Posts by Lauren Ipsum
If we're genuinely talking just five consecutive words: yes, that could happen by chance. But plagiarism is not just about five words in the middle of a 120-page thesis. It's lifting ideas, plots...
If you really feel the need to have whatever noise she makes expressed as dialogue, I would write it as "Hic!" However, I personally would either write it as Hic! to indicate it's more of a sound...
You can't guarantee the reader will make sense of your translated text without a layer of human intervention. If anything, you should have two: one who is an expert in the field, to make sure cont...
An abstract is a quick summary or overview of the entire piece. It's used for search results (manual or computerized) — basically, the reader is saying, "Is this the piece I need as a source for X ...
Mercedes Lackey's Valedmar series has established candles (of a specific although unexplained size) which burn steadily enough to be marked off and used for timekeeping. So "three marks" (that is, ...
In some of them you can just drop the "I think." You can also use dialect, slang, or regionalisms. You can do it. In my opinion, you can do it. You really should take a break. Yo...
In either case, there's something missing — or maybe it's because the sentence is out of context. Just to say someone washed his hands like a surgeon is insufficient; you need more detail. "He scru...
I am reminded of the anecdote about Dustin Hoffman torturing himself for Marathon Man because he was a "Method" actor, so he'd look as tortured as his character. Lawrence Olivier looked at him and ...
You might try OmniGraffle, which is a flowchart generator for Mac. I've only seen it used once or twice so I can't speak to how well it works, but it might fit your bill.
If you didn't create an outline — that is, if you didn't know beforehand how it was going to end — then you're suffering from impeded arborvision (you can't see the forest for the trees). 1) Put ...
Cheat. Drop some letters/syllables. It's true, in po'try, it cannae be changed (Feels like "can" needs another unstressed after it, doesn't it?)
Your co-writer is a pain in the tuchus. I am sorry you have to put up with this annoying quirk of writing. That being said, I found two references so far: The Oxford Dictionaries: Bullet poin...
"Submitted by" might be your best answer. It obfuscates who the originator was (the authors/creators of the original work) and what you and your collaborator did, but the truth is, you are submitti...
That's not a bad opening. I might change it to "Today we're going to talk about..." to make it more inclusive, but there's nothing wrong with being straightforward. Another version might be "Today ...
As a user of both programs, I would definitely say just put in a placeholder and let your designer import the images. Having them in the Scrivener text isn't going to help. You export them as Word ...
I can think of a few ways: 1) Cheat. This was how Tolkien did it, so you'd be in good company. He just listed somewhere in the appendices that "Year 5798 by Gondor's calendar = 144 Shire Reckoning...
Why would citing "a well-known historical source" be any different from citing a not-particularly-well-known historical source? For the speech: you found the speech somewhere, right? Book, websit...
Try this: San Francisco is just coming to life. I can see all of downtown from my hotel room. Ten stories below, the traffic is backed up on Powell Street. ... etc. ... etc. Two weeks earl...
I'd use a spreadsheet as a wireframe. If you don't have such notes already, you may have to examine your story a section at a time, and make notes about each part detailing what's going on with Pl...
Along with nodding vigorously at everything Neil said... You can have discontinuity in the beginning, but at some point it has to be apparent to the reader how these threads are connected. In GRR...
You have broken and punctuated it correctly. But if you're worried about the she continued, then change it up a little: "Well," Antimony began, taking a deep, thoughtful breath, and stepping ...
Maybe you shouldn't be writing. Maybe you should be collaborating. Sketch the thing out and hire a partner, or a ghostwriter. Short stories. Fewer words, and less need to create a world. You onl...
After you write your first draft, you will see from actual use what terms are dependent on other terms. That will allow you to reorder your definitions and put the ones you need first in front. Yo...
I sympathize with the sentiment, but no, you can't use "black humor" and "shop talk" in a book like that. Such comments have to be kept in-house and preferably not written down. We all complain abo...
What you might want to do is get the whole thing written as a three-act piece with exposition in the beginning. Set it aside for a month, and then come back and see if the opening is too slow. If i...
