Activity for Mark Baker‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Answer	—	A: Which canned Licence to use when posting short fiction? You don't need to licence content to post it on your website. Post it, stick a copyright notice on it, and it remains yours and you can sell it any time you want. A license only comes into effect if you want to give people permission to post it on their sites or include it in their books. While reta... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Dynamic characterization: How do you show development/change in an inherently flawed character, like a psychopath? Robert McKee maintains that people don't change, and that a story arc is not about them changing, but about showing how far they will go. A story arc, per McKee, consists of a character with a desire meeting a series of increasingly difficult challenges to that desire until they are pushed to the edg... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Characterization: is there any guidance for writing "the romantic interest"? Are you sure that that criticism came from someone who actually likes romance novels? I ask because "flat, uninteresting and no one would care if they lived or died, death would be better because they wouldn't bore me so much" seems to describe every character in a genre romance novel to anyone who i... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Do men fall "in love" (romantic, sensual or desire) with fictional characters? I tend to think of the process of writing a novel as follows: Invent a bunch of characters. Spend time with them until you fall in love. Then torture them to the brink of madness. The redeem or condemn them as you choose. It seems to me very difficult to read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe with... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I get in the Habit of Writing with Twists? I'll first refer you to my answer to this question: https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/24551/how-to-determine-whether-or-not-a-plot-twist-is-needed. Now I will point out an implication of that answer: a plot twist is a twist back to the story arc. In its essence, a plot twist occurs when a ... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I keep from plagiarizing others? While ethically correct, giving credit and creating links to other sites would be antithetical to the aims of a content marketing blog, which is to attract potential customers to a site and to demonstrate the expertise of the company. So linking to other sites as the source of information would defea... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is there any stylistic reason to avoid the word "got"? English is a development of Anglo Saxon and old Norse with many borrowings from Latin, mostly via Norman French, thanks to the Norman conquest of 1066. For a long time after the conquest, the nobility spoke French and the peasantry spoke Anglo Saxon. This is the reason our names for animals on the ho... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Who are the most instructive authors to read to improve one's description skills? Evelyn Waugh and John Steinbeck would be excellent places to start. But while there are no doubt many ways to excel at description, metaphors, broad vocabulary, and figures of speech are not any of them. Great description is not about flowery language, it is about highlighting the telling detail. ... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I decide whether to answer questions, or leave them unexplained? A lot of this depends on where the focus is. If it is a psychological piece, the focus is on the psychology and inconsistencies in the use of technology won't matter much. If it is a love story, dito. But if it is a technical how do we get out of this mess story, then the focus is on the tech, and an... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do I know when my work is ready for critique? It is not so much about the work being ready for critique as about the writer not being able to make it any better without an outside critique. So, a beginning writer, or a poor reader, who can not see the faults in their work needs a critique at the point when the story is in a much weaker form tha... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Style-less writing -- Lack of real structure for blog article Remember that experiment you did back in grade school with the iron filings and the magnet. I think that is a good illustration of how a good piece of writing works. It is not that everything lines up neatly in rows and columns like a database or a spreadsheet. And it is not that all the elements are... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: If I write a word with a letter that isn't used, will I confuse my reader? Pronunciation is part of aural speech and cannot be wholly derived from the written form of languages, at least not in English. There are thousands of real place names that people pronounce differently. If you are going to make up place names in a written work that no one will ever hear pronounced, t... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: What should be done if there is a dispute of opinions within the editorial team? This does strike me as a general ethical question. A publication represents an interest which sponsors its publication. A journalist who accepts employment at that publication is working for hire to perform services for the interest that owns the paper. The interest is entitled to create an organ th... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do speech writers find the contents that make their speeches so impressive? I would start by making a distinction between a good speechwriter and a good speaker. Ted Sorensen explains it very well in this essay on Smithsonian.com. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ted-sorensen-on-abraham-lincoln-a-man-of-his-words-12048177/ > Lincoln was a better speechwriter than speak... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Writing a novel, can I do [this or that]? GLENDOWER I can call spirits from the vasty deep. HOTSPUR Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them? -- Henry IV, part 1 | Act 3, Scene 1 In other words, "Can I do ..." is always the wrong question. "Will anyone want to read ..." is ... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Ways to avoid repetition of "filler" words in writing? Everyone has their pet phrases and turns of phrase. That in itself does not matter much. What matters is whether you are expressing repetitive or monotonous ideas. Yes, you can go in and insert synonyms for words you use frequently, but if the real problem is that your ideas are repetitive, that is ... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: I'm not enjoying my attempt at a science-fiction novella; should I continue? Longform storytelling (which is what a novel or novella is) is very very difficult. It is also only tangentially related to writing. You can be good at writing and know nothing about longform storytelling. It is rather like the difference between painting a house and painting a mural. You need all th... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How much and which parts of a manuscript should I submit to an agent? You submit what their submission guidelines tell you to submit, nothing more, nothing less, nothing different. If you don't follow the guidelines, they won't even look at you. And the guidelines will always, always, always, want the first chapter if they want any chapters at all. No agent, no editor... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Should I send my manuscript again if I forgot the synopsis after sending it to a publisher? The publisher essentially wants to know two things about you. 1. Can you tell a good story. 2. Can you behave professionally and deliver on your commitments. Omitting the summary obviously reflects badly on the second point. Following up promptly to correct the mistake mitigates the problem as bes... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Will it help you to get published if you have a lot of followers of your writing? A blog can definitely build an audience for a book, and the existence of that audience can definitely help sell the book to a publisher, and afterwards the blog can help sell the book to the public. That is exactly how I did it with my book Every Page is Page One, which is a book about writing for th... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Why is there such strong objection to the use of said-bookisms? There is a pervasive misunderstanding today about how language works. It is, in its operation, heavily symbolic and analogical. Can a fever rage? Of course it can. Language is naturally analogical, and far more deeply analogical than most people realize when they are claiming things like "technically... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How should I "remind" the reader of something that they may have forgotten? Storytelling is about sequencing. If you have a big gap between a detail and major events that depend on that detail, that means you have got the sequencing wrong. This is a pervasive problem in writing. Most of the impact lies in how the story unfolds. But often we have put months of work into crea... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is writing only scenes a good way to earn writing skills? I would be careful. Yes, there is much to be said for learning a complex skill by practicing in parts. But there is a real and pervasive danger of getting caught up in language when you should be focusing on story. As Robert McKee points out, it is easy for writers for fall in love with individual sc... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do you use showing in animal fantasy? Here's an example to consider: > Peter was most dreadfully frightened; he rushed all over the garden, for he had forgotten the way back to the gate. Now you may be thinking that this example can't possibly be any good since it tells the reader that Peter was frightened, rather than showing his whis... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Impact of views about author on buying book There seem to be three different parts to this question: 1. Does the author's public reputation affect the sales of books? 2. Do the view expressed in a book affect the sales of the book? 3. Do the private views of an author who is not otherwise a public figure affect the sales of books if they be... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: What are ways to "Show, don't tell" without simply listing bodily actions? The question is a good example of why show don't tell is bad advice. It results in all sorts of silly overblown and tedious writing. Give them evidence, let them infer is getting a little closer to the mark, but it still runs afoul of the basic writing rule which is to be a clear and direct as possi... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: 1st person story with no dialogue? Yes, of course it is. What you are describing is merely a story in which nobody speaks. Since it is perfectly possible to have a story in which a character is alone the entire time, why would it be a problem that there is no dialog? Dialog is just the recording of a particular action: speech. You mi... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Alternative to Strunk & White? I would not have thought S&W was long enough to be tedious, but it is certainly dry. A considerably more lively, and longer, and, I think, better book is Sir Ernest Gowers The Complete Plain Words. Livelier still, and much much shorter, is George Orwell's Politics and the English Language. (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Using alternate quotation marks for 'scare quotes.' This is an example of direct quoted thought, which is a construct that only occurs in fiction. (Actually, direct quoted putative thought, but that is beside the point.) I do seem to recall seeing cases of single quotes being used to denote direct quoted thought, but I think what is right that the mo... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to write more clearly and with shorter sentences? The sentence that gets away from you is almost always the result of starting in the wrong place. Look at the first clause in your sentence. Everything that follows has to align with that clause, both semantically and syntactically. If it starts off in the wrong place, it is going to require and long ... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How to figure out if an agent is "on the straight" or "shady"? By far the best way to find an agent is to go to a writer's conference and pitch to as many of the agents in attendance as you can. This not only pretty much guarantees that the agents are legit (they have been vetted by the conference organizers) it also gets you to the top of their reading pile if ... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Why are names in fantasy novels often "original"? Names are part of language. However, they are normally not translated. A Frenchman named Pierre is not referred to as Peter in English, he keeps the French version of his name. We presume that English is not the lingua franca of a fantasy world. Or rather, it would be a very specific kind of fantasy... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Why are writers so hung up on "show versus tell"? Show vs tell is an overblown and misunderstood idea imported into fiction writing from screenwriting. It was originally coined to train novelists to write for the screen. (You can see how novel-like the storytelling was in many early movies. The screen had to struggle to find its own storytelling sty... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Use of past tense in a book about the future The tense used in a story is relative to the temporal POV (point of view) of the narrator, not to the actual calendar date. The modern novel arises from traditional storytelling, meaning that the default temporal POV is that you are telling a story about things that happened before the story is told.... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Is there a revision functionality in LibreOffice Writer? A program can only show you information that it records as part of its file format (metadata). If LibreOffice records the data on which date each line is written as part of the normal file format, then, in theory, it could show it to you. And if it didn't show it to you in the interface, you could op... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Any suggestions for a new writer? Let's say that you wanted to become a circus performer. You want your act to be juggling flaming batons blindfolded while riding a unicycle on a tightrope over a tiger cage. You recognize that your first attempt to do any of these things, let alone do them all together, is going to suck. So what do ... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Why aren't detective stories written in the protagonist's POV? No one can know the writer's reasons but themselves, but I would point out a couple of things: - If the detective is the star of of the show, you want them in frame. When you see a scene from a character's POV, you see what they see, you don't see them. - The natural way in which you get to know s... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: What kinds of skill does writing require? I think that the hidden question here is, does writing require teachable skills. Of course writing requires skills. You have to be able to make marks on paper with a stick, etc. The real question seems to be, does it require skills you can't just pick up by living life. Do you have to specifically st... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How can I get inspired to write a story, without any experience beforehand? If you don't have an idea for a story, you can retell an existing one. There are a few ways to do this. One is to take a song that tells a story (a lot of folk songs and ballads are small stories) and rewrite it as a short story. Obviously this will require you to flesh the story out with additional ... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: What rights can I claim for a book that compiles selected bible passages? IANAL but, as an anthologist, you automatically own a copyright on the anthology -- not on the passages themselves, but on the particular collection and arrangement of those passages you have made. The anthology is new and original work even if the pieces in it are not. This is true regardless of whe... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: How much science/medical detail is too much? It's not that it's not acceptable, it's that it is orthogonal. What editors care about is compelling stories in the current taste. There is nothing to say that cannot include scientific detail. That is certainly something that there is a modern taste for. As Emily Gilmore once said, "I don't watch te... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Do you need to end a story with the same perspective you start with? No. A story stands or falls on the completion of the story arc. POV is simply about camera angles. You choose the camera angle that best frames the part of the story you are telling at the moment. There is no obligation to end on the same camera angle that you opened with. There seems to be an obses... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Do many people even care about "good" grammar in novels? You have to make a distinction between good grammar and what we might call the grammar of the good. Or perhaps I should say between grammar and the grammar of the good. Grammar is the mechanics of how language works. Every comprehensible sentence is comprehensible because of grammar. Either your lan... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Can a novel without any death be taken seriously? Three words: Pride and Prejudice We could name many others, but P&P is by most reckonings, one of the finest novels ever written, and it is not about death. But it is easy to see why the question might occur to someone. Every story needs stakes. Does it not follow that the higher the stakes the mor... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Where are the best places to hire good editors? First, you need to decide if you are looking for someone to fix your story, someone to fix your language, or someone to fix your typos. These are very different things requiring very different skills, and probably very different levels of compensation. Second, you need to understand where people adv... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Options for point of view in a story First of all, don't confuse point of view with person. You can write in the third person and still tell the story from one character's point of view. Second, third person is the normal mode of storytelling. All this stuff about limited vs. omniscient is largely a distraction. It is an analytical sch... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Describing big cities and using slang words while writing It very much depends on why it is New York or Chicago. Do you want the specific flavor of the city? Do you want locals to find your portrayal convincing? If so, Lauren is right. But if the particular flavor of the city is not important, you may be better off treating it as generic American city. Ther... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Generally would an onomatopoeia come before or after the source action is implied First, that is not an onomatopoeia. A slap does not sound like the word slap. Second, this technique is ineffective either way. You can't turn up the volume in prose using caps and asterisks. Nor can you do sound effects. This is the page, not the screen. All words are read as the same speed and vol... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Turning normal phrases into gerund phrases: What's the effect in the reader? While Lauren is correct about the grammatical difference, the actual impact on the reader is virtually nil. It isn't at this level that texts have impact on readers. The levels on which text chiefly impact readers are images and stories. Worrying about the difference between two grammatical structure... (more)	—	over 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Succinctly indicate that an emotional hug is not sexual As always in literature, it is all about the setup. In literature as in life, we interpret actions as our previous experience has led us to interpret them. If you want a reader to react to something in a particular way, you set up their expectations such that when the event occurs, they naturally int... (more)	—	over 7 years ago

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