Activity for Mark Bakerâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: Should I follow my instinct or public demand when writing a story? I think this is a false dichotomy. To be sure, there are many reasons to write. You may be writing only for your own amusement or catharsis, in which case merely getting your thoughts down on paper will suffice and you will have no need to consider anybody else. And to be sure, you can write purely... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Chapters - Writing Order You may or may not be able to pull this off, but this is the danger you face: You may end up writing scenes that you fall in love with as scenes but which do not fit the arc of your story. Robert McKee describes this as one of the great pitfalls of story, and of revision. The first draft of a script... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Will what worked 'back then' work today? (Novels) The vast majority of the fiction produced in any age is of the type that would generally be called pulp or potboiler. It is simple non-challenging stuff meant to occupy a vacant hour for an reader who is a mood for something light and frothy. Generally pulp does not have much of a shelf life, though... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Section of a book that explains things You are telling a story, not writing a manual. Everything goes in the story. The order in which it occurs in the story is the order in which it matters to the story. There are two ways to introduce background material into a story. You can tell the reader yourself as narrator, or you can have one ch... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How to replace "and/or" in sentences with multiple terms? From a purely stylistic point of view: "any combination of: apples, oranges, pears" But you say this is for a legal document and lawyers may construe ambiguity where ordinary reasonable people would not, so if your question is a "will it hold up in court" kind of question, this is the wrong place to... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Does it make sense to set a sword & sorcery fantasy in a post-apocalyptic world on Earth? You can set a story anywhere. The challenge is not to make it consistent with our world but to make it self-consistent within itself. And I think this is a universal literary problem (and therefore I don't think this question belongs on worldbuilding). All stories take place in what Tolkien called a ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: A written action scene, interrupted? I think this very much depends on the narrative tone and style that have been used up to this point. If this is the first time you have done such a digression in what has otherwise been a straightforward narrative, the result is likely to do exactly what you reader says: take them out of the story. T... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How do I keep a major emotional upheaval from seeming artificial and abrupt? Falling in love has the quality that you are often not fully conscious of it while it is happening. The moment where you articulate to yourself that you are in love with someone can often come as a surprise to you. (It is a common enough trope in movies and books that the best friend has to explain t... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: What jobs or professions involve writing? There are no jobs that pay well for which the only requirement is writing. This is a simple matter of supply and demand. There are lots of people who can write well enough for commercial purpose. The price for that skill alone is rock bottom. And indeed, the ability to write is not of much use by it... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Translating from mind to paper Other answers assume that the problem you are having is inertia, and perhaps they are right. Perhaps you just need to start writing and keep writing. But perhaps inertia is not the problem. Perhaps that problem is that what seems like a story in your head is not a story when you get it down on paper... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Example of a fictional story without any characters (the story being 1000+ words) This question really comes down to the definition of story (and, to a certain extent, of fiction). If we take story in the broad sense of a sequential narrative and fiction in the broad sense of any statement that is not true, then clearly there can be stories without characters. If we take story an... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How can one not let their voice show through in all the characters? There are two places a novelist may find a character: inside of themselves and out in the world. The desire to write may come from many places: sometimes from a desire to "express oneself", sometimes from a desire to share what you have seen and heard in the world around you. I doubt there is any way... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Tips for continuing plot when the spearhead character is not the protagonist? Every protagonist wants something and is struggling to get it. Every plot point in a story consists of the protagonist's attempt to get the thing they desire and the things that frustrate that desire. This does not require the protagonist to be in charge of events. Nor does it require that they achi... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Folktale within a folktale The classic example would be The Arabian Nighs (AKA One Thousand and One Nights) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One\Thousand\and\One\Nights) in which Scheherazade tells her husband an new story each night to keep him from cutting her head off. (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How to write a utopia? Well, a true utopia would have no room for story. Story runs on desire and frustration and the moral challenges that result from the frustration of desire. A true utopia would leave no desire frustrated and therefore no moral challenge to be met. But given our limitations, and the limited resources ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Original writing is lost when using other people's ideas? When we give credit to a designer for an article of clothing, we do not caveat our praise by pointing out that they did not weave the fabric or grow the cotton or design the sewing machine or smelt the metal used to build the sewing machine, or invent the concept of clothing. All work is enculturate... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Can I use "fuck" as a non-vulgar verb in a fantasy/steampunk world? The sexual act can be tender or it can be violent. Its violent aspects can be consensual or non consensual. There are many different words for it, reflecting each of these connotations. F\\\ is one of the more violent of these words. But f\\\ also has other connotations: to cheat, for instance, or to... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Can Originality Sell a Book? Harry Potter was not original. Anyone who grew up reading English Children's books would recognize that it is a pastiche of virtually the whole canon of 20th century English Kid Lit, in which trains and boarding schools and magic all play a role. Everything I read growing up is in there. If Rowling ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: A villain that doesn't even know the hero's existence? Certainly a story can have this structure. But your analysis of it seems to assume that the antagonist is a role equal to that of the protagonist in story structure, and that is not the case. Story structure is about the desire of the protagonist and the things that frustrate that desire. Generally t... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: freelance writing: how much of a test for a job would be considered actual work done for free? Freelance writing, as a career, is enormously oversubscribed. At the bottom of the market there are far too many writers chasing far too little work, and therefore prices are rock bottom and market conditions greatly favor the client. At the same time, most freelance writers absolutely and irredeema... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Why are audio books more expensive than a movie ticket? Prices are set based on supply and demand. Cost of production has nothing to do with it, except to determine whether a product is worth producing. (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: To visually and logically plan out stories One small point in addition to What's excellent summary: It is important to make a distinction between story and plot. In Aspects of the Novel E.M. Forster says that story is what happens, and plot is why it happens. Today, I suspect, we would reverse the terms when making this distinction. Plot is w... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How early in the narrative should I start my book? A story should start with the revelation of the desire that will drive the main character. In the case of an exile story, the desire is usually either revenge or to return home (which may mean to find a new home). To establish revenge as the desire, you start by establishing the character's love for ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How much falling action can follow the climax? The climax of the action of a story is not necessarily (or even usually) the climax of the moral arc of the story. The climax of the action is the crucible in which the hero is tested and purified. What remains after the crucible and purification is very often the reconciliation: the mending of relat... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How can I determine the public opinion of an author? There is no universal public opinion of any author. People read of pleasure and for edification. There are various pleasure you can get from reading, and various forms of edification. Some hold that some pleasures are higher than others -- aesthetic pleasure higher than vicarious adventure, for examp... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: if I write a book about an open source software, should I take permission from the software's creator? Copyright covers the expression of an idea. The author of the software has copyright on their code. But the result of that code is a subject in the public domain that anyone is free to write about. On the other hand, you should certainly write to the author of the software and tell them you are writ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How to deduce the protagonist's flaw from the plot? I think you may be making too much of the idea of a flaw. To have an Achilles heel, you must first be Achilles, and who among us is? Most stories are not driven by a single flaw (which would imply an otherwise perfect hero -- an Achilles, a Superman) but by the ordinary circumstance of human life. Hu... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Will I ever be able to write like a native writer? Joseph Conrad was one of the greatest novelists ever to write in the English language. He was born in Poland and did not become fluent in English until his twenties. It can be done. But writing a novel is not about being able to write a grammatical sentence. It is about being able to tell a compelli... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Writing technique resources If you are looking for effective techniques for producing an effect on the reader, you will not find them in writing so much as in storytelling. It is in the juxtaposition of people and events that you create an emotional effect. Robert McKee's book Story may be useful to you on this point. He makes ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How to determine whether or not a plot twist is needed? Plots twist. Stories don't. Sometimes a plot twist will show that reader that the arc of the story was something other than what they were expecting. But the story still needs to have a satisfying arc. If the plot twist destroys the story arc, or is simply irrelevant to the story arc, then it ruins t... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How to describe an angry voice in dialogue? The best way to give the reader the sense the the character speaking is angry is through the words they say, not through the description of how they say it. Make the word angry and you don't need to describe the voice. The reader reading angry words will hear an angry voice. Effective writing is abo... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How much outlining is needed? What is needed is a definite story shape. Stories are not merely a sequence of incidents. There is a definite progression. The protagonist has a desire. That desire is frustrated. The protagonist act to achieve their desire and is rebuffed. They try again and are rebuffed again. Repeat as necessary u... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: What are some examples of modern original plots? There are an infinite number of plots. The claim is that there is a limited number of types of plots. This list that Aaron Digulla quotes is a list of types of plots. Being an orderly species and liking simple answers as we do, we like to take anything complex and divide it into parts to help us und... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Antagonist that remains unknown Not every novel has an antagonist. Basic story structure is about desire and the things that frustrate desire. The thing that frustrates desire does not have to be a person -- an antagonist. In many cases, what frustrates the protagonist is their own pride or an anonymous social structure. Who is the... