Activity for Amadeus
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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A: Is there any difference between these two sentences? (Adverbs) The reason for the "adverbs are the devil" rule is they are generally "telling", not "showing". The reason we want to "show" instead of "tell" is that it is the writer's job to assist the imagination of the reader. To do that, we need to appeal to their senses, primarily visual and auditory, bu... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Real-world issues with using an alias Picking an Alias, also for Picking a Character Name One approach is to use a common name as your alias. This doesn't have to be Smith or Jones, Here is a list of the Most Common Surnames in North America by country, in the USA "Anderson" is the 12th most common surname, with over 750,000 instances. ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: What are the main aspects to have in mind to write a screenplay or dramatic text? The main aspect is tension. Read up on the Three Act Structure, or Save The Cat, which similarly shows the structure of screenplays. You have to introduce characters and their "normal world". Even there, you need a little tension, little problems for them to solve, so the audience (reader or viewer)... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Do writers need a business bank account? First, I am not a business lawyer, or tax attorney. The following are my understandings from being in business, do not rely on this as legal advice, and you should consult with a business lawyer or tax attorney in your jurisdiction. As a general rule, No, my understanding is that writers do not need... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How can I portray a character with no fear of death, without them sounding utterly bored? 007 doesn't come off as a psychopath, but is singularly unafraid of death. In one movie he dives off a cliff, without a parachute, to intercept and land on the wings of a private plane. He's always got zero fear of heights, fights, guns, speed, whatever. Fearlessness is pretty much his central trait.... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Rapid change in character In your section (5), when A feels sympathy, it isn't enough to feel sympathy. You have to give A some reason to reject their previous life. Personally, I'd revise this: A is too much in charge. For example, instead of A confronting B, maybe A tries to thwart B, and then B confronts A, and interrogat... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Where does the "black moment" fall in a novel? I would say the "Black Moment" is anywhere from the 50% to 75% mark in the story. I would prefer "Darkest Hour", and instead of "Point of Death" the "Last Chance". The Darkest Hour is when the MC (main character, main crew) stops believing the outcome they want is possible. If it is a romance, the p... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Do I really need a platform to sell my novel? If you want to self-publish, then probably you do need a site. If you intend to find an agent that finds you a publisher, then probably not. If anything, you can rely on your publisher to handle any kind of online promotion or site for your book or books (as part of their own site). Although many p... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Is it alright to add scenes that don’t move the plot forwards much but develop relationships/character? > What if they spend three nights (and three scenes) at the same pitstop, but the scenes greatly develop the relationship between two important characters? Yes, that would be fine, with one caveat that applies to every scene of your story: You still need some kind of tension, some reason for the rea... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Introducing evil characters before the evil deeds take place Yes, you can introduce a villain before a crime is committed. You don't need to use any clichés or tropes. The essence of villainy is, in general, selfishness to the point of not caring about the welfare, life, or happiness of other people. Over-The-Top villains may want to harm people for fun ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Is there any popular wisdom on the word "seem"? > That struck me as wrong; because since the character is experiencing it, for them the walls don't seem to be moving, they are moving. No, the word "seemed" is appropriate, if the character knows they are not actually moving, because hitting their head has impaired their vision system. They know th... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Spicing up a moment of peace Sigh. Must agree with Galastel, again! You need tension, just a different kind of tension, or conflict. Even friendly disagreement, filled with laughter, represents tension. The laughter (or mourning) can be cathartic for the characters. Times of safety are times of contemplation that can lead to c... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How do I portray irrational anger in first person? Personally, I don't think there IS an internal monologue; irrational anger is all feeling and emotion, perhaps single words, and I would describe those, not try to transcribe those thoughts. The dialogue that goes with these feelings is primitive at best, and cannot capture the depth of feeling assoc... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Would it be better to write a trilogy over a much longer series? Unless you are a famous author with a track record of finishing books, publishers are going to judge you based on the first book, alone. Each book in a trilogy (or longer series) has to stand on its own, in particular the first book, it must be a complete story in itself. You can have a plan, an o... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to write a non-fiction book? As @ChrisSunami says, most non-fiction books are sold before they are written. Typically you have a synopsis, the Chapters and an outline for each, and for some books, a list of people you plan to interview (along with commitments from them). You will also need a query letter to agents or publisher... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Doubt about the difference between a "Beat" and a "Event" I don't agree with McKee's definition of "Story", like many writers I think this difference between a "beat" and an "event" are contrived. I think the way McKee intends them to be used, "beats" are little events, and "events" are only used for larger "events", e.g. a Battle is an event presented in a... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How should I handle amnesia-based plot threads? (interesting vs cliché) I thought both The Bourne Identity and the beginning of the TV Series Blindspot did a decent job with amnesiac MCs. In both cases, the MC was obviously worried about their lack of memory, but also not much interested in the "hero" route at all , they didn't know how they got their skills (in Blindsp... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Anthropomorphic animals in romantic relationships with other species I think people would not give much thought to it, particularly if no other characters gave much thought to it. On the other hand, if other characters are upset about this cross-species "mixed marriage", that is going to strike close to home for people that are on both sides of the divide with regard... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: To what extent should we fear giving offense? I don't think it is possible to avoid giving offense unintentionally, obviously (to me) that is possible even if you think hard about not giving offense. I also don't think it is reasonable to demand we give no offense to anybody: My daughter was offended, in Django Unchained, that one of the charac... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Autobiography vs Perspective You can claim it is anything you want; you are writing a fantasy about an inanimate object that can cogitate, observe its surroundings, etc. I would consider it no different than a first-person tale of a ghost that cannot have any effect on the material world; let's say it can only think logically, ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Is it alright to write the characters name when they are thinking? If the narrator is describing what a person said and thought, then the narrator can use their name. Typically direct thoughts of a character are in italics, while tags and words from the narrator are not. Unlike other writing in the real world, in novels you need to be careful with italics, when use... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: What should come first—characters or plot? I always start with characters. For me, as a discovery writer, characters drive the story, when I'm looking for a new idea, I look for a new MC, until one grabs me. Then I think about that MC obsessively for about a week, not writing anything down, just thinking about her (usually a her). Speci... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Does writing regular diary entries count as writing practice? > I think that my problem with thinking of this as serious writing practice is because it's already a habit of mine and it feels like cheating to accept something that I already do and don't have to actively attempt to learn. I write (and sometimes I get paid for it). To turn your diary writing into... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How could the disregard for both plot and dialogue tell the story? I think you are not writing a story, you are writing a vignette that captures a moment; this is more akin to poetry or a painting or a song or photography, those all (aim to) capture a feeling, emotion, or dramatic moment. (I am presuming this is fiction, and not an academic essay detailing some proc... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Point of View Confusion In general, a first person POV is where the narrator is a character and says > I pointed the gun at his head. I said, "Notice, I am taking the safety off." > > He spit at me. Stories have been told in 1P but each chapter from a different character, but only from one character at a time. The 2nd p... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: Compelling story with the world as a villain This sounds more like a man vs. environment story, as @Monica says. A simple MC vs. Nature Imagine, in the modern world, an arrogant multi-millionaire, thinks he is a self-reliant, self-made man. He owns a private jet, has two pilots, and decides to fly overseas. The plane is struck by lightning an... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Avoiding racist tropes in fantasy > I want to draw on traditional, arguably "cliché" (?) fantasy species, like elves, orcs, goblins, dwarves, faeries, etc. > > How can I involve some of these older elements, while leaving behind the racist subtext some of them carry? Racism is about Mental Traits. The problem with racism is the as... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: My scenes seem too fast Thinking about it. This bit expands on Chris Sunami's suggestion, one way to extend the dialogue is to describe the thoughts and feelings of the POV character as the dialogue progresses, or as the scene progresses. We are presumably following some character, or several characters, that are not wood... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to organize ideas to start writing a novel? My answer to The Psychology of Starting a Piece of Writing is a guide to getting started. Other answers there are good as well. This will explain how to get going on the first line, first scene, first chapter. Organizing Your Ideas. I suggest creating four piles, for what I consider the four pa... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Are illustrations in novels frowned upon? In general, @Galastel is correct; the problem is the costs. That said, the first Harry Potter Book by J.K. Rowling contains "illustrations", my copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" contains graphical signatures, symbols or handwriting on 9 pages. These are all black and white only; and typ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Does each writer have a unique writing style? +1 Galastel, Your style is literally like your voice, instantly recognizable as "you" but nearly impossible to convey to somebody else in words. It is how you, with your thought processes and training and imagination, attack the problem of conveying a scene. So I'll try to come up with something diff... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is this kind of description not recommended? It is natural for people to notice any physical feature that stands out, but some words such as "tall", "big", "fat", "short" etc are not that descriptive. Adding "very" doesn't help. If it is necessary to describe somebody's height, then it is better to use a comparison. "He was tall, nobody else i... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is there such a thing as too inconvenient? I would say anything that seems to come out of nowhere is unrealistic fiction, unless the fact that it comes out of nowhere is fairly concealed. For example, I can make my protagonist's father a college professor, and her mother an MBA business manager, and because of that she knows some stuff criti... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to tell if my writing is nonsense? Read about and learn story structure. This is not to plot your story, but to understand the types of writing in each part of a story. I break the 3 act structure into four equal parts; each of which has a middle point, which is a kind of turning point. So basically, we have four segments, with four m... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Do I need to start off my book by describing the character's "normal world"? Yes, please start in the MC's Normal World. The point of beginning in The Normal World is directly related to the inciting incident: Namely, the inciting incident has the potential to change the character's life. For good or evil. Whether they like it or not. It may change it immediately, or it may ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Help, I cannot decide when to start the story Nearly all stories, including novels and movies and even comic book series, begin with the MC in their "normal world." There is no law demanding that, other than the laws of economics: We want the story to sell! We authors do this because for centuries, this has proven successful, and stories that t... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to describe accents? I don't think you should describe the accent, what you should describe is the effect that accent has on a listener. Obviously if the listener has the same accent, then the effect is zero. (An exception; if the listener is not expecting to hear their own accent. h/t to @Spagirl comment.) But if list... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: A torrent of foreign terms I separate my narrator from my main character's voice. I do not write in first person, I write in 3rd person limited, with a deep POV. (Deep 3PL). Meaning, for those unfamiliar, my narrator knows the thoughts, sensations, emotions and memories of my one main, POV character, (that's "deep") but "Limit... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Can a fight scene, component-wise, be too complex and complicated? > Can a fight scene, component-wise, be too complex and complicated? In general I don't think so. If by "component-wise" you mean the motivations and back-stories of the people fighting it, the only limit on that is the capacity of reader's memory to absorb and remember distinctly that many charac... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Author changing name Presuming maiden is Jacobs, married is Williams: Mary Williams née Jacobs Mary Williams (Jacobs) Mary Jacobs Williams It isn't like space is limited on the cover or copyright pages; I'd use the maiden name in parentheses, or the appellation née (meaning 'originally', but used almost exclusively t... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Reusing story title as chapter title I think you need either a more general title for your book, or a more specific title for your first chapter. The main thing I see wrong with that is it will make it seem like the whole story is about Chapter 1, and then Chapter 2 is about ... another story? After the story? But many stories are nam... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is it acceptable to punctuate and capitalize a dialogue tag like a separate sentence? If you want to get published, the latter style is not acceptable. Follow the standard convention. Just Google for "Formatting Dialogue", look for sources related to written fiction (as opposed to script writing or academic or business or legal writing). When I did that I found the following most pop... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Can we use other things than single-word verbs in our dialog tags? First, if the context is obvious, you don't need a dialogue tag at all. > "Albert, you're already drunk! Stop it!" she implored him. > > "Nah, if I stop drinking, I won't have an excuse to miss work tomorrow!" Second, if the dialogue ends in anything but a period, I prefer the attribution up... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: What are good ways to improve as a writer other than writing courses? I will disagree with everyone! The best way to improve as a writer is to analyze how writers you really like, of books you really like, accomplished what they did. Don't just read them, that quickly descends into story immersion and entertainment, you aren't really learning anything. You have t... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How can I Include a verbatim passage in my fiction without plagiarizing it? Real Buddhist meditations are probably public domain (not copyrighted, or in current USA law copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years). Presumably they are very old meditations and thus not intellectual property of any person or entity. You can still avoid plagiarism by having a... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Should I self-publish my novella on Amazon or try my luck getting publishers? I will disagree with the advice you received. The vast majority of self-published fiction earns nothing, or at best some friend and family sympathy purchases. The case is even worse for un-marketed self-published fiction. To self-publish, you are responsible for developing the marketing materials a... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is it uncompelling to continue the story with lower stakes? > Is it uncompelling to continue the story with lower stakes? It depends on the type of story you are telling. If you are telling a character-driven story, one in which the reader becomes heavily invested in the MC (for convenience, that can stand for "Main Character" or "Main Crew"), their emotion... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How do I know when and if a character requires a backstory? A backstory needs to matter to the story; in this case it probably matters to the MC; few people fall in love with a person they know nothing about. They fall in lust, certainly, and that lust can lead to true love by compelling them to pursue the object of their lust and thus get to know them person... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How do I show and not tell a backstory? If your MC is some kind of detective or police officer or whatever, somebody that addresses crime, and Matt is seeking help from them, then you probably have to have Matt explain and prove he is a good guy. The MC is unlikely to just believe whatever Matt says; a detective doesn't live long if they ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is the first page of a novel really that important? YES, the first page is vitally important. But probably not in the way you think. Don't bring the "thriller" up first. The first page (and first sentence, and paragraph) is important in the same way your first meeting with somebody new is important. An agent or publisher (or indeed a customer thinki... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |