Posts by April Salutes Monica C.
I'm here -- apparently none of my rep came with me, although I claimed my questions?
I think on the whole, anything that was marked "keeping only for historical value" -- those are probably delete-able. In general, how many of the oldest questions ARE worth keeping as they are? S...
Perhaps if you need a term, try "magical realism"? 98% like our world, but that little difference is what makes it fantasy... whether it's if subways will sometimes take you sideways to a dif...
Writing within an established universe may be fine, especially for drafting. If you start out with some borrowed characters or concepts, that makes it easier to do the parts YOU want to do uniquel...
Poetry and Precision When I taught ENGL 100 and Technical Communication, I advised students to quote only for Poetry or Precision -- if there's no other way to say the sentence without losing deta...
Mysteries: Since you have the friend-group, you can crowd-source some of them. List some of the problematic mysteries, ask how they would solve them, and then run with whatever you like best (or ...
Time for me to recommend one of my favorite webservices (free) again! Archivos! Why I favor this is it allows you to define and keep track of relationships between everyone, and also to events (w...
Inspired by @ashleylee, but then I was going into even more detail. I think this CAN lead to being a mastery, but not if one ONLY copies ONE creator. It's a good learning tool, but studying more ...
Reading! Read for pleasure, and in the field you want to write in. Sometimes, read strategically, analyzing a paragraph/sentence/section you really like or dislike. Sometimes, try to paraphra...
Building from @Jontia's, Personally, while I'm comfortable with she/her (and I'm also not a robot), I always like the X or Z options, and I had hoped they would catch on with people who wanted an ...
A simple suggestion: just adding the word "Critique" to the title may communicate a lot of what you want. Also, probably in the first minute, perhaps make it clear that: you are A Fan (and you...
Does the character call him "G" or "Mr. G?" I'm thinking of in Buffy the Vampire Slayer how Faith refers to everyone, so she calls Buffy "B". And The Fonz in Happy Days calls everyone "Mrs. C...
To build on my idea in the comments -- a chatbot framework may be helpful, even if that's not your ultimate goal. Here's a link to a little about them and how they can be used: https://rebot.me/p...
Often if something is included as an illustration (in a non-children's book) it might be A Clue! Agatha Christie novels are known for this -- if there's a diagram, that means understanding the lo...
Your narration can also be more casual -- it depends on the overall tone of the work, but the Narrator POV is sort of a character, too. Sometimes, if it's generally more formal, by using the cas...
How does their appearance affect their actions? I'm short, so I have to get BBQ tongs to reach spices on the highest shelves. My hair's not naturally this red, so I have to decide on a box of ...
An option that I see often used in November during NanoWrimo is to "free the plot bunnies" -- if an idea occurs to you (maybe a Leprechaun/Ghoul romance and a particular issue to solve), but you re...
What is the main topic? As algorithms change, one of the best things to do is consistently "write like a human." Just talk about Your Topic, and do it frequently. More words = more chances for t...
What's interesting is writing for the "eye" vs "ear" -- for example, in the comic books, Wonder Woman is often called, both in dialog and captions, "WW" (a savings of 10 characters) -- but to SAY "...
In Technical Writing, it's expected that readers don't want to read what you write. In fact, I used to teach with a book with that on the cover (see the notepad): (basically - Tech Writing p...
This sounds like Google Docs, perhaps combined with Trello (for the Kanban board and calendar view), would do for you. It's got live updating -- I don't think it tracks edits by author exactly, so...
Something that may do SOME of what you want (the "binding" of character to event is what made me think of it) is ARCHIVOS. Basically, you create story elements (people, places, events), and then d...
Inspired by this question: Is there a need for better software for writers? I have an IDE¹ related question about software that can assist writers. Is there a tool to (easily) turn technical wri...
I've noticed a lot of platforms (blogs and such) list how long they estimate for a specific essay/post/article to take for the average reader. How is this calculated? I always read fast, so I c...
I like this question! There are a lot of marketing type posts if you google "blog checklist," but I found a few useful references. Here's one that has a lot more on the keeping-your-content-focus...
