Activity for Galastel
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: How to introduce a large amount of characters in the first chapter? The easiest solution is to split up the introduction. If it's possible at all, have the MC share a scene with one or two characters, then with two or three others, and so on until you've introduced them all. It can also be helpful to mention a character not present in the scene, before he is properly... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How best to prevent a protective response from overshadowing a heroic act? You're in a tricky situation here: there's been so much written about women needing protection, that responding negatively to it is almost a knee-jerk reaction, whether justified or not. One way you can address this is by acknowledging the problem. If you're telling the story from the man's POV, he ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How many times should I mention a character's name when the interactions are among the same sex? If you feel it is clear enough who is speaking, you can skip the attribution. For example, if two people are speaking, the reader would assume that they're taking turns, so you don't need to attribute every line to the person who said it. When a character addresses another by name, it also helps orie... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Protective, not patronising A character I'm writing about is a girl of 15, daughter of a nobleman, unable to walk due to having contracted Polio when she was 5. Being quite intelligent, she attracts some useful attention, and is offered a position at court. Her father is feeling very protective of her, and is not in favour of ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How should I handle writing a story where different portions of the narrative are told from the point of view of several different narrators? @FraEnrico talks about epistolary novels, and I agree with him - it does sound very much like what you're trying to do. What troubles me, however, is that usually one would have epistolary novels. You seem to be going for an epistolary short story. Ten characters are often a bit much for a short stor... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Changing perspectives An omniscient narrator can tell the whole story: sometimes the narrator's focus is on the MC, sometimes it's elsewhere. However, if the narrator only rarely strays away from sitting on the MC's shoulder, as it where, the effect could be a bit confusing. When it's done a lot throughout the course of ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Need advice about changing character's gender So, you are concerned about representing a minority in your story, because you do not belong to that minority. Following the same logic, men shouldn't write about women, WASP Americans shouldn't write about anyone of different religion or skin colour, and only people with disabilities should write ab... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Facial expressions as part of dialogue - getting rid of a verbal tic I noticed a verbal tic in my writing: > He looked surprised > > He looked confused > > He looked abashed Sometimes twice in a row: > The prince looked abashed. “I- I thought I was being polite,” he mumbled. > “You were. You chose your words and your compliments well. I looked at you, and I saw... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is it okay to use a lot of exclamation marks? It would be helpful if you could provide a sample of your writing. It is a bit hard to judge whether you're using too many exclamation marks, if we can't see how many you're using. :) As a general rule, your characters wouldn't be exclaiming all the time, would they? That's not how people talk in re... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: What to call a main character who changes names? There are many ways you can tackle this question. Some considerations would be how close your narration is to the MC, how the MC thinks of themselves, and how you want the reader to think of her. Let me give you some examples of how different authors treated the question, and you can see which approa... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to insert music lyrics on an book You do not make it clear whether your struggle is with the formatting of the lyrics (a question which @Cyn answers) or with structuring the scene, a question which I will attempt to tackle. The Lord of the Rings is chock-full of characters bursting into song at every opportunity. Tolkien sets up the... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Writing a coherent alt-history universe Let me challenge your premise. You say you're writing alternative history. Usually, alternative history has one point of divergence from real history, and the effects of this divergence are explored. The divergence can be a fantastical element, or it can just be that history took a different course. ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Using the grammatically correct way or the casual way to express the same idea in another language? Technically, not ending a sentence with a preposition is a rule that Latin-obsessed 17th-century nerds tried to impose on the English Language, as a part of a larger attempt to make English grammar work exactly the same as Latin grammar. This rule wasn't true for English grammar before the 17th centu... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How long should I mention an injured character’s pain? It's a fine balance you're trying to strike, between "unrealistically resistant to pain", and "we get it, get on with the story". I'd say, try to use the reminders that "character is in pain" to propel the story forwards , rather than have them stall everything. For example, in The Three Musketeers... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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How can I indicate that a particular relationship between two male characters is purely brotherly (Philia) rather than romantic (Eros)? One of the four forms of love Greek philosophy recognised, Philia is usually translated as "brotherly love". It is the love between true friends. It was considered a "higher form" of love than Eros) - the romantic, sexual love. Philia is what Kirk and Spock shared, for example. And the reason I chos... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Are reactive protagonists inherently a bad thing? I'd say the question of Active vs. Reactive hero is as much a question of how you present events, as of what is actually happening. Let me give you an example: Frodo, the main character of the wildly successful Lord of the Rings, can hardly be said to have actively chosen the quest of the Ring. His ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Authorship implications of presenting one’s manuscript as an older one in the prologue Pretending to "have found and edited an obscure manuscript" is quite a common literary device. A few other examples include Neil Gaiman's The Dream Hunters (Illustrated by Yoshitako Amano, part of the Sandman series) and William Goldman's The Princess Bride. You will note that in all examples, while... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How do i properly name a fictional species and describe it? Let's start with description: how to describe a living creature, without referencing other living creatures. What does it have - scales, tail, wings? How many limbs? On how many does it walk, if at all? Describe what is. For example, if I described a creature as "covered with soft brown fur, possessi... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: People like my book, starting halfway through Often books take a while to get into when they have a slow start, when not much is happening for the first part of the novel. However, you say that's not the case with you - you have plenty of action. I would therefore surmise that the problem is exactly the one you point out in your other question:... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Early investment in a character who "learns better" What positive character traits does your MC have? Surely he isn't all bad, a one-dimensional caricature of schmuckiness? Consider: in The Three Musketeers, d'Artagnan beats his servant (and Athos threatens his with a pistol), d'Artagnan rapes Milady (after Athos attempts to murder her, and before th... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to create an open frame story? I'm getting the impression that you're not looking for a story, so much as a world, a framework in which stories can take place. Consider, then: what is that world like? Our world (more or less)? Our world + supernatural stuff? Futuristic? Past? Fantasy world with fantasy races? Once you have the ge... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to describe movement in zero-G? Describing something is significantly easier if you can look at it - you find words for what you're seeing, you form associations. Quite a few astronauts publish short videos from the ISS. Here's one example, with astronaut Chris Hadfield. These videos let you see what it's like to be in a microgravi... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to make literature review for a software implementation project? Any source that you use in your work, be it academic literature, websites, or even tv programs, needs to be cited. Similar projects are extremely relevant to what you're doing, and therefore if your source on them is a website rather than an academic work, it should definitely be cited. When you cit... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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How does one discovery-write court intrigue? Intrigue (any kind, really, but royal courts were particularly known for it) is a series of setups that lead to a pay-off. For example, a handkerchief moved from one room to another, a word whispered, a letter falsified, are setups that lead to, for example, one dead Desdemona. When one is a plotter... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Split up the section or flow straight through It all depends on how you choose to tell your story. Are you telling it all in first person, as if the main character is recounting what happened to her? Then it would be strange if you suddenly jumped to follow someone else. If on the other hand, you have an omniscient narrator - a narrator who fol... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is my story pacing too fast? My impression is that you've got so much going on in so few words, that you never really allow the reader to settle down and experience a scene, understand what's going on, go through your character's thoughts and feelings. Every one of the events you describe should have some sort of buildup, and so... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How can you write when you're upset? Writing is where I run to, from everything that upsets me. I read the last scene I've been writing , from the beginning, and by the end - I'm in that moment, I've found my focus, I can proceed from there. Sometimes I channel frustration, anger, pain, disappointment into my writing: the story demands... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Creating fictional names - bands, hotels and companies If what you're looking for is not stand-ins for real places, but just a generic place for your characters to be in, look at how real company names, real hotel names, real band names etc. are formed. Companies often have a name formed around the product they sell (such as Toys-R-Us) or the founders' ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Writing compelling dialogue Surprisingly, dialogue tags are language-specific. In English, 'said' is considered transparent, the dialogue tag to be used most of the time, as opposed to "intoned", "articulated" etc., which are to be used sparingly. In French, on the other hand, using "said" all the time is considered to show lac... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: first point of view and the problem of opinion As others have explained, if a story is written in first person, the readers expect to be privy to the POV character's opinions, thoughts and feelings. This is true of third person limited too, and even an omniscient narrator would get into characters' heads. However, this does not preclude the read... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is there a practical time limit on a children's book meant to be read out loud? I'd say parents might not buy an 8-year-old a book for reading it out loud at all. Regardless of length. An 8-year-old can read, and read well. He has no need for someone to read a book out loud to him. In fact, a child might well be offended by the notion of having someone read to him - he's big now... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: A children's book that takes 25 minutes to read out loud - is it too long? If anything, I'd say your book is too short for that age. 3rd grade is 8-years-olds, right? At that age, 25 minutes to read out loud is closer to one chapter of a book they'd be reading. At 8 years old, my favourite books were Sans Famille, White Fang and Narnia (all of it, except for the last book,... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How can I keep my writing from being perceived as "too complicated" I don't think you're going to like hearing this, but part of the problem with your writing is bad grammar. Now, English isn't your first language, and you're 12. It's perfectly OK for you to make mistakes. But the thing is, simple sentence structures are more forgiving. When you use more complex sent... