Activity for Secespitus
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | over 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) |
— | almost 7 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) |
— | almost 7 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) |
— | almost 7 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) |
— | almost 7 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) |
— | almost 7 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) |
— | almost 7 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) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to get my book taken seriously as a teenager? Your readers won't care about your age Sometimes an author will write a little autobiographic blurb that is printed at the end of the book. If you do this and you mention your age in there your readers might realize how old you were when you wrote your book. At least those readers that care about th... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Should software product release notes be in marketing voice or technical voice? (software documentation) In my opinion Release Notes should be written in a technical style, focused on the technical implications of the most recent changes. This makes them sort of a mix between the two worlds - you want to target decision makers and technical people and tell them what has changed when compared to the olde... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is it ok to begin a new chapter with a completely new character/time/setting? Yes, you can start a chapter with a completely new character/time/setting - as long as you show your reader where and when the story currently is As always this depends on what you want to achieve. For example there are books that are written solely from a single person's point of view and each chap... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Should important events that happen a long time before the rest of the story be in a prologue or in chapter 1? If there is such a huge time difference and there are no big temporal skips in the rest of the book this would likely be a good prologue. Because of the difference this would feel to the reader like something that is not directly related to the current story, but is important to understand for exampl... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is it a bad idea to have multiple bad endings and only one good ending? It depends on your genre - in horror games this can be a very good decision If you are going for a darker themed game, and your description suggests that you are doing this, then having multiple bad endings is fine. I've played quite a few horror games that were created with the RPG Maker (I am not ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Do you have to write in the tone of ordinary speech? This depends on the message you are trying to convey If you are writing fiction you may use archaic speech to make a character unique, or you may have everyone speak that way to show how the society acts. Another option is trying to show the reader that they are in a time that is unlike the one they... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Still struggling with character desire, positive vs. negative, hooking readers Negative feelings resonate in humans more strongly than positive ones - but a positive spin is needed for long term motivation Humans have a tendency to value what they have, and therefore what they might lose, higher than what they may achieve. This is important from an evolutionary point of view, ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to derive a storyline from a beginning? What you need is inspiration - try throwing a coin The problem is that you only have the start - but not the end. Without knowing where you want to go it will be hard to flesh out the middle part where most things happen. One option would be to get a feeling for what your idea for the story is like... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to describe an everyday routine? You would do this by mentioning the things he always has to do, preferrably in a dialogue or in a monologue from the character themselves if there are no others around. > Random Person 1: "Hey, wanna watch a movie together?" > MC: "Sorry, can't. I've got to go to the gym at eight. I do that every ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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How do big creative writing projects with multiple people work, preferably in the videogame industry? I was reading some questions and answers on this site about writing for video games, when I stumbled upon this answer that mentions some things I am not familiar with. > In an ideal world, there would be a lead writer but this is not always the case. and > In such a huge project, the writer ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Should the narrator use pseudonyms in writing? The narrator should normally use the real name and be consistent with the usage. Have a look at the question Would it be cheating to change the main character's “name” partway through the story? for an idea of how changing the name midway through the story can be done and discussions about whether t... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How do I write a report analyzing a system's weaknesses and how to address them? In case you are starting from scratch and are free to choose whichever form you like you should have a look at the excellent answer from Monica Cellio. But: in case you are in an established company there is a good chance that you may not have to come up with your own formatting rules. Most com... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Would it be appropriate to end a side story as soon as a character is killed off? This depends on which aspects of the war you want to look at. For your example with the child and the family in general it might be better to take the already explained path: explore the implications of his death by showing what the people who loved him have to go through afterwards. You can show tha... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: A mix of the Medieval Age and the 21st century period Clockpunk Most of the following comes from the article: Punkpunk: A Compendium of Literary Punk Genres First of all, appending "punk" at the end is often used to show that the main character or characters belong to a certain niche group and are rebelling against the current society - the defining a... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Would it be cheating to change the main character's "name" partway through the story? As long as the change is obvious that sounds like an interesting take on naming your character. You should think about how the exact change happens - it's probably unnatural if your narrator suddenly completely switches from one name to the author. Old habits die hard. You could for example make it... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: I'm writing a thesis/novel. What should I pay attention to on a possible research trip? Locations that probably haven't changed too much The most useful things to have a look at in a case like yours are the landmarks that probably haven't changed too much, such as: - nearby mountains - lakes - rivers - ... Famous old stuff The next best thing to see would be stuff that is quite old ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to communicate character desire? You are on the right track, but apparently your showing was not explicit enough. A possible problem might be that you have a perfectly fine image of the mother in your mind, but you never communicated it clearly. Have you described the actions of the mother? The choices that made her the kind of per... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |