Activity for Secespitus
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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A: Ethics of using poorly-redacted information in public documents Looking at the ethics code posted in the comments by @MarkBaker which can be found here you can see that there is no clear indication about your specific case. Especially because we can't possibly know exactly what you are writing we can't give you any concrete feedback and you should be cautious abo... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Would publishing my book like the "Stacks Project" increase the readership of my book? > Will it increase readership of my book if I rewrite it using the same software as Stacks Project book to make it available as interactive HTML on the Web in addition to currently available PDF? Yes, in theory more channels = more ways to discover your work Nobody can give you a definite answer to... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Can I add Drop Caps to my manuscript in the Storyist program? Not quite, you can add Drop Caps to the CSS of the ePub file that Storyist generates for you This Storyist forum gives an example of how to modify the CSS for your .ePub file (which is just a zip that you can unzip to see the individual files) to add Drop Caps: > ### Adding drop caps to the start o... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How can I (or can I?) create a Canva.com cover for a CreateSpace 6"x9" title? First of all: you can HypnoThyroidWriter.com has an article specifically for this called Journal creation — a marriage of Canva & CreateSpace templates for Word. Apparently the author of that article even wrote a book specifically about this topic called Create stunning journals & workbooks using Ca... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How to zoom text in Scrivenings mode without changing the actual font? This is not intended behaviour. The zoom function should work the way you were expecting it to work. This is simply a bug. If you see such a behaviour and it is not solved by closing and restarting the software and your PC you should first see if there is a newer version available to check whether t... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Is it okay if I wrote a story based on true historical events? Yes, this is commonly called "Alternate History" To cite from Wikipedia: > Alternate history or alternative history (Commonwealth English), sometimes abbreviated as AH, is a genre of fiction consisting of stories in which one or more historical events occur differently. These stories usually contai... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How should I set the inside margin for my 5x8" book with Createspace? The exact details don't matter, these are just guidelines. I looked at a few discusions from the CreateSpace community. The most helpful one is this one. You can see the different recommended inner margin values: - up to 150 pages: 0.375" - 151 - 400 pages: 0.75" - 401 - 600 pages: 0.875" - more t... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What paper stock should I use for the soft cover of my book? Looking at companies that offer to print and laminate books you can find out what typical paper stocks are used. For example the site printabook.ca mentions: > 300gsm art stock (option for gloss or matt laminate to increase durability) The site printninja.com gives a comparison of the different ki... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Is the website allpoetry.com benefecial for poets and writers? I've had a look at allpoetry.com, a few review sites such as sitejabber.com and sites reporting about it such as PlagiarismToday.com. On their registration site they mention quite a huge number of members - "Over 500,000 poets get feedback and improve their poetry". I couldn't find any information a... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Scrivener changes my font size This is simply a bug, not intended behaviour, which is why nobody here can give you a definite answer about how to make it stop. If you see such a behaviour try to file a bug report on their bug reporting site. Be sure to include the important information, such as the version of the software you are ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Scrivener: Play gifs? To expand on the comment from Lew from this page: Scrivener does not allow you to play gifs directly, neither in your research folder, nor when embedded in a page. I've looked through a few sites and discussions such as this one or this one or this one - but none of them describe your scenario and t... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Are there custom placeholders in Ulysses app? Ulysses does not support placeholders directly and there are no simple shortcuts that would create a placeholder. You would have to use your own implementation. For things to keep track of when using such a custom method have a look at my answer to the question What should I do when I am stuck on na... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Giving a character a name that is based on his storyline This is a perfectly reasonable way to name your character and introduce the name with a little backstory. Some people will call it cheesy. Some people will say that it lacks originality. But all stories are always just retellings of what someone else previously wrote. Your goal should be to give it ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What language should I write my programming blog post in? There is no definite answer - you already mentioned the most important points English means a bigger audience. Most of the world can speak English and can therefore understand you, which leads to a far bigger audience. The bigger audience also means that the quality is potentially higher - more peop... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Pretty flowers with clunky Latin names Most plants have some commonly used names as humans don't really want to use weird latin descriptions in their everyday conversations. A quick look on Wikipedia for Vachellia tortilis for example yields (emphasis mine): > Vachellia tortilis, widely known as Acacia tortilis but attributed by APG III ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Is First person perspective more intimate than Third person perspective? First Person means that you are stuck with that one person and its look on the world. This can mean a lot more intimacy, especially in situations that show the emotions of this one person. But a good author is able to show these emotions in dialogue and in actions between characters and can therefore... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Can reading Franz Kafka help uninspired comedians? Read a lot and write a lot - that's the most basic advice you can get for any question about "How can I become a better writer?". It's important to understand that you need practice to get better. Writing is no different than any sport or other hobby/profession you may pick up. Reading diverse genre... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Where's the middle ground between genre conventions and originality? You know when you are going against the conventions too much when you are feeling forced to go against the conventions just for the sake of going against the conventions. The work then starts to feel like hard work to not be like everyone else instead of putting the effort into meaningful progressio... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How do you tell a character's backstory without explicitly telling it? You do it in chunks. Let the character explain that he is the right one for the job because he has done this thing in the past. Let another character a chapter later point out that they knew this character for years and can always trust that this character will get it done. Let him share something at... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Intentionally leaving out a part of the story, for a more interesting reveal? When I am stressed out my clear thoughts are usually taking a backseat because I am focused on whatever is stressing me out. You can try to omit the stuff by simply not explicitly talking about it: > What do I need now? I need... I need... macaroni! Yes, macaroni! That's perfect! And... Yarn! Where ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: A question on the ambiguity of the Alternate History genre The definition of the whole genre "Alternate History" is that you are mostly trying to be as realistic as possible, except for one or more historical events. It's completely up to you what those details are and to what extent you exactly want to change reality. If you want a newspaper to talk about G... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Handling Dependencies in Essays If those topics are necessary a-priori knowledge to understand your reasoning then you should expect your readers to know the basics. If you can't expect them to know what you are talking about the following question arises: "Where do I start with the required pre-requisites?" You would have to ask ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How unadvisable is it to flip the protagonist into a villain? The main problem will likely be that your readers should like your protagonist - you want them to read a whole series with him as the main character after all. If the character you like suddenly without any warning turns into the super bad guy they will ask themselves "What happened?!" and they may n... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How do you do "beta reading" for a game before the game is ready? You don't You normally wouldn't start by writing the complete story from start to finish and then proceed to start developing the other parts of a game: gameplay, art, music, ... Regarding the story the normal process seems to be that you would start with a high-level concept - this article called ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What type of character should I write about first in a potential series of books? > Does it really matter what type of character to start a series with? Most of the time: Yes. A lot of longer series have an overarching storyline. I am thinking about Black Dagger for example because the (English) books switch their point of view with every book (as fas as I know; the German ones ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How to avoid pages of dialogue? Depending on your narrator you could for example have the protagonist react to the questions with inner monologue instead of external dialogue. If the inspectors ask him "What's your name?" he could start to think "That's a good question. I have no idea. But will they believe me? I probably wouldn't ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What should I do when I am stuck on names during freewriting? I always feel that names are a big problem for me and coming up with some meaningful names that sound pleasant is one of the hardest parts of writing for me. That's why I never stop to come up with a name. Before starting to write I normally have a plan for the next few pages at least and I know whi... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What should I include (and not include) on a book's website? If you aren't yet published with an established fan base: post everything you feel comfortable with publishing Your goal should be to build up a fan base so that people know your name and know what you are working on. That way you can build up a reputation while working on the finished product and a... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What is the difference between literature and review study? It's likely a sarcastic way of asking you whether you are writing a review study, which is the review article you intended to write, or a piece of literature, meaning prose, which is likely not what the editor wants - he wants the article, not a novel. This means that your writing may be extravagant... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How specific should descriptions of settings/appearances be? Rate the people giving you feedback on a personal scale of "How close are they to my target audience?" Not everyone will be equally close to your target audience. If you aim to write a book for people that are probably in their early twenties, mostly read sci-fi and love complicated plots you might ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Are there any guidelines for writing a fiction story in a non-fiction style? "Show, don't tell" is a guideline - not a rule There are no rules when writing fiction. There are tips and tricks for what works for most audiences and what does not work for most audiences. But ultimately everything is up to you and when you decide that you don't want something - then simply don't ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Is shaking of the head positive or negative? From personal experience (central Europe) I would say that shaking your head is normally a "No" and nodding your head is normally a "Yes". But looking through English.SE: When moving one's head to answer a question does “nod” mean yes and “shake” mean no?: > Head movements vary in their meaning depe... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Is there still a market for solo adventures game books? Yes - but it's a difficult market and you might want to check out similar genres The traditional book market is likely declining in many aspects, but there are many similar types of media that are very popular. Take for example Visual Novels. Basically they are Choose your own adventure games suppor... