Posts by Amadeus
Just have him say thanks and goodbye and wish them luck. I spent many years in my career as a consultant, everywhere I went I made friends, often for less than a year. These often began with lunch...
+1 DPT, +1JBiggs. Remember battles are local and personal. What I mean is that in a fight, there is no big picture, there is your picture, a tight focus, the people around you, the immediate enemy ...
This is fiction, and a cartoon for kids, no less. And the point is to meet interesting people, I don't think what is "interesting" has to be about racism, oppression, or any social aspect of their ...
Both Magic and Science provide constraints. I think one problem with mixing magic and science fiction is that science fiction readers prefer some whiff of plausibility in however science is extend...
In human languages, most translations of the Earth are just "the Earth", or "the World", or "the Land". Once in a while, you will find a proper name ("Gaia") of a God, or a reference to a God ("God...
I don't think strange names break immersion; I think names that cannot be sounded out (correctly or not) break immersion. "Hermione" can be sounded out. "J'xyx'brtl" is too hard to sound out, and ...
I am a discovery writer; and one that completes novels. The key here, I think, is to remember you are discovering the story. If you are in the middle of the second act, then you have discovered h...
I don't think you need to, and I don't include it. Racism is learned, and often by association with something not caused at all by race (like poverty, and poverty that leads to crime). Studying r...
Focus on the whatever was special about the group, and make your line at the end, They loved and were loved, and shall not be forgotten. It was a "policy" of my parents to speak often of the ...
The advantages are not losing a large proportion of your audience, and not being accused of being a racist, a liar, a hater, a bigot, an ignorant writer, etc. If you use a real country, there will...
I notice the books you don't like you consider "too long", "too long for something to happen", "too boring"... Despite you saying you like characters, longer books without much happening are likel...
Persistence. That is the only personality trait that seems essential to a main character. They don't give up; at least not permanently. Their goals may change, they may face the inevitable and eve...
You have another problem, if you solve that, you solve this. How did we figure out it was quantum computer activity that signaled them? If this is told omnisciently or from the alien POV, you hav...
I am not a lawyer, and you should consult a lawyer before you start naming your competitor's brands and products in any publication. It probably isn't worth it; especially if they are bigger than y...
Does he have any friends there? One solution is to push the training camp into the background. The problem sounds like you don't have enough conflict, your scenes come up short. I'd focus on some...
In order to create emotional projection, you need to portray common experiences that every in the audience has had or can relate to. They must be able to put themselves into one of the roles on the...
This is a matter of opinion; personally I don't find it sexist. People have genders, and sexual orientations, and they have to mix. We stray into sexism when we pile up too many tropes. In your c...
Would it be out of place for me to model characters after my own experiences I believe it would be. For practical reasons. How many times can you do that without getting repetitive, and making...
We don't have enough information to determine if they are "too bland". I will answer generally. I think you are paying too much attention to physical identity and color, neither of which are gener...
The only solution I see is to let her start critiquing your novels from chapter 1; as you guys critique hers. You can warn her your chapter 1 has been through a critique already; but she may have ...
+1 Matthew. Bottom line is a Mary-Sue is too lucky and too perfect, and that is not what you are writing. The problem with Mary-Sue is a lack of conflict and thus boredom with the character. Reade...
Galastel covers much. The other way, if you are reluctant to create a cast of characters, is to give your character some prominent sympathetic and non-stereotypical trait; so the reader doesn't per...
I don't think your diversity is a problem, however, from a writing perspective, I DO think that any special quality of a character should have some impact on the plot or the character. So my answe...
It All Depends on the POV. I would use ZERO footnotes in a fictional novel. I think it may have been done, but I think it breaks the reader's reverie and immersion in the story. It is bad form. Th...
Just do the math. Although it varies by genre, from about 80,000 to 120,000 (epic fantasy with lots of world-building), 1000 a day means 80 to 120 days. So about three or four months for a first dr...
