Activity for sesquipedalias
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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| Edit | Post #39507 |
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— | almost 5 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39507 |
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— | almost 5 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39507 |
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— | almost 5 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39507 | Initial revision | — | almost 5 years ago |
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A: What's the difference between time-tested and formulaic? 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 of words, or (even more detailed) letters. Obviously, using the same old 26 letters over and over again ... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39410 |
@ArtOfCode wow, thanks again... Now here's to new questions being asked... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39410 |
@ArtOfCode awesome, thanks (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39410 |
Post edited: |
— | almost 5 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39410 | Initial revision | — | almost 5 years ago |
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Notifications for actually *new* questions 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 small new additions. It would really help if I could get notifications only for actually brand-new ques... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39407 |
"That includes 99.375% of all puns": quite an aside here, but I recently discovered a pun made in *Homer* (Iliad 4:323 -- τὸ γὰρ γέρας ἐστι γερόντων), which is not even particularly sophisticated or funny, and the knowledge of it warmed my heart tremendously : D ...- (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39408 |
hype : ) (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39383 |
Post edited: |
— | almost 5 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39383 |
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— | almost 5 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39219 |
Got here a bit late. Not leaving. Hi everybody... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39383 | Initial revision | — | almost 5 years ago |
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A: Tools to overcome a block from: "My words are bad" 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 it from the start. But, I think, it's not the only kind of progress you want to be aware of. You can... (more) |
— | almost 5 years ago |
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What are good places (online) where a community of writers can get together and share their knowledge about writing? It would be nice to be a member of an online community of people who are knowledgeable about writing, willing to directly help eachother in a format such as Q&A (like here on SE), but also engage in activities out of scope for SE (which could range from general discussion about writing to arranging I... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: "Dear Stack Exchange, I am very disappointed in you" - How to construct a strong opening line in a letter? "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 make my current disappointment even greater." Thereby: - Injecting some smartass humour, but also - ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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How can I make "acts of patience" exciting? This answer to the question Averting Real Women Don’t Wear Dresses introduces a distinction between acts of patience and acts of daring. > [...] when it comes to telling a story [...] acts of daring are easy to show, and acts of patience are not [...] > > [...] acts of daring [...] make a better st... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: How to write a sincerely religious protagonist without preaching or affirming or judging their worldview? Just note that there is an underlying value judgement that inevitably biases your view on the matter. Compare the following: > "How to write a sincerely religious protagonist without preaching or affirming or judging their worldview?" > > "How to write a sincerely altruistic and philanthropic prot... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: What makes a character irredeemable? 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 think the already-provided answers by Galastel, Amadeus and Francine DeGrood Taylor do a great job of discuss... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Detail vs. filler 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. Whatever I may be trying to achieve in terms of characters, plot, etc., in the here-and-now of each paragraph,... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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A: As a discovery writer, how do I complete an unfinished novel (which has highly diverged from the original plot ) after a time-gap? 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 to think of your current draft as serving two distinct purposes: firstly, as an outline for a novel, with... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Secondary characters in character-study fiction Adding a couple of points to @Mark Baker's answer (please read that one first). It is fine if the secondary characters exist solely for the purpose of supporting the main character, but don't let the readers notice this. A nice guideline is "every character is the hero of their own story": your choi... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to write an inversion of a messianic trope? Study and compare christian dogma vs. actual history. In actual history, there is of course no "jesus succumbed to the devil's temptation" event, since these are mythological characters, but all the "spread the corrupted word" storyline is right there for you to study. (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How do I start off in web comics? [This answer addresses the storytelling part of the question, not the webcomics-drawing part.] I've found Brandon Sanderson to be an excellent teacher. He focuses on: 1) "mainstream commercial fiction" as opposed to e.g. "weird experimental writing intended for a narrow audience"; but I think you ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How do we know if a dialogue sounds unnatural without asking for feedback? 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). Our intuitions sometimes work in surprising ways. You can get to understand this process to some extent,... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Rapid change in character 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, frozen in (in-universe) time. Furthermore, you can spread your material to best serve the pacing of yo... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Introducing evil characters before the evil deeds take place 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 acts? This precludes having the character commit some crime that is unrelated to the main action, so t... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Spicing up a moment of peace You seem to suggest that a paragraph that has no other function whatsoever within the narrative, beyond providing an evocative pause, is somehow special, or maybe even "pure". Of course, such a paragraph already serves a function within the pace of the narrative, by providing the pause. Perhaps you ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to write a non-fiction book? It seems to me you need to answer some more basic questions first. What do you want to write about? Why do you want to write about it? Who is your audience, and why will they read your book? The next step is: how will the book I want to write work? How will it be organised, in order to convey inform... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Should I use the words "pyromancy" and "necromancy" even if they don't mean what people think they do? 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 often do have multiple meanings, and we understand from the context which meaning you are using: if you w... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Point of View Confusion 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 PoV, or third person objective PoV. It's ok to switch from one character's PoV to the PoV of another c... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Help, I cannot decide when to start the story 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 comprehensive history of your fantasy world. You are starting your story at the point where your chosen character... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is it uncompelling to continue the story with lower stakes? As Pat Rothfuss said on Writing Excuses, there are things that can happen to characters that are "worse than death". The "existential threats", especially because they are such a cliché, are also just one "type" of threat. A character losing a loved one, or their honour or dignity, or their sanity--t... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Character is called by their first initial. How do I write it? The reader only needs to be told how "G" sounds once. You can put the explanation in-story, e.g. the character says or thinks 'I hate it when Bob calls me G, I can just hear him thinking "Gee whiz" whenever he does it' (this example is imperfect, you want to make the explanation completely unambiguou... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How do I stop my characters falling in love? You are letting the characters develop naturally, according to what feels right for them, rather than forcing them to conform to an abstract plot point. This is good, of course. Now, if you really need to stop your characters going in a particular direction, I don't think you should abandon your good... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Can I name a male character Artemis? I don't know of Artemis in ancient greek being used as a male name, but, for what it's worth, in modern greek Άρτεμις is the female name (same name as the godess) but there exists a male version too, which is Αρτέμης. Note the accents: in the female version, the stress is on the initial A, whereas in... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How do I write a compelling villain-all-along twist? There is a distinction between what the audience can logically deduce and what the audience is emotionally rooting for. The latter can make them blind to the former. A recent example is (Game of Thrones, TV final season -- SPOILER!): > Daenerys Targaryen. She has committed many brutal murders and i... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: What are some bad ways to subvert tropes? There's a danger with subverting tropes, in that you can end up giving misleading promises ... e.g. your story seems to be a romcom for the first 20 pages but then !surprise! it's a horror--well, all the people who wanted horror have not even started the story (they thought it was a romcom), and the ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How can I convince my reader that I will not use a certain trope? It seems you need to come out as an omniscient, reliable narrator and directly tell your audience the fact you want them to have no doubt about. One, often problematic, way to do this is in a prologue. But there are many more ways. A compelling example that comes to my mind, to highlight the general... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is it advisable to add a location heads-up when a scene changes in a novel? One of the major uses of chapter-changes and section-changes is to signal a change of scene (or similar, e.g. passing of time). The show-don't-tell advice in other answers is sound--and with a section break, the reader knows a scene change may have happened, so you don't need to do much 'showing'. Th... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: Is it true that "Any story can be great in the hands of the right storyteller"? There's a nice little story about this... fromhttp://www.fantasyliterature.com/author-interviews/jim-butcher/ > Q: How did you come up with the original idea for CODEX ALERA? We’ve heard rumours that it involved a bet on whether you could combine the Roman empire and Pokémon… is that true? > > A: ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: How to detach yourself from a character you're going to kill? 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 character, and their entire arc is what makes them who they are. Make the specifics of the death contribut... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: English words in a non-english sci-fi novel Seems totally fine to me. However, what really matters is your actual audience. This sounds like a case where maybe the best approach is to go ahead, write what seems best to you, without worrying too much about it--but then seek the responses of a sufficient number of representative beta readers. E... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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What are the major weaknesses of Writing Excuses as a resourse for learning the craft? 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 -- "mainstream commercial creative writing" and, mostly, fantasy and science fiction as genres. I also ... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |