Posts by Amadeus
Will reading it make people say, "Oh, a Star Wars rip-off", or "Harry Potter rip-off"? I don't think there is a test you can learn and apply, and plots are recycled all the time. There is a whole ...
This is a matter of opinion, it is done, but not by most. In my opinion, I recommend against it. First for all the reasons @SteveJessop has outlined; but just as important, I don't do it because t...
I would say the fact that you choose a fascist dictatorship makes it cliché, it is too close to the Holocaust and reminiscent of Hitler exterminating the Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, etc. No matter ...
I think in real life the vast majority of people that are depressed, or even suicidal, will not go to a doctor at all. I don't know what the situation in Britain may be, but here in the USA that w...
You can stop making it so obvious they are going to break up; and don't even make it obvious to the MC they already have broken up. The boyfriend can break, and move on to somebody else without tel...
(1) from the first desire to consummation or (2) from loveless sex to romantic love or (3) from a lack of sexual experience to sexual empowerment – what can cause conflict? I th...
+1 to DPT for the rhythm notes. Do long sentences have a defined emotional impact in fiction writing? Often it is just the opposite of building tension, it is the relief of tension. Long sent...
It depends on your real problem. Does it hurt for the guard to just know him? If it doesn't hurt for the guard to know the psychiatrist, then in third person omniscient, you can have the guard ref...
I agree with Chris Sunami; ditch the prologue. If Andy is in the past and prevents some disaster, and the world is reset with him in it, I imagine he still retains all his memories of the prior wo...
This is why you get an agent; she knows lots of publishers and knows how to pitch different genres to the same publisher. If she represented you for your first book and sold it, then she will alm...
I suggest you find, buy and read the book "Get a Literary Agent" by Chuck Sambuchino; (on Amazon or Barnes & Noble) it is a good start and also a good antidote to much online advice. If your qu...
Your characters are too nice. You can also argue, disagree (politely, rudely, friendly-rudely). You can misunderstand. You can interrupt. You can complain and ask them to get to the point. You can...
Yes, the goal is to make them want to read the whole novel at a sitting. You may be tiring because you are reading analytically to find words to smith, and because you already know the story and h...
I'll take a different tack on this. Read My Answer here that goes into the Three Act Structure in some detail. Basically, you increase erotic tension the same way you increase any story tension: ...
asvarans, vaspahrs, sardars and ostandars. I struggled with this for a different reason, I didn't want to invoke medieval Europe titles either, because little else in my story was like that, I...
It's an unhappy ending if good does not triumph over evil. Books and movies with unhappy endings are generally frowned upon, they tend to do poorly commercially. The successes amongst unhappy endi...
I think it is too convenient, and an implausible motivation. At least in my culture (USA) great uncles don't get any particular respect, heck I didn't have any particular respect for all of my own ...
Whether a name pops into my head, or I am stuck for one, I use a book, "The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook". It gives a lot of names, their country of origin, and something brief about...
Without us seeing any particular shade of eyes, it will be pretty hard to help you! "Brown" is pretty generic. Find something (perhaps personal to you) that the shade reminds you of; the more poeti...
How can I make this leap? The MC needs proof he cannot deny. Perhaps, by his own hand, he doesn't just shun them, he takes action to prevent this ritualistic murder from happening. What are t...
Basically anything that is a virus is infecting a host in order to reproduce and survive, and by its nature doesn't really care what harm it is causing the host. Just like we don't care (not enough...
One alternative is to let him indulge in sex without love or romance. Especially in modern times, there are at least some women that want the same; there are apps for that. for example the vast ma...
I thought the point of the MacGuffin is to force the characters into a journey, so they can be transformed by the journey, whether they get the MacGuffin or not. A clear example of this is Doroth...
Generally, do not start with a pronoun. Start with a MC name. Other than that, sure, open with "Jack ran, [Why Jack is running, something about the scene]." On the first page readers are forgiving...
Horses are very much like ramped up dogs; the long face, the legs. They have hooves instead of paws. You have to add on manes and hairy tails. But if somebody has seen large dogs, like a Labrador R...
