Posts by micapam
I've just imported my data from SE and found this old question of mine! I honestly can't remember what happened to the novella I mentioned (probably another abandoned manuscript) but meanwhile I wr...
A short story of mine has grown until it's become a bit of a monster - about 15K. I don't know if that makes it a novelette or a novella, but it's certainly too long for most of the journals I woul...
You could try out Mellel: http://www.mellel.com/ Apparently it's good at RTL languages which you mentioned you will be using (Arabic, Urdu) and it's cheaper than MS Word etc. That having been sai...
A postscript is a passage at the end of a letter, following the signature. It only makes sense in the context of a letter composed by hand or on a typewriter, to accommodate an afterthought when yo...
Short answer: yes. The question is complicated, though, by what counts as 'dialogue'. If you read - for example - Birgit Vanderbeke's The Mussel Feast (Peirene Press, 2013, trans. Jamie Bullock)...
Beginning in the middle is absolutely fine - in fact, how else could it be? We should come aboard the process 'in the middle, as onto a moving train' (I read this somewhere - it is either Gilles De...
From memory (and this is quite a long time ago - since finishing my first degree I've used Turabian style rather than MLA), you are correct to use full names (first name before surname), in alphabe...
I wish there was a single reference book for given names from around the world, but I haven't been able to find one. I have a couple of books on my shelves that have been quite helpful: Concise Di...
Abuse grammar all you wish! Leave it dead in a ditch if you must to get the rhythm right. Right now the nice imagery is being let down with by the dragging artificiality of the metre. To see why, ...
I can't give you the advice you want, but I will give your advice you need: The books you need to read are models, not how-to guides. Count me among those who, unlike the many you mention, do not ...
I believe the most relevant law is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/contents Terms are defined in Part I, Chapter 2. Section 17 (2) defines ...
You could try Lightning Source. I've heard good things about them and I've seen a couple of the books - they look pretty good. Considering using it for a volume this year (that I'm editing, I shoul...
'Coming up with an idea' is a self-defeating exercise. Ideas are everywhere - you just have to get used to recognising them as an idea, catching them and recording them. My advice is simply to carr...
You won't like this answer, but I'm going to give it anyway. The best way to convert handwriting into text is to type it up. Don't skip it just because it's a little tedious. Typing up work is a...
I don't see how a deadline could improve the quality of what you're writing; if you don't leave yourself enough time and make yourself rush, it could have the opposite effect. It can certainly moti...
I use the Gollum wiki. It works well for me. There's no database, just wiki-formatted text files. It uses the git version control system so you have a history of every change you make (and you don'...
Avoiding the problem (as per Lauren Ipsum's answer) is probably the best way to deal with this. But let's assume you don't want to change anything about your paragraphs. The answer is unambiguous: ...
I'm actually at the point now where I want to take hundreds of scrappy scenes and bits and pieces and try to give my novel some structure. So the question you've asked is actually uppermost in my m...
You haven't mentioned the style guide you're following; different guides have different rules. For Turabian / Chicago Style, the rules applicable are: A single-author entry precedes a multia...
I don't know any one word that encompasses both. But if a narrative is not chronological, it's anachronic, and if it follows multiple characters, it's heterodiegetic. So maybe heterodiegetic anac...
The quoted passage is completely comprehensible; it's clear that the question is being asked by the character. The alternative would be absurd - the narrator making some kind of parenthetical comme...
If someone asked me to proofread in return for a percentage, I'd turn them down, because I'd want to be paid as soon as the work is done, and I wouldn't want how much I get paid to be dependent on ...