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How does an author write in hand gestures and non-verbal communication? Some gestures are universally understood. For example: > He nodded. or > The audience burst in applause. Because those gestures are universally understood, giving them description or explanation is redundant: you wouldn't say "he moved his head up and down, signifying assent". On the other side ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Can there be written narratives (not movies or films, but books) without any narrator? A story is a narrative - an account of connected events. Somebody is giving that account - there's no avoiding that. There you've got your narrator. Even a newspaper, which seeks to make the journalist impartial and transparent, there's still the person reporting on what happened, recounting it, narr... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to give cartography information in a fantasy setting without being too precise? In Uprooted, Naomi Novik deals quite elegantly with this issue. First, she doesn't dump all the information at once, but sprinkles it where it's relevant. > We lived in Dvernik, which wasn't the biggest village in the valley or the smallest, or the one nearest the Wood: we were seven miles away. Th... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How should I deal with travel time in fantasy? There are three ways you can deal with long journeys. First, skipping time is a time-honoured tradition. If nothing happens during the time of travel, you can just skip it. It is quite common to read things like: > They have been travelling for two weeks when... or > On the third day of their jou... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How do you get over the fear of exposing yourself in writing? I have resorted more than once to citing Neil Gaiman's 2012 address Make Good Art. Let me quote from it here too: > The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of you... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Can fanfics be bestsellers? The main obstacle to fanfics flooding the market is copyright. As long as the original author holds the copyright for their work, fanfics can only live as free stuff on the internet. (Or, as Kirk points out, they can be "reskinned", "retooled", so they're not obviously recognisable as fanfic. In whic... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to write internally emotional characters? The problem I see with your writing, the answer to your question, is that you need to immerse yourself in your character's emotion. Put yourself in that emotional experience, in that moment. What do you feel? Your thoughts? Your responses? Your associations? Your visceral desires? To use your exampl... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Everything I write ends up being a rhyming poem, or lyrics maybe So you want to write the story of your life, but are more comfortable with verse than with prose? Why not think of it as a strength rather than a weakness? You're expressing your life in verse, right? Then why not take that verse, arrange it in a way that makes sense, add a couple of sentences to con... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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What is genre, and why should we care? Here I came upon an argument about whether a particular grouping is a genre, or a marketing term. Which made me wonder - what is genre? How strict is this taxonomy, and what purpose does it serve? I mean, is it for marketing (in which case the aforementioned argument has its answer in the market), or... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: If a main character is writing the story, can I change who writes the story in the next chapter? First person serves best to help the reader identify with the character, it minimises the distance between the audience and the protagonist. Is that the kind of connection you want between the reader and the antagonist as well? That's an option, so long as that's a conscious decision on your part. S... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Writing about a topic which you don't have personal experience in The first answer to your question, as everybody else is pointing out, is research. Anything you don't know about, research. Read about it to get a general picture. Look for first-hand accounts (people you can interview, youtube, written accounts). In particular, note when first-hand accounts differ o... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to write female characters as a male writer? Women, like men, are quite diverse. Some are more introspective, some are less. Some think about their feelings, and why they feel a certain way, others are more concerned with their career and how to solve that problem in the lab. Don't think of writing a woman - think of writing a person. Find out ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: It seems safer to make everyone white then to be accused of 'racism' if I I make any of my pre-written cultures a different race Videogame, in a fantasy world that isn't our world. Why not make people blue, red, green? Who says their biology and skin colours have to conform to earth's? In fact, then you'd have a number of "races" (whatever "race" means), but you wouldn't be in any way tied to earth's stereotypes. You definite... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Can a book with a lot of action be annoying? If you give the audience action, you've got to give some reason to care for that action. I wouldn't want to be reading about a whole lot of violence between some people I know nothing about - I'd have no stake in that violence, no one to root for. I wouldn't be particularly interested to find out whe... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Avoiding spectacle creep There are more things you can do with stakes than escalate ad nauseam. First, you can vary the threat. For example, Buffy jokes more than once about "saving the world again". The difference comes from saving the world from different things; a new threat might require a new approach, pose a tougher c... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to write female characters with agency? Woman here. :) I think what your female character would struggle with most is that suddenly she does need her man beside her - for safety, for being treated a certain way by other people, etc. It doesn't matter how feminine she was in the 23rd century, it doesn't matter if she liked cooking and stay... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Averting Protagonist-Centred Morality I think you misunderstand what Protagonist-Centred Morality is. It's not just that the narrative "encourages the audience to root for the protagonist despite the immoral and unethical actions". You get Protagonist-Centred Morality when the whole narrative's moral compass appears to point not north, b... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |