Activity for Liquid
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comment | Post #277206 |
I couldn't tell that you never had a dog. The piece is short, yet endearing. The theme is a bit cliché (animal pov - animal being put down), but your rendition was good and drove the point through, in my opinion. Can''t actually speak for dog owners, but I had cat we had to put down, I guess not much... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Edit | Post #276310 | Initial revision | — | almost 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Is writing policy pages in a lighthearted manner harmful in any way? It's difficult to predict how the majority of people would react: it might be subject to opinion. Surely someone would scoff at the jokes or at the imaginary dragon-riding. Thus said, in my opinion it might be worth the hassle. Most people would probably enjoy reading something more sparkling tha... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #276266 | Initial revision | — | almost 4 years ago |
| Question | — |
Everyone's a woman: how do you show that through gender-neutral language? In my latest short story I'm playing around with common gender misconceptions. It's set in a near future society were men have disappeared, and all roles are taken up by women. The theme is played upon, but never outright stated until the last paragraph. In the first draft of the short story, writ... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #276265 | Initial revision | — | almost 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Dealing with Audience's expectations Once I heard someone said that there's no such thing as bad publicity. I think it could as well relate to your situation there: you have a great character to begin with and a vocal audience that "wants her back". In my opinion, that's a win. Her turn to a darker self is effective because your aud... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #276239 |
Some great practical ideas in your answer - thanks.
(more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #276221 |
Makes sense: I never considered the question from the story's perspective. Thanks for the tip. (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #276219 |
Post edited: |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #276219 | Initial revision | — | almost 4 years ago |
| Question | — |
Writing "light hearted" lead characters For some reason, when I find myself writing a male protagonist, I seem to default to the brooding, gritty kind of man that could easily find his place into a noir novel. Those characters are often shaped by something in their past, some mistake that they regret, or something in society that they deep... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #275839 |
Post edited: |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #275839 |
Post edited: |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #275839 | Initial revision | — | almost 4 years ago |
| Question | — |
Writing Challenge #2: What the thunder said Writing Challenge #2 2020-06-06 Liquid here with the second episode of our traditional series of writing challenges. Last time the challenge was about the great outdoors. I wanted to keep up the outside world as a theme while proposing the new challenge. And I also wished to referen... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39219 |
Reporting in.
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— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Can overwriting be made to look intentional from a first-person narrative? I agree with Surtsey's answer: one thing are stylistic choices and characterization, another is fixing mistakes during a revision. If the problem is "i tend to overwrite", the only solution will be passing the novel through another revision where you specifically take care of this aspect, cutting do... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: When writing in third person perspective, how do you differentiate the 'she' or the 'he' from the other 'he's and 'she's? You just need to get a better grasp on when using context is enough and when it isn't. Quoting from your examples: > "There isn't much we can do unless you tell us why you were there." The cop tells the woman. > > The woman nervously taps her fingers on her arms and answers her question. Here con... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Character and world building in less than 2000 words Narrow down. 2000 words is a tight constraint indeed. While you can show something in that limit, you can't show everything that you mentioned in your question. Sci-fiction is famous for having a lot of short stories authors (I think of Asimov, of course, but I'd suggest to take a look at Ted Chian... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Are competitions worth it in order to get published? > I have recently finished my 25,000 word novella and contacted some publishers and agents about a month ago. I have only heard back from a couple rejecting me but considering the format of my book as well as the fact that it is highly experimental and does not fall into any specific genre, I do not ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Outlining the climax made me lose interest in writing the actual story The only way to resolve it is to write. I'm a discovery writer too. I get excitement from just "imagining" how things could go, how the world might be, and how the character should react. Did you notice? I used verbs in conditional form. That's because - no matter what your brain tells you - a stor... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: In which sections of a research report is it appropriate to include citations? Assuming you're not following any specific style manual, citations can go pretty much anywhere except for the abstract and the conclusions/final statements. The idea is that the abstract should be a short summary of your document, so any citation is essentialy wasted space. The conclusions should fo... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How can I have a character introduce themselves as humble without making them seem arrogant? A humble person tones down his/hers achievements. You can show this in your writing by painting a sharp contrast between what that person does and how he/she tells about it. In the tipical dating situation, this could come out in a number of ways... > Alice: "So, what do you do for a living?" > > ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How to write as a Neko Character The best bet you have is looking directly at the source material - e.g., real felines fighting. Of course it would help narrowing down to one species (the domestic cat is very different, in terms of survival instincts, from the african lion). If you lived with a couple of cats, you should have a good... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How to write strategy and schemes beyond my real-life capabilities? The author doesn't need to have the same tactical genius of those characters, because the writer has a serious advantage. As an author, you know everything and you can change everything of your story. You almost have omniscience and omnipotence over your fictional world. I say almost since you won't... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Question | — |
Getting an editor after the second draft Losely related with my latest question: Should one invest in a professional editor before querying? I've finished - not without sweat - my second draft. While I'm satisfied with the overall result, I can't shake the feeling that something is not quite right with my novel. Maybe it came out a little ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Question | — |
Should one invest in a professional editor before querying? Let's say you have completed a novel. Since you're not totally naive, you have also complete a few drafts, where with "few" I mean at least more than two. You are at a point that your book seems good; while it could certainly be better, you - the author - need some external input on how to fix the l... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Would it be better to write a trilogy over a much longer series? > I feel like publishers would regard trilogies as a safer bet than a long-winded series. But then again, publishers regard works from well-known authors as a safer bet, too. To paraphrase Brandon Sanderson (as talking of his latest series, The Stormlight Archives), once you start getting fame (and ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Would this character be classified as an antivillain, antihero, or something else entirely? Congratulations! Seems that you have a story with a vary conflicting, gray scale of morals. That's usually a good sign. Coming to your question, I'd say your hero is an anti-hero, or rather a revenge-driven hero. You mention him having a strong sense of justice, yet he has no problem on killing (s... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: How do discovery writers hibernate? In my experience hibernation doesn't help, unless you are so into a story that you're suffering from burnout. Nine times out of ten, if I leave a story unfinished, it will remain that way. In your case, hibernating makes even less sense since you already know what you want to write in the final chap... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Averting Always Chaotic Evil > While some Degenerated humans retain enough humanity to even be sympathetic characters, with their "king" being a polite, idealistic and moralistic individual who wants to rid eradicate every form of discrimination by turning humans in Degenerates while founding a proto-nation where they can live c... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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A: Do we have to introduce the character's name before using their names in a dialogue tag? As others have said, no, you don't have introduce anything before a dialogue. Infact, you can have dialogues with totally unknown characters: > A low, menacing voice whispered behind his ear. > > "I'd put that weapon down, kid." or > She heard someone screaming in the distance. > > "Fire!" In b... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Is straight-up writing someone's opinions telling? I'll add to Galastel answer about the general limits of the "show don't tell" paradigm. You are indeed allowed to tell when its more natural to do so; the catch being that while there are guidelines (and we'll be more than happy to give you some) the ultimate decision on what feels better is up to yo... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Can I adapt writing in a RPG forum to writing in a book? > What I actually wanted to ask is if I can adapt the writing style and not the story content from the forum. That I can say: "I know how to narrate my characters in this forum so I can do so in books I want to write." I used to be a massive forum roleplayer some years ago, and now I mostly write no... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: When to publish satire of current events? Satire is best served hot. In my opinion, you should try to publish it as soon as it's ready. If you find an agent or a publishing company interested in the novel they'll give you their (probably very valid ) inputs on how to market it and when it would be best to publish it. Chances are that they ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: What's a moment that's more impactful on a reread called? What came to my mind immediately is Foreshadowing Foreshadowing is the art of giving "hints" of what is about to happen in order to build tension, and a pretty common literary device. In your example, there may be multiple moments building up to the eventual death of that character. I'm stretchin... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Should you avoid redundant information after dialogue? Should you avoid redundancy? Yes. How do you get around this? Cut the redundant part and show only the new information.Infinitezero has already given a good example on that. > "Here's the chip in question." He pulled it out from his pocket with slow, deliberate gestures. He gave out the impressio... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: When should a character refer his dad or someone close in third impersonal person? You refer to someone indirectly when you want to emphasize distance. In your example, saying "the President" instead of "my dad" is a more formal and correct approach, since it underlines the man position of responsibility in a government. This sets a distance between the speaker and the referred pe... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Referring to different instances of the same character in time travel I think it may be solved using the same term consistently. From what you wrote: > "the man", "his older counterpart", "his future self", "his older self", "Older Adrien", and "his other self". Those are a lot of synonyms. While they are correct and they do convey the idea, a reader is going to be ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Should fiction mention song names and iPods? > But I've read that it's lazy writing to express the state of mind or event by just mentioning third part scene. I mean I can also elaborately mention her state of mind by showing all the other things that are happening. That's absolutely true, as a lot of other answerers have pointed out. Referenc... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Should I include an appendix for inessential, yet related worldbuilding to my story? > My question is, for the sake of satisfying reader interest, would it be worthwhile writing an appendix summarising certain inessential worldbuilding entities that's entirely optional for a reader to peruse? It can be worthwhile. Some readers are "hungry" after a story ends, and will devour any app... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How do I become a better writer when I hate reading? Along the other valid answers, I'll suggest audiobooks. I don't hate reading, but lately I have little time to spend on a single book. Audiobooks are convenient since they allow you to enjoy a book as you are doing something else (commuting to school/work, cleaning, jogging, gaming, etc...). The u... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: A flower's head or heart? Putting scientific definition aside, "Flower head" works better since it's a personification. The human reader has no trouble associating the upper part of a body with the upper part of a flower. On the contrary, "a flower's heart" is a little harder to imagine. Without further context, I would stru... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Is it expected that a reader will skip parts of what you write? In my experience, people don't do this for significant part of the writing. It may happen to skip a sentence or two if, either: 1. the passages are not clear, 2. the reader is tired, 3. there is a "wall of text" effect 4. the narration style is boring, repetitive or dragging While you can't do anyt... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Helping my beta readers help me I recognize that it's difficult to ask your beta readers to be more specific, because you already feeling in debt to them. After all they're doing you a favour. I'll mention a few points: (Critical) Awareness What you'd want is to make them more aware before reading. If they are avid readers, they ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: How do I write for the majority, without alienating my minority? Amadeus and Logan's answers are already good. I'd like to expand a bit about the "no explanation needed" that Logan presented. Your assumption is that the majority-readers needs explanation. This is not true : as humans, we are good at drawing lines between dots and dealing with missing or partial i... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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How do you show, through your narration, a hard and uncaring world? As I've already mentioned, I'm working on a sci-fi novel. One of the main feelings that I wanted to represent when I started is the sense of a vast, empty, artificial world, mostly cold and uncaring of human life; the kind of impression you can have glancing at Tsutomu Nihei's landscapes in manga su... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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Avoiding cliches when writing gods When writing fictional polytheisms, it's tempting to draw inspiration from the existing ones. In ancient religions (I'm mainly thinking of the Greek/Latin, Egyptian and Norse pantheons) there are some common tropes and similarities. They all have a "father"-god figure, they have gods of war, fertili... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Adding depth to two-dimensional heroes from myths > On the other hand, to reveal that a hero always had a Machiavellian side, would require depth, and thus question their value as absolute reference. > > My question is: in the context of a mythological tale, how to expand the dimensionality of the hero so that he can be turned into a scheming villa... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |