Activity for _X_‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Answer	—	A: Is using a different voice for protagonist's narration and dialogue ok? The narrating voice is, in a sense, having a dialogue with the reader. It would feel odd if the narrator has a different tone and style when telling the story and when talking to other characters in the story. In the end, you reader may feel that these are two distinct characters. If no explanation i... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I convince my reader that I will not use a certain trope? Don't tell. Show them It does not matter how many times you tell the reader that something is or that it is not. Telling is so detached from the internal image that readers build about the story that it will not affect the picture. On the other hand you can add elements to the picture to seal a fact... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: In an academic paper, who should be listed as the author of a community-authored document? This answer follows the APA style, other styles may apply, without loss of generality. A possible workflow to resolve your problem would be, in order: 1. Check if there is a "how to cite" section and copy it This is often the case for most datasets, or for some documents. 2. Check if there is a l... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Question	—	The who, when and where of what has been written Question: Is there a resource that categorizes existing fiction works by themes based on the authors' demographics (e.g. gender, age, historical period, geographical location, etc...)? For instance, I was curious to determine whether statements like the following ones are true or false: - younger ... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to write a nice frame challenge? Be Socrates In my view the champion of frame challenges is Socrates. His famous method always starts with an attempt at a frame challenge. The success of the Socratic method stands on the basis that it is based on logic, and it leads to check if a frame challenge exists on the basis of logical cont... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Question	—	...and then she held the gun In the short passage I am writing, the starting point is that one character is being held at gunpoint, and the end point is that she now holds the gun, having disarmed the opponent. The idea is that this sequence happens very rapidly. She is an expert at it, and makes no mistakes. The reader does no... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Does every chapter have to "blow the reader away" so to speak? It is a matter of uniformity. So, in your case, yes: every chapter should "blow the reader away". Chapters are parts of a bigger work where there is an expectation of both continuity of scope and uniformity of perception. Continuity of scope implies that your readers may rightfully expect to contin... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Past vs. present tense when referring to a fictional character A rule-of-thumb is that characters may become part of the past only in their universe, where they are a "real" person. In this case, you can use the past-tense if you are referring to a "previous version", or "younger version" of the character. You would still use the present for the contemporaneous ... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Question	—	Revision secrets for keeping the meter and improving the beat I sometimes write poetry. The creative process for the first draft can be summarized in these steps: 1. I first choose a global structure (e.g. a ballad, a sonnet, a free-stanza-but-fixed-verse, etc...); 2. I make a soft decision about the tone and mood; 3. then I create verses that sound good in m... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Question	—	Adding depth to two-dimensional heroes from myths For the recent writing exercise I wanted to tackle Beowulf's character. In the original saga, the hero Beowulf comes to the aid of king Hrothgar to defeat two monsters. Then, after a period of 50 years, he faces a third monster. I wanted to create my Beowulf around these 50 years of pause. Clearly ... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Question	—	The art of clickbait captions We all have seen at least one of these clickbaits (or some variation thereof): > "single mom discovers the meaning of life with a simple trick" or > "billionaires don't want you to know this secret" or > "the 10 things that only real survivors do" or > "you could be sitting on a fortune" At f... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Question	—	Writing style before Elements of Style I am looking for the representative references on writing style in English that would pre-date Strunk and White's The Elements of Style (possibly in the period between 1750 - 2000). I would like to understand the evolution of what was taught to be good style in written English before the only book on... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to tell people you write smut/erotica/porn If you wish to deal with specific categories of people who have specific keyword triggers, then you could work your way into a fancy description of your activity: > I write titillating stories that explore the psychological and physical boundaries of desire and lust without sparing graphical details... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Question	—	Seamlessly glueing an archetypal plot to an existing story I gave my latest book to my favorite beta readers, and they liked it except for the very ending, i.e. the last 20 pages, which they thought fell short and a bit rushed. I therefore decided to try and lengthen it. One option would have been just be to lengthen the ending by sustaining a longer climax... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Question	—	A poker game description that does not feel gimmicky I'm writing a scene in which four characters play a high-stakes poker game. So far my narrator has been an omniscient third person, who just does not wish to enter into the characters' heads. I started going around the table. I have the fingers fumbling with the corners of the cards, the tapping of ... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Question	—	Making science for toddlers easy to remember I have been intending to create a book for toddlers with basic scientific notions in it. Most books for this target readership that I have seen present whatever content in the form of a story, quite often with fictional characters. I was intending instead to go for the dry science, and write it down ... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Question	—	Creating simple jokes Sometimes in the process of writing dialogue, I wish to insert a joke in the exchange. I could copy an existing joke, or I could come up with one. The latter option seems preferable if I could tie the new joke with the on-going dialogue. Of course, one could simply be creative, without any technique... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Question	—	Fleshing out the character motivation from the plot I decided to give a try to the snowflake method. The idea is that you gradually expand the story from a blurb into a full draft. This question stems from the character-characterization step, but it applies in general to the understanding of a character. I am at the point in which I need to clarify a... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to prevent "they're falling in love" trope Embrace it instead, and make the reader suffer for having even thought of it What you have there is a reader's commitment to a goal. They expect two characters to get together from page 1, and in the first few pages you should perhaps give them some hints that it may occur. Once the reader is emotio... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I make an eldritch abomination out of humanity? 1. The issue In my opinion the issue is a strong prevalence of telling rather than showing. All I read in the OP was the description of some fancy lava lamp. To a reader it does not strike any emotion, and it serves no purpose. 2. Clarify your goal First you need to establish what you want to wri... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to keep a dark protagonist who wants to keep his humanity dark? TL;DR, Give him the same personal traits as the here nameless human subject discussed in some of Anna Arendt's writings: a mediocre self-contented clown in need of constant approval from a group of peers he believes to belong to. Also note that a human being that can justify to him/her-self the murd... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: For HTML documentation sets, are there meaningful guidelines for topic length? > This is not based on studies. It is instead just the subjective experience of plainly and painstakingly having to read through documentations of different sorts throughout the years. Documentation is mainly written for the users of the technology. These have typically different and varying skills.... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to describe a fist bump explosion? This would be a great occasion for an extended simile. Take the action and characterize the important elements by comparison to natural events. E.g. The scattering of matter after the big bang, or the bouncing of pool balls, or even a can of soda, fizzing and foaming after a fall. For instance > As... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to balance the agendas of co protagonists that periodically conflict? Hide their goals. You are writing about professionals. They would be less than amateurs in their line of business if they were to reveal their goal so easily. In fact, revealing one's goal gives the other leverage to achieve theirs. Instead, structure their goals like an onion. Layer after layer of... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Autocapitalize after colon for dialog? As of today, it cannot be done in one pass from within Scrivener. I did spend a good amount of time researching this, and I discovered that Scrivener does not support GNU extensions in regex. On the other hand, there is a "simple" solution. It is deadly tedious, but it only require 26 search-replace... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: In a professional email you need to quote something from a business document. How do you write this? In a professional email the document title (and perhaps the date when it was shared) is a sufficient reference. I am assuming that the document was either shared by email, or given in a meeting, and that it is obvious that you are privy to this information. > As stated in [DOCUMENT TITLE], sent on ... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I go from 300 unfinished/half written blog posts, to published posts? The other answers have given you great suggestions about understanding motivation and getting to work. You now need a calendar. Decide on your blog post frequency, as you have done, and plan your topics, month by month. If you have a trusted beta reader, test some of your content with them. Next, y... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is a stroke of luck acceptable after a series of unfavorable events? Short answer: yes, with measure and forethought. Note #1: unless karma and universal balance is a defining characteristic of your world, previous bad luck does not count. That's just how our world works. Note #2: there are great examples of book that handle great moments of luck, and base their ent... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Describing Pain in First Person Present Tense There are two issues at play: 1. First person present tense (FP-PT) is a very particular combination. A lot of the descriptions found with third person narrators, or with past tenses, would feel gimmicky with your choice. In my opinion this type of narration is a great mask for a stream of conscious... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: When is using a simile better than giving a literal description? A simile usually implies more than the mere appearance. In the comparison you link two entities that share some features. Sometimes the common elements are marked explicitly, for instance: - her hair was gleaming like a summer cornfield. - they fought bravely like tigers - he was tall and gaunt li... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Does success imply validation and agreement? Only social success imply validation and agreement. It is entirely possible that these are given without verification. A bully may become socially successful when most people in society were not the victims, and they did not know/ignored the bullying activity. This may be quite common, actually, in p... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Can disgust be a key component of horror? TL;DR: \ Fear (or equivalent shock) followed by disgust -\> horror \ disgust alone -\> disgust A significant effort in analyzing the concepts of horror, terror and sublime times back to the XIX century. From what I recall, they are connected to a sense of fright and fear, with horror being the dis... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Showing mass murder in a kid's book This kind of killing is never done with a light heart. While you can easily jump over the act itself, you can show the turmoil and torment that goes through the mind of those that have to execute it. While it may seem that everything happened in the spite of the moment, it is far from being believabl... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: What is the structure of a paranormal horror story? In paranormal stories you first need to establish normality. Make sure that you note down the elements that you have presented as the cardinal staples of normality. You then need to break them , one by one. The order in important. You first break the elements of normality that could be explained by t... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Autocapitalize/correct two connected words? Two possible approaches. 1. Before you start typing your text. You can set up a list of auto-complete words. From Project -\> Project Settings -\> autocomplete. 2. After you typed. You can use the find command in Edit -\> Find. Set the Find Options to Regular Expressions (regex). Place the desired ... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Will my book have a better chance at being successful if I include more gender diversity in it? Rather than gender diversity, I'd worry whether my characters are interesting enough to my readers. Suspension of disbelief, where well supported, would make anyone enjoy just anything. Do your characters show conflicts and struggles that feel honest and believable? Does your female cast interact i... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do you get out of your own psychology to write characters? This is probably a variation on other answers. I often ask family and friends what they would do in the situations in which I put my characters, and why they would do so. I struck a conversation on a train with a perfect stranger who was intrigued by my typing furiously on the laptop. I asked her too... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How does one write from a minority culture? A question on cultural references Most definitively! In fact these types of cultural references serve two purposes. On one hand, they are for the reader: if the reader identifies it, it may resonate with the feeling that the reference is attached to. On the other other hand, they are for the writer, and this is the most important: ... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Question	—	Sugar-coating a niche genre I have written one novel, which I believe to be in the steampunk genre. The main plot revolves around a two adventurous women entering in possession of a fabled machine, and using it to chase the mysterious villain, who seeks revenge on the world (and who, incidentally, just happen to always be one s... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Question	—	The English language, if England had a dictatorship European dictatorships left a profound cultural footprint in the local culture, to the point that a certain vocabulary, a certain manner of writing, and even a certain manner of speaking is evocative of that period. I am not talking about propaganda material; I am referring to the actual writing sty... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: What are some ways to make absurdity of certain ideas in fiction more palatable? I wrote some steampunk. In the plot, there were some elements that the reader should take as novelty, and they were presented with great emphasis. Other elements were supposed to be common in the world, and they were just given just as you would mention a spoon when eating a soup. If I needed to desc... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Pairing poetry with original artwork: is this done? To answer your questions. 1. Some famous poets have paired their poems with their own artwork (e.g. William Blake). 2. Most of the famous poets in textbooks don't (or at least not to the level that they would be known for both). If the work is just for yourself, then by all means continue along the... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Question	—	Nanowrimo and typewriting I am a happy user of an Underwood 5, an old typewriter from the beginning of the XX century. I use it to type letters, short stories, greeting cards, and labels. I am now planning to try and type the next Nanowrimo. On a computer I can blob out 2000 words a day in 90 minutes. It is also easy to kee... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Third wheel character First, from the description it is clear that these are not three similar characters. In fact, there are two MCs, and another character. The question is "how to make the reader feel that the third character is equally present in the story, and not just popping out here and there?"" There are three ca... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I portray body horror and still be sensitive to people with disabilities? If you want to be PC, stick to symptoms of infectious diseases, where the sense of body horror would reinforce prevention and be justified as a mean towards avoiding contagion. As the OP suggests, body horror is about body transformations that go in undesired directions. Thanks to evolution, and som... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Mafia name usage in writing Will they come after you? Very unlikely, but not impossible. > It's my reader who bothers criminal organizations, it's not me. My reader is what they don't want. The fact that, in this moment, we are talking about it, that all the newspapers talked about it, that books continue to be published, and ... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to make clear what a part-humanoid character looks like when they're quite common in their world? Use events in your story to provide excuses for describing their look: > Naide stretched her neck. Her powerful shoulders were still aching from the long flight. In truth, she could handle twice the distance, but the cold gusts of the morning air, caressing her long graceful neck, had managed to sti... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Question	—	Identifying and managing weak scenes during planning I structured my plot, designed the path to the climax, listed my characters and even outlined some scenes. Then halfway through I got stuck: one minor transition scene just did not make sense. The characters in it couldn't possibly behave like I initially thought. This was due to some nuances of the... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Time gaps in a novel If your issue is with the telling of the passing of time, then you could try to show it. This is done by relating events or facts that the reader know would take a certain amount of time to happen. I give you some examples: One season, or one year: > The trees were already pushing their flowers o... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: What are the words that were used during Shakespeare's time that are seldom used nowadays? After you're done reading the sonnets, you can check your newly learned words against this reference of Common Words & Phrases in Shakespeare's World: https://learn.lexiconic.net/shakewords.htm A note of caution. As with any pre-compiled work that is not the direct result of your efforts, I would s... (more)	—	about 5 years ago

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