Activity for Mark Baker‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Answer	—	A: block-quotation narrative with dialogue This is a problem that needs no solution. People know how to skip over quotations and recaps. Indeed, people usually skip over quotations and recaps and only go back to look at them if they find themselves lost in the following text. Skipping and scanning is fundamental reader behavior. We all do... (more)	—	over 2 years ago
Answer	—	A: Need basic tools and ways to practice and polish my writing skills Grammar is to writing as driving a nail is to architecture. Yes, you need the nails to be driven in straight, but it is not what architecture is about. A good writer is, first of all, a good observer. They have a full picture of the thing or event they are trying to describe. Secondly, they h... (more)	—	over 2 years ago
Answer	—	A: HTML tags versus CSS classes: is one preferred over the other for the same styling? In my book, Structured Writing: Rhetoric and Process, I make a distinction between three domains of markup, the subject, document, and presentation domain. CSS is a presentation domain language. HTML was originally a mess of document and presentation domain with a the odd bit of subject domain thrown... (more)	—	over 2 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can we integrate a lightweight public ticketing system into our documentation feedback form? Have you considered a simple comment system, something like Disqus. There is a certain amount of spam protection built into those systems, you can choose to moderate posts, and people can subscribe to comments on individual pages. You could state your intention to remove comments once they have b... (more)	—	almost 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: For starting a blog, is a niche blog or general/misc content better? What do you want a blog for? If you just want to share your day to day life with the world, that's what Facebook and Instagram are for now. People who blog these days are either selling something or trying to build a profile in order to sell something, or are specialists with a lot of information to ... (more)	—	almost 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: Do readers primarily identify with or judge heroes in a novel? I wrote a blog post a little while back about what it means for a reader to identify with a protagonist: https://gmbaker.net/avatar-friend-and-shrink-three-modes-of-reader-intimacy/ I identified three modes of engagement: Avatar -- the reader lives vicariously through the character (looking o... (more)	—	almost 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: In 2021, which publishers distribute novellas? So having said all that, it turns out that my publisher publishes novellas. https://chrismpress.com/books/magdalen-montague/ This may perhaps be something that small presses, particularly those that seek to serve a particular purpose, are willing to do. (more)	—	about 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: In 2021, which publishers distribute novellas? My information is all of the negative variety, but in all the research I have done over the years on publishers and agents I have never seen one that wanted novellas. The novella always was, I believe, an artefact of long magazine fiction, which was enormously popular before the advent of TV and radi... (more)	—	about 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: When else ought you introduce new material in a final paragraph? Well, your teachers were talking rot, as they often do. Though, to be fair, the aim of their teaching was probably not give your the full art of writing, but simply to introduce a little elementary structure into the chaotic way many people communicate. But in the passage you cite, the author does... (more)	—	about 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: What are some ways to encourage team members to contribute and maintain a centralized wiki? I wish I knew. But I can at least outline where, based on long and bitter experience, I think the challenges lie. Finding a way to surmount them I must leave to others. The first problem is one of visibility. Documenting things publicly benefits other people. You benefit from the documents they c... (more)	—	about 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: Technical Writer Skill Set Monica covers the main points excellently. Beyond that, if there is one specific thing I would suggest that you do to improve and remain relevant as a technical writer, it is learning to code. This is not about reading source code (though that is a useful skill in some jobs) nor about writing cod... (more)	—	over 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: Syntax summaries use brackets for optional elements; how do I represent literal brackets in a way readers will understand? The most obvious approach, depending one where the help is to be displayed, is to use italics for optional items. That is a well established convention in command-line documentation. ARRAY[data-type , count ] One problem with italics is that the italic form of the comma is indistinguishable fr... (more)	—	over 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can we revitalize our community? The imported content may be a problem in that Google will see it as duplicate content, and Google does not like duplicate content. I'm not sure if the whole site gets actively penalized for the duplicate content, but I'm pretty sure that searches that match that content don't go here but to the other... (more)	—	over 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is there any benefit when writing out instructions to split it up into lots of little paragraphs, or is it better to leave it in one paragraph? In addition to what has been said about the ability to follow steps, the same thing would apply to a bunch of individual tips that don't have to be followed in order: Make each one a separate paragraph. In fact, it is even more important for tips than for steps, since readers know they are supposed t... (more)	—	over 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: Which parts of a character's plan should be revealed beforehand? You are absolutely right that we only want to see the plan once. Either we follow the planning in detail or we follow the execution in detail. We do not need to read it twice. Unless, of course, it all goes horribly wrong from the start so the what happens in the attempted execution is completely... (more)	—	over 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to determine relative success of different, similar books published by different means? A big part of the marketing advantage that publishers have is that they have access to this kind of information. This is a problem even for authors going the traditional route, because they are expected to provide comparable titles that have sold well as part of their query package, and it is hard to... (more)	—	over 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: What is the main publishing format authors should be using today? The standard publishing route remains traditional print publishing. But the thing you have to realize is that publishing is not about printing, it is about marketing and distribution. It is about the ability of the publisher to create channels for books to reach readers. Whether the product that flow... (more)	—	over 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to ask for permission to use readers' endorsements? Write to them an ask. If they have reservations or wish to place limits on their endorsement, they will say so. Write because you want their reply in writing, should a dispute ever arise. (more)	—	over 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: At what point does a POV character noting their surroundings go from showing/telling to an infodump? At the point at which the things they are noticing are not germane to the situation they are in. At any given moment, we take note of those things that are relevant to what we are doing or what is happening to us. Only in moments of complete repose to we look around idly and notice things for their o... (more)	—	over 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to keep track of worthwhile snippets from discovery writing, which don't work where they were first written? Stick them in a file called Snippets. This has one function and one function only: to make it easier to excise all the stuff that does not belong in your story. Tell yourself that this is good stuff and one day you will go and find a way to use it in something else. You won't, but that's okay. The po... (more)	—	over 3 years ago
Answer	—	A: Using accents while staying legible Don't fall into the trap of assuming that you have to act out how dialogue is spoken. Yes, some author do try indicate every nuance of sound in some character's speech, but most readers find it highly annoying. Fortunately you don't have to rely on acting it out. Your book has a narrator. You na... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is writing policy pages in a lighthearted manner harmful in any way? The up side is more people might read the policy. The down side is that people might not take the policy seriously. They might think you are mocking policy documents. If the policy is to mean anything, though, you may one day have to cite it in an enforcement action. Do you want to be citing a... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Dealing with Audience's expectations Audiences want contradictory things. They want to fall in love with a character, and once they fall in love with them, they don't want anything bad to happen to the person they love. But, of course, they also want excitement, adventure, peril, and woe, or else they will get bored because nothing ... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Writing "light hearted" lead characters Let me suggest that lightheartedness is not a character trait but a response to circumstance. Let me suggest that a lighthearted character is one who expects to get the things they desire, and that a heavyhearted character is one who does not expect to get the things they desire. A man who goes c... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Question	—	Rep score inflation What happened to the rep scores? They jumped by a bunch. (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Action scene pacing and clarity Well, there is usually not a lot of inner dialogue in the middle of a sword fight. The slow part of the brain that mulls over stuff switches off and the fast part of the brain the tries to not get stabbed takes over. So inner dialogue in a scene like this would generally be inappropriate. It would no... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: In a young adult, what would cause development of a high sense of duty? For your industrial revolution era character, the whole of their upbringing, education, and training would be designed to develop a high sense of duty in them. It is only after the first world war and Wilfrid Owen's scolding of his civilization that attitudes on duty start to change: >If you could... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Could a 13-year-old have morality to disagree with their family's unethical business practices, while those are the norm in their society? Well, first, the scenario you posit is a bit unusual. During the Industrial Revolution (on which I did my MA many moons ago) many of the men who made their money in trade and industry at some point sold their companies to live like landed gentry. Landed gentry status was the desirable form of wealth ... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I pinpoint a story's moral dilemma? I think it is important to note that while there is often one particular moment where the choice is faced and made -- what James Scott Bell calls "the mirror moment", the choice may not necessarily come to a head in such an obvious dramatic way. Look for it rather in the forms of the opposing for... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Chapter 1 Problems Usually when someone says that they have a lot of ideas, they mean that they have a lot of plot ideas. The problem is, they don't understand the difference between a plot idea and a story idea. Giant ape climbs the Empire State Building is an plot idea. Great, now sit down and write a story the clima... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to show powerful emotion in a character trying to hide it? While emotions do show on the face and in the movement of the body, those are not the major ways that we judge people's emotions in real life. In particular, they are not the principle means by which we judge the intensity of the emotion. Different people, after all, vary hugely in how expressive the... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I make a character sound condescending? The way you make a character sound condescending it to have them say condescending things. That's it. That's the whole of the recipe. But I suppose you knew that. I suppose you must have tried that and had a hard time pulling it off convincingly. So here is a guess as to why that might be. I'm... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Are speaker tags always necessary when multiple people are in the conversation? Essentially, you do need a speech tag if the reader can easily tell who is speaking. Under what conditions can the reader easily tell who is speaking: 1. There are only two people in the conversation and we know who spoke last, so the new speaker must be the other person. But note that you can't c... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: What to do with cliched metaphors? As is typical with tired language and cliches, the main problem here is not simply that the phrase is overly familiar, but that it is inappropriate to the scene. This is not a scene in which two people fail to take each other's meaning, despite speaking the same language. Mother and daughter understa... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: "The tale how" vs. "The tale of how" What is wrong with it is that it is not idiomatic, as you note. Writing idiomatically is the important thing here. It really does not matter whether you can explain or justify an idiomatic expression grammatically. In fact, grammarians can really tie themselves in knots sometimes trying to fit so... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: What new data should we import from SE? I don't know. What this place needs is not more data but more users. Bringing over a few more months of questions from SE would give the few of us who still check in here something to chew on for a little while, but I don't see it changing the dynamic. Sooner or later this place has to learn to fly o... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: mice don't tap and tablet-users don't click: what word can I use for all audiences instead? Notice that you don't "click" a mouse. You point to an object with the mouse point and you press the mouse button. And the mouse button makes a clicking sound. Click is not an action, it is feedback. In other words, the current word is not a literal description of what you do. It is a word chosen... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Question	—	Last activity data incorrect The "last activity" data on posts appears to be inaccurate. I just answered a question, but while the answer count shows my answer, the last activity data still refers to the time the question was asked. Image alt text I've noticed in the past that the last activity indicator on posts often se... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I make a transition from third person omniscient to first person less jarring for the reader? It is almost certainly just a really really bad idea and you should stick to either one. At novel length it has been made to work by people like Charles Dickens and Cormac McCarthy, but at short story length I can't imagine it being successful. Novels can be episodic in structure, but a short story i... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Accepted Answer? It strikes me that there was something contrary to the stated aims of Stack Overflow about the accepted answer button. SO set out not to provide an answer to one individual but to create a permanent collection of questions and answers that would be valuable to many people. Given this, what is the poi... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Question	—	Naming of Categories Apropos of the Sequence of Categories can I suggest some standardization of the naming of categories. In particular, I would suggest renaming "Q&A" as "Questions". Yes, questions have answers, but then Challenges have responses, so it is not necessary to name both components in the category name. ... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is sharing prior research does more harm than good, in general, in Q&A sites? I think the point of requiring evidence of prior research is to avoid clogging up the site with endless repetitions of the same basic questions. The point of a Q/A site, or, at least, the stated goal of Stack Exchange, was not to provide answers to individuals to to build up a permanent resource that... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I deliver a historical plot reveal? The question you always have to ask about a reveal is, what is it paying off and how its it paying it off. The narrative technique you use should be appropriate to the type of payoff you are creating. Dramatizing the moment of the reveal may be absolutely necessary if the information pays off in term... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Shall we showcase some of our fiction, poetry, and other work? Speaking of categories, what about a category for Resources. People could suggest books on writing, write reviews on them, and other resourses, and share opinions on their virtues and vices. (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Shall we showcase some of our fiction, poetry, and other work? For what purpose would people publish their work here? If it is for critique, this seems like too public a forum for it. It will look like publication and that will make the work ineligible for publication elsewhere, at least until it is taken down. And if it is taken down, what happens to the co... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: What information about a fictional world is unnecessary? To solve questions of this kind, you have to understand the role of setting in a story. Stories do not exist to describe settings. Settings exist as a place to stage stories. Settings contribute to a number of aspects of a story. They contribute to the plot, obviously, when the material circumsta... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is publishing a book around the age of 14 possible? Lots of people start writing novels in their teens. Most of them are not very good at first. That is to be expected. A novel is one of the most complex forms of art that can be created by a single person. After all, a novel has to entertain a reader consistently for ten or twelve hours. What other wo... (more)	—	almost 4 years ago
Question	—	What happened to the Questions Tab? What happened to the Questions Tab? We used to be able to see multiple pages of questions and view them in different ways, including "Lottery". Now there is just one page of questions with no navigation and no alternate views of the list. (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is the first page of a novel really that important? Yes, the first page is vitally important. It is the place where engagement happens. It is the place where the reader either sinks into the world of the story or skates of the words without engaging. It is the place where the character and/or setting either comes to life or remains lifeless. It is... (more)	—	about 4 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to convey the anatomy of a humanoid race? A wise writer chooses a point of view that enables the reader to see what they need to see of the story. If you choose a point of view arbitrarily, or because it is fashionable, you will often find yourself stuck with no natural way to show the reader what they need to see. You will then be stuck try... (more)	—	about 4 years ago

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