Posts by Amadeus
I think you are not writing a story, you are writing a vignette that captures a moment; this is more akin to poetry or a painting or a song or photography, those all (aim to) capture a feeling, emo...
In general, a first person POV is where the narrator is a character and says I pointed the gun at his head. I said, "Notice, I am taking the safety off." He spit at me. Stories have bee...
This sounds more like a man vs. environment story, as @Monica says. A simple MC vs. Nature Imagine, in the modern world, an arrogant multi-millionaire, thinks he is a self-reliant, self-made man....
I want to draw on traditional, arguably "cliché" (?) fantasy species, like elves, orcs, goblins, dwarves, faeries, etc. How can I involve some of these older elements, while leaving behind...
Thinking about it. This bit expands on Chris Sunami's suggestion, one way to extend the dialogue is to describe the thoughts and feelings of the POV character as the dialogue progresses, or as the...
My answer to The Psychology of Starting a Piece of Writing is a guide to getting started. Other answers there are good as well. This will explain how to get going on the first line, first scene, fi...
In general, @Galastel is correct; the problem is the costs. That said, the first Harry Potter Book by J.K. Rowling contains "illustrations", my copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" conta...
+1 Galastel, Your style is literally like your voice, instantly recognizable as "you" but nearly impossible to convey to somebody else in words. It is how you, with your thought processes and train...
It is natural for people to notice any physical feature that stands out, but some words such as "tall", "big", "fat", "short" etc are not that descriptive. Adding "very" doesn't help. If it is nec...
I would say anything that seems to come out of nowhere is unrealistic fiction, unless the fact that it comes out of nowhere is fairly concealed. For example, I can make my protagonist's father a c...
Read about and learn story structure. This is not to plot your story, but to understand the types of writing in each part of a story. I break the 3 act structure into four equal parts; each of whic...
Yes, please start in the MC's Normal World. The point of beginning in The Normal World is directly related to the inciting incident: Namely, the inciting incident has the potential to change the c...
Nearly all stories, including novels and movies and even comic book series, begin with the MC in their "normal world." There is no law demanding that, other than the laws of economics: We want the ...
I don't think you should describe the accent, what you should describe is the effect that accent has on a listener. Obviously if the listener has the same accent, then the effect is zero. (An exce...
I separate my narrator from my main character's voice. I do not write in first person, I write in 3rd person limited, with a deep POV. (Deep 3PL). Meaning, for those unfamiliar, my narrator knows t...
Can a fight scene, component-wise, be too complex and complicated? In general I don't think so. If by "component-wise" you mean the motivations and back-stories of the people fighting it, the on...
Presuming maiden is Jacobs, married is Williams: Mary Williams née Jacobs Mary Williams (Jacobs) Mary Jacobs Williams It isn't like space is limited on the cover or copyright pages; I'd use the...
I think you need either a more general title for your book, or a more specific title for your first chapter. The main thing I see wrong with that is it will make it seem like the whole story is ab...
If you want to get published, the latter style is not acceptable. Follow the standard convention. Just Google for "Formatting Dialogue", look for sources related to written fiction (as opposed to ...
First, if the context is obvious, you don't need a dialogue tag at all. "Albert, you're already drunk! Stop it!" she implored him. "Nah, if I stop drinking, I won't have an excuse to miss work t...
I will disagree with everyone! The best way to improve as a writer is to analyze how writers you really like, of books you really like, accomplished what they did. Don't just read them, that quic...
Real Buddhist meditations are probably public domain (not copyrighted, or in current USA law copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years). Presumably they are very old meditations...
I will disagree with the advice you received. The vast majority of self-published fiction earns nothing, or at best some friend and family sympathy purchases. The case is even worse for un-markete...
Is it uncompelling to continue the story with lower stakes? It depends on the type of story you are telling. If you are telling a character-driven story, one in which the reader becomes heavi...
A backstory needs to matter to the story; in this case it probably matters to the MC; few people fall in love with a person they know nothing about. They fall in lust, certainly, and that lust can ...
