Activity for Mark Bakerâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: Romance without cliche? That's a bit of a tough assignment, because there is no precise definition of a cliche. But you may find the advice of George Orwell in his essay "Politics and the English Language" useful. It's not about writing romance, obviously, but it is about avoiding cliche. Lazy writers, Orwell contends, writ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Language specific rhetorical devices and their influence on non-English native writers English does not have an allergy to adverbs. Bad writing teachers sometimes tell their students not to use adverbs, perhaps because they are not skilled enough to teach them to use them well. Different cultures go through different stylistic periods. These are cultural phenomena more than linguistic... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: What do you call someone who is neither/both an antagonist and a protagonist? In classical theory, this character is known as the trickster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster They are the chaotic character. They create problem for the protagonist because they cannot be relied on, but nor are the necessarily an enemy. (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Is it bad storytelling to have things happen by complete chance? Life is full of chance occurrences. In many ways, though, our appetite for story is based on our appetite for a more logical, predictable world than we actually live in. We want stories to have the logic that the real world does not. But chance can be made logical simply by foreshadowing. If a picni... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How do I gain sufficient emotional distance from my work to edit it? How can you tell whether "yes, this is good" or "okay, this needs work"? These are objective artistic judgments. Emotional distance from the work is certainly part of what you need to make them about your own work, but you also need artistic detachment. What I see very consistently is that the bette... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: What are the main steps to prepare and promote my fiction novel? If you want to maximize the success of your book, seek professional publication. Being successful with self publishing is like being successful playing the lottery. Even those who win small prizes now and then pay out more than they take in, and the real jackpots are incredibly rare. But is you actu... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Need recommendation re: online resume format The sad truth is that today, resumes are read by machines. Machines don't care about aesthetics. In fact, machines can be confused by the characters you insert to achieve aesthetic effect. If humans do read your resume, chances are that the submission system will have mangled the text so that your at... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Should i have four points of view for my novel? Point of view is nothing more than it says it is. The place where the story is viewed from. In movie terms, it is the position of the camera. To have a single POV is equivalent to shooting an entire movie from a single camera angle. It is a constraining thing to do. Generally it is easier to show di... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Should capitalization be used for emphasis for a character's tone? Neither of the above. You can't act a scene in prose. Nor can you describe your way into a reaction. What you have to do to get the reader to have a reaction to events it to set them up properly so that they have the reaction you are looking for when the plain words are delivered. If you want "Do yo... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: A long backstory right at the beginning Every story has a bootstrapping problem. You have to establish characters, a world (fantasy or not), a problem or desire, and the obstacles to that problem or desire, and the story cannot really get going until all of that is done. Starting with action is not particularly effective in itself because ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How do I know who's my protagonist? EARLY in writing process (maybe complicated, maybe not) To answer your question, I have to talk about the difference between a plot and a story. A plot is a sequence of events that happen. A story is an arc of rising tension leading to a resolution. (These terms are sometimes defined differently, and even exactly the opposite, but that is what I am using ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Is it allowed to write a review on every chapter of a book? Generally speaking, quotation for purposes of criticism is an allowed use under copyright law. That does not necessarily mean all quotation in a review is permitted usage, though. You should make sure it is genuinely done for the sake of critique. But IANAL and there are plenty of better resources on... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Thriller sub-genre This is the sort of question you can best answer with a stroll down to your local bookstore. But consider: thrills come from danger. You need to be strapped in to ride the roller coaster. A book let's you take a thrill ride with the safety harness off. The roller coaster is probably the preferred sou... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How many books should writers read? Quite honestly, if you do not read widely and voraciously, you have no business trying to be a writer. To do otherwise would be like a chef who only ate once a week and only at McDonald's. It would be like a actor who hardly went to the theater or a ball player who never went to a ball game. And I d... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Writing a character that does not share your ethnic background? Nothing. Everything. In the end, fiction is not about what you have researched, it is about what you have lived. Of course, writers of historicals or space operas have not actually lived in those environments, but thematically and in terms of their characters, they are a reflection of lived experienc... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Creating a story in which the hero(es) lose Well, consider the term cookie cutter. Now imagine that you love cookies and you want to go into the cookie business. Which do you think would be the best strategy: 1. Bring out a totally original line of rhubarb and pickle cookies. 2. Bring out a line of exceptionally well made chocolate chip cook... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How many rewrites should a writer expect for a novel? There is not one answer, as others have said. But I would suggest the following: 1. How many rewrites it takes to make a competent writer is a very different question from how many rewrites it takes for a competent writer to write a new book. Writing is a difficult craft and you should expect to hav... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How credible is wikipedia? I think most of the answers here are missing something important. It is not about credibility (Wikipedia is as credible as most sources, which is to say that it contains a certain number of errors and omissions, just like everything else). It is about traceability. What matters when you cite a source... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How much detail when writing technical documentation? The acid test is this: Will the reader behave differently if they know this? If not, leave it out. The aim of user documentation is to enable the user to act correctly. Any detail that does not contribute to correct action slows the reader down and may reduce their confidence. (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: What if my story seems too similar to a particular movie? There are no original plots left. There are no myths that have not been mined and exploited a hundred times over. And coming up with a new mythos is nigh impossible because the elements of myth are elemental -- they speak very deeply to basic human hopes and fears and so even the ancient myths we hav... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How much detail is too much? To answer this question you have to consider the purpose of detail. The purpose of detail is to refine the picture in the reader's head. Readers pull images from their own stock of experiences to build a picture of what they are reading. Each detail you add refines the selection of images they make. ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: What are the steps/plot-points of the Sequel Story? Let me approach this another way. The idea of a maturation plot occurs in more than one of the various schemas for classifying plots by type. Those schemas divide plots into multiple types, but there are different numbers of types in each. Heros's journey, on the other hand is not part of a classifi... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: What are the steps/plot-points of the Sequel Story? I would challenge your assertion that the journey is a metaphor for maturation. In today's highly (one might almost say pathologically) individualistic society we do tend to think that the story is all about me: the hero is heroic for the hero's own sake. But the classic hero's journey is not about t... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: What is subtext? The term "subtext" seems to be used for a least four things each of which is distinct, and only two of which I will suggest are on topic for this site. 1. It is used as a catchall for literary devices such as symbolism, metaphor, etc. This, I would suggest, is just a mistake. Literary devices are a ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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What is subtext? In this question about creating subtext, Where in the writing process do you work in subtext?, the question of what the word subtext means was raised. This question is to address this issue. Of course, as all good writers know, there are not enough words to go round for all the things we want to say... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How Can I Make a Great Plot? There are no great plots. There are great stories and there are lousy stories. Great stories and lousy stories can have exactly the same plot. The soundness of a story lies in the rising tension of the story arc. The greatness of a story lies in the telling. There are, I think, different kinds of gr... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Where in the writing process do you work in subtext? First, I think we need to make a distinction here between what we might call Easter eggs -- little in jokes of the sort of which Stephen Moffat and his cronies are particularly fond. Sherlock and Dr. Who are full of these, and they encourage the fandom to go looking for more, finding many were I am s... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Is a male character crying realistic or are his reactions here excessive? Men do cry, but they are always ashamed of themselves for doing so. They weep, therefore, only when the struggle not to weep is unwinnable. If a male character is coming across as unrealistic when weeping, therefore, it may well be either because it is not convincing that that character could not hol... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Is it practical to write a novel with two viewpoints and written from different points in time? Yes, it can be done. But I would think twice about it. A novel should be about telling a story. It should not be about seeing if you can pull off an unconventional storytelling technique. People read novel for stories, not for technique. Generally speaking you should use the most straightforward and... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Reasons to use "red herrings"? I don't think you quite have the sense of what a red herring is. It really isn't a general plot device. It is more a specific technique in a puzzle kind of plot, such as a who-done-it mystery. It is something that suggest, and leads the reader to believe, that the gardener did it, when in fact it was... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Should I use contractions in a technical tutorial? It makes no difference to the reader. Or if it does, they will probably prefer the less formal. It makes a difference to some companies, but most are discovering that a more informal style makes them seem less stuffy and more approachable. The idea that a "formal" style was more appropriate for tech... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: I have 97 pages in my book draft. Is it too late to swap to third person from first? It is never too late to change from first person to third. Writing in first person is almost always a bad idea. It is a confining suffocating point of view. When it does work, it is usually as a frame or a covert form or omniscient. But those are not techniques for beginners to mess with. Change it.... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Do it your own way or inspire in already done ways? Human being have a inbred psychological need for stories. Like all our other needs, there are specific receptors that have to be matched for the need to be satisfied. If the body does not recognize a story as story, it will reject it. We can't change the reader's need for story, anymore than we can c... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How do I handle a backstory big enough to be a story of its own? I think the question you are really asking is, is the backstory the story you want to tell, or is it simply a fable on which the real story is based. None of us can answer that for you. If I had to guess, though, it sounds from the way you ask the question like you regard it as a fable that sets up t... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Vanity publishers - authors who have paid for a service- what are our rights? This is not a copyright question, it is a contract question. You signed a contract with them. The terms of the contract tell you what you can and can't do. No one here can tell you what your contract says. Find it and read it. If you are uncertain how to interpret it, ask a lawyer. (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Is a bandit ambush a fatal, cliche mistake? If they can't possibly lose, it is not a battle, it is a spot of exercise. There is nothing exciting about a bandit ambush if the bandits have no chance. Certainly going to win and do is not exciting. Probably going to lose and don't is exciting. (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Is it good to repeat the same form of event? I think you can get away with it, using an approach such as Lauren suggests, with one important caveat. You need to make sure that the stakes are higher than last time. If you have not raised the stakes, it is going to seem like a skipping record, the same passage repeating over and over again. (Does... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: To Cut or not to Cut, that is the Question You are either presenting real science principles or you are writing a novel. You can't do both. You might as well say that you are presenting a symphony concert but first you are starting off with a monster truck rally. It's not the same audience. Even if there is a crossover between the two audienc... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How many subjects in the same story is "too many"? And is it too bad? You can have as many subjects as you like; you can only have one story arc. Or, at least, you can only have one story arc per character. Do all of these aspects of the protagonist's life contribute to the story arc? Do they inform his desire or frustrate his achievement of his desire? If yes, do they... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How can I raise the stakes and make a character's decision compelling? As you rightly perceive, this is about sacrifice. It is about loss. It is about how much the character is willing to bleed for this. The implication of this is that much of the story has to be dedicated to making it very clear how much bleeding would be involved for the character in this situation. ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How can I Switch Protagonists Between Books? In the classic model of a story, the protagonist pursues their desire to the limits of their endurance, concluding in some profound change or revelation (depending on whether you think people can change). In some sense, this drains the character of story potential. They have either achieved their des... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How do I add more characters into my story? Are you writing this in first person? The choice of first person is the cause of many writing woes because it is a POV that essentially puts the writer in a box. If you are writing first person and your protagonist is withdrawn and friendless, any people she meets are going to be two dimensional to h... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How to get a derailed book back on track? You may be discovering the difference between a plot and a story. A plot is a series of events. A story is an arc of rising tension followed by a resolution. Events intervene in the lives of characters to drive the rise in tension, but the tension itself comes from the characters, who they are, what ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Curbing Self-Indulgent Writing There is writing and there is storytelling. Writing is about the words. Storytelling is about the event, the people, the sights, sounds, smells, tragedies, joys, births, deaths, surprises, victories, and defeats. Writing does not matter except as a vehicle for telling the story. It is very easy to f... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How should formula variables be formatted in narration? Don't mention it. Seriously, don't mention it. No one wants to read a short story or a novel with equations in it. Tell us that your character calculated the result if it is really central to your story arc, but seriously do not put the actual equation into the story. If you are writing about the eq... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How can I describe technology while avoiding problems with scaling? It doesn't matter. The tech is a McGuffin. It's a device to drive the story. The entire plot of Casablanca revolves around a pair of passes that cannot be revoked by the local Nazi authorities. The passes are a McGuffin. They are absurd on the face of it. Of course any such passes could be cancelled... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: I'm shy to let my friends read my books Here's the thing. You don't write to be admired. You write because there is something burning inside you to be said. The question to your friends is not, do you like it? Do you think it's good? Did I do a good job? The question is, do you get it yet? Do you understand what I am saying? If not, that ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Print runs, unsold books, books by weight and do authors get some compensation for unsold? Booksbyweight appears to be simply a used bookstore with a bulk pricing model. In the paper world the economic model for books is that the publisher sells copies. The copy then belongs to the person who bought it. They can resell it to whoever they want, including used book stores. The author and pu... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How much humour can you afford to have before losing a serious atmosphere? Any creature that can foresee its own death must learn to laugh or go mad. In other words, it is a mistake to think that humor is the opposite of seriousness. Humor is the way humans deal with the essential grimness of our lives and their inevitable ends. A serious work that is lacking humor is in s... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Am I guilty of bad 'as' writing? Weak writing is never in the individual word choices. This is the biggest trap in all of writing. Strong writing says interesting things. Weak writing says boring things. Strong writing comes from writers who understand what makes writing interesting. (It's not more explosions.) Weak writing comes fr... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |