Activity for Amadeus
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: How do you know when to give up on a writing project? Don't abandon it, just put it aside. There is a difference between abandoning it and putting it aside to work on something else. At the point when you cannot stand working on it anymore, and still think its broken, trying various forms of analysis and breakdown and rewrite, whatever is in your tool... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is posting a work in progress novel online considered previously published by big publishers? I don't know how that specific site works, but technically I would consider it published, you have made it available to the public. By doing so, you have potentially damaged their sales and their marketing. Consider for a moment if your work is excellent and compelling, and the free availability mak... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How can you explain Scenery? Describing scenery is much like describing people. IRL we never (effectively never) go through a long litany of what we see, not scenery, people, buildings or cars or interiors. Instead we get a general impression (one or two sentences) and then focus on one or two details that are the "most importa... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How do you communicate to people that writing is a job and prevent interruptions? I have worked from home for over fifteen years, I treat it like a job, with minor laxities (but not in my schedule). I have a separate cell phone which is the only number I give for work colleagues. On my personal phone, my message is approximately: "I am working, if this is an emergency then text m... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: What’s the longest a screenplay can be at the midpoint? Some help is at my other answer: How firm is the 120 page limit on a screenplay. If you haven't sold a screenplay before, the more you exceed 120 pages the less likely you are to sell. That's just the facts, long screenplays are more expensive and harder to market, at 160 pages you are talking about... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: My readers are losing interest halfway through. What is a list of possible remedies? +1 Henry, those are possible problems. It is hard to diagnose, but you've told us the problem: The reader has stopped caring how the story turns out. Even if the ending is great. Which likely means you are forcing them to read through something they don't want to read and just don't care about. I ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to avoid hearing "that's me!" from your friends when they read your characters? I know this answer is very late to the party, but I do not ever take a trait unique to a single friend. Ever! It seems like a shortcut to me, that would be harmful for the exact reason the OP put forth: My friend would recognize it, his other friends would recognize it, and if I don't make that trai... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: What would a reader like to know about a character first? Readers are not really interested in getting to know characters "physically". Readers are primarily interested in whatever it is about the character that makes the most difference to what the character will do in the story. That is not the size of their pecs or breasts, whether they are attractive o... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is show not tell less useful advice in first person I think you are still TELLING and not showing. I think you must have intended a paragraph break before "Jack talks too much," if that is supposed to be a thought of the narrator. With that assumption, thinking "Jack talks too much" is not showing us the consequences or ramifications in the narrator w... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: What will be the copyright situation if I self-publish an anthology of my unpublished short stories? I am not a lawyer; but copyright law is clear: Everything is copyrighted, including individual stories within your work. Read about Fair Use, but everybody is subjected to that. The same link, from the Stanford University law school, has a great deal of stuff on copyright law written for laymen to u... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Should I use the real name or attempt to describe? I would call them by their proper names. Normally in a story, you should describe the dress when it matters in the story, the pants or the collar get in the way of the character wearing this garb doing something. Alternatively, another character unfamiliar with the dress can describe what he sees (o... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: To read or not to read similar works before write my own? Personally, I would write a great deal before I ever read somebody else's work, specifically to ensure that what I write is NOT derivative or copied from somebody else. I do not mean to finish a novel. I mean try to get the ideas you think are original in a file. If you have ideas of a plot, ideas f... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: At what point does a POV character noting their surroundings go from showing/telling to an infodump? Turn the infodump into an investigation, revealing the owner of the space. I think one technique is to be NOT just looking. +1 DPT for lengthening to personal connections, so I will talk about seeking insight into the owner of the setting. Give your MC a reason to be paying so much attention, a desi... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Do too many scenes exhaust the reader? Obviously this is 100% my opinion, there is no hard and fast rule. Consider how many scenes are in King's epic book The Stand: I bought it when it first came out and I couldn't put it down. What is that thing, half a billion words? Actually 472,376. ONE NOVEL (and importantly, a recent, modern, best-... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How many pages make a chapter in a chapter book? The number of pages is as many as are needed. As Bryan shows, a chapter can be as short as a word, or a sentence. it can be very long. In general, most chapters are a continuous narrative (a combination of exposition and dialogue) of sequential action. It could be exposition that covers the highligh... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Publishing fiction: when do I start looking for an agent? This is a Buyer's Market. +1 'Friday Night in Frankfurt'. If you send query letters and they respond, you do not have long to send in a manuscript, you are going to leave yourself with about a week to edit, pack and ship before they become disinterested. Metaphorically speaking my father would say,... