Posts by Amadeus
You have to work to play against stereotypes (without using another), because readers recognize stereotypes (even if they are not part of that group) and many of us are offended at the writing, on ...
Killing a character and killing the protagonist are two very different things. The death of somebody close to a character is obviously life-changing and can set them on a new course. It is the dea...
Expressions: You can say something besides "angry", there are many flavors of anger, but no, do not describe the facial features. That is directing; do not try to do the director's job in your scr...
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...
+1 DPT. As a peer-reviewer for scientific articles, I would not use "dry" but I suspect it means you have no particular factual errors but the paper is a boring review anyway. For example, provid...
Yes, we are all murderers at heart. We are all killers at heart, for food. Some evolutionary scientists believe we would not have evolved brains without eating meat on a regular basis; regardless...
I admit I haven't thought much about this, as a discovery writer. However, I am following a character (or some) and I don't really have "odd things" happening. There are clear things happening the...
Characters can be based on real people. John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Genghis Khan, Hitler: real life leaders, gangsters, royalty, heroes and villains. There are several p...
Add setting, emotions, hesitations, frustrations, and interruptions and questions. To me (and IMO) a wall of dialogue is typically an under-imagined scene, and it needs to be longer. What is your...
Without seeing your articles, we can only guess. My guess is that you don't bring anything new and exciting to the table. I am an atheist and will be one as long as I can think rationally (and when...
NO, do not go to college for that. I spent twelve years in college, I have five college degrees and the last is a PhD, I was a professor (and I am currently a research scientist at a university). ...
Screenplays are rather short story, when you think about it. A typical screenplay is 120 pages double-spaced, and 25% dialogue and 50% action. That is 30 pages of dialogue, but the margins (2.9, 2....
I don't know Hebrew or gendered languages, but if the character does know who is behind the door, then perhaps rephrase the line to not USE the pronoun: "How is it going?" "Everything alright?"...
Absolutely document them and point them out to management. As Mark says, this is a business problem. As a coder myself with forty years of commercial experience, your problem is that almost any fl...
I think it is tokenism, by virtue of the fact that tokenism is indeed your stated intent! In fact you may weaken the tokenism by saying the character is also fastidious; most of us consider a high ...
I misunderstood, rewriting. Yes, capitalize it; it is essentially their name if that is how people refer to the character.
You can try Japanese Transliteration which will take English words and *transliterate them into Hiragana, which you can hear spoken (lower right hand option). This means it will show you the Hiriga...
What the female reader expects to see is a good story without gender stereotypes or sexism. Lauren's advice applies. Female readers are going to be very sensitive to sexist tropes and female stere...
Do the characters or even the narrator have to understand that there is an underlying theme of the story? I think obviously not; neither the characters or narrator need to know the theme. Ma...
Don't Worry, and Don't Steal. If it is similar, don't worry about it. Approximately one billion articles have been written and published about the implications of various findings of Robert Muelle...
If you trust safety deposit boxes to last for decades when paid in advance, then arrange this service with the bank. Hire a long established law firm (or two, for safety), that agree to a contract...
I reject your premise. For example, I am an atheist, 100%, to my last breath. However, I live amongst people I love, my own family, that believe in God. My parents did, one was a firm Christian, o...
Names are not a problem, nor do I worry about naming characters that won't be used again. For "extras" I give them forgettably common names, but for characters that serve some dramatic purpose, I g...
You do not have to preach they are bad. They are bad because they harm others in some way. If you wish to show reality, show that harm, whatever it may be, beginning or taking place or having alrea...
I am both a technical writer and marketing writer (I am a PhD with a background heavy in CS, Mathematics, statistics and mechanical engineering, with 40 years experience). I have written manuals,...
