Activity for Lauren Ipsum
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: Ending a PhD thesis by saying "there is more to do" I think that's fine, actually, with a little tweaking. I'd move your "only the beginning" farther back in the paragraph, and clarify that thought a tiny bit: (bold is only for emphasis; you wouldn't bold it in your thesis) > > The proposed software architectures have been iteratively improved upon b... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Alternating names While it's a good idea to vary your descriptions occasionally for variety, in this instance, Siamese is not just a way to refer to the cat, but a way to differentiate this cat from other cats. If the scene were in someone's living room, then Siamese would help you identify that cat as opposed to the... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: What exactly is a copywriter? There are different kinds of writing. Writing for business (formal, industry jargon) is not like writing fiction (establishing a world, creating characters) which is not like writing advertising copy (short, compelling, call to action). Copywriters have to learn how to write something which fits in ... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How can I have my characters do bad things, without sending the wrong message? Consequences. A strikes B. Even if B provoked A, A still gets arrested, processed, tried, convicted, and serves time. A gets grief from family and friends. A feels mixed anger, resentment, and guilt. Et cetera. The way the reader knows the author approves is if nothing bad happens to the person who... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How to write a conversation Generally accepted structures, which are used for clarity: - Each time the speaker changes, you start a new paragraph. The speaker may start and stop, and you can have narration and action tags, but as long as that person continues, it can be the same paragraph. Youmay start a new paragraph with the... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Creative writing exercises for engineers Your goal is to get your students to think about using standard skills in non-standard ways. Anyone can build a house; not everyone can build Fallingwater. - Dig up classic engineering conundrums from the past (pyramids, aqueducts, dams) and ask your students how they would solve them. - Find modera... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How/When to include twists when developing plot. Try plotting backwards. The writers of House, MD often worked this way. They figured out some esoteric disease or ailment (or perhaps something not so esoteric but easy to confuse with other problems) and then worked backwards to lay red herrings and misdirection. So you have the ending you want (h... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Omitting pronouns and possessive adjectives in fiction I think in all three examples you're starting to impede comprehension, and change the meaning of the sentence. - Example 1 sounds like the caller is cleaning the apartment of the narrator, because the subject hasn't changed from the beginning of the sentence. - Example 3 leaves the friend in questio... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Avoiding passing time by switching PoV - Viable method? As long as you make it clear to the reader where you are in time in relation to the previous scene, it's perfectly fine. (David and Leigh Eddings, writers of the Belgariad/Malloreon series, also recommend weather reports as a way to show time passing: "It rained the rest of the day" or "After three ... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Are the tenses of the following piece correct? > > had achieved their goal and become immortal because you're talking about past efforts. I think the second paragraph should be in subjunctive, which is what you put in your suggested corrections. The narrator is positing a hypothetical future, not a real or hypothetical past. (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Am I correctly punctuating this pause? Your first comma isn't the problem. It's that you have an interrupter and didn't put the second comma in. > Then, when the smoke had cleared, Jane rushed over to her. An interrupter is a few words or a whole clause which interrupts the flow of the original framing sentence, and can be safely remove... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Is sending your characters back to a different century a good way to disguise them? Only as much as bringing a past character forward can disguise him or her. If you have a brilliant, borderline sociopathic crime-solver who uses recreational pharmaceuticals to stave off boredom and has a physician friend/living-space-mate who helps with cases, setting the story in 25th century Star... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Should I use hypophoras at the beginning of every paragraphs? If these questions are explicitly given to you as worded, I think you can make them into section headers, and organize your responses under them. The hypophora as you reference it describes situations where the writer is raising a question in order to discuss it, not answering a question which someo... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How to keep going after a failed project? You have a few options: - Your story didn't fail. It just didn't find its audience on that site. Post it somewhere else. - Your story didn't fail. It just didn't find its audience right now. Post it again in six months. - Your story didn't fail. It just needs an editor (or at least a beta reader). F... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Originality of Writing Let me answer this in a more practical fashion: Let's say you've written a Hero's Journey, which has a standard pattern. And as you read over your work, you realize "this sounds a lot like Star Wars!" (Not unreasonable, since Lucas followed Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces pretty closely.) Fin... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How much repetition is too much repetition? I think it's generally a good idea to be on the lookout for words you use too much, and swap in something else. You should look for repetitive sentence structure and repetitive phrasing as well. My only suggestion for your example is for the second iteration, I would drop the word altogether, and ju... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: "That's when" vs "That was when." I would always use "that was," because to my ear, "that's" always implies "that is," and your sentence is in the past tense. (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Punctuation in a list This is a stylistic choice. I would never use a comma or semicolon at the end of a list item. I would use a period/full stop only if the item is a full sentence. To wit: > Star Trek is known for breaking new ground on television in several ways: > > • Kirk and Uhura's kiss in "Plato's Stepchildren"... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Unofficial Fan Fictions - How can I Secure Them? If they're on the Internet, someone has a copy of them. They are free now, and you will never have full control of them again. I won't swear to it, but I think when EL James got her book contract for the Fifty Shades trilogy, she deleted all the posted versions of those stories (which were after all... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Is the following "shortening" allowed in fiction? The middle one is fine, and the third one is okay. The first feels a little dodgy because you're veering close to a dangling participle, where you have a phrase which doesn't have a clear subject. In the first and third sentences, the context clarifies the subject, but I'd rewrite them so you don't ... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Plot idea to make the murderer (involuntarily) reveal himself Exposure to a chemical (or radiation, or some other toxin). All the suspects are in a particular area, or do a particular task, but only the murderer gets exposed to the MacGuffinium. The suspects are screened in some manner, and the murderer submits to the screen, thinking all evidence has been cle... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Is the following "...noun, adjective..." structure allowed in fiction? The first one is correct, because it's a two-word clause modifying cloud. The second one would need some kind of verb in the last sentence, and the modifier is perilously close to dangling regardless. (Separately, isn't a compass a tool for scribing circles? Not sure how you'd create a heart shape t... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: A question about dialogue and paragraphs? Your real problem is that you have dialogue, and then the narration immediately after it tells us what the dialogue just said. Remove that bit. If we don't know that John's legs are on the table (as opposed to the chair, a statue, or someone's head), move that to John's action sentence. > "Please, ... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Is it a good writing practice to keep related elements as close as possible to each other? As long as the intervening text doesn't confuse any reference to the second element, you're okay. I wouldn't put the two items too far apart, but your first example is still perfectly clear. (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How to tell where to place a parenthetical em dash phrase? The key is in what "as were the others" refers back to. It's not just "the chairs." It's not even that "the chairs were upside-down." It's that "the other chairs" are in a specific state of being that you are matching: upside-down AND on the table. > After returning the materials back to their shel... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How does one get Fanfiction "Published"? We aren't lawyers, and I don't think there's a single hard and fast rule for this. Rights can vary depending on geography, time, and author preference. - There are works which are now in the public domain which anyone can adapt, so, for example, any Sherlock Holmes story which uses elements which Co... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Should quotation marks for titles of short works be included as part of link text? I would put the quotes in the link, because the quotes are around the title of the article and are therefore part of it. The CSS formatting is a question better asked on Graphic Design SE. (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Metaphor or Personification It is personification. Simile and metaphor are both comparing X to Y, but in different ways. A simile always uses "like" or "as": "The rustling of the branches was like trees whispering to each other." A metaphor uses symbolism. It's something which can't be literal: "Their hissing gossip was the ... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: What is the voice called when the narrator is a secondary character? You're mixing up the terms. There is the protagonist , and there is the narrator. Narration has perspective. The narrator is the voice in which the book is told. If the story is told using "he/she/they" and not "I," it's third-person. This narrative voice (perspective) can see into everyone's thoug... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: How can I trust that the proofreader and designer of a book will not plagiarize our work? In addition to "Work with reputable proofreaders and designers," as Standback correctly notes, you can also add a non-disclosure agreement to your contract. The language might state that the contents/cover/etc. of the book is to remain strictly confidential until official publication by X publishing ... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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A: Should I use letters or digits in the following case? My general rules, adapted from AP style: - In narrative prose, use digits for 10 through 99. - Use digits for 100 and above unless the number can be expressed in two words (like two thousand or five hundred or a hundred million). - In dialogue, write out all numbers. You don't say "47," you say "f... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: When to use normal caps and small caps in fiction? All caps is for shouting. Small caps could be used as a stylistic device at the beginning of a chapter to look nice, but beyond that I'm struggling to think of where they'd be appropriate. Maybe to quote a poster? For the T-shirt example, if the text on the shirt itself is not in all caps, I'd ital... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: What is the benefit of writing formally? Let's see, in order: > It discourages using contractions, even though they make writing more concise. I'll confess never understood this one. I do use contractions in formal writing. They're invisible. > It discourages using number digits under 11 in favor of writing letters out, even thought usin... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: How much is considered plagiarism? Your best bet is to break down the source into broad mythical elements and rebuild your story from that. Harry's tale is both a coming-of-age and a Hero's Journey, and you don't get much more archetypal than those. JKRowling admits she modeled Harry-Ron-Ginny after Luke-Han-Leia, and Lucas was worki... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Omniscient POV vs deep 3rd person POV Third-person (he/she, rather than first-person, which is I) omniscient (all-knowing) means that the narration has access to everyone's thoughts. Whatever character is the focus of the scene is the person whose POV is presented to the reader. So if you start your book with Detective O'Malley and then... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Changing main character within a trilogy, is a good idea? Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee sort of did this with the Rama series. The first novel reads startlingly like a history book from the future and focuses on the military and government people who find a spaceship which has reached Earth. Books 2, 3, and 4 are more traditional narratives around human a... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Commas at the beginning of a sentence: should I follow convention or intuition? I think all your original examples sound fine. Go with your inner ear and let your beta/editor add or remove commas for the sake of grammar. As Bobn points out, the commas indicate pauses, and all those pauses sound natural and appropriate. (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: How to format the following dialogue without the parenthesis? Add a little stage direction. > "We read the letter." She had the grace to look a little shamefaced. "Apologies. Standard procedure." He nodded, even if his heart hurt a little to think the cops had read Tom's note. "Nothing inside suggests you're to blame. In fact, Tom didn't leave a reason." (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Does the word erection have a neutral tone with its non-sexual definition? I would see the double entendre. As an editor, I would change it to something else. Assemble or install, probably. "Install" to me means "Start with all the pieces, put it together, test to make sure it does what it's supposed to do, and clean up the site afterwards." Installing an exhibition would ... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Should I use ellipses or em dashes to denote pauses in speech? I might use an M-dash for the whale example, because it's startling. For the gold watch, that's more of a thoughtful pause, so it would take an ellipsis. Also related on this site: Using dashes in writing dialogue and How not to overuse ellipsis? (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Should my query lead with the detective, or with the crime? I think you can vary the structure depending on the story. By way of example, mystery writer Jennifer Moss splits her descriptions: of her three novels and one short story, two start with the detective, Ryan Doherty, and two start with the crime. For example, the first one starts with the detective... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: How to indicate that a single letter was removed from a quotation You could use empty brackets with a space between them. Brackets are generally used to alter a quote inline, such as fixing grammar or to add information like a name so the quoted material will work within the context of the piece quoting it. > "desire[] all people to be saved" or don't quote that ... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: What are the initial classes called in university and how do they work? Any course you have to take in order to take a subsequent course is a prerequisite. It doesn't make any difference if you take the initial course your first year, third year, or sixth year. The pre part refers to the requirement of taking it before some subsequent course. An intro course is the firs... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Spaces within abbreviations, acronyms, and initials Names generally have spaces between the initials because they are representing two names, but that's a matter of personal preference. k.d. lang uses periods but not spaces or capitals. e e cummings used spaces but not periods or capitals. J. K. Rowling uses all three. The company JPMorgan Chase uses ... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Is pantsless writing practical for NaNoWriMo? It depends on what kind of writer you are. NaNoWriMo doesn't have anything to do with it. Some people are "pants" or "discovery" writers. Whether they write the whole thing in a month or a year or a decade, they sit and type to see what happens. Some people are plotters. Again, the amount of time t... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Long or short form? There's nothing wrong with the sentence. It's a little flowery, but if that's your style, as long as the reader understands what you intend, it's fine. Your friends may have different tastes in prose and prefer short, crisp descriptions instead. Nothing wrong with that either. (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Writing many entries/articles, storing them, and browsing them Sounds like Scrivener might work nicely for you. You write your pieces in text, you can add graphics, you can view your pieces either in a list or as graphics which you can tag, and you can organize your individual pieces in folders. You can download a fully-operational demo and use it for 30 days. ... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Should I write my novel? Mercy, yes. If the story is burning to be told, yes. If you enjoy the craft of writing, yes. If you love reading over what you've written, yes. If you like the world you've created and the people you've put in it, yes. "Later" you'll still have a job and your daughter will be demanding in a differen... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Should you "Show, Don't Tell" when your character is recounting events? Describe what she's seeing which makes her perceive Terrence's emotions. > Lana looked over at Terrence, who had deliberately put himself into John's shadow. Emotions flickered over Terrence's face like a cascade of sparks. He couldn't quite look at John, but kept stealing glances upward. He bit his... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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A: Do I really need disclaimers? If you really think someone is going to use your book as a how-to, then write a preface which is a single large, comprehensive disclaimer. Put all the "don't do this at home" copy there, and if it's an e-book, throw in the occasional link back to it. (Also, don't publish genuine secrets, and you may... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |