Activity for Kevin‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Answer	—	A: What makes an ending "happy"? A story is about main characters trying to overcome a conflict. The ending is happy if the characters succeed. The ending is sad if the characters fail. The ending is mixed if the characters overcome the core conflict, but at great cost. That all sounds straightforward, but I think it really is a ... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is there a formula for creating stakes? There is a formula! Mechanically, stakes are rather straightforward; - The protagonist has a goal. - The antagonist (or antagonistic force) is doing something that gets in the way of said goal. - In the conflict that ensues, there is a real possibility that the protagonist will fail to achiev... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Why does the second act 'reaction' and then 'action' need to be drawn out? I don't have a lot of respect for the three-act structure for exactly the reason you've run into: It doesn't get you any mileage out of the second act. In fact, I'm going to go further than that: The 3-act structure suggests that there's one structure that's appropriate for every story. I don't think... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: A.I character that talks using pre-scripted messages. How do i make it seem more relatable? A strong character has two elements: 1. Its motivation, as revealed through its choices, and 2. Its personality, as revealed through its dialogue and body language. So let's talk about how those apply to this situation! You AI's Motivation What does your AI want? Perhaps it just wants ... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Idea overflow in plotting? I think you'll be surprised by how little detail you need to include in your story to get the point across. If you're worried about how to include all of your ideas thoroughly enough to tell the story you've envisioned, I think the solution is surprisingly simple: The vast majority of what you want t... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Tools to overcome a block from: "My words are bad" In the eternal battle between pantsers and planners, I'm a very hard planner. I don't feel comfortable writing the first page of a story until I know the overall structure and the main characters, and I often won't write even an individual scene without first outlining what's going to happen in it. ... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: The excessive use of 'and' Don't worry about it and use "and" when you need to. Some words in writing are effectively invisible. They perform such basic grammatical functions that it is very rare for readers to be grated by their presence. For example, you'll see people argue that ending dialogue with "he/she said" almost e... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is a lawful good "antagonist" effective? I wrote an answer to a similar question a while ago: https://writing.codidact.com/questions/34255#answer-34261 Like in that answer, to be honest, I think you're spending too much time thinking about your character's alignment. I'm going to quote myself: > Whether your character is chaotic neutr... (more)	—	over 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I answer high-school writing prompts without sounding weird and fake? Good writing isn't good because of the specific words or style used. Good writing is good because it communicates an idea clearly, in a well-organized structure, and with a style that is pleasant to read (whatever form that takes). I still freeze up and feel self-conscious when I sit down to write my... (more)	—	almost 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to creep the reader out with what seems like a normal person? The specific details you choose don't matter as much as how you wield them. You want to start out with details that are incredibly subtle. These are less to clue your readers in and more to reward close readers and give "aha!" moments on rereads. Then, move to details that are more noticeable but don... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Will it be accepted, if there is no ''Main Character" stereotype? I think what you're trying to ask is, how do I have a main character who isn't given a bunch of nice things by the author just to make them stand out. How do you have a chracter who isn't given "wise thinking, good luck, a charm, in some cases special powers, too"? To be sure, there are a lot of suc... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Too soon for a plot twist? One option is to move the twist even earlier in your story! If you want to focus primarily on Hero 2, compress Hero 1's journey into just the prologue. Not necessarily literally the first chapter, but the part of the story to set up your world before the inciting incident on Hero 2's journey. The ri... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to write a chaotic neutral protagonist and prevent my readers from thinking they are evil? You need to figure out what your story's theme is. And then you need to take Joyce on a journey that forces her to make decisions about that theme. That will define whether she's good or evil within the context of your story. I'm going to go on a bit of an aside here. Whether your character is chaot... (more)	—	about 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do you create a huge array of characters? With that many characters, you're dealing with an ensemble cast. That means you're going to have to carefully structure your story so that each major protagonist is introduced to the story in a way that allows the players to connect with them. Some good movies and games with ensemble casts that you ... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Question regarding SAT essay This website shows the rubric used to grade SAT tests. It does not discuss contractions anywhere. So I believe that as long as you use a style that fits the criteria described by the rubric, whether to use contractions is a stylistic choice you can make for yourself. (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Respecting classic dramatic structure in a documentary You can structure a story so that the decision to do things differently is the climax, and thematically, the conflict is finding the fortitude to make that decision. It's a little abstract, but it has been done successfully before. To a degree, The Catcher in the Rye follows this theme. Holden spend... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Colours of ultraviolet One of the strongest advantages of the medium of the written word (as opposed to, say, movies) is that you can describe something that is impossible to experience, and readers will still accept it. Terry Pratchett's novel The Color of Magic has several great examples of describing a color beyond wha... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is genre ever relevant to the writing process? You seem to be looking at picking a genre as signing up to follow a very tight straight-jacket on your writing. I don't believe that's what genre is at all. Rather, genre is a very loose set of related tropes and expectations, and as long as you don't break too many of those tropes and expectations w... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: Anticlimactic ending as a surprise after climax? This can work. I'll even give a couple examples of boss fights that pull off this kind of pacing and feel very satisfying. But it's difficult to pull off, and there are a few things you have to get right for an unusual pacing trick like this to land successfully - especially at the final climax of yo... (more)	—	over 5 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to think of a good beginning? The other answers to this thread say not to sweat it and just write a beginning to get off the ground. I'm a heavy plotter myself, so I wouldn't be comfortable taking that advice. Instead, once I have much of a story outlined, I take the most important elements of the story and tie them into my openi... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to revise your "setting bible" One thing to keep in mind is that your setting bible is an internal document. Your players (or readers or viewers or audience) will never see it. As a result, the moment you spend a single second working on improving your bible that doesn't result in saving at least a second's worth of work later on,... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Should I use a series of shots for this scene? I would say it's best not to write this as a series of shots. The reason is because whether to break that up into multiple shots is a decision for the director and cameramen to make, not for you. Remember that filmmaking is a collaborative process. Your job as the screenwriter is to provide the "blu... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I make my 'first draft' good enough to be published? > Just to be clear - I'm not trying to change the amount of work, or the reduce time it takes, I'm merely asking for ways to avoid excessive editing (something I don't enjoy) by doing other things such as (thanks to Amadeus for his suggestions) 'planning, detailed outlining and world-building and cha... (more)	—	almost 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: What are the signs of accidental self insertion? There are three things that make a Mary Sue. You want to avoid all three of them: 1. The character has a backstory that is desperately tragic, but doesn't encounter serious problems in the story. (This is frequently an attempt to compel readers to feel sympathy for a character without properly earni... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: "Real people don't make good fictional characters". Really true? There are two things that every fictional character needs to be likable: a clear motivation or goal and a distinct voice or personality that comes through their actions and dialogue. Real people are vastly more complicated than this, of course. As a result, the difficulty with writing a story with a... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to describe an everyday routine? Honestly, you don't. Everything that happens in your story must move the plot forward to justify its inclusion. It should give your characters personality (and strongly so - everyone has a daily routine, so showing a character going through their routine very rarely qualifies), introduce conflict, s... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: Writing dialogue Instead of asking how much dialog should be in your story, I think you'll have more luck asking how to make your dialog more interesting. After all, there are some excellent stories out there that have no dialog whatsoever, and others that have pages of dialog at a time. The key to writing good dial... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I know what I'm writing is interesting to the reader? The Room is about a man whose love life runs off the rails and ends in a brutal break-up. This is a topic that a lot of people are interested in. La La Land is about the same theme. Shrek seems like that's how it's going to end leading into the final act. I can't begin to list how many breakup songs ... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: The Good, the Bad, and the Semicolon A semicolon is a complex beast: - You don't use it when you want an idea to stand on its own. You use a full stop for that. - You don't use it to tie two ideas closely together because if you did, you'd relate them with lighter punctuation like a comma. - You use it to relate two ideas weakly; it st... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to be mindful of the reader when handling disturbing/distressing subjects? Frequently, you make it as painful and explicit as possible. One of the most compelling ideas I've heard about art in general, including writing, is that each piece of work has a gesture, or overarching goal that it's trying to achieve. The gesture can be anything - a theme, a particular artistic te... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How important is writing for games? Excellent writing is one of the primary selling points of some games - but it is by no means necessary. It can even be counterproductive in some situations. There has been research into what aspects of video games players enjoy the most. One model is Quantic Foundry's Gamer Motivation model. Their r... (more)	—	over 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: What else should I plan? Some advice I got when outlining my current project is that, in addition to outlining the plot and the characters, I can outline the plot hooks that tie each major section of the story together. This way, when I started writing, I knew which pieces of foreshadowing I needed to add and how each moving... (more)	—	about 7 years ago