Posts by Lauren Ipsum
Examples 1 and 3 are fine. You can have a sharp break at the end of a line of dialogue. I'd slightly change 2. 'Come — ' He beckoned me closer with a finger. I wouldn't use a comma after an M...
When you're looking for a job, you have (a) your skills, which is what you offer the company, and (b) your professional desires, which is what the company offers you. Examples: A graphic designer...
I'm not aware of any particular consensus, so I think you should pick what works for you. I like the idea that you can nudge, push, or slam an option and each one means something different (even th...
Format it the same way, with blockquote indents, and if you can add a little dialogue before and after, you don't have to worry about weird quote mark placement. Bilbo stood and cleared his thro...
Write your book. Design your alphabet. Include the page in the front or end matter of your book. Publish.
Yes, that's exactly the way I'd indicate that you as the writer/transcriber are uncertain if the word you're indicating is correct. As long as you're making it clear that you're quoting something, ...
They are two different programs for two different tasks. Scrivener is for writing your text. InDesign is for laying out the completed text after it's written and edited. I have written fiction i...
"Brokeback Mountain" is a short story from Annie Proulx which became a major film. Sherlock Holmes appeared in 56 short stories, and has reportedly been played on TV more than any other single cha...
Colons are fine because they represent a stop, the same as an m-dash. I would hesitate to use a semi-colon in dialogue because to me it's a bookish piece of punctuation. It gives the reader a visua...
Once you've explained the process, you don't need to walk through the process again. You can have a few scenes which are set in whatever the setting is where the skill is practiced (computer lab, f...
You could try a relational database (like FileMaker, although that's not free), a mind map (I've never used one, so I don't know what features they have), or some kind of wiki. I use Scrivener with...
Essentially it means that they obey their own internal rules and logic. If it's established that dwarves live 200 years, there can't be one who is arbitrarily 500 years old. There has to be an expl...
You would only capitalize dragon in this instance if it meant something other than "generic name for fire-breathing reptile of fantasy." For example, in Gregory Maguire's alternate history of Oz ...
Write out a few and share them. You may be completely wrong about the market. A tale which "explores a character's path through life" but not much else happens is called a character study, and th...
You need a desktop layout program, such as Adobe InDesign or Quark XPress. Don't use Word; it's a word processing program and not meant for layout. You could possibly use LaTex, but I don't know mu...
Give the victim a reason to betray the good guys. Make the victim a rounded character. Give him or her motivation, backstory, and personality. The reader may not see all the backstory you've creat...
In David and Leigh Eddings's Malloreon series, one of the characters, a ruler, styles himself ’Zakath, with the apostrophe. The characters under his rule use the apostrophe; those who oppose him do...
The motivation doesn't have to be massive or book-spanning. As Cole correctly notes, it could simply be "getting to the door." Or "not getting an elbow in the eye." Or "not choking from the smoke" ...
In Tolkien-influenced high fantasy, realm is generally used in place of country, and means the same thing. A kingdom is a country which is specifically ruled by a monarchy. An empire can be one co...
Cheat and edit your text. Or keep combing backwards through your layout, either pushing a few lines forward or bringing a few lines back, until your footnote and the referent are on the same page.
Capitalizing it is good, but coming up with another name for it is better. Churchill famously called it the Black Dog. Yours could be the Black Oil, or Dark Oil, or Devil's Touch, et cetera.
If you have a printer who is handling print-on-demand, what would you need an additional service for? Lay out the book yourself, or hire a designer to do it, and send the end files to your POD prin...
Put time-stamps at the beginning of each chapter, or time switch, and you should be okay. I'm not sure how you would indicate "present day" if your book starts "in the future," but that's up to you.
1) Break your habit of long sentences. They are mentally exhausting. Try reading your sentences out loud and see how often you have to stop to take a breath, or if you can remember the beginning of...
Your theme is the general statement you're making, but you can only make the statement via the plot. The plot should be developed via the organic actions of the characters. Therefore, decide on yo...
