Posts by Amadeus
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 think the trend is a fad, like slang, like teens finding their own "language" to communicate (as every generation does), like fashion. Remember bell-bottoms? Like music. Remember disco? Somethin...
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?"...
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 ...
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...
I look for resonance, with the rest of the story, and I do my best to see what the reader will expect, and deliver that. I have mentioned in other answers I am a discovery writer, but I keep my en...
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 almost have to assign your book a genre in order to describe it to an agent or publisher; the publisher will likely make the final determination of what genre they assign internally, and this c...
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,...
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 a bad idea and might be frustrating to play if it seems like you always lose and cannot ever find the combination that wins. However, you might be able to make some of those bad cho...
You have an inciting incident and a protagonist. I think something is off about one of them. Your protagonist is under-developed, or your inciting incident is under-developed. In a typical story...
You can write without any dialogue, or almost entirely dialogue. Zero dialogue would be plausible if you write about a character acting alone, or from the POV of an animal or machine that has no c...
This is mostly an opinion based question. So IMO, only in literature can the audience convincingly "become" the protagonist with all of their internal thoughts and feelings, faith and belief. I do...
Inner monologue is used quite frequently, and it can reveal character traits that may not be revealed any other way: True feelings. Such as, if Jack is telling the truth about never cheating on Ji...
This is not a bad way of handling exposition. I have seen what you describe work, and felt compelled to find it amongst the hundreds of books on my shelf. Thanks for the mindworm. I found a book t...
This is a legal question, and I am not a lawyer. So all of the following is my opinion, I am not giving you legal advice. If the character is not still under copyright, then sure. I am pretty sure...
With others, I cannot even be sure what the "take away message" is supposed to be. "took length to" does not make sense. "length" is a form of measurement, applied to an argument, "length" implies ...
I would say mostly breaking (or more bending) the plausibility of realistic speech, realistic reaction (physical or emotional), and telling instead of showing, or using too many nods and shrugs and...
