Posts by Amadeus
Don't forget that you have magic so you can use magical items; perhaps at some price exacted by the Gods. So an example system would be that your amulet or ring or bracelet is a contract with a p...
I would write to shorter limits. Following roughly the three act format. Use 30% for the first act. introduce the world and your MC; 5% to 10%. Write your inciting incident; begin at the 15% mar...
You do not need a degree to become a writer; you have the Internet. You can teach yourself what you need to know to become a writer; including some experiences you may not yet have (or may never ha...
I have another answer, earlier, about motivations. I am not combining this one into it, because it answers the question more literally. The most fundamental advice I can give that I wish I had kno...
To me, Stephen King's advice (as seen in a live interview, and asked what advice he had for aspiring writers): Basically he said, if you want to write, write. Every day. Don't worry about plotting...
A girl being pulled into a room by a man against her will is going to assume she is about to be raped, and possibly murdered in the bargain. She will scream for that, and fight that, even if she is...
Write the ending. Do it now. You can revise it later, or scrap it and write it over, but get your tears out of the way. I think you dread writing the outcome; face that dread and write it. Make it...
I would do the room first. This is a matter of your style. I personally write with very spare descriptions of what people LOOK like, and focus almost entirely on what they feel (or how my POV char...
Can you go overboard with this? Obviously you can go overboard with anything, but a few dead parents (or both parents dead, maybe even three parents dead (natural and adoptive) is within the ...
You can show more of this planning and anticipation in order to make it more plausible. Show your villain expending large resources and manpower in the pursuit of plans and alternatives. Take an i...
I don't think her forgetting is a hint; you could show that easily enough in a conversation. "Anything interesting happen today?" "Not that I can think of. Why?" "I'm going crazy, I swear I...
I do not agree that this is parallel grammar. The second sentence after the paragraph is much different than the first. it IS related content and can be condensed by a semicolon, (related by virtu...
I'm not sure if I am interpreting this correctly, but I would not "mix" character questions with explanatory exposition (or answers in exposition), and I wouldn't make characters too "ignorant," th...
There is also physical setting, social setting, philosophy setting, (together perhaps world building) and character building scenes. This scene is a beat, a pause in the action, that is needed, an...
It is fine to do that, many authors do that. However, the question the reader will have is what happened to the other two characters? You made them prominent in the beginning, getting equal time fo...
I don't think making Mallory stronger is the issue, but more varied. This sounds like a one-note character to me. What happens after she always reaches a point of despair? Somebody rescues her, or ...
No. You do not even have to describe the face of your protagonist (the main hero of the story). I've read several published authors that don't do it, but I am away on business and have no access to...
You are making the mistake of describing things we cannot see. And your spelling will get you rejected by a reader immediately. First, JAMES SMITH, 17, walks slowly into a bar, with a vacant ...
If it is a translation for a specific audience, (as the OP says) then I would translate to approximate equivalents, not exact equivalents. unless the tone was calling for exactness. So a gallon is ...
I will disagree with others. I am a professor involved in AI, and the easiest way for you to think about a super-AI is to understand what Intelligence IS. Predictive power. Intelligence is the abi...
Personally, either may be correct, but visually the second broken up option is better. It better redirects the reader's mental view from William, to Elizabeth, then back to William. Breaking parag...
I am not a lawyer, this is just my layman's understanding from reading cases. Consult a lawyer for a more definitive answer. You have to worry about defamation. For example, if you name the dog af...
Do not describe his general demeanor. I believe in The Mentalist, Patrick Jane's origin was dissheveled, unshaven, suicidally depressed and he came wanting to help capture Red John, the serial kil...
Find Consequences. It depends on how "dispensable" it is. Conversation, beliefs, philosophy, loves and hatreds, likes and dislikes, sympathy's and passions, are all parts of being a real person; w...
For punctuation and capitalization: The easiest thing to do is open a best selling book of fiction, published by a well known author, and look at their dialogue. Pay attention to the details, when...
