Posts by Lauren Ipsum
Per the discussion in the comments: if you're using sentence case, I'd go with 4-terminal (lowercase T) because the 4 is the first character. (I would still flinch to see a sentence which started...
You are allowed to have the prologue narrated by a different character as long as it is absolutely clear who the narrator is. You do not have to change the whole book. In fact, every chapter can be...
Chapters don't need to have a title. "Chapter NN" is fine. Or you can have only a title — that's generally when the title identifies some kind of shift, like a different time, location, or narrat...
"Literary criticism" and "editing feedback" are two entirely different beasts. Litcrit is about looking at an existing text and analyzing it. You look at the author's intent, you look at symbolis...
You could certainly try, but it sounds like the main story would come out gibberish to me. The only example of this which springs to mind is the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Gloria...
If the goal of the scene is to show why a person decides what he or she decides, then you only give the detail necessary to demonstrate that. If part of what changes Adam's mind afterwards is the ...
It's "whereas." It's a formal and slightly clunky word. Plus you're using the exact same sentence structure twice in a row, but only twice. Once is fine, and three times is an effect, but two looks...
Close. Part of the process of evolution is that it doesn't happen once, but repeatedly over a long period of time, and that "falling through a particular hole" allows something beneficial to happen...
The number of books in the series is irrelevant. What matters is whether you still have story to tell. JK Rowling planned the Potter series to have seven books; Harry's arc is finished. GRRMartin...
Seek medical advice. Find a medical or health care professional who will answer your questions. If you can't figure it out from a book, find a doctor, nurse, EMT, etc. who is willing to sit down wi...
I decide what should be written next only when I am writing that. This called being a "pants writer" or a "pantser," meaning that you write by the seat of your pants. It's completely valid as ...
I am actually adding a second answer based on something @user16583 mentioned. In some long-running comic strips, characters don't age or change. Strips like FoxTrot and Sally Forth occasionally m...
You can always have a character who doesn't develop; flat Disney villains come to mind. But the flat character is generally in opposition to the hero/ine, who does develop. So the question is, wh...
Invert the sentence to parse it. The worker first must engage the wedge for separating connector A and connector B. In that sentence, "the wedge for separating" becomes an adjective phrase....
"Write what you know" is a guideline, not a law, or every book would be an autobiography. If you want to write about other countries, you say you've done a lot of research, which is a great start....
Sure, go for it. One of my favorite books has two entire chapters where the name of one of the major characters is misspelled in every single reference. This was fixed in later editions. If it wa...
1) Lengthen it. You're not going to have rat-a-tat-tat patter graveside. 2) Take each phrase you feel is clichéd, determine the meaning, and rewrite it in different words. "All we want is for our ...
It's not at all cheating. The narrative "camera" can't be in all places at all times or your book will be a thousand pages long and only cover an hour. In fact, part of the joy of a mystery is th...
Allow me to introduce you to Scrivener. Scrivener is a word processor which allows you to create unlimited documents within a single project, and organize them into folders. You can have each b...
Please please please PLEASE use date/time of day references. Please. With chocolate on top. It's way too easy to get lost in the flow of narration and not have a damn clue when we are. Is it morn...
It depends on the kind of story you're trying to tell, and the experience you want the reader to have. I think that in your case, since you are creating characters which are meant to be read as a...
The rule of thumb about italics vs. quotes is "big things get italics, little things (or pieces of big things) get quotes." If it's the name of a book or magazine, italicize it. If it's the name...
A prologue is pro, before, the logos, word. It's text before the main body of the text. Whether a work needs a prologue is entirely up to the author. There is no right or wrong way to write one. T...
(I am not a lawyer.) If you are writing an unauthorized biography of a celebrity, I imagine that falls under journalism and libel rules. So as long as you could cite every source you used, and you...
I think you have everything right except the last one, which should be "What did the young lord say?" You're essentially following AP style for titles. Generally, capitalize formal titl...