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Readability for narrative type with respect to time You are telling a story, not a history. There are times in the history of the character when the arc of the story is not progressing. That really does not matter as long as the story arc continues smoothly. Where the time gap will seem disconcerting is when it creates a story gap. (The same would be... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Creating Slogans/Rallying Cries Most slogans and rallying cries are banal in themselves. Terri's example of "Remember the Alamo" is a case in point. Unless you do remember the Alamo, and unless you care about what happened there, it might as well be "Remember Schenectady". Slogans and rallying cries work by invoking stories that t... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Archaic language in a historical novel? I would make a distinction between linguistic drift and anachronistic references. You cannot write a story about the middle ages in Middle English because no one speaks Middle English anymore. That people use different vocabulary to talk about the same things in the 14th century and the 21st century ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Text structure in a fictional diary The diary format gives you a lot of liberty, as Lauren suggests. But I believe that there is a reason that this format is seldom used in fiction. It can be difficult to make a set of diary entries into something with story shape and still have them be sufficiently convincing as diary entries. Storie... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How to plan your writing throughout the book? Different writers have different approaches. Some plot everything out in detail before they begin. Others begin with an idea or a character or even just a picture and start writing to explore from there. Even for the pre-planners, though, writing is an act of discovery. You are going to learn things... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Is my method of Narration switching from objective to subjective too complicated? If you are worried that it is too complicated, it is probably too complicated. Not there there is not a place for narrative innovation in literature, but the basics are the readers want to be immersed in the story and narrative trickery is likely to pull them out of the story. There is an old saying... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Naming a character late in the chapter but introducing him first A character does not have to be named, but they do have to be identified, otherwise the reader gets lost. If you don't identify them by name, then you should identify them by some defining characteristic that makes sense in the context of the story. This says something important about them in story t... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How often do I need to footnote a paragraph based on the same source You don't cites the source for a paragraph. You cite the source for an assertion. Each assertion should be cited, regardless of whether it occurs in the same paragraph as another assertion, and regardless of whether it comes from the same source as a previous assertion. This is not really a matter o... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Writing a Platonic Relationship It rather sounds like what you are writing is not a platonic relationship but a frustrated romantic relationship. There are, of course, millions of stories of frustrated romantic relationships. And the key to them always is, what is it that is causing the frustration. The basic shape of story is des... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Finding a reliable professional editing services for research paper I would suggest looking for professional editors associations in your country. Here in Canada, for example, we have the Editors Association of Canada. Such associations will likely have referral services and perhaps certification programs. Membership in a professional society is usually a plus in eva... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Words in author's native language? It used to be common practice in scholarly works and in popular works aimed at educated audiences to quote works in the the language they were written in, at least for major classical and modern European languages. This is not a matter of the author using their native language, however, but of using ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How do I portray a particular moment as climactic? From what you have described, it seems pretty clear why this does not feel like a climax. Prior to this, the hero has come to terms with the sacrifices he as made and the people he has lost. But in story terms, that is the climax. All that is left is a technical accomplishment of floating blocks. Bu... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Very long sentences: personal style or just bad writing? This is one of the many cases in which advice about writing is misstated. Long sentences are not bad. Convoluted sentences are bad. A sentence can be long without being convoluted. A sentence can be quite short and still be convoluted. However: - Convoluted sentence do tend to be long. - A greater ... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: How much can a reader remember? Ultimately this is a question of psychology or perhaps neurology. How does human memory work? But I think it is reasonable to suggest is that what people remember is a novel is story and the things that matter to the story. If that is true, people will remember things that are connected to the story,... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Word count using "Times New Roman" There were various methods for estimating words from the number of pages in a typed manuscript, since typewriters don't count words, but tend to have very consistent fonts and spacing. All modern word processors produce accurate word counts so you don't need an estimation method. If you want number o... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |
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A: Should the world be based on the characters or the characters based on the world? Stories are fundamentally about people, not places. The psychology of why we like stories has been fairly well worked out, and the archetypes of stories are fairly well understood. At its simplest, a story is about a character with a desire, the things that frustrate that desire, the things the chara... (more) |
— | over 7 years ago |