sesquipedalias‭

I recently subscribed to notifications for new questions posted on the site, but as a result I'm being spammed with a daily list of questions that have any change, including very old questions with...

0 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  edited 5y ago by ArtOfCode‭

Especially for a discovery writer, the first draft of a novel is often as much an exercise in planning the final version as it is an attempt to actually produce that final version. It may be best t...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

How can I minimise the "filler" text that I end up writing when fleshing out a scene with detail? An appropriate level of detail seems to me to be a fundamental requirement for good prose. Whateve...

7 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by DPT‭

There are different kinds of progress that you can make as you write. You can produce text that makes it into a specific draft. You obviously need to do this eventually, and perhaps you even do i...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  edited 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭

One way to model the role of structure in storytelling is to think of "layers". For example, at some very-high-detail layers (which I would call the lowest layers) a story is made up of a sequence ...

posted 4y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  edited 4y ago by sesquipedalias‭

I ask as somebody who loves Writing Excuses (https://writingexcuses.com), and relies on the podcast heavily as an educational resource. My writing ambitions are well aligned with their stated scope...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Don't detach yourself emotionally from the character. Rather, experience the character's death as a major part of their arc. This is not a real person who is gone once dead; this is a fictional ch...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

You should definitely tell the story you want to tell, and not some backstory that leads up to it. You are not starting your story at the point that would make sense if you were writing a comprehen...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

When you present the story as a character experiences it, it's third person limited, or third person subjective PoV. When you don't do that (but still use 3rd person), it's third person omniscient...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

These terms are very often used to mean magic, and I've never before encountered anybody discussing the ancient greek etymology. You are totally safe using the modern meanings. In general, words ...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

I understand your question as asking: is it possible for the reader to know that a certain character is evil, from that character's introduction, and before that character actually commits any evil...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Time is an illusion in storytelling--one that you, the author, create. You can skip millenia just by saying that they passed, and you can spend as many pages as you wish to describe a single moment...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

I think there are two dimensions to this. The first is: what makes a real-world person irredeemable? A fictional character with the same traits will then, presumably, also be irredeemable. I thin...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

"Dear SE, I don't even know how to express how disappointed I am in you--literally. Because I don't know all the facts. But all the indications I've seen make me fear that the full facts would only...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Your goal here is to engage your intuition in ways that will help you assess your own, written work. (Everything in this answer applies to your dialogue, but also to all your writing in general). ...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