Posts by Amadeus
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", th...
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 prin...
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 ...
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 lu...
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...
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 exposit...
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 ab...
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 appear...
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 befor...
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 "comi...
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 serio...
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...
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 other...
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 infri...
I think confusion takes time to portray, and I would do this in dialogue; a kind of argument. He told me he worked at NASA. NASA. He must be kidding. I said, "What? You hated science! Math...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ear...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ed...
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 ...
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....
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...
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...
