Posts by Amadeus
1) You had to have some plot (or situation) to begin the book. Although that obviously underwent revisions; you now have a beginning, and an end. Of the first character(s) introduced, how do they ...
I don't have the major swing you have, from brilliant to horrible; but I understand the sentiment from earlier writing. I suggest three things. 1) Treat yourself like a child, or at least like a ...
their own distinct personalities and motives for villainy. Would this be a good way to write a Complete Monster? It's a start. But there are only a few motives that really apply to a CM. Power...
The Easy Part. You have the Internet! You can research places, slang, and to some extent the culture of Americans, or British, in order to write your story. You have travelogues, you have some Ame...
The principles you must rely on are plausibility and connectedness. For example, in the space of 30 minutes I can have ten bad things happen to somebody, if they are connected to each other. A wa...
I'll side with your editor. Why do you need two jolly characters, or two stern characters? I wouldn't worry about mannerisms, I am more interested in purpose, intent, attitude and conflict. I thi...
This is my understanding, I don't have a reference for you to look at it. The "proposal" is either a description of the work you propose to write, or (almost always) a short description of the wor...
Trust your subconscious. I would say, do not stop writing, do not break your habit of writing every day. Just stop writing THAT. Do some other writerly stuff, on this project or a different one. ...
As everyone else notes, In Medias Res only means "in the middle of things." It does not necessarily mean a climax, or action, or foreshadowing the ending. For example, if I were writing a Sherlock...
Love to Hate: To love to hate a villain, the villain must be clever, must outsmart the protagonist, and must usually (nearly always) win. They must be competent and difficult to defeat. The audie...
Speaking as both a professor and corporate division manager at different points in my life: Your cover letter is not your CV, and (as said by ItWasLikeThat) you should not try to cram your CV into ...
They have different sets of talents, different world views, different ways of handling crises. Yet despite all that sets them apart, they're the best of friends. Why are they the best of frie...
Weird names are fine and tolerated, my personal rule is to ensure there is no ambiguity in how the reader should pronounce them; and "Nyuna" does have that problem, it is not certain whether to try...
Don't focus on him being a "veteran". Yes, he was in a war, blah blah. You don't ever have to use the word "veteran." If you do, have him use it to game the system or seek sympathy; even veterans...
Proof of Peril. Some characters are killed as various kinds of proof for the audience. This can be proof of peril for the heroes, or for the innocent. This can be proof of the ruthlessness of t...
If you can think of a third aspect, I would include it. I would not add to existing answers I thought were complete, unless I can bring in another aspect to them. Plus, your instinct to not have ...
This may depend on the writer and their style; what I think is a great opening line, and what you think is a great opening line, may be quite different things. Speaking for myself, I write stories...
EDIT: This answer still applies after modification of the question; the answer is to focus on the important person (or some important persons if there will be several POV in the novel) first, in mi...
Do not post online as you write it; even most professional writers do not like their first drafts, and IMO a beginner should never like their first draft, so you are just inviting criticism of some...
Oscar Wilde's work is in the public domain; so yes, you can copy and quote it directly, even without attribution. You are doing Wilde a favor by attributing the quotes to his book. It isn't a probl...
Stranger in a strange land. A foil. Create a tagalong character that needs explanations; a child, somebody new to the group, a good asset but a foreign born person that doesn't get pop references ...
If this character is to be either hero or villain, there must be something they want and do not know how to get, or that comes at a hefty price. There must be a goal not easily attained, or there i...
The determining criteria will be how much information the reader needs. Generally you want to use flashback for a few reasons. 1) Need to know protag and/or context for emotional impact. A battle...
You can make it so the MC doesn't get everything he wants, and at the end of the setup may get into the unit of his choice, but loses something else along the way. Give him a friend whose goal i...
+1 Cloudchaser, I'd go further and say foreshadowing should NEVER be close to the event. But it doesn't have to be on page 1, or page 50. As I said in my answer to your previous foreshadowing ques...
