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Posts by Liquid‭

184 posts
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Q&A How can show that my cold hearted character is coping with grief?

I have a little contradiction in my story that may well be fatal. In my high sci-fi setting, one of my main characters is an android. Let's call him Bob. Bob is efficient, cold and straight-to-th...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do you normalize a taboo custom in a setting that most readers would not agree with?

The reader doesn't have to agree with the setting of your story: he just has to understand it. I'll basically answer with a longer version of "show, don't tell". Our society may look down on extra...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A I'm looking for inspiration for spells and potions

Of course, since spells and potions don't exist in this world, all we have are sources from people who believed they existed. For spells, you could check out the Malleus Maleficarum. It's a medie...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should a non-native writer try to use complex English words?

Most native english speakers will probably have a mastery of the english language superior to your own. I'm a non-native english speaker myself and, since I read a lot in english (and somewhat stru...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Can the prologue's POV be different from the POV of main story?

If you think it would be a cheap trick, then don't do it. But it is an already somewhat estabilished tecnique - there are tons of books where the prologue has a different PoV from that of the mai...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to write dialogueless flashbacks?

As Matthew Dave pointed out, you don't really need dialogue for that kind of flashbacks. They are memories shared in a common, telephatic link; you can write them as a series of vivid images - citi...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do I differentiate between the "voices" of my characters in a multi-character POV?

Well, kind of a wide question, but you already got the hang of it: the entire worldview, it changes from character to character The whole point is having a clear idea of who your character are. A...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Which should come first, building my story or building my world?

As far as I'm concerned, story comes first. That's just because you can almost do endless worldbuilding (worldbuilding.se has countless examples of all the aspects you can consider while doing so...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do I indicate that my character is speaking a different language than the one used for narration?

How do I make it clear that my character is narrating the story in a different language from the one she speaks? You already have the answer. Of course, it's well and good that you say it outright...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A "Stealing" jokes

Being inspired is a thing; copying entire jokes or catch-phrases may be overdoing it, and rightly be called stealing. I agree with @Chris Sunami that it would already seem that your on the safe s...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is genre ever relevant to the writing process?

While I get with what you are saying, and I deeply agree, sometimes genre conventions can be useful. If you want to tell a story - let's say, featuring a distant future and space-travel - you don...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should I let my hero die with the villain?

I second @Matthew Dave answer: if that's the story you want to tell, you definetely should. As for examples of this happening... Several spoilers ahead: Martin's Song of Ice and Fire Obery...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Are chapters with a single character inherently more difficult for an average reader to connect with? (And do you have any tips.)

Are chapters with a single character inherently more difficult for an average reader to connect with? And why that should be? I mean, I don't have the average reader preferences (nobody has, proba...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to Write an Eldritch Abomination?

The problem here is that by giving him a clearly understandable (even if evil, misantropic) goal, you're making your Fenrisúlfr more human-like. Sure, we can say - by rough sketch - that it wants ...

posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I defeat a 'force of nature villain' without killing him?

As people are already suggesting, you could seal away or make ineffective your antagonist in a number of way. Sure, you said the enemy can't be imprisoned, but you could find other ways to incapaci...

posted 6y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Using Myers–Briggs as a guide for character development?

You're overthinking it too much. The Myers-Briggs can be nice (I have a friend who did - sorta - an extensive research on it) and surely its good to know your character so well that you can type th...

posted 6y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to show two characters are communicating mentally

Adding to A.T Catmus answer, mental communications could have a sort of "flavour". As humans we are able to determine emotions of a speaker only judging by a spoken sentence; thoughts could be tre...

posted 6y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to make a statement formulated like an exclamation, but even-toned?

are there cases where it would be frowned upon using something like that? Not that I'm aware of. If you are talking directly to your reader, there is a big chance you are already using a co...

posted 6y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to write a character that knows a lot about explosives?

You don't need to be able to build homemade explosive to describe a character who does. You just need to give the reader the impression that the character knows what he/she's up to. Most of the r...

posted 6y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it OK to introduce a character to leave it simmering to a later date?

I've read a lot of novels were a very likeable character is introduced just to vanish and reappear at another time. It's pretty normal; after all, you have to tell a story, and in most stories, not...

posted 6y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Writing a first-person novel where the MC gets temporarily taken out of commission?

Yes, but the possessor changes the MC's sensory experience so drastically from what's actually there that it would be impossible for the reader to tell what's happening in the 'real' world. ...

posted 6y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Can my character specialize in torture ; but physically be not that strong?

Torturers don't need to be fit or strong, they need to be possibly scary, knowledgeable, and competent at what they do. There are a lot of kinds of torture and "beating someone senseless" is just o...

posted 6y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Pros and Cons: A blog to get feedback

As a creative writer in my free time, I sometime suffer from a lack of feedback. To get some impressions on what I've written, I either have to ask my girlfriend (who acts as a sort of beta-reader)...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to write from a cat's perspective?

Study a bit how cats (supposedly) see the world, how they behave, and so on. First of all, you should read a bit about cat vision. After all, you are going to describe the world from a cat point o...

posted 6y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Where to put statistical signifance test results

Half a page is not that much, unless you have a very strict limit in term of page number. Since the results are important to back up your findings, it's probably a good idea to show them in the mai...

posted 7y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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