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Using Myers–Briggs as a guide for character development? I think it is "natural" for us to at times suppress some of our traits and rely on others. Yes, a woman can be intuitive and feeling and empathetic and sympathetic, she can desire fair outcomes. But in a stressed situation, still shoot and risk harming innocent people if it is the only way to protect... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Should I make my character suspect an upcoming twist or not? If I were writing, they would have to be suspicious, no matter how this affected the story. The only good reason to NOT be suspicious is some form of love, romantic, sibling, parental, etc. For example, a son may not believe his own beloved father would betray him. I have a best friend of forty years... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: When Choosing Labels/titles for Characters instead of their names I write in third person limited, meaning my narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of only one character in the book (the hero). Everybody is still referred to as "he", "she", "they", etc, (never "I"), but the narrator does not reveal anything the hero does not plausibly know or see. My latest her... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How would a mature teenager behave? To me, the biggest components of maturity are - a significant level of understanding, based on one's own experiences or what has been observed; - control over impulsivity and rash or risky actions. So a mature person is not surprised if a politician is found to be cheating on his wife; affairs amon... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to talk about certain anatomy without sounding vulgar or cowardly? I recommend the Power Thesaurus, which is pretty comprehensive and crowd-voted (like this site). An example here is for vagina. I would say pick median word, or a word that is clear without being pejorative or clinical. You may also use less vague indirect terms: A penis can be referred to as an er... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to make a deceitful trainwreck of a character likeable If she really does have intellectual superiority and knows it, then it is not pompous to tell the truth, and in fact would be deceptive to deny it. Nor is it "condescending" for a highly intelligent person to try and speak to less intelligent people on a level they can understand. Who is to say that... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Less offensive words for 'sh*t' and 'f**k'? Take your pick from the online power thesaurus: F\\k S\\t The most common upvoted items are "screw" and "crap", respectively. (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to fill up novels in the series after the first one? I think you could take this as a seat of the pants issue, and just be a discovery writer. Write your book. Keep your notes, as you have, disconnected or not. Do not focus on the future until your story is fully written. Not necessarily fully polished, but you have a coherent start, middle and ending.... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How do I write thought battles? Just my opinion, but in my writing, such thinking is NOT a battle of two ideas, but a progression of one idea into another. So based on the person's personality (aggressive, passive, analytic, seeking compromise, etc) they have some initial reaction about what to do, and start planning that or think... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to write a diary and maintain it at a regular basis? Write your sales pitch to Yourself. For a diary or anything else that requires a long or daily commitment (like writing a novel or exercise or jokes), I would start by writing WHY you want to do it. What is your motivation? What do you hope to gain from it? Try to come up with the reason or two t... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: I’m considering adding a flashback to my script. Are they so bad? Flashbacks are fine and used all the time. In film in particular, this is part of "show don't tell" the story, and what that phrase originally meant: Anything you want to say, try to put in action and scene instead of dialogue. Just this last year I must have seen half a dozen shows that begin with ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is there any chance a medieval princess can join the army? If so, how will she be treated amongst the men? Probably not, for the type of medieval 'Princess' most readers imagine. Most Old Testament societies (Jews, Christians, Muslims) in medieval times considered women the property of a male, and princesses, while respected, had no real authority to order any man except, perhaps, some servants or slaves... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Can you claim postage as an expense in the US if it's for a non-paying market? Yes, it is a legitimate business expense. Specifically it is a marketing expense. For example, in my business, I have hired a firm to help me distribute a press release on a new project. They are good at doing this and getting publications to publish the release or review the topic of the press rele... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Should I write about a particular lingering thought? As a world-building exercise, not as a story. It sounds to me like you are engaged in world-building; which means solving the problems of politics, behavior, technology levels, geography, communications, religion, etc that all go into building a coherent fictional world. But this is just a setting ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How do I display articles I wrote in someone else's name in my portfolio? Writing an article (or book) in somebody else's name is called "ghostwriting". Typically ghost writers agree under contract to remain anonymous. If you have no such agreement with your sister, and your sister will not get into any trouble if anybody learns she did not write the articles herself (and... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Thinking about a good beginning I'd start with a murder mystery. My hero tries to save someone in great peril, beaten and kicked and dragged away. But that person was just acting, a "professional" victim, and only bait used to lure my hero into a trap that ends their life. The mystery is my hero did not know the person that was in ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How do I handle unintentional occurences of politically hot topics? A third option is balance: Write that scene as you will, but elsewhere in the story ensure you show the opposite of what you worry about: Show a strong woman help a weakened male. Or show this same female eventually help the same male that helped her, or some other male. A single instance does not c... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Can a story be considered plagarism even though its in a different world Names of characters are typically protected by copyright. (I say typically because some very generic names used in many works, like "John Doe", are not attributable to any single original work). So yes, it would be plagiarism. I cannot create a character named "Harry Potter" and write some other kin... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Writing a phone call scene in a screenplay No, do not use a new scene heading each time. Use INTERCUT, described at the link. Basically, a scene heading for each separate scene, then "intercut between X and Y [and Z and ...]. Then exposition or dialogue without new scene headings. The following excerpt is cut and pasted from the link as an ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Set multiple Trilogies in the same timeline? Common Global News. To be "in the same timeline" typically will not mean anything except that the characters experience the same "watershed events" that basically everybody in their world hears about. But such watershed events are rare. Examples might be the death of a ruler, a war begins or ends, a... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to create a useful diff of a markdown writing project iteration I presume you have already tried the flags --minimal and --ignore-all-space. If line breaks due to added/deleted/changed words are causing the problem with diff (making it look like changes appeared that are just format changes), I would suggest (since you can program this yourself easily) you pre-p... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is it better to save each chapter in a separate word document or all in one document? If part of your editing is checking continuity, it becomes difficult to search through 20 separate files for previous mentions of "Allen" to see if his hair (or lack of it) has been mentioned before Chapter 21, or if there was another character called "Allen", or if the receptionist was called "Mary"... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Fantasy Series - YA or Adult protagonist? I don't think there is a strong commercial reason. YA with YA protagonists is a commercial audience, but note it is also an audience heavily influenced by parents, that want fantasy for their "coming of age" children that isn't too explicitly sexual, violent, bloody, etc. I think an adult fantasy is... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to express martial arts action in fiction? I would echo part of Myron's answer. I have a highly trained close combat martial artist in one of my stories. I personally only have a year of martial arts training, but I know enough about it and anatomy to do web research. My approach is to avoid all lingo and nomenclature; all I describe is the ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: What are proper ways to end a business letter? It depends upon the content of the letter. Just "Thanks," alone can sound off key if there is nothing obvious for which thanks to the reader is warranted, or too light-hearted when providing serious information. "Sincerely," is (to me) taking on an emotional component of a personal relationship to e... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to make a psychopath/sociopath likeable? People are unlikeable when they harm others (emotionally or physically) for their own gain (financially or emotionally; e.g. they may just enjoy hurting people). A psychopath/sociopath harms others without compunction or thought, they treat other human beings as objects to be used and discarded, the... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How far underneath the surface is the message of a story? Personally, I think the theme does not have to be obvious at all, or ever stated. It just needs to be consistent. For example, if there is some life philosphy in your story, "love will triumph", then make sure love does indeed triumph, in some way or another, and a lack of it or hate or greed does no... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How can I make dialog sound like that of a six year old? Without being pejorative, six year olds are very shallow and (if not abused) very trusting, they believe what adults tell them. Unless they are rationally precocious, most believe (or would be happy to believe) in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Stork that brings babies, and unicorns and dra... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Do script readers start at the beginning? Analysts Read from the beginning (the Title) to the end without any sneak peaks ahead. They don't want to accidentally read any spoilers. The book "Writing Scripts Hollywood Will Love [An Insider's Guide to Film and Television Scripts That Sell]" is by Katherine Atwell Herbert, an actual professiona... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How do I know what I'm writing is interesting to the reader? If anything kept me awake at night (and some things have) I'd presume it was likely real trouble. Look for groups or websites online that deal with the topics that interest you. If you can't find any with significant membership, those topics may not be worthy of exploring in book length form. As fa... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How can I plan the chapters in my book? I'd consider a chapter either a "movement" in a story, or a setting in a story (and sometimes it is both). A "movement" is when a character (or more than one) goes from one governing mental state to another governing mental state. For example, Cindy's initial mental state is "normal life", she wakes... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to create tension during a conversation Tension in a conversation is created by disagreement, rejection of arguments, attitude (hatred, resentment), misunderstanding, confusion, attempts to convince or sway somebody that fall on deaf ears, including offers of bribery (monetary, sexual, information or other services) that do not work, or ar... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Should I create a fictional college if students go missing in my script? You are asking for legal advice, on whether you slander or libel the college in question, which even a lawyer would have to read everything you write about the college in order to provide you with advice. I am not a lawyer. However, as you can see from the TV series "Suits", it is important to their... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How can I establish the nature of a person/group without action? In dialogue, either from the heroes perspective or from the villains perspective, discuss the resolution of a prior problem and dismiss it. You can use that dialogue to prove callous psychopathic violence taken and accepted in stride by the villains, or "unnecessary" violence by the evil group causi... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |