Posts by DPT
It's said that writers improve through writing. Maybe true, but I've discovered the first draft of any new piece I write is still really, really bad. The characters are flat, the descriptions lac...
First: Allow re-asking of old questions. I've always felt it was odd to say "that question has already been asked--search the archives instead of asking it again." If someone has a question, they l...
Your protagonist's description reminds me of Violet Baudelaire in the opening chapters of A Series of Unfortunate Events. She was an inventor, and she was well drawn. Which is to say, she had ea...
I'll offer more rambling thoughts, today being two years down the road from my previous answer. I still participate in the critique groups I belonged to two years ago, and I still find them valuab...
As an aside: There are proper and improper usages of the word 'and.' If the word's being used solely to lengthen sentences, there might be a problem. The purpose of the word 'and' is to connect p...
Hello. Another angle to consider is that personal growth is easier to realistically portray through a series of try-fail cycles. There are multiple fails in Act II, and multiple successes. These ...
It is good to have specific details that mean something to the viewpoint character. She listened to the music of LILLAHI birds, and it made her calm, perhaps because lillahi birds used to sing o...
The cover is important, the blurb is important, the reviews are important, the story structure is important. The first page is important. One of the best exercises I ever did was to bring home tw...
The new viewpoint must feel organic, that's all. A year ago I would have said you need to establish the viewpoint rules of your novel up front, but now I believe otherwise, based on re-reading Mis...
I'd love if world-building included was fair game for possible questions, on this site, both to draw from the obvious expertise from contributors, to run with the idea of being 'not SE,', and also ...
Without looking at the other answers, I'd say it depends on audience. Some people are happy with formulaic. Write what they want, regardless of it being a formula, and they are happy to buy it and ...
The following is my understanding and some of my experience. I believe Amazon uses something called an ASIN, not an ISBN. Self-publishing on Amazon does not give you an ISBN, but an ASIN. That k...
I struggle with this on an ongoing basis, though less than in the past. First of all, I notice that experienced authors using just a couple descriptors around the time of character introduction (...
I'll also answer the question. There's a common human experience of waiting til the last minute to tackle a job. Students are notorious for waiting until the last minute to turn in term papers, b...
Hello. One. I entered some basic info on my profile, including my personal website which I'm glad to see we can have, here. However, clicking the link that resulted, led to a 'page does not exist...
I'm reading the question with an eye toward language rather than to the actual intent or ultimate purpose of the declaration you're considering, Becky. In other words, my answer has nothing to do w...
Question: Grammar mistakes. Low-level vocabulary. Are there any other tricks I can use? Answer: Yes. A. We can trust the reader. A very occasional grammar mistake goes a long way to get the ...
I believe Tor has open novella submission windows. Not 100% certain, but that's who I'd check first.
"Better" is subjective. Reading popular authors will show you that adverbs are OK--and sometimes quite good--to use. For example, it would be difficult to rephrase something like They rarely spoke ...
Yes, there is an established definition for each genre. Here is a list: https://resources.writersonlineworkshops.com/resources/definitions-of-fiction-categories-and-genres/ To your larger quest...
As a quick thought, many species lay eggs and are not birds. Personally, I would find a second feature from a non-bird egg-laying species (or a sporulating species, or an asexual species) and plant...
I'd suggest asking yourself what it is that precedes the spark of attraction, and how that has differed from one instance to the next, for you. Is/was it a personality trait that attracted you to ...
Answer: In a case like this, the formula is to use others--your character's relationships with his own past self and/or with those he cares about, to create stakes. Example: He wants to help othe...
ANSWER: Best way to pull off an unusual structure is with literary writing, or with developing characters who are compelling on their own. In Lolita, the seminal events are backstory. We open ...
You can do it either way--a formal scene break or through the use of transitioning language. I stewed hard over this because like you, I had seen scenes defined as a change in location, time, or ...
