Activity for Amadeusâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: Double spaces in paragraphs for publishers? Not exactly. All lines should be double spaced. Editors (and other professional readers of submissions) will use the space for hand-written notes or corrections. I believe most editors still print and read from paper with hand-written notes, it is the most convenient form and works pretty much anywhe... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What exactly is an editor "summary"? Probably NOT a synopsis or plot summary. I think he is looking for a report the editor would write about the work after editing it. This is not a book report like a summary or synopsis, but the editor's take on whether your writing is professional. The editor will correct all punctuation and formatt... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to write repeated actions Describe them once, as that character's standard approach, or usual caution, or something similar to that, a specific word or few words that identifies this whole thing that will be repeated often. So the reader knows, when you use those few words, what you are talking about. Perhaps on the second u... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Is it okay to sum up unimportant dialogue in the description? Let me explain If a character speaks, you must have it as dialogue. The normal course of action in scripts is to omit "nicety" dialogue and leave that up to the director. We typically eliminate greetings and "how are yous" and any pointless politeness or greeting, unless it is specifically character building (a gla... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Writer's Block For Years...? First, what happened two to three years ago? What happened in the months after the last story you wrote? You don't have to tell me, this is for yourself to contemplate, and I am not soliciting any criminal or sexual history, or any betrayals committed or suffered, or any unrequited love or rejection,... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to "Show" and not "Tell" for nervousness? Showing instead of telling means showing the consequences of a character state (anger, anxiety, love, worry, hate, etc) instead of labeling the state. "Steam coming out of her ears" is a cliché, originally intended as the consequences of a metaphor for the heat of anger, itself not necessarily liter... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What are the dangers of self publishing? Although I have heard a few success stories, I think self-publishing is a mistake. The obvious benefits of a professional editor are lost, that includes your work not straying into copyright infringement, slander or libel, or falling afoul of pornography laws (which one might do if portraying explic... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How do readers/writers alike feel about too much narration in a story? I don't think this balance matters terribly much. The more critical measure is whether there is tension due to conflict. If your narration is describing a battle, for example, it can go on for pages without any dialogue. If your narration is describing people at high risk (trying to infiltrate a lai... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How do I format dialogue for an AI chatbot in a screenplay? I would write it as dialogue, but avoid (as the narrator and writer) attributing any emotions, humor, or subtlety to the character's text messages. Annie does not say things cautiously, angrily, or allude to things, or skirt the subject. She does not truly understand what is going on, she is a shallo... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Chapter 1 Problems Yes, you are doing something wrong. Typically the first thing you think of for a story is not where a story should start, because story ideas begin with big dramatic moments, reveals, discoveries, and so on. The idea for a story is often a turning point for a character, and that is not how to star... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to express sarcasm in non-dialogue text? Call them air quotes. Enclose in single quotes, you can emphasize it with further characterization. "She said she was 'devastated'," Julie said, with air quotes. "Right, right? Because I thought, then why were you laughing?" Don't use "air quotes", use actual quotes, and call the gesture air quotes.... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Why sometimes we read "automatically" ? There are two possibilities, I see, and only one is avoidable. The first is, when I experience this (and I do fairly frequently), it is because I am tired (not fresh to the job in the morning) and what I am reading is boring. My job requires a great deal of non-fiction reading that is not intended to... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What does "juvenile tone" mean? A juvenile, in human terms, typically refers to a post-pubescent child that is too young for adult responsibilities. In our culture such people are aware of adult themes (sexuality, pornography, politics and political philosophy, some business practices perhaps, religious philosophy, crime and crimi... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What books should have a sequel? I think I would wait on a sequel, and try another novel first, set in another world. You got published by not taking an easy way out. It is entirely possible the stuff you did not publish was useful but did not belong in the first book and doesn't belong in another book! I think one danger of a sequ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to create this scenario I'd suggest a prank gone wrong. In real life, literally playing with matches or starting a prank fire has caused apartment buildings to burn down and kill several people. Maya can know Bob was prone to this, trying to scare people, and perhaps have even scolded him for doing it on the day of the fir... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Are there any postulates of literature? I think the only postulate of literature, by which I mean an axiom, by which I mean something that must be self-evidently true and does not have to be proven, is that literature must have content and ideas that are given some positive value by some audience. Or it isn't literature. A grocery list is... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Should I write a novel if I haven't read many? > I do not have enough knowledge about the book-reading community as to what pleases them. What pleases them is what you see published and sell, they wouldn't buy it and read it if it did not please them. Note there is a distinct cause and effect here: They don't like it just because it got publish... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Housing fictional characters Find the city, neighborhood, and street you want. Make up a number that is not ON that street. For example, pick an address that is between two existing addresses: On each side of my street, numeric addresses progress by fours (e.g. 19,23,27 on one side, 18,22,26 on the other), so half of all numbers... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Should I, and how should I develop a "filler character"? Any character present throughout the story should have some sort of good reason to be there, especially a character like you describe that will clearly be risking their life and conscience in escalating battle and wrong-doing. Why don't they quit? What do they stand to gain that is so important to th... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Retelling old stories Google "how long does copyright last", you will get the terms for most countries in the results. In the USA, here is a link that summarizes it: https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-basics/ Excerpt from that link: > For works published after 1977, the copyright lasts for the life of... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Using the Voice wisely It does not sound to me like you are trying to be an entertaining author, it sounds to me like you want to blog and have decided the only way you can be heard and get paid for expressing your opinions is to disguise them as entertaining fiction. I think that is a bad idea. It will lead to a story fi... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: In-universe swear, curses, similies and sayings, how to make them less cringeworthy You do it as you did, they just need to be short and pithy enough that people get what they are; slang or shorthand for something ridiculous or over the top. I would read them out loud (in my studio alone, or to the dog), to see if they feel "sayable". The Flower Hill comment does, the Orion thing do... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How do I write someone reading a document? In one of my stories, I have a letter written by a girl's adoptive father. She loves him, he is pushing 80, but he tells her he is dying, along with other information he thinks she should know about her past and parents that was never before revealed to her. I presented the letter in italics (used t... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to prevent ebook piracy from stealing your livelihood? Apparently the following section requires emphasis! :-) I do not endorse this solution, I do not USE this solution, I am a semi-retired professor in computer science that is aware of this product, I met somebody that uses this product to protect their work and likes it. It is a Windows-only product,... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How does the narrator address a character who has changed her name, but only some people call her this new name? I have a character (say Lucy) that in various circles is always pretending to be someone else with another name: She is Mary, Lisa, Brittany, Virginia. The narrator always calls her Lucy. She introduces herself as (e.g.) Mary, people call her Mary, she responds to Mary. > "Mary, you have to tell us... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What is Third Person Dramatic? No, "dramatic" means you show only actions, you do not describe anybody's thoughts or feelings. It is related to movies/TV/Plays in that on screen you only see acting, (other than rare exceptions) no narrator tells you Jack is hurt, or angry, or surprised. 3rd person is a standard narrator, Dramati... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What tense do I use when talking about a character that has died? Although the past tense makes sense due to your sentence construction, a different construction would allow the present tense, by setting a time frame: > When Riley and Anna meet, Anna is a beautiful girl with a smile on her face every day, her smile is his favourite thing about her. > > In their c... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Structure / arcs for multiple characters To the extent you plan out arcs at all (many of us do not, and Stephen King does not), make a plan for each character present for a significant part of the story. For example, in 007 movies, Q is the gadget guy that shows Bond all the cool things about his car, his wristwatch, his pocket devices, et... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What is considered "childish" in fictional writing? I +1 to several of the above, and it is good advice; and I admit I haven't taken the time to read your work so far. I'd add this observation: Writing will appear childish when the main characters (both heroes and villains) are made overly simplistic, ignorant, naive, or incapable or very limited in ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What is an arena-driven story? Arena driven story: A man crashes his airplane in the desert, breaking his leg. His radio doesn't work. If he stays there he will die. He splints his leg, takes all the water he can carry, and tries to walk out. Or make it a man and woman, in the arctic. Make it Tom Hanks in Castaway; he is stranded ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How do I mislead readers about a character in a story? The first thing I think of is that this constrains your Point of View [POV] as an author. To be satisfying to the reader, the author must not lie to them. Thus you cannot write from an omniscient point of view (the narrator of the tale knows everything), and you cannot write from the POV of that char... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How much dialogue in a first date scene? I would avoid the "fact based" small talk (where are you from, what's your job, etc). I would not even tell about it, unless it is critical to the plot. I'd just dismiss that as five minutes of awkward biography before we came to a real question. As a general rule, always make your dialogue conteste... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Making the death of background characters sad +1 Thomas. Another trait that works in film: Make the BG character a young and attractive adult female. It exploits an unfortunate trait of human psychology, we subconsciously value young and attractive adult females much more highly than others. That said, young children are even more highly valued... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How can I capture the voice of an insane person? First figure out why you need this character to be insane. What insane act or decision must they make in order to advance your plot? Insanity generally involves a failing model of the world and people in it. Like truly believing if you hold a white feather, you will be able to fly if you leap off a ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Bending the rules of the english language for effect; sentence fragments and run-ons I think it is fine and reads well, however, I do not ever break the rules of breaking :-) I don't embed dialogue or italicized thought in exposition. No! I'm not a dengenerate! should appear as a paragraph on its own, for example. The same for No! They know!, and then "Help!" FYI: I use italicized ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: quotation from one language into English As a native English speaker and writer, I do not find this logical because the word pairings are not antonyms (opposites) or related. "from this world to eternity" does not make sense to me as a travel plan, 'eternity' is not a PLACE. "this world to paradise" might make sense, it implies from one PL... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How do you guide a character into discovering a world? You can make the guide a computerized teacher or companion; which can be any size convenient to your story: very small (a patch on the skin) or a robot as large as a person. The value of using a computer is that readers will accept it as plausible if it lets the MC get into danger, or if it does not... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: What is the purpose of showing It is the difference between being told something is true, and experiencing that same something. IRL, suppose I tell you my ten year old niece Katy is a piano prodigy. You feel one way about that, perhaps impressed, perhaps doubtful and thinking I am a doting uncle that heard her play Chopsticks. N... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How do I finish my projects? Here is an idea. First, I warn you I am a 'discovery' writer, and it sounds to me like you should be too, but your write yourself into corners. A discovery writer (like Stephen King) begins with characters and some initial situation (for him often a catastrophic supernatural situation; in The Dome,... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How can I write God with a more feminine aspect and introduce it into my culture's mythology? Well, you are going to have to start asking yourself questions and provide answers. Why do men exist? In your premise there is absolutely zero role for a male, and if God created women in her own image, why do women need men to conceive a child? In Christianity, God takes a rib from Adam to give hi... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to refer to clothes without modern words ? (e.g: t-shirt) A t-shirt is a short-sleeved pullover shirt. A chemise (a term still used) is a short-sleeved pullover dress, like a nightgown. Robes are full or half sleeved garments, typically open in front and tied or buttoned closed, that reach to mid-calf or even the floor. Describe how the clothing is used, d... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: At what point do you draw the line of showing, and not telling, or vice versa? You are telling and should not be. "Show don't tell" comes from the film industry and their need to restrict dialogue, for many valid reasons of verisimilitude. So nobody should say "I am angry," they ACT angry. In other words, consider the consequences of them being angry. What does an angry person... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: When writing non-linear, do I have to note time changes? Yes you should. If it is truly non-linear, you should use years: 1997, 2020, 1983, etc. Do not count on your viewers/readers to be able to add and subtract from the current year being shown, in their head. By the end of the scene, they may not even remember the current year being shown. (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Having an acronym for a villainous organization The fact that it is used by several entities makes it public domain, if that is what you are worried about. There is nobody that "owns" the acronym if it is used by many independent entities. +1 to ItWasLikeThat: National does not equal World, or Worlds. You might want to look through a dictionary f... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How should I write this scene heading? Let me explain It is just EXT. BRETT'S HOUSE - DAY You are over thinking it. It doesn't make a difference if he owns it, rents it, whatever. He lives there. Nobody gets confused. Who cares if he owns it or not? If ownership of the house is immaterial to the plot, then do not specify. Never write ANYTHING that does... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: When writing a script, is it okay to use sentence fragments? Sentence fragments are okay, dialogue does not have to be grammatical (it would likely be unrealistic except for a grammarian; few people speak grammatically correct sentences all the time). What you want to avoid is blatant grammatical mistakes that would make a reader stumble and lose the flow of ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Page numbering. Empty pages for notes include in page numbering? I would number the first section of references with lowercase Roman numbers; i,ii,iii,iv. I did not realize "NOTES" meant My notes, so if I saw four blank pages titled NOTES I would suspect a problem. I have read non-fiction books that include Author notes under a section called NOTES, numbered agai... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Can I name a male character Artemis? Yes, you can use Artemis; it is from Greek mythology and impossible to copyright as a name. The Greek for the male versions of this name are Artemas and Artemus, both are listed in The Character Naming Sourcebook (and mean "gift of Artemis"). You violate nothing by using a name already in the public ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: Is it wrong if I kill off a black character? Why is the character black? This Wiki contains a chart, based on the US Census bureau and self-identified race, that shows 72.4% of Americans identify as White alone, and 12.6% of Americans identify as Black (or African American) alone. 4.8% identify as being of Asian descent. (In the US Census, one... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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A: How to come up with original ideas for stories? A story (of any length) consists of a beginning, a middle, and an end. Google for the "Three Act Structure", here is a link to an example worksheet, it applies to all stories, even one page stories (although the segments might be only a paragraph long, in that case). First you must learn how to stru... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |