Activity for Mark Bakerâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: Literary agent terms I doubt many of these terms have very precise definitions, and I am probably not the best authority on their meaning, but here is what I would take these terms to mean: Serious fiction: Not genre (bearing in mind that genre is defined no only by subject matter but by treatment and intent -- Cormac M... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Using Present Tense to describe a Fact on a story that uses Past Tense Stories do not have tenses. Individual verbs have tenses. Even an individual sentence can contain verbs in different tenses. > Tom is saying that Jane promised that she will marry him in September. Stories may be told in the narrative present, meaning that the narration is framed as if it were taki... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Story content and audience Well if your style is immature, only two things will fix that, reading with attention, and writing. Do not neglect the reading with attention part. Francine Prose has a good book called Reading Like a Writer. It will help you learn to read with attention, to understand how the writers you read are ac... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: If the first book didn't sell well due to going the self-publishing route, is writing the sequel worth it from a business perspective toward agents? Well, more to the point, no agent is going to want to read a sequel to a book they don't represent because no publisher is going to want to publish a sequel to a book that they did not publish. The value to agents and publishers is seldom in the first book, it is in the body of work. If they want the... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Reasons for confusion over tenses in a story The tense is not wrong. Guessing as to why you are being told it is wrong: English grammar is a system of explanation, not a set of rules, and it is incredibly complicated, and even as complicated as it is, still does not adequately describe all forms of common English usage. In this system of expla... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Should I be concerned with my fiction writing containing accidental prophecies of real world events? Stories "ripped from the headlines" are always good sellers -- the interest in their subject matter is being actively aroused by current events. Writing a novel is a long business, so to be able to bring out a "ripped from the headlines" novel at the opportune moment is often a matter of serendipity ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How do I write a good haiku poem? I think you have to start by making a fundamental distinction between good and conformant. Obeying a set of rules makes something conformant but it does not make make it good. A Lada is conformant to the characteristics of a sedan, but it is not a good car. This is not to say that there is no relati... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to stop projecting yourself into your writing? There is always a temptation to be didactic. At least, that is always a temptation for me. Having got your character into some sticky situation, there is a temptation to treat them as you would a child, to advise them on the sensible course of action that will get them out of the sticky situation wit... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Why are 'Episodic' books so uncommon The reasons may be economic. I'm speculating here, but the golden age of the short story was the golden age of the magazine. If a magazine wanted to publish fiction (and most of them did back before TV took over) it necessarily had to fit within the available space. That meant either short stories or... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: a compiler or an editor? You are the author of the work. Authorship means you wrangled the words. It does not mean you originated the ideas. If you composed the words, selected the quotes, and put it all in order, you are the author of the work. Since you are not advancing an argument of your own, the work is one of reportin... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How much work do you have to do after getting your novel published? If you mean how much work you will have to do between when a contract is offered and when the book is published, the answer is that it will vary depending on how good the MS is and how well it fits the publisher's needs. But it will probably be quite a lot and it will probably be the hardest work you... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Wrote myself into a paradox and now demotivated - how to resolve? It is hard to say without reading (and we don't do that here) but the times I have fallen into this paradox, and the many times I have seen others fall into it, I believe the real problem is that the story lacks a main spring. The main spring, the thing that drive a story, can, I think, be reasonably... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How do I promote a self-published book? The fact that you have never seen an ad for a book should tell you something. Advertising doesn't sell books. If advertizing sold books, you would see lots of advertisements for books, because publishers would do what works. (As the comments indicate, publishers do certain amounts of targeted adverti... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Do popular books use simpler language? Apparently not, according to this study (https://contently.com/strategist/2015/01/28/this-surprising-reading-level-analysis-will-change-the-way-you-write/) which found popular authors spred all acorss the reading ease scale from Ernest Hemmingway at a grade 5 level to Michael Cricton at a grade 9 lev... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Am I being too descriptive? If people are telling you that your writing is very descriptive, I would take them at their word. I have been in many critique groups with many very nice people and they do not say that about every piece they read. A good story is a composite of many elements. There is no one recipe for a story any ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: When writing a novel where do you start? At the heart of every novel (or almost every novel, at least) is someone who wants something and some form of opposition, internal or external, that stands in the way of their getting it. The novel is their quest to attain what they desire and how they either overcome or are overcome by the things th... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: What makes a piece "lyrical"? The word lyrical does not mean "like a song lyric". If anything the derivation probably goes the other way. Lyrical means expressing the writer's emotions in a beautiful or imaginative way. Thus you can have poetry that is lyrical and poetry that is not lyrical. You can have prose that is lyrical but... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Point of view, narrative voice, and when to name a character in narration Just because a scene is written from a character's point of view does not mean it is written based only on information available to the character. The first responsibility of the narrative it to make events clear to the reader, so it should generally be written in terms of what is known to the reader... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Not enough real world experience to write convincing situations? There is no substitute for experience, but when a story feels forced or inaccurate the root of the problem is almost always motivation. Authors can and do divert wildly from how actual places look and how actual institutions work all the time. Real forensic labs are not staffed by the gorgeous peopl... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is consonance good or bad in fiction? One of the worst things that happens in advice given to writers is that individual criticisms get inflated, either by the speaker or the hearer, into iron-clad universal rules. Thus, a perfectly reasonable "show this, rather than telling it" becomes a universal "show don't tell"; "remove this adverb"... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Citing an author's primary sources There are multiple citation standards. If your teacher or your school has a particular citation style they prefer or require you should consult the guides for that style. In not, one approach you can use to make your sources clear is to use the formula, "as cited by". That is: "Instructions to Christ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Explain character dynamics without giving away too much backstory? Character dynamics come through story. There really isn't another way. You can simply tell the story in brief form to establish the dynamic, or you can dramatize it in full, but in the end, character dynamics come through story. There really isn't another way. Now, you can certainly observe behavior... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to write and promote my film blog more effectively? Blog audiences (and for that matter audiences for most content) are primarily built word of mouth (or perhaps today I should say tweet of thumb). Yes, you have to seed the process by making the existence of your blog known to as many people as you can, but after that, it is all about the retweets and... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How can we find a mentor for publishing our book? There are certainly people who will perform a substantive edit on a manuscript and give you an evaluation of it. They generally advertise themselves as editors or literary consultants. However, finishing a non-fiction book before you look for a publisher is generally not the right approach. Publishe... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Are lit consultancies just out for money or can I trust them? There is an obvious moral hazard in the literary consultancy business, but it is hardly alone in that. There is a moral hazard in the financial planning business, for instance (advisors profit from the trades you make through them, and may be incented to sell certain products). But that does not mea... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Are About pages copyright? Yes, those pages are copyright. Copyright is automatic. Everything written is copyrighted from the moment it is written unless it has passed into the public domain or has been explicitly placed into the public domain by the copyright holder. So, it is not okay to copy anything from anywhere ever unl... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Internal and telepathic dialog There are no conventions for representing telepathic dialogue. This means you get to pick how you are going to do it. It also means that you have to clearly and explicitly establish your convention for the reader. A typographic change is certainly one way, but you will have to be very careful to make... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Finding a thematic setting I don't think it is reasonable to call a setting thematic in itself. It should also be said that a theme is not a message. A theme is what you deal with in a story or an essay, not what conclusions you reach about it. You can have two different works on the same theme that reach very different conclu... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Could I be overdoing it on my first story? Different writers work in different ways (you are going to hear the terms "plotter" and "pantsers" from multiple people -- plotters being those who plan first and pansters being those who just sit down and write). However, you should be aware that there is an entirely separate activity/hobby/avocati... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Are the following examples violations of first-person limited? First person limited is not a rule and therefore cannot be violated. It is an analytical category that can be used after the fact to describe what an author has done. The author's responsibility it to tell a compelling story, not to confine that story within an analytical category. If the story is go... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Does a technical writer need a technical background? Technical writing is a three legged stool. To do it well and efficiently, you need three things: - Sufficient knowledge of the user's task to figure out what they need to know and how to communicate it to them. - Sufficient knowledge of the technology to figure out how it works and what you need to... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is it good to add 'I believe' at the beginning of the sentence? It is not necessary to qualify every statement you make. You are the one making the statement. It goes without saying that you believe the statement you are making. However, there are specific times when it is appropriate to add "I believe". - You are contrasting your belief with someone else's bel... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: What are the acts of a story? A play has certain practical requirements that are met by dividing it into acts: - It provides an opportunity to change the set or to redress the existing set. - It allows you to suggest a change of time or place to the audience. - It gives the audience a chance to pee and visit the snack bar. Part... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How to protect my idea/design to re-publish a public domain book? No. There is no protection for literary ideas, only specific recorded works of literature. If the work is in the public domain it is in the public domain and your idea to publish it with illustrations is not something you can protect or prevent other people from doing. Multiple publishers publish wel... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: How can I have a war with no "good" or "evil" side? At a political level, many conflicts are simply contests for resources. For each side it is good that their wives and children should have enough to eat. Since there is not enough food available to feed both tribes, each feels justified in fighting to feed their families. In the age of extraordinary ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is active or passive voice more common in scientific writing? Discussions of the passive voice often cause more confusion than they avoid. It is always easier to see your way clear in these cases if you think in terms of naming or hiding the agent. In other words: > Tom kicked the dog. Here the agent is named. We know who did the kicking. > The dog was kicke... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is it eccentric to address the reader in non-fiction writing? No, it is not eccentric at all. As I am sure you can tell from reading your two examples, the first is livelier and much easier to read -- and that is 95% of the argument in any question of style. But the use of the second person in any work that is discussing things that the reader might do has beco... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is it better to self-publish or get a real publisher for a 100page humor/comedy ebook? There are four basic reasons to self publish: 1. The work is not good enough for a commercial publisher to accept. 2. You are not willing to put in the work to get it professionally published. 3. You are confident in your ability to market the book yourself and believe you will make more money pub... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Should I bother allowing images (headshots) for pen names? I would not assume that the reason for using a pen name is the desire for anonymity. Sometimes it is about marketing. If your name is Rock Hardplace and you write sweet romances, you probably want to use a pen name. Sometimes it is about disambiguation. If your name is Jonathan Kieth Rowling, you p... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Finding beta-readers for science | religion non-fiction Personally I would not favor looking for anonymous online beta readers for a project like this. Any project on the relationship of science and religion is going to attract cranks on both sides of the spectrum and the opinion of cranks is of no value. There are really three types of beta readers wort... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Where to put statistical signifance test results This is not an opinion based on academic practice, but on general writing principles: If you think that the typical reader is going to want to read the table when they get to it, include it inline since it creates an inconvenience to the reader to have to go look for it in the appendix. If you think... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Isn't word-choice important? There are occasions where word choice is very important. These usually come where you are trying to express a new idea or make a distinction that people do not usually make. Each word takes the reader's mind down a certain well worn path and if you want to get them off that path you may have to choos... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is writing in fragments bad practice? In Story, Robert McKee warns very strongly about the dangers of writing in scenes. His point is that what makes a story is its overall arc. Given a set of characters you have invented, each with a particular motivation and a set of values that shape how they pursue their goals, it is easy to put almo... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Creating a fictional place within an actual city? All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players. So sayeth the Bard, and he should know. No story is set in a real place. It is set on a stage created by the author, a stage designed carefully for the convenience of the author's plot. It may share names and physical features with so... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Should I use colons and semicolons to summarize information? > To quickly summarize: MIT is located in Massachusetts; FIU is in Florida. A colon is used to introduce an explanation or summary, so "To quickly summarize" is followed by a colon. A semicolon is used between two related independent clauses. "MIT is located in Massachusetts" and "FIU is in Florida... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Can a source be cited just to substantiate a claim, without specifically mentioning the author or the content? Using footnotes to substantiate claims of fact by reference to published sources is a common and accepted practice. However, it is more common in academic work, or in popular works that pretend to academic rigor. In popular work it is not common to footnote every claim of fact, but if you say somethi... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: What constitutes misleading the reader "Don't confuse the reader" is not a rule, but it is an action with consequences. You can decide to break a rule, but you cannot decide to exempt yourself from consequences. The consequence of confusing the reader is a confused reader. The probable consequence of a confused reader is an abandoned book... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Can I have two prologues How would this be different from having chapter one by about their birth, chapter two be about them at 10, and chapter 3 start the main adventure? This is a perfectly normal progression for many novels. A prolog, generally, is not simply an incident earlier in the career of the MC, it is in a differ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Is it bad/distracting to mix dialogue and action too much? Since it is my answer you are referring to, I will take a stab at this. First, I would generally avoid saying that something is "bad" in writing. It is more useful to think in terms of everything having an effect. A given technique has a given effect. If it is the effect you want, it is a good techn... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |
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A: Ways to reduce the -ing verbs in dialogue and action tags? I'm not entirely sure for your question whether you are trying to avoid the verb or avoid the entire clause. If you insert the action clause in the sentence, the ing verb is the right way to do it and anything else is going to sound forced and ugly. However, regardless of the ing verb issue, mixing ... (more) |
— | almost 7 years ago |