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Posts by Lauren Ipsum‭

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Q&A Is it okay to end a novel with a cliffhanger?

Write it the way you feel it should be written. However, I would then finish the entire trilogy before finding an agent and shopping it to publishers or publishing it yourself. That way you can ei...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Non-Linear Storyline: Dynamic vs. Static chapter sequence

Your terminology is fine, and I think either way might work depending on your story. The idea that we're left wondering if a character is alive may be quite deliberate on the author's part. Wheth...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How could a criminal forget a crime?

I believe this is part of the plot of the movie (spoiler below) Memento although I'm going on the Wikipedia summary, as I've never seen it. I've read at least one sci-fi short story (dystopi...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Handling an Inauthentic Character

If "the humble, virtuous identity is not less or more authentic than the grandiose, power-grabbing one that replaces it," then both those (apparently contradictory) sets of characteristics exist in...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How should changing the point of view be handled?

Label the chapters with the character names. George RR Martin does this at the top of every chapter of his monolith books, since he easily has a dozen POV narrators per book. No muss, no fuss, crys...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Suggestions for revising style and cadence within a children's book

You have a few problems here. One is basic command of grammar. You have run-on sentences, weird dialogue attributes, and just outright incorrect sentence structure. You need a proofreader before an...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Examples of Successful Rule-Breaking in Novels

I could suggest the Water! trilogy by Gael Baudino, but it's not well-known and I found the experimental format exhausting. Still, Your Mileage May Vary. In the three books (O Greenest Branch, Th...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is writing even profitable

"Profit" is simply "bringing in more money than you spent to create/achieve X task." If you bake cookies, and the ingredients and stove fuel work out to cost you 15 cents a cookie and you sell th...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Best blind sequence?

Why not just put a blindfold on and walk around your house for a few hours? Take notes into a recorder or a voice note app about what you're feeling, thinking, smelling, hearing, about whether othe...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should I change POVs in the following case?

As long as you label the chapters with the name of the POV character, you're fine. George RR Martin famously has like a dozen POV characters per 700-page book. At least one that I remember had to t...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A When Is a Relationship Too Antagonistic?

A classic take on this from the Bard is Much Ado About Nothing (I also recommend this wonderful filmed version, which stays fairly close to the text). Beatrice and Benedick both swear they will nev...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Good tools for writing (game) manuals and sourcebooks

This is a job for Scrivener! :) Scrivener is an incredibly flexible writing program. It allows you to sort your thoughts into multiple documents within a project, see two documents at once, create...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Sluglines for same location but different periods, real and imagined

I do not know if there is a standard way, but I would write it in whatever way makes it crystal clear when the events are taking place. I'd create distinct sluglines for each alternate universe a...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Writing dialogue for a non-English speaker in English?

Your best bet is research. Find a "Little India" community, wander around, and listen. Sit at a corner coffeeshop for a few days. Walk through the retail area. Don't stalk people, but pay attention...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Pros and cons of using real brand/company names?

My feeling is that unless the brand name plays a critical part in your story, don't use it. You don't want to risk the wrath of corporate lawyers unless you absolutely must. Why build your entire s...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Normal structure for Dialogue paragraphs

The problem is that the prose in the middle is stage business, and there are only so many times you can interrupt with stage business. I think you have to punctuate the non-dialogue bits as sentenc...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Confusion on inconsistent verb tenses in a magazine article

The tenses are changing because there are two sets of past events and two sets of present events. In the first paragraph the action described occurred in the past: the anger was repressed, the yo...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A What are some strategies for surprising the reader?

In addition to Dale's excellent answer, try ending a chapter or a scene break on a phrase or sentence which can be slightly misinterpreted. The example I'm thinking of is from Anne McCaffrey's Mor...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Jumping between points in time in narrative

As long as you very clearly indicate the date at the beginning of each chapter, so the reader isn't lost, sure, go for it.

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it possible for an author's first book to be popular?

of course debuts can do well if they're good. Some of it will also depend on marketing and genre, but there's nothing stopping a first novel from being a smash.

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Tactician's Viewpoint and Contradictory Characterization

Let's call your characters Dave (the intuitive tactician) and Kate (the analytic) so we have some way to refer to them. Kate can be so analytical, so dependent on data, that she feels like she can...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Switching from past to present tense to increase narrative speed?

No, you can only do that if you're making some sort of break or shift in narrative style. If the story switches to a dream, for instance, or if the characters enter a Fae realm or another universe ...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can we have foreshadowing in a story that takes place in a universe where the future can't be known beforehand?

I think you're confusing "foreshadowing" with "prophesizing." Foreshadow is derived literally from "before" + "shadow" — the shadow of an event falls before the event itself. The "shadow" means the...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Craft group exercises or chapters in critique groups?

Get out of your own head. Write. Just write. Stop worrying about whether it's perfect. Stop worrying about which book to follow. You've got a list taller than the coffee table and they can contrad...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it a bad writing practice to end a paragraph with question?

When you have a question like that in narration, you are essentially narrating the protagonist's thoughts. If you put quotes around them, or italicized them, and made them present tense, they would...

posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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