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How can one character narrate past events to another character? It can be a nice way to show the past from a different point of view. As long as it's not only a long exposition of things that the other character should already know this can be very interesting for the reader. Imagine for example two friends talking about the good old times and remembering funny o... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Stories with multiple possible interpretations: do you plan for it? There is a joke that we always told each other in my school when we had to analyze texts or poetry that goes something like this: > Teacher: What did the author mean when he said that the curtains are blue? > > Pupil 1: The curtains are a replacement for the endless skies that can't be seen from th... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How do you drop a reader in the middle of nowhere at the beginning of a story? This is a somewhat usual start for something that goes in the direction of a horror story - which means it works for the general audience You will want your character to wake up and have a look at her surroundings. After getting a first impression you should dwell for a moment on the fact that she d... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: The effect of different "narrative voices" in the same novel The biggest risk is that you may lose the main characteristic of the narrator out of sight: to tell the reader what is important. There is nothing wrong with changing the point of view and paying attention to different kinds of details is certainly a nice way to illustrate the change, but if you los... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Should I repeat character descriptions if a character reappears the second time too far into the story? There is nothing wrong with repeating stuff in a novel Your characters may very well have forgotten, or almost forgotten, about this character if enough happened in-between and his role was not too magnificent. This gives you as the author the chance to repeat the most important things. If one of yo... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Search and replace words across whole project? No, there is no such option Looking through the official documentation and checking the query language document it appears that you can't simply use the advanced query script to write for example a SQL Upate. It only gives you search options and the interface doesn't have a replace option. There is... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How to evoke wonder in the reader, when there isn't an incredulous character? Make the circumstances special Sitting on a chair is normal. Sitting on a chair because there is a bomb under it that will detonate the moment you stand up is not. Your character simply has to see the palace in another light. Maybe they have always been at daytime when some kind of ceremony took pl... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How to write a board game scene? The more decisions to make in the game, the better - focus on the risk Describe each decision the character makes in detail. What is the most useful move your character could make in this moment? Why is it the most useful one? What are the assumptions behind this? How would her opponent have to reac... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How do you avoid smiling, head-bobbing characters? This depends on your characters and story If you have a happy fairy-tale story for young adults having a lot of smiling characters may be exactly what you want - a mostly happy world. If, on the other hand, you are writing a gritty thriller where the main goal is to show the psychological trauma of... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Am I describing a zombie? Not a traditional zombie There are many ways to label this kind of creatures. Zombie doesn't quite fit, as they normally only regenerate once in the sense that they are coming back to life. But their bodies are still the way they were when they died and they normally can't regain lost limbs. Zombies... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How do you write a Stack Exchange answer? Structure your answer properly This is something that is relevant across all sites. You should be used to markdown and know at least the basics: - Using headings - Paragraphs and soft linebreaks - lists 1. numbered 2. and unnumbered Put your most relevant points in the start and make them bold... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Is there a dialog tag for when someone is saying something in awe? > "Wooow!" they marvelled. To marvel is the word that comes to my mind in this case. But in general you should realize that often it's not that important to find the one word to describe something. It may be hard for your audience to understand - after all it's hard for you to come up with it. Ther... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Prepare for more after the "ending"? > How can I prepare the player for that? You don't. It's quite simple: you don't want to prepare your player throughout the game of this aspect. You want it to be something special. Most games end when destroying the Big Bad End Boss, but you want to make your game special by giving your players mo... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Describing body language? Most of the time you don't want to find the one word that describes this - because if it's so hard for you to come up with this one word, chances are it's hard for your audience to understand the word. Of course there are many times more words in our passive vocabulary than in our active vocabulary,... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Coincidence of Similarity in Writing Don't worry - everything has been done before; just try to be yourself Your goal shouldn't be to be the only one to ever blog about something. This is especially true for fiction as there are only a handful of basic plots in existence and the main goal of an author is to provide a new version, telli... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Guidance on pacing the introduction of new characters Realistic detail does not necessarily mean describe unimportant characters in greater detail - it may for example mean more details about the environment Judging from the comment conversation it seems that you interpreted the feedback you received to mean that people want more information about the ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Is it okay to include world-building facts by "telling" instead of "showing"? If your narrator knows about it and regularly tells the reader things that no character can possibly know it's fine If you are using a narrator that doesn't know more about the characters it would be very weird if he suddenly knew something that "very few people know", assuming that your main charac... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |