Posts by Lauren Ipsum
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, ...
In looking at your excerpts, and granting for translation, I think the problem is that you start well and then add too much. You don't have to give all the details at once. If this is a person we n...
Write for your audience plus a little. If you're writing a book for five-year-olds, you don't want to use "sesquipedalian," but there's nothing wrong with "lengthy." Part of how we expand our voc...
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...
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 or...
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 t...
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 enforceme...
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. Simi...
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 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...
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 y...
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 stick...
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, withou...
When your givens are a problem, change your givens. Your protagonist wants to get Ms. X out of the building alive. He may find her, but they both still have to get out alive. So: Is she wounded?...
The term you are looking for is magical realism. This is when supernatural elements (magic, djinns, wishes, fae, dragons, elves, talking gargoyles, people with wings, meddling gods, spells, demons,...
As long as "a few words" is less than 50, sure, go for it. It's additional interstitial information which can be useful to the reader, or can at least add background and flavor. More than two par...
There's no substitute for research. Either find a deaf group in your area or contact a national group, or possibly Gaulladet University, and start talking to people.
As a typesetter, I would put the number after the period, no space, and then superscript it: this is a sentence taken from someone.[2] I feel like this is the most visually pleasing, since th...
If you are a discovery writer, this is part of your process. Just get it all on the page and keep writing; you'll finish when you finish. However, it is then part of the first draft that you must g...
What's your goal? If your goal is to write, and reading what you "should" be doing made you stop writing, then stop reading that shit. Avoid whatever is an obstacle to your goal. That doesn't mea...
"which corrects the mistakes they've made until now" There's your problem. You're viewing this person as a fix-it project, as a series of mistakes to be corrected. You might want to think abo...
Underlines are only for links; don't use them in copy for anything else (outside certain legal contexts). Either use bold/italic or quotes, but not both. It's redundant. Which one you choose will...
I suggest you keep going. What you're doing right now isn't editing; it's nervous grooming. You want what you have on the page to be "perfect" so much that it's stopping you from writing anything e...
Stephen Fry wrote a novel called The Stars’ Tennis Balls, and claimed that only afterwards did he realize he’d rewritten The Count of Monte Cristo. Fry’s novel is set in modern-day England; Dumas’...
Can you have the Ordinary World in flashbacks? Absolutely. It can be a place or a state of being which used to exist and now doesn't, and the goal of the journey can be to restore it. We do need to...
