Activity for Lauren Ipsum
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A: New style of first person pov > The narration. I'm thinking of not using the narration at all. Please don't do this. It is very, very hard to understand even when handled by a master. If this is your first book, it will be almost impossible for your readers to follow. My suggestion for you is this: Start a blog, and write shor... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Is it good to hate a character? Well, "good" is subjective. You can have a loathsome, hissable, completely irredeemable villain who roasts puppies, shoots women with crossbows, and writes comics where Captain America is revealed to be a lifelong HYDRA agent at the end, and your reader will likely despise that character. However, e... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How to call sub-genre of my fantasy? If you are using actual fluorescent lights and nuclear energy and so forth, or fluorescent lights which have been slightly improved or altered by magic but are essentially the same technology, this is generally called urban fantasy. While "urban" means "city," in this context it means fantasy or magi... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Can basic grammar rules be skipped when writing text for machine safety labels? While I understand that space can be at a premium with these labels, I will always, always come down on the side of clarity. Warning labels frequently get turned into jokes precisely because the originators thought that words could be dropped. > Do not open this cover while powered My thought: Whil... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Formatting dialogue and single lines If you indent paragraphs, every paragraph gets indented, period. It doesn't matter if that paragraph is a single word of dialogue, a page-long rant, or four pages of stream-of-consciousness. So: > "Hello." > > "Hi." > > They w... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Looking for informed people to evaluate a creative writing project about psychiatry You might try Critique Circle, which is a free online critiquing community. (I haven't used it, but others here have.) If you have enough rep, you could ask in our Chat Room, the Overlook Hotel. There are a number of members here who are freelance editors who might be able to work with you. (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Preserve "The Reveal" vs lying to the reader > But I can't have the narrator simply lie to the reader Sure you can. That's called an unreliable narrator. Instead of having a generic narrator-to-reader chapter, your "The Story So Far" material can be delivered via some other medium, or two characters who aren't in your story otherwise. It can ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Specific character's thought in 3rd person omniscient writing A simple way is to differentiate the narrative voice. Your narration should be clean, standard, grammatically correct prose, while these narrated thoughts can sound a bit choppier and more like speech. (Separately, this is much harder to do if your book is in the present tense, so I'm shifting it to... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Length of segments in rotating POV There's no one right answer. You have to write your story and let other people read it, and ask your readers if it feels too jarring. Maybe one POV per chapter is correct, or maybe your story requires a frequent POV shift. But there's no generic template or requirement. (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Sentence openings variations to avoid repeating determiners and pronounces Almost all the variations you have are fine. A few notes: > A little potato-like nose was planted on his face. The grammar here is correct. However, the combination of "potato" and "planted" would only work in a humorous book, where you're constantly joking throughout the narration. > Nose of his ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Do I need to make use of paragraphs when writing a novel and if so, how? Like all rules, only break it if you understand why it works, and you're breaking it deliberately to create an effect. Paragraphs break up the copy into more digestible chunks and make it easier to read. A paragraph can have one to a few thoughts in it, or one thought can be spread over multiple par... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: They are = They're... when? Some style guides consider contractions to be informal, and therefore would not be used in certain contexts. Beyond that, there's no grammatical restraint, either on they are vs. they're or the referent of the pronoun they. They is the plural pronoun for both he/she and it. So "They are in the back... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How to make a dark story not-so-dark (Shining the light in darkness) You can talk to real-life veterans and see how they coped with war. One tactic is "gallows humor" or "black humor," which is seeing the humor even in grim moments (common to veterans, law enforcement officers, doctors, and first responders). The TV show MASH was essentially built on this. There are m... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Can I use names of characters and groups that other authors/creators have used already? Within reason, if the name itself is not already instantly recognizable (Bart Simpson, Lara Croft, James Bond), you can probably get away with using it. "Trent Steele" may be generic enough. Similarly, there are only so many variants and arrangements of organization and darkness, so whatever you com... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Where should I place a comma in this sentence? Separate your sentence into individual thoughts. • Hatha yoga is a great form to use. • Hatha yoga combines spiritual and physical attributes. • The spiritual and physical attributes could help beginners. Your first two thoughts have the same subject, but the third thought has a different ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How to expand beyond a single series? Tell more stories. If you've built a world, put sentient beings in it and put conflicts in front of them. Let the world unfold in front of your characters, and let the characters talk about the other parts of the world, and the history of it, which haven't been discussed before. Write stories set lo... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How long can a first novel be? It probably is, but what you can do instead is rework it as two books, and then when shopping for an agent, present it as book-plus-sequel. Science fiction (and fantasy) in particular are forgiving of long works and love series, so length and sequel would be features, not bugs. (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How much does imperfect grammar put off an agent? While I wouldn't consider "gerunds" (or even adverbs) to be mistakes, if you're worried about your grammar, hire an editor to do a line-edit. Explain (if this is the case) that you're happy with the story and don't want a content edit, but you do want to polish your grammar, structure, word choice, s... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: What are some techniques for deciding which of two or more plot directions to go with? Sketch out both (or multiple) ideas as fully-fleshed plots from beginning to end. Get all your separate possibilities down on paper. - Put everything aside for a week. Come back to them and re-read them. See if any one jumps out at you. - Give your multiple outlines to friends and see if any one is ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How to think of a plot in 5 minutes You're being given a prompt, so that will do half the work for you. I think it was J. Michael Straczynski, writer of Bablyon 5, who wrote that one could sum up "conflict" in three questions: - What does the character want? - What will the character do to get it? - What will someone do to stop the c... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Do you believe a role play can be published? Gary Gygax's Gord the Rogue series was allegedly an entire RPG campaign turned into a set of novels (which explains the ridiculous deus ex machina ending). If role-playing helps you to flesh out a plot and characters, why not? There's no One Right Way to create a story. You'll still have to get it o... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Is using MBTI and the Jungian functions to create a character a good idea? sure, why not? I think as long as there is some coherent structure behind the character so that you can establish that this person would behave in thus-and-such a way, and it's consistent and credible, the nature of that structure is up to you. MBTI, Jungian, RPG alignment, personality quizzes — use ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How do I organize my writing process? There is no One True Way. Every writer is different. Even the same writer may have two different approaches to two different books (or series). JK Rowling plotted out the entire seven-book Harry Potter series in her head on a train ride before writing them, but is still working on the Robert Galbrai... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Making a big deal out of revealing a character's name It depends on context. Why has the character's name never been mentioned? Why does no one know it? What label, nickname, or epithet are you using to describe the character instead? I would mention that as a reader, I'd be surprised and maybe do a double-take or two to wonder why more of a big deal w... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Is it okay to have a character who doesn't actually have a name? The answer to this and your other similar question is the same: Your Mileage May Vary. If you can get it to work, go for it. There's no rule about it one way or the other. In Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, the main villain is always referred to as "the gentleman with the thistledow... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How do I write from a non-person point of view? Write it as data inputs and responses. INPUT: USER 1 enters room RESPOND Y/N? Y OUTPUT$content: {greeting}; {Salutation: 'Good'} {TOD: 1415, 'afteroon'}; INPUT: USER 1 response {"Good afternoon yourself. Did you finish compiling that report?"} SEARCHDB6b.46: report {SMITH, CHARLE... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Character interviews - how to handle characters that age noticeably within a single novel Both ages as separate interviews, since his answers will be different and you will have to handle his responses differently. In the second interview, he can even look back and say "Yeah, I remember the first time you asked me this. I can't believe I said X! Now I know thus-and-such and it's definitel... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: YA novel with old protagonist? Your listed themes and goals are at cross-purposes. You have: - finding your place in the world - living according to your values - figuring out what really matters to you - questioning assumptions - sticking up against authority - who gets to decide what a society should be like - balancing desires... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Is it a bad idea to have three protagonists? I just finished reading Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence which does almost exactly this, although over five books. The first book has three siblings as main characters, book 2 has one boy (with many siblings), book 3 has the boy and a second boy both as main characters, and books 4 and 5 us... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: What is the "acid test" for a nonfiction anthology? I think "selected literary pieces or passages" is your linchpin here. Let's take that college mainstay, the Norton Anthology (this one is American Literature). This is a book which contains quotes, poems, short stories, and excerpts of longer works. (IIRC — it's been a while) The various pieces can... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: When to ask for feedback of novel? Yes, you can ask for feedback at any and all of those stages. The feedback which is helpful at any stage is "This works and here's why" and "This doesn't work and here's why." The "here's why" is the MOST IMPORTANT part of feedback. If your reader can only say "I don't like this," it's a waste of ev... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Is it a good idea to make the protagonist pull themselves together First of all, your protagonist almost must change, or there's not much point to your book. If s/he does not at some point stop running and pull him/herself together, your reader will feel like the book is a waste of time. To make it seem not rushed or fake, you need two things: - sufficient buildup... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Should I use different fonts in my manuscript? I'd say yes if you're careful about it and don't overdo it. Different formatting can be useful in quickly alerting the reader that the text is from an article or an email, particularly if it begins a chapter. I wouldn't make it a third of the book, but used judiciously, sure. (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Capitalisation after punctuation in dialogue You don't capitalize the dialogue tag she said or she laughed if it's attached to your dialogue. You would only capitalize She laughed if it's a new thought. So: > "Do you know where we are going?" she said. > > "We're going to Albuquerque," he responded. > > "Seraphina!" the dark Persian man crie... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How to write a strong villain who isn't really present? So give your villain more to do. Raise the stakes. If the General overseeing the various troops and hunters doesn't feel scary enough, give him more motivation. Give him someone REALLY scary to report to who is breathing down his neck and has no tolerance for failure, or even lateness, on pain of de... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Why end sentences with commas instead of periods when the sentence is in a quote? Because you are attaching your speaker tag to the dialogue being spoken. If you were using an action tag, or separating the speaker tag from the dialogue, then the quoted material stands alone and uses a period. Other punctuation varies. Examples: > "She's late again," mumbled Jason. [comma] > > "... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Does the protagonist need a name? It's a lot easier to think of the character if s/he has a name, but it isn't strictly required. In Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca, the first-person narrator is never named, and is only known as "the second Mrs. De Winter." (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: The "destroy a day's work every nth day" method of improving one's writing - sensible? This sounds like a blunt-instrument extreme variation of "Kill your darlings." The idea behind kill your darlings is that sometimes we as writers fall too much in love with our own voices. That perfectly-turned phrase, that exquisite image, that awesome scene, that character who's too cool for the r... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: How to keep a main character nameless? If everyone in the town is named by the leader, and a couple adopts her, then most people are going to refer to her as "the Kents' girl." To her face they might cal her "Miss Kent" or "Kent Girl," depending on their level of courtesy. She can earn a use-name later depending on what she does, what sh... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Describing the differences between languages I think doing your own research and making your own observations is perfectly legitimate. You can also get a bunch of friends over and have everyone listen to the same video/audio recordings and take notes, and then discuss afterwards. This will allow you to note similarities (e.g., does everyone th... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Do you italicize fictional company names? Company and brand names are not set off in italics, period. It's irrelevant whether the name is real or fictional. The kinds of names/titles which do take italics: - Publications (newspapers, magazines) - Books - Albums - TV shows - Movies - Court cases May or may not take italics depending on hou... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Name of Journal-Like Setting Description Lines Under Chapter Section Headings I'd probably call it a dateline if it's describing time/date/location. If it's a subheader or describing anything about the content, it's a dek (that's the correct spelling, from journalism, without the C). (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A: Eliminating repetitive “which was ... ” statements at the end of sentences Do a search for "which was." (or whatever your problem structure is) Set up a checklist of five different ways to rewrite it: 1) We did such-and-such. I enjoyed it. 2) When we did such-and-such, everyone had a great time. 3) Plus we really had fun that time we did such-and-such. 4) Have you... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: How to create interesting character conflicts The basic block of conflict is "Person or Group A wants something, and Person or Group B wants to stop that." The intrigue and originality are all in the details. Create intriguing characters and give them an original dilemma and you've got interest. (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: How to handle writing a romantic subplot when the main plot is very different? Avoid killing/raping/otherwise injuring the love interest (particularly a female love interest) just to create manpain in your anti-hero. Avoid making the love interest a plot device with no other background, characterization, or purpose than being a Love Interest. Avoid making the love interest a ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: Formatting Text from a Sign I think what you have in your example is fine. Quotes don't have to be strictly spoken dialog. You've indicated in narration twice that it's written on the sign. The reader will understand. (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: How do I avoid tradeoffs with showing vs. telling? Example 1 puts us in the POV of the listener: I heard a cough. There's also the very tiny implication that it's not a person, but perhaps an animal, a monster, or maybe a mechanical sound which appears to be a cough but later turns out to be a silenced bullet or something. But that depends on your st... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: Is there a technical term for a rhyme using both the end of one sentence, and the beginning of the next? I'm not sure about the rhyming part, but running a sentence onto the next line is called enjambment: > Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or clause over a line-break. If a poet allows all the sentences of a poem to end in the same place as regular line-breaks, a kind of deadening can happe... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: Good writing software for tracking information/facts (for Man vs Nature plot) Other than Scrivener, already noted above, Excel or another spreadsheet program might be what you need here. In your first column you have your scene or other outline notation to identify where your character is in the story, and then your subsequent columns are Food Remaining or Location or whatever... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: How to know whether to write in 3rd person or 1st person? Use whatever you think will work best for your story. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote all but two or three of the Sherlock Holmes stories in first person, from Watson's perspective, and you see the longevity and popularity of those works. There are benefits and drawbacks of any perspective, but no blanket ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |