Posts by April Salutes Monica C.
This is inspired by this question, but taking it in a non-fiction direction: Is there a benefit to publishing non-fiction ebooks on Amazon as opposed to just putting them on your blog? Let's assu...
I looked up Isekai on Wikipedia, and one paragraph grabbed me: Several later examples from English literature include the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), as well as A Connecticu...
I missed my chance to write for About.Com when it was TheMiningCom and now it's DotDash and seems to be under different rules. Suite101 has become Suite.io (blocked from my work, so that's all I k...
This is from an agent's page at https://www.mariavicente.com/blog/manuscript-formatting-submitting-sample-pages Consider the strength of your first chapter. Too often writers will submit pages ...
The "contract" is the expectations you set. In an academic paper, it's normally the introduction leading up to the thesis. In a work of fiction, it's the first few pages (novel) or paragraphs (sh...
Who is your audience? What languages do they know? If it's an international contest, are there language guidelines? If it says English Only, then be at least 99% English! Are you planning on a fe...
Did you take screenshots of it being down? Does the site have an errors log? Is there a site you checked those days to make sure it wasn't just you? (https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/ and https://d...
Is this character the only blind one around? Did she go to a mentor to learn how to navigate efficiently? Is there a school for the blind? How old was she when she lost her vision? (I read a ...
If you don't want to research the history directly, you may want to look into the historiography -- how the history of something is studied/understood. Often that is why we supermoderns laugh at...
This might help with the identifying-meter educational part of it: https://prosody.lib.virginia.edu/ It’s an interactive on-line tutorial that can train you to scan traditionally metered Englis...
This is really @Amadeus's answer (so I'll delete this if s/he posts under his/her own account), but I didn't want it to be lost in a comment: I'd call it a "proxy", often computed or logically ...
I say don't censor your "discovery" -- include the names of everyone -- they may come back in later, or you may want to explore their story in a specific vignette. (I'm thinking of Neil Gaiman's Sa...
A useful option may also be GoogleDocs, as it's free. I can't give specific examples (Gmail/Gdocs blocked at my current day-job), but I remember some students used it for peer-critique very well. ...
Another program you may find useful is Archivos. I saw it demo'd at BaltiCon (a local lit-focused con) last spring. https://archivos.digital/ from their "about" page: First, ARCHIVOS helps S...
Second Edit -- to try to expand the scope BEYOND W.SE and to cover any CreativeCommons work, not just here. Deleted part about the badges. -- Edit -- to clarify it's not quite a BLOG, more a portf...
One of my favorite "constraints" is that the audience is more willing to accept things. If it's a film/video/tv, they expect some realism. If it's a play, instead of needing to go On Location, a ...
Is there any chance you can work/volunteer at an ESL tutoring center or writing center, especially at a community college? That's a great way to see which errors people of different languages make...
I know Technical Writing is not supposed to have our personalities in it, but when I taught, I sought out educational videos/resources that had a bit of personality in them. Example: The Oatmeal's...
A textbook I used to use for technical writing had this on the cover Nobody wants to read what you write. That sounds discouraging, but often people are looking at technical information to an...
I'm finally starting to get my educational podcast together, which will focus on specific writing/editing topics, in small chunks (so they can be played in a class if the teacher wants to). The go...
In the rebooted Jughead comic (in the Archie Comic Universe), Jughead is explicitly Ace. He tries dating someone (they were in a burger costume), but realized, "nope, not me." I really love how d...
One useful example may be the Worm/Ward series (Especially Ward, though it's still in progress), by Wildbow/JC Macrae. In this world, people often get superpowers due to intense trauma. Superpowe...
One element is if you characters have a reason to notice these things. In Ward, the protagonist is a bit of a Fashion Police, so she's always commenting on what people are wearing, whether regular...
You may be interested in experimental literature -- not everyone is into writing for the sake of Standard Storytelling. I adore 4th-wall breaking theater, such as "Six Characters in Search of a...
While it sounds like what you're writing is not Creative Nonfiction, this essay about it may help clarify your self-description: https://www.creativenonfiction.org/online-reading/what-creative-nonf...
