actually writing my first novel. It's that practice that is now the problem. I practiced writing by creating fan fiction a... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How to clarify the objects of a sentence's two pronouns? Hi hebbo and welcome to Writers SE! Generally asking what to write is off topic, but I think this is an exception, because it is actually a common problem in writing (at least for me). It's not a naive question by a long shot; every now and then I have this same problem myself. The answer is usually... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Miles or Kilometers for historical fiction? I am not versed in who used what when, so I can't tell you exactly what to use. Fortunately, I can tell you how to find out. In most fiction, your write for your readers. So if your audience is German or Russian, you use the Metric System. If they are American, you use the US Customary System In hi... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Do you capitalize the "T" in "the" in a Title or Place's Name? You capitalize `The` if: - It begins a sentence. - It is part of the name. So if the inn is `The Cloak and Dagger Inn`, everything is capitalized (except the `and` of course). If the name is the `Cloak and Dagger Inn`, then the `the` is not capitalized, as it is not part of the name. On the othe... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Writing a novel largely composed of question-answer sessions and welcome to the site. I do not know of any novels that follow the format you are describing, but that is a good thing. I believe one of the reasons World War Z stood out from the mass of zombie fiction out there is because it had a different format: letters. That format made it stand out from the... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Hang on - where's the main conflict? I've recently been struggling with a very strange problem in my writing: I can't find the main conflict in my novels. This has inspired quite a bit of thought and reflection on exactly what a main conflict is, but I'm still just as stumped, if not more so. I'm not new to writing, so this issue is qui... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Term for a collection of novels divided into several series I'm writing my first series of novels, which will contain four books. As often happens, about half way through developing the books, I opened up the possibility for an entirely new series set in the same world with the same characters, but several years later. I could possibly do this again as well, ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: First person POV "mom:" vs. "mother" As a general rule, dialogue is not bound by the rules of grammar as tightly as the rest of the novel. Therefore, if a person says something a certain way, you write it that way. As far as your example goes, there is no right or wrong way to refer to Quorraline's mother in dialogue. If Quorraline refe... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Is killing a character to further the plot necessarily a bad thing? There is one rule in writing from which everything else stems: you write for the reader. However, from that rule, you can deduce that if you turn out a novel that you know could have been better, you are cheating the reader from reading it. You've examined other possible routes which do not include ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Is it correct to ask, "WHY LAUGHING?" It is not grammatically correct, no. To be grammatically correct, you would use: "Why are you laughing?" However, if your hero speaks a certain way and it would be natural for him to ask the question like that, then write "why laughing?". It all depends on your story. (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Where does the comma go when using 'but'? The word 'but' follows the same rules as any other conjunction, just like 'and' or 'or'. It's a word that joins two phrases. All of your examples are correct. The first phrase ends with a comma, and the second phrase starts with the conjunction. Your first two sentences follow this rule perfectly. T... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How Can You Prolong an Emotional Reaction in the Reader? I always feel that a book or movie has achieved something great when I have an emotional reaction to it. For a very brief moment, the protagonist's pain, drive, happiness, or shock becomes my own. For a brief moment, I enter the world of the story. And in that brief moment, I become heavily invested ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Is it a bad idea to have three protagonists? Welcome to the site, Chimere! As a general rule, it's best to stick with one protagonist. As @Private has mentioned, if you have two, it should generally be a hero and a heroine (please see the comments below for details). However, I've asked a good number of questions myself, and I know that your st... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Adding a PoV after the first novel in a series I am currently developing a series of fantasy novels, and have discovered that I will likely be adding a second point of view in the second or third book (five books total in the series). Up until that point, I have only had one PoV character, the protagonist. This new PoV character has been around ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: What's the difference between a 1-, 2- or 3-dimensional character? I would firstly like to say that the answer by @Jay is excellent, and provides some good pointers on which characters should be one-dimensional or three-dimensional. Like others here, I have never heard of two- or three-dimensional characters. I have heard of one-dimensional and multi-dimensional. ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How do I keep a journey sequence going? I'm not going to tell you how to solve your problem. Quite frankly, I don't know how to solve your problem, despite having faced it countless times myself in the past. Instead, I'm going to show you why you have this problem in the first place. I'm going to show you how to treat the cause instead of ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How can I create an inter-connected plot across a series? I am an aspiring author, and I have recently just begun developing my first novel. It is a series, but I have engineered the first novel to be a standalone in case the series falls through. When I look at other successful series, I continue to see inter-connected plots across all the books. Scenes t... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |