Activity for Lauren Ipsum
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: Put text between section and subsection headings? If you feel like the section needs an introduction, go ahead and put a little text there. If the heading is comprehensible on its own, then don't bother. Example: 1.1 has introductory text; 1.2 does not. 1. Star Trek Star Trek was a television show which originally aired from 1966 to 1969. It stru... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What exactly is an editor? There are different levels of editing which are lumped together under the same term, which might be what's confusing you. "Syntax glitches and spelling" is line editing , aka proofreading, sometimes called copyediting. Similar to this is fact-checking, where the editor is looking up anything based i... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Help! I've got Writer's Block You have two issues: writing, and what to write. Put aside the "what" for a second. Go get a timer. Set it for ten minutes. Press start. Start writing. It doesn't matter what you write. You can type the alphabet, song lyrics, Schoolhouse Rock, stream of consciousness, what you had for dinner last n... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Checklist for making sure your writing is Atomic? - All terms are defined within the section. - Either no outside references or optional ones, or include the information so the reader doesn't have to reference anything. - Any background or history necessary to understand the material in the section is included. - If applicable, include a paragraph w... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Is there any good time-line software out there? Other than Scrivener :) I find Excel (or another spreadsheet program) works surprisingly well. - First column: Year - Second column: Month - Third column: Day - (Insert more columns as needed.) - Last column: event If you have multiple items on the same Day, repeat the Day data and use a 24-hour cl... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Software for analyzing a manuscript? This isn't precisely what you're looking for, but it's interesting: http://www.wordle.net/ (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What are the key skills for a new technical writer? Be clear. Write simply and plainly. Define your jargon and your acronyms, even if you think everyone knows them already, and use jargon as sparingly as you can. Imagine handing your document to someone outside your field (or better yet, try to get an editor outside your field) and aim for your work ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Know any metaphors about women that...? From "Gone With the Wind": > Melanie: That's not fair. The men naturally flock to her. Scarlett's just high spirited and vivacious. > Sue Ellen: Men may flirt with a girl like that but they don't marry them. (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Meretricious - A bit too fancy? Are you saying your character is describing someone as meretricious? If that's the word he would use, by all means use it. I have absolutely no problem making the reader work a little to expand his/her vocabulary. I have actually learned words from stopping and looking something up ("gravid" meaning ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What to do if I end up confused by my own plot because of 'trying to be original' or 'trying to make the story more deep'? You're trying too hard. Put the structure of your novel together. Don't worry if it's been done. It's all been done. There are something like forty plots in all human literature. Trust me, whatever you're doing, it's been done. "Boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back" is done twelve times... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Is it a good idea to write a summary of a plot before writing the full version? Yes. Write the summary. Write an outline. Write it on notecards so you can rearrange things and reconnect elements in different ways. Use string. Write up briefs of your characters. Know their backgrounds, their personalities, motivations, likes and dislikes, fears and loves. "Brief" is a misnome... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Critique of short essay Your writing style is stream-of-consciousness, which can be hard to digest. (On the internet this is labeled "tl;dr" for "too long; didn't read.") I strongly suggest breaking this into several paragraphs. Second, you start out with how despite your objection to her color, she became an emotional bri... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What's the indent rule of poetry? Because a poem is more compact than prose, indentation (and line breaks, spacing, leading, and anything else you can think of) can add additional meaning to the poem. So unlike prose, go ahead and indent however you like... as long as there's a reason for it. In your second example, if the poet like... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Can my paragraph use better adjectives and descriptions? If you're trying to capture the feel of drifting on a summer's day in a perfect green glade, then if anything you need to be even more stream-of-consciousness than you are now. Read up on Gerard Manley Hopkins and "sprung rhythm" and see what you can do with that. (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: First conversation scenes I've written (looking for errors, conventions, and improvements according to writing standards) I'm just rewriting. You need more narration and action tags: She stood in front of his desk for a full minute before he noticed her. When he looked up at last, his only greeting was a raised eyebrow. “Uhm...excuse me, are you Dr. Aide?” "Speak up. You're muttering." She cleared her throat twice. ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Please help me improve this sentence... Ten years of windup. Today was the pitch. I was going to throw Hollywood a curve ball like they'd never seen. (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: How to reword this: repeated back on him? first of all, it's "the mistakes" he made — one doesn't make faults - are revisited upon him - return upon him - come back to bite him in the [tuchus] - come back to haunt him - come home to roost - beat a path back to his door [a play on "if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: How does one go *back* to editing an older piece? Hand it off. Find a good editor or beta reader and get someone else's take on it. Reading someone else's comments and suggestions may be enough to unstick your mental block and allow you to see how it could be improved. (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Does giving away free stories boost sales? I can offer no evidence, but speaking as a reader, it would make me more likely to purchase a book if I had read and enjoyed the writer's freebies. 1. Because I've already seen the writer's skill, style, and characters, and decided whether the writer was appealing to me 2. After a coupla freebies I ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Sympathetic portrayal of devout, rule-abiding characters Show, don't tell. If the religion is that important to the character, then it will be apparent in almost every aspect of the person's life. Physically: - Clothing: men and women (and don't forget the Mormon "garment") - Hat/turban/skullcap/scarf/veil - Hair: length (that is, when is it allowed to ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Hardware-based Word Processor You could go for a small Mac laptop and try finding one with AppleCare. Apple does sell refurbished laptops with a warranty for less than list price. (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What's the benefit of using invented languages in-story? I would use a (very) few invented vocabulary words to indicate specific items which are unique to your created race, but put them in context so that the reader can quickly divine the meaning, or explain the meaning in narration. The only reason to have lines of dialogue in an invented language is wh... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: How should I approach possibly unfamiliar pop culture in fiction? I can think of two suggestions: - Have the character sing or quote the verse you're referencing. If you were to have this brainwave in real life, you'd have to explain it to your friends who haven't heard the song anyway, right? - Put the verse as a block in italics as a sort of one-paragraph prefac... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Dialog, just what's the best way to write it? I like a mix of dialog tags and action tags. You should definitely break up paragraphs of speech with stage business and action tags. Dean Wesley Smith had an advice piece for writers which I ran across for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and I don't have it to hand, but the one bit which stuck with ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What's a good program for tracking submissions? Have you tried a plain ol' spreadsheet? (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Do fullscreen writing environments help for writing? Why? If you're easy distracted by shiny things (or Twitter, your RSS feed, Facebook page, chat window, weather updates, email, or desktop photo) then having a program which blocks them all out may help keep you focused on your work. So it depends on your workflow and your weaknesses. (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: When should a chapter end? The last line or lines should have some reason for being there. They can: - be suspenseful ("What are you doing here?") - be funny ("Tinkerty-tonk," I said, and I meant it to sting.) - close a scene (She slammed the door behind her, hard enough to make the glass rattle in the windowpanes.) - bring r... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Good Outlining Solutions For OSX? Am I allowed to beat the drum for Scrivener again? :) Scrivener is a tremendously flexible writing program which allows you to rearrange your items easily, by dragging around icons, by putting up virtual cards on a corkboard, or setting things up in outline format (the Outline view is right in the t... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Character with extreme manners Read P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories, particularly Aunt Agatha. (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: How should dialog be formatted? First, commas indicate pauses, so put them where a speaker or reader would naturally pause. > "Look, Jones," That one is important, because there's always a bit of a pause between a command and a name. Second, imagine how your speakers are moving physically. Does Dan just point briefly? Does he on... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: How do I construct a plot out of my many setting/character details? I highly recommend The Writer's Journey, a writing manual which shows you how to create a Hero's Journey story structure. Seriously, you get about two chapters in and you have to stop yourself from dropping the book and rushing to your computer to start writing. The Hero's Journey is one of the clas... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: How can I write poems in an attractable manner? There's a saying I heard in a writing workshop: - If you don't know what you want to say or how you want to say it, write a novel. - If you know what you want to say, but not how you want to say it, write a short story. - If you know what you want to say, and exactly how you want to say it, write a ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What does "Exposition and Ammunition – back story" mean in screenwriting? "Turn exposition into ammunition" is shorthand for a writing technique. A quick Google turns up this article: http://michellelipton.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/mckee-on-exposition/ Money quote: > “Convert exposition to ammunition … when [the] story is thick with conflict, the characters need all the ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What's the best way to show a foreign language in a manuscript? You have two options depending on context: 1) If it's a quick exchange and can be figured out in context, put the foreign language in italics. "As-tu le livre?" "Yes, I have the book here." or inline: "You filthy p'taQ!" B'Elanna snarled. 2) If it's a quick exchange without context, put the tra... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Should one blog in a few languages? If you have enough cyber-friends who don't read Russian who have commented on your non-English blog, then yes, do one in English. If nothing else it will improve your facility with the language. I like Blogger, but if you're comfortable with LiveJournal, stick with that. (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Why does an author need an editor? Because you can't see your own mistakes. You know, in your head, what you want your story to accomplish. You know who you want to end up with whom. You know who you want to punish, and who you want to see succeed. You know which characters you like and which are your villains. But the challenge is ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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Editors: Edit on first read, or read and edit on second round? I edit novels (among other works). I was having a discussion with someone (not an editor) who didn't understand my technique. What I do is read through the document, and the moment something occurs to me — whatever reaction I'm having for good or ill, whatever I catch, any questions I have, mistakes... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What revisions for this draft would be more readable and/or more humorous? The only thing I can see in this brief exchange to fix is: Line 2: Eh, adrenaline's unreliable. Might only give 'im a heart attack. (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Writing first programming book Close the intro. Promise yourself that you will write it last. Start a blank Scrivener page. Start writing down everything that comes into your head about the topic. Follow your thoughts wherever they lead, but make each thought a new line. Don't organize; just write. When you run out of steam, go... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Using uncommon abbreviations If they are abbreviations which are extremely common to the field, once per work is often enough to define them. If they are rare, invented for the piece, or really jargon, I would say once per section (once per chapter, once per web page). Alternatively, a list of acronyms at the beginning or end o... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Are there any techniques that make complexity work? I had an English professor once who advised me to write papers discussing a book "as if you were explaining it to a slightly stupider classmate who had also read the work in question." His advice is condescendingly worded, but the general theory is sound: take your complex idea and break it down into... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Critique: Intro/Prologue to my Novel-in-Progress I'm just posting a second answer rather than try to force this into 500 characters: I kept your first sentence, although I punctuated it to sound like actual speech. I can certainly hear the intonation you intend, but that requires a pause. So I added an M-dash. I know what you were getting at with... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: How To Avoid Using Cliches In Storylines? Find a good editor, and when you hand over the manuscript, let the editor know that this is a particular issue for you, and ask the editor to keep an eye out for it. If you know that you read a lot of one writer, mention that writer to the editor and say "I like this person, but I want to make sure I... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: How do evil protagonists win the reader over in dark fantasy stories? I have not read it but Soon I Will Be Invincible is the closest I can think of to what you're proposing, other than the excellent short story collection If I Were an Evil Overlord, inspired by the Evil Overlord List. My question is, why should your main guy be only petty, shallow, and selfish? Do yo... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: How to avoid hearing "that's me!" from your friends when they read your characters? My answer is: steal a little. For example, your character needs to be a big spender, or a big gambler. If you have a friend who is impulsive in every capacity — overly generous with money, dashes off for a weekend jaunt to Mexico on a whim, walks into a store for a pair of headphones and walks out w... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Critique: Intro/Prologue to my Novel-in-Progress I'm just rewriting. :) A bit of trimming, a bit of adding: "You understand — it's nothing personal." It wasn't quite a question. When Robert Jansen didn't quite provide an answer, the man turned and left. Jansen lowered his gaze to the Beretta on the desk. After a long moment, he sighed, picked it ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Best humorous exaggerated comparisons P.G. Wodehouse is a master of this. "Big chap with a small moustache and the sort of eye that can open an oyster at sixty paces." "It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine." "His demeanour was that of a Napoleon who, suffering from toothache, s... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: Verb tense for technical document titles I like "Create a Cluster." If I'm actually RTFM, I'm usually looking for instructions on how to do something. Well, what do I want to do? I want to Create a Cluster — so that's what I'm going to look for. (That said, I don't mind the -ing form either.) "Cluster creation" seems unnecessarily passive ... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What can I do to improve my concentration when reading? You have to define the problem before attempting a solution. - Are you distracted? (ambient noise, music, silence, TV, someone talking) - Are you uncomfortable? (crappy chair, bad posture, headache, eyestrain, bad light, hungry, thirsty, tired) - Are you a restless person by nature? Do you have tr... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |
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A: What disciplines/habits are used to stay focussed on one novel over a long period of time? 1) So, don't. Keep several books going at once. What's stopping you? Maybe you need to switch gears often to keep yourself fresh. 2) Write short stories. Easier to finish in a bite. 3) Write an outline of your novel. When you get bored working on IIA3d, move to IVE12c. Jump around within the book a... (more) |
— | about 13 years ago |