@Angela458
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: Re: Copyright infringement on spelling of invented names? Years ago I invented a name for a kingdom/country in my YA fantasy novel, which I am on the verge of self-publishing. At random, I discovered
As the answer by @D . A. Hosek said, single words and short phrases are not protected by copyright. However, if a number of names were all duplicated, particularly if there were also other similarities, ther might be an argument that the newer work was a derivative work and thus an infringement of copyright. This is a fact-based determination, but a single duplicated name is very unlikely to cause a work to be considered derivative.
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: Re: What are the license/legal requirements to write a guidebook about a specific product? As the title says. I'm writing guide and reference books (Amazon short-reads) aimed at people who aren't
This is more of a legal issue than a writing issue, and I will answer it as such. (I don't have the rep ow Writing SE to migrate thisto Law SE.here I actually have higher rep.)
There are two main kinds of Intellectual property (IP) that might be relevant in writing such a guide: Trademark and Copyright.
Trademark Protection
A Trademark protects against the use of an identifying word, phrase, design, logo or symbol in the course of advertising or trade by someone who is not the trademark holder without permission from the holder. Specifically, one may **not-- use a trademark to make it appear that goods or services are produced, authorized, or endorsed by the trademark holder. One may not use or imitate a trademark in such a way as to confuse consumers or potential consumers about the source of a product or service. If, for example, you use an apple logo on a computer product. and you are not Apple Inc, nor have permission from them, you may well have committed infringement. Infringers may be sued, and significant damages recovered.
There are, however, some key limits to trademark protection.
Nominative use
Nominative use, also known as "nominative fair use" in the US, Is the use of a trademark to identify the product or service being referred to. It is not an infringement to use a trademark to refer to another's goods or services, provided that consumer confusion does not occur.
Specifically, 15 U.S.C. 1125 (Section 43 of the Lanham Act) (Paragraph (c)(3)) provides that the following are not* infringements:
(A) Any fair use, including a nominative or descriptive fair use, or facilitation of such fair use, of a famous mark by another person other than as a designation of source for the person's own goods or services, including …
(i) advertising or promotion that permits consumers to compare goods or services; or (ii) identifying and parodying, criticizing, or commenting upon the famous mark owner or the goods or services of the famous mark owner. (B) All forms of news reporting and news commentary. (C) Any noncommercial use of a mark.
In the US court case New Kids on the Block v. News Am. Pub., Inc., 971 F.2d 302 (9th Cir. 1992) the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that
a commercial user is entitled to a nominative fair use defense provided he meets the following three requirements: First, the product or service in question must be one not readily identifiable without use of the trademark; second, only so much of the mark or marks may be used as is reasonably necessary to identify the product or service; [FN7] and third, the user must do nothing that would, in conjunction with the mark, suggest sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder.
The footnote (#7) says:
Thus, a soft drink competitor would be entitled to compare its product to Coca-Cola or Coke, but would not be entitled to use Coca-Cola's distinctive lettering.
Thus the general rule that Logos don't constitute nominative use. This limitation on nominative use may be different outside the US.
Compatibility
A specific form of nominative use is using the trademarked name of a product to show that the product being advertised or sold is compatible with the referenced product.
WonderBatteries can be used with BrandX tools.
Such a statement may be made without permission of the trademark holder on "BrandX".
Comparative advertising
A claim such as:
Brand A provides a better user interface than BrandX.
May be made while marketing BrandA and is not an infringement of tge trademark on "BrandX", provided that it is made clear that BrandA is not supported or endorsed by BrandX.
Use Not in Trade
A publication, such as a user's guide, or a third-party (independent) review, which is not selling or advertising a product, May use trademarks to refer to the products that they represent without infringing those marks, because trademarks only protect against the use of the marks "in trade". This is rather like nominative use, but is broader. If the person using the mark is no0t selling or advertising anything, there is no protection at all, and graphic marks may be used as well as mere names. So a Book "All about Windows 10" could only be advertised with the name "Windows 10", but the book itself could make use of the windows or Microsoft logos, provided that trhe book is not itself advertising any product or service.
US First admewndment limitations on Protection
In Matal v. Tam, The IS Supreme Court ruled that trademark protection, as a restriction o0n speexh and writing, is limited by the uS First Amendment. This means that many tr4aditional "dilution" and "tarnishment" actions will no longer stand up under US law. See sources cited in What is trademark tarnishment or dilution under US law?. Such limits apply only under US law.
Copyright Protection
The author of a guidebook must also be concerned with copyright protection. Short phrases, such as titles of books, and the names and slogans of products, are not protected by copyright at all.
Passages of significant length, however, are generally subject to copyright protection. Facts and ideas are not protected, but the language used to express facts annd ideas often is protected. Unless permission has been secured, an author may not copy extensively from a source, nor closely paraphrase the source. The author must rewrite in original language, although the ideas my be taken from a source or sources.
Fair Use or Fair Dealing
Limitedf quotations, which should normally be clearly marked as quotations, and clearly attributed to their authors, may be used without permission under the concepts of Fair Use (in the US) or Fair dealing (in several Commonwealth and European countries). The exact scope of these exceptions to copyright protection is different in different countries, and is highly fact-based, so that there is no clear formula which will mark out legitimate fair use from infringement. Short quotes, clearly attributed, which would not substitute for the source nor harm the market for the source are likely to be considered as fair use or fair dealing.
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: Re: Can I use they/them pronouns in a medieval style fantasy novel? I'm writing a book and I'd really love to include a person with they/them pronouns. However, the novel takes place in a sort
Several answers say or imply that the use of "they" to mean a single person of unspecified sex is a recent development in English. This is not true -- that usage dates to the 1300s.Some very well known and well thought of writers used it, including Shakespeare. However it was not in fashion during the 19th C nor most of the 20th, so it will seem "new" to many readers.
Many languages other than English did have a way to refer to a person of unspecified sex. (Some are Classic Greek, Classic Latin, Armenian, Kurdish, Persian, Turkish, and Mandarin Chinese). If such a language is being spoken at the time/place of your story "they" might be a reasonable translation. Some explanation of this might be a good idea (particularly if non-gender pronouns are used sometimes but not always), provided it can be worked in without breaking the flow. Perhaps a character will comment on the usage of another character and what it means.
If your work uses an invented language, then you are free to devise its grammar at will. Many fantasies have followed Tolkien in doing this, but it is not always a good idea for those less skilled with language than he was. Or only a few words of th "actual" language may be given.
Note that a person refereed to by a non-gendered pronoun need not be a person of non-binary orientation. Non-gendered pronouns were often used mrely to avoid being specific when not needed.
Some ancient societies were much more tolerant of non-heterosexual people and actions than others, including classic Greek society. If your work is set in something very close to a historical society, you may want to look at the practice then and there, The more it is its own invented thing, the more you are free to design it yourself.
In short you can handle this in any of several ways. But you may want to explain what the usage meant in your society, if it is significant, or would be distracting. How major a point you make of this depends on what you are trying to say.
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: Re: How do I punctuate a slogan? I have the following slogan: I sell, I build I want to make sure it's clear and concise. I did not add a period, because I know it's not a full sentence. However,
Think of slogans as upside-down kanji tattooed on a non-Japanese-speaking person's shoulder blade: decorative, rather than an attempt to convey meaningful information. Whether a slogan should obey the rules of grammar or make sense are secondary concerns to how it looks on a billboard. Not convinced? Here are some examples found in the wild:
McDonald's slogan: "i'm lovin' it"
Notice how 'I' is not capitalized. It's a deliberate choice made by the company to drive home they are a fast food chain and you don't have to dress up to eat there.
Apple's 'think different'
As written this is a command to ponder the abstract concept of 'different' rather than a command to change your mindset and consider purchasing one of their products. (The latter would read 'think differently,' but that adds two characters and long words aren't sleek.)
Fiat's "You are, we car"
I love this slogan. It's so bad. Need I point out 'car' isn't a verb? Why they chose it, no idea. Maybe the slogan rhymes if you pronounce 'are' as 'ar?'
In conclusion, don't worry over grammatical correctness. Worry over whether inclusion of a period makes your company look stuffy or if changing the font color from lime green to hot pink makes it harder to see when printed on a promotional T-shirt.
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: Re: When vs. If vs. In situation where An excerpt from Microsoft Writing Style Guide, which I'm trying to follow: Use if to express a condition, use whether to express uncertainty, and use when
The sentence construction starting with 'if' is correct, both per the style guide and the conventions of 'natural' English. Bullet point #2 shows why. 'Otherwise' implies an alternative course of action is possible, i.e. the first bullet point expresses a condition. Your solution communicates the same information to the reader and is also correct.
In 'natural' English, 'when' sets an expectation considered inevitable:
And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight...
The taking of atoms to form new lives isn't optional. It will happen at some unspecified point in the future. Ergo, 'when' is used.
In your example, if the user has no other choice than to use key-value pairs, you'd start the sentence with 'when' (and you'd also cut the second bullet point.)
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: Re: How do I write "fantasy counterpart cultures" without being accused of cultural appropriation? In my book series, the various planets of the galaxy are inhabited by different cultures, most of
I think the better question is "what is culture?". The norms, songs, literature, food, clothing, forms of government, and philosophy of a people stem from their common history, their environment, and their struggles. At the inception of any given collection of people, there is no culture, unless they, as a nation, are derived from a previous, ancestral, nation.
Further, learning from others how to navigate through the trying times or adapt to new environments, is not appropriation, it's intelligence. If it were appropriation and that were somehow not fashionable, or in some way prohibited, none but the original people would have the wheel.
The real point is don't mock people. Don't attempt to reduce their culture to a caricature. If the fictional peoples in your story have similar traits and cultures to actual nations, alluding to how they arrived at their cultural norms should suffice.
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: Re: Avoiding tenses problems I think I'm facing many problems concerning the use of tense when I write things..so is there any app or website that can check my mistakes and correct them?
Correct them, no. But a tool like AutoCrit can highlight all verbs written in a specific tense. I've never actually used this tool before so I can't speak to its quality, but you might find it helpful.
Keep in mind no fancy proofreading program actually understands your writing. While a program might detect a verb's tense, it can't detect whether your slip into past perfect is an accident or an intentional flashback to a past event.
If you need to brush up on verb tenses, I can recommend this web site.
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: Re: When writing science fiction or horror, how to prevent the villain from becoming less scary as they are fleshed out? I'm trying to write a horror short story about a shape-shifter, but I have
I have read It. I've watched Terminator 2. (Not familiar with The Thing.) I think I see the difference which makes one horror and the other sci fi.
Horror Is Inherently Arbitrary
The killer clown (ancient god-spider, whatever, etc...) in It is malevolent, delights in making victims miserable, and will go after anyone who is vulnerable and unfortunate enough to catch its attention. You could be next. For no good reason. And there's not really anything you can do about it.
The shapeshifting murder-robot from the future in Terminator 2 will incidentally kill bystanders for convenience, if they are in the way - but it will not go out of its way to harm anyone who is not directly connected with its mission. Sure, the ultimate outcome of its success will be the eventual extinction of humanity (or that's the plan). But it is neither fundamentally malevolent, nor unpredictable. Unless you're too slow to get out of the way, or unless you are personally the fated savior of mankind, there's no immediate threat to you.
Horror is very often supernatural, and this is not a coincidence. Part of horror is the unpredictable, the unknowable, which meshes well with supernatural themes. There is also the element of the irresistible - and if there was no fighting chance, no robot protector etc, then Terminator 2 would have been more of a horror film; desperately running, but merely delaying the inevitable, and not even being sure what face your doom will wear when it finally catches you. Incidentally, you talk about wanting to remove from your story the element of inevitability; not having to run forever, at least until the pursuing doom catches up. This just strips away another layer of the potential horror.
In general, if there is some sense to the source of the horror, if you can engage your reason and try to come to a solution or an understanding, if there is a way to understand or even overcome, then of course the horror dissipates. Now you've reduced your thing to a problem to be solved. When we know what is stalking us, out in the darkness, we can think, lay a trap, build a wall. Something. Horror is a feeling, not a thought at all. When our fear is tied up with the dark itself, something we cannot keep out, something we do not or cannot understand or reason about or anticipate and avoid... Only then it is truly horror.
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: Re: Is it true that the need for marketing/promoting one's books is a "myth"? For indie fiction authors, is it true that if one simply writes and publishes regularly, one will begin to see sales
I have self-published more than one novel (available on a major online outlet!). I engaged in no marketing.
It's been several years.
I have sold 0 copies.
Maybe my writing is terrible (but how would anyone know?), or maybe my lack of cover art damned the attempt...
Or maybe if no one knows your work exists, nobody will buy it?
"Marketing" primarily is making people aware that your work exists. You can have a pile of great novels (or better mousetraps) heaped up in you living room, but nobody who hasn't heard they are there will ever come to purchase them.
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: Re: Is alliteration distracting and not very valuable/interesting for the reader? I tend to use alliteration a lot. This is an example from a story I'm writing: "Let me get this straight," Aru
Avoid Accidental Alliteration.
So what if it is not accidental? What if every constant starts with an F in a phrase?
Feeling frustratingly frosty after failed fornication. (five Fs)
Frustrated after failed fornication. (rule of three)
Maximum puppy. Now the reader definitely notices it. Does it stand up to scrutiny?
And does it stand out? If you use a lot of alliteration, maybe the reader is habituated to it.
And whose POV are we in? Are we in deep? Then you can blame the character for the alliteration. Does this character commonly play with words or use alliteration. Why? How does this fit with their personality?
So it absolutely ain't always avoid alliteration. It depends on the context.
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: Re: Is it permissible to have a non-linear narrative in a three act structure? Would I be breaking any rules, literary conventions or be doing something that is wrong or redundant as a narrative
You wouldn't be breaking any rules because none exist. The rules are a bundle of advice at best, and not all advice is equally useful.
Yes, you can have a non-linear narrative in a three act structure. Take this outline for example:
(1) A man accused of murder appears in court.
(2) He reflects on his relationship with the victim and the events leading up to the murder.
(3) The judge sentences him to 20 years in prison.
Sentence #2 takes place before sentences 1 and 3, yet they all still map to the three acts of setup, conflict and resolution.
The three-act structure controls the flow of dramatic tension: low at the start, high at the climax, then low again at the denouement. If a chronological telling of events would negatively impact that tension, a non-linear narrative could be just the thing you need.
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: Re: Chapters in my thriller before the main threat comes in I'm writing a thriller about some people that have their whole world change around them. I won't bog this question down with lengthy
Will this drive readers away?
Yes and no. It all depends on your implementation, and you have to thread a needle.
At the very start of your story the reader doesn't know or care for your characters yet. It's only logical to use the first few chapters to accomplish this goal. What's your character's job? In what sort of place does the character live, and with whom? Family? Alone? With roommates? What's the character's natural response to seeing a kitten stuck in a tree?
This is what fantasy writers call the 'normal world.' However, the 'normal world' is a part of all genres. The only distinction is length. If I write a story about a humble kwama egg farmer of House Hlaalu from Balmora, I'd need to explain all three of those things to the reader early on and the opening chapters would naturally be longer. Books set in the real world can be shorter in that regard because the real world is already familiar.
Though it's necessary to have an introduction, you're completely right in that the opening chapters should under no circumstance be boring. If you want an agent to delete your manuscript after reading one sentence, start the story with the MC waking up and going through a morning routine.
Action and intrigue do indeed build excitement, but it's possible to go wrong. Every sentence you write should do one of three things: advance the plot, show something new about a character's personality, or relay crucial information necessary to understand the story. Anything else is filler, and readers will recognize it as such.
If your MC is a cop and the first scene shows him chasing and failing to catch a jewel thief, that jewel thief better show up later again in the story. Alternatively, if the jewel thief is entirely unrelated to the larger plot, the scene could be used to show the cop is out of shape, cares more about free donut privileges than doing his job, and thinks solving crimes is beneath his station. If you have a similar scene to this elsewhere in the opening, you can safely delete it.
I suggest to look at your early scenes with a critical eye. Do they serve one of the three purposes? If not, can they be edited so they do?
Don't write spectacle for its own sake. Firework shows are pretty spectacular, but pretty much nobody who records a show watches it back later.
If this is a bad idea by itself could a prologue with future events make it better?
It makes the problem worse. If I read an awesome prologue and the next chapters are filler, I'm going to be disappointed and stop reading before the story catches up with the promised events.
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: Re: Alternatives for the over use of her and she in action scenes I am really struggling to try and cut out repetitive use of the word 'her' and 'she' in action scenes while still trying to
One stylistic device is to use sentence fragments using the present participle. Although sentence fragments are not normally accepted in formal writing, they are frequently used in fiction. You just want to be sure that you use them deliberately, knowing what you're doing, rather than using them by mistake.
For instance, I'll paraphrase one of the paragraphs used in the question, highlighting the changes:
Eyes falling on a pale shape obscured among the shadows. A swollen face, lips thick, opened. Brown eyes stared from sunken sockets. Lifeless. Half of the neck was missing. The swollen corpse was a girl. Limbs twisted unnaturally, horribly. A sound tore up from deep in Abby’s guts, between a scream and a sob. Backing away. Tripping as her foot snared on something cold. Falling face down, dazed, not needing to look up to know what she had tripped on. A portion of the corps that had been separated from the rest of the body? Another corps?
Since the surrounding style is already short and choppy, and sentence fragments already used, this style is a good fit. I didn't eliminate every pronoun, but most of them.
Whether it's appropriate, or where it becomes too much artifice at the expense of simply trying to eliminate pronouns (which many people do continue to use), is subjective. I wouldn't personally recommend using it throughout the entire narrative, but in those parts where a series (or almost blur) of visual impressions is being conveyed.
One author I know of who did something like this—using sentence fragments—was Roger Zelazny. It was used as a kind of stream of consciousness in long descriptions of observations that had a kind of dream-like quality to them.
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: Re: Will people always compare a magic school idea to Harry Potter? My story includes a magic school wherein students aged 12 learn magic. The sorting Is based on abilities, Meaning that if a student
There may come a time when people no longer think "Harry Potter" when they see a magical school story. But this probably isn't helpful to you.
Over a hundred years ago, Oliver Wendel Holmes Sr., poet, lecturer, essayist, doctor (and eventually the father of the famous supreme court justice) wrote a book called "Elsie Venner", with the titular character having a dangerous, snakelike personality because her mother had been bitten by a rattlesnake while pregnant with her. This conceit was introduced as a way to discuss original sin, but there's something very evocative about the idea of someone gaining the attributes of an animal from a "magic" bite. This was once a well-known book.
I'll give about fifty-fifty odds that you already thought of Spiderman. Now everyone knows about Spiderman, and basically no one has heard of Elsie Venner.
Do you want Magical School stories to not be compared to Harry Potter anymore? Just write the "Spiderman" of the magical school genre, and if people haven't already forgotten Elsie Venner, er, Harry Potter, they just might. Or rather, more likely, someone else will write "Clavius Melodram Finds His Way", or whatever, and you'll go from your stories being compared to Harry Potter to being compared to Clavius Melodram.
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: Re: How to change color of all edits to red in word? I dont want to switch back to red each time I make an edit I am editing an existing doc, I want to make all my edit as red (or any
The method depends on which version of Microsoft Word you use, but what you want to do is find the Advanced Track Changes Options menu. In it you can set your default color, but note other people who open your file will not necessarily see the same. For them the color is still chosen at random. Good to keep that in mind.
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: Re: Asking about writing techniques Could you please help me..I have ideas of writings and stories, but..when I come to start writing, I can't find what I need to write the plot and that's leads
A useful classification for ideas is their level of detail. Depending on which class best describes your ideas, some methods to formulate a story might come more naturally to you than others.
On one end of the spectrum exist 'big picture' ideas that encompass your entire story but only in broad strokes. If you can prepend "the story is about" to the idea, it probably is part of this class. A few concrete examples:
A man who searches for his wife in an abandoned holiday town after receiving a letter, three years after her death
A young girl who sues her parents for forcing her to donate a kidney to her dying sister
A coke-snorting hacker who travels into outer space to stop two AIs from merging and becoming sentient
'Big picture' ideas can be turned into full stories by adding layers of detail. Take your one-sentence summary and expand it into a hundred words. Paint broad strokes; now's not the time to describe the protagonist's difficult childhood. Also, don't be afraid to rewrite those hundred words until you have something you like.
The next stage is to divide your story into three acts, and from there, to start work on an outline. This technique is called the snowflake method, and I encourage you to read the linked article because it goes into much deeper detail.
On the other end of the spectrum exist fragmented ideas. Perhaps for characters, items, locations, half the set-up for a scene that looks cool in your head. Each a puzzle piece, though not all necessarily from the same set. Examples:
Protagonist befriends a talking cat (character)
Temple on the moon built by ancient Egyptians (location)
Character goes through experimental chemotherapy and becomes violently ill (scene)
If you have a large number of these ideas, your job is to find out how they piece together, if at all. Write each idea on a Post-It. Rearrange your Post-Its in groups that make the most sense to you. See if a possible narrative begins to form. For instance, using bullet points #1 and #2 :
On a school trip to the British Museum, Lydia meets a talking black cat who claims to be a reincarnation of the Egyptian goddess Bastet. Bastet convinces her to board a NASA rocket, and they travel to the moon to reclaim her lost temple.
The emerging narrative need not and will not be perfect. You'll have many questions. Why does Bastet want her temple back? Why is Lydia the only person who can help? How does an eleven-year-old travel from Britain to the US, alone, sneak onto a rocket ship unseen, and survive the massive g-forces involved in lift-off? Write all questions down in a notebook and answer them. When answering one question creates another, answer it as well until none remain. What remains is a document with all the facts you need to write an outline.
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: Re: What name should I use? I am writing about my local airport which has had two other names which name should I use through out the writing about it? An example is JFK in New York was originally
When you're writing, the goal is to say something. Preferably, more than one something:
When discussing a real-world place, you (usually) want the reader to know what place you're talking about. If your primary concern is to communicate something about the place, obviously you should use the name readers are most likely to be familiar with.
When a character in your story is describing a place (or anything or anyone else), how that character chooses to do the describing says something about that character. If your character refers to JFK Airport as "Idlewild", that tells you something about the character - maybe that the character has not changed to get with the times, or perhaps that there is another (minor) JFK Airport somewhere that might be conflated... And if the character always refers to it as "John F. Kennedy Airport", without abbreviation, that says something else again.
When a narrator talks about a place in a particular way, it can say something about the story. If the narrator persistently refers to the land which JFK Airport happens to be built on by some fantasy name, this can signal what kind of story is being told - like an urban fantasy where locations have ancient magical significance. On the other hand, a story denouncing European colonization might try to use old Native American names for places in or around New York.
Whatever name or word choice you make can communicate one or more things to the reader, depending on what name you choose, as well as on "who" is saying whatever is being said.
Without knowing your intentions, your characters, and the location and history of the location, it's impossible to give a specific recommendation. But you can examine your possible choices through all of the above-discussed lenses.
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: Re: How do I blur the line between dream and reality? I intend to write a science fantasy where dream world plays as important role as reality. The dream world stated has quite a distinct feel
A situation is as real as the characters take it to be
In Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail, there's a scene where Arthur battles "the black knight," who will not let him pass. After each brief bout of fighting, the black knight has had another limb chopped off. The situation of battling with swords is plausible in the setting. The bloody consequences are not entirely unbelievable. The reason the scene is silly rather than horrifying (besides the corny special effects), is the character reactions.
The black knight is utterly undeterred by having limbs hacked off, showing exactly the same confidence with just one leg as he did with two arms, two legs, and a sword. (He's ready to call it a draw, but not to concede, after he has neither arms nor legs.) Arthur, at the same time, goes from confident, to disbelieving, to mildly annoyed. His reactions, while less absurd, are still not entirely realistic to the horror that a real exercise of hacking arms and legs off would entail.
If your characters experience pain and fear, the scene is real
A little bunny jumps up and bites through someone's neck? Hilarious!
Unless that was your wife of 17 years, the mother of your children and your partner in life, and she really just fell down dead in a mess of her own gore. Then it's not funny at all.
People can be terrified of clowns; there's a fine line between absurdity and terror. Likewise with the other aspects of human experience; it is the realness of the feelings that makes something real. Love and hatred, terror, confidence, hunger... If you want the reader to believe the reality of a dream, you just have to convince the reader that your characters feel it, however absurd the events themselves are.
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: Re: How do you write long, nonconvoluted sentences? Sometimes, when I show others a long sentence I have written, I am told it is convoluted due to the chaining of dependent clauses. Is there a
Sentence rewritten to be convoluted:
"Self-absorbtion could be the real explanation, as I may have mentioned before, regarding certain people's perception of their personal quality in the area of empathy, specifically their supposed superiority in that regard."
Original sentence:
"I have probably mentioned this before, but if you think you are unusually empathetic, the chances are that you are actually fairly bad at empathy, but are too self-absorbed to notice."
Remarks:
It is not the length of a sentence (or paragraph, chapter, etc...) which makes it convoluted. Rather, it's in the flow of the ideas. A sentence will be more difficult to understand if the reader must hold several supporting ideas, or even a conclusion, before the author has delivered the subject being commented on. A logical, linear progression of remarks is easier to follow.
Or, to propose a metaphor, if you start building a building from the roof to the floor, you have to hold everything in suspension until the foundation is put in.
Some ideas, admittedly, are not linear concepts, and finding a logical order of presentation can be challenging, or even impossible. But in most cases, it is possible.
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: Re: How do I write LGBTQ+ characters for a romance story, as a non-LGBTQ+ person, without using potentially offensive stereotypes So today, some of my friends challenged me to write a short story
I would say to leverage your LGBT friends for feedback. If you have a problem with a stereotype, it might be embarrassing for you if it gets pointed out, or if you accidentally offend someone with it, but it is much better to get it out and correct it than to secretly hold it and not even realize what your own prejudices are.
If you have have a bunch of LGBT friends then ask for their help. Ask them to review your work, to point out the flaws and prejudices. If you don't have enough friends to get a good sense of it, or you aren't getting the honest, critical feedback you need then go find some additional LGBT friends. There's an entire community out there to engage. Take part in some pride events, get to know people!
The other thing is to try to remain humble and open for critique. You are going to inevitably bruise some feelings with any topic if you're writing something honest. My suggestions above only goes so far. Don't be lulled into thinking your stereotypes are just gone because you have some friends that approved of your portrayals.
It is a struggle, but it is one that worth struggling with.
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: Re: When writing in third person perspective, how do you differentiate the 'she' or the 'he' from the other 'he's and 'she's? Every time I write and read the 'she's and the 'he's especially in
It can often help to clearly separate who you're talking about. If you have different genders in conversation, it's easier, but you'll just have to find another separator for other situations. Like this:
Woman_1 said something.
Woman_2 thought about it, tapped her fingers and the side of her arm, and answered.
"But it's not like this, it's like that!"
"I feel it's like this, though"
She looked at her in deep thought.
Who looked at who in thought? It's simple - you switch the initiative every line. Woman_1 was doing things in lines 1, 3, and 5, while Woman_2 was doing things in lines 2 and 4. Therefore, It's Woman_1 looking at Woman_2, because it's her turn to do something.
Of course, if a sequence gets longer, then you'll have to restate names, or identifiers. ("The taller woman answered..." - which of course requires the reader to know whose taller. You'll generally have better differences than length, though.)
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: Re: Why are one-word titles so dominant in books, film, and games? Something I talk about with friends when planning and sharing our projects & media we like is titles - and specifically my
They are inviting comparisons with later works. "Twilight-type vampires" or "Post-Memento sf" are more likely to become a thing than with longer titles.
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: Re: Maintaining distance I am working on a novel inspired by the Shahnameh - a Persian epic poem by Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi. The Shahnameh (the title means "The Book of Kings") is structured as a
Distance is carving off the incidental details
It's not the size of the details, but their relevance to the story. In Cinderella, it matters that she scrubbed floors, and that her sisters were ugly. In Arthurian legend, it mattered that Uther had a thing for Igraine. It matters significantly less whether Cinderella liked raspberries, or whether Uther was normally a standup guy who would leave someone else's wife alone.
What survives multiple retellings is the essence
I would suggest that fairy tales are some of the best illustrations of "distant" storytelling. In fairy tales, the youngest son only has brothers because they cause him problems in the story, or because they explain why he had to go seek his fortune, etc. Cinderella has stepsisters because her mother has to have a reason to bestow her affections somewhere else.
"But all stories are like that. Chekhov's gun. Etc..."
Sure. But the more distant the story, the less dressing up there is with fine detail. In Solzhenitsyn's 1914, the rifles are heavy, and the ammunition cases have carrying straps, and soldiers have to reload, and when they're recklessly retreating they throw away their heavy ammunition cases, and later their rifles. In Peter and the Wolf, the hunters have guns.
But if part of the story is about running out of ammunition, then you would mention it.
Breadcrumbs are important in Hansel and Gretel. In many fairy tales, it's not really mentioned what people ate. Distance reduces to the essence.
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: What are the rules for punctuating a conversation? Are there hard and fast rules for characters speaking to each other? As far as quotations, or without them? Are they hinged inside a paragraph
Are there hard and fast rules for characters speaking to each other? As far as quotations, or without them? Are they hinged inside a paragraph or ruled to only be in a talking string?
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: Re: Subverting the emotional woman and stoic man trope In my post-apocalyptic story, the split of male and female main/supporting characters is 50/50. The girls and women in the story, Eris, Marina,
Are you asking yourself the right question?
Consider this a frame challenge.
I don't think you should put this much emphasis on "Is it good to subvert this trope?"
What I think you should be asking is "Are each of these characters a full character in their own right, or just an extension of (a subversion of) a trope?"
I think that if your characters - each independently - are worth their screentime, are who they are for a reason, and are plot-relevant enough for inclusion. and they have their own character development, then you don't need to worry to much about subverting a trope by accident or the meta-consequences thereof.
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: Re: Resolving moral conflict Conflict is one of the most important things in driving a story. I’ve been working on my particular story for a while now, and I finally seem to have worked out
How do I resolve conflict if none of the options seem satisfying or correct?
The heart of this sentence is the word 'seem', which suggests ambiguity. Your story most certainly can be resolved in a satisfying way, and you might be closer to the solution than you think.
Let's ignore for now the possibility that there is a third way of resolving the conflict. Either A kills B and breaks his vow, or A keeps his vow and B walks. No other options exist.
Say we canonize the former resolution; the one that has your personal preference. When A and B enter the metaphorical coliseum and unfurl their switchblades, A knows there's no turning back. In addition to a struggle between him and his foe, there's now a second struggle going on. A versus himself, or rather, his will to survive versus his will to stick to his morals. You've effectively added an extra layer of conflict to the story. That's not bad, it's interesting.
Here's the climax. A shivs B, who crumples into a ball and bleeds to death. The physical conflict is over, but the mental one still burns bright. How is A going to react? Maybe he hates himself for breaking his vow and drowns himself in the nearest river, thinking the world is better off with one fewer monster. Maybe he comes to accept that doing the right thing isn't as easy as merely wishing to do right. I'm sure there are plenty more reactions to come up with, and that you know your story better than I do. So, pick one.
Is the climax's resolution going to mess with that wonderful foreshadowing in chapter 2, and is it going to shoot a hole in B's backstory? Do I need to rewrite, or even cut those things? The answer, unfortunately, is yes.
I'm a big proponent of outlining one's story. I like to pretend I know where my story is going at all times. But that's all it is. Pretend. When the first draft is done the story will have some warts that need to be cut in the second draft. Doing so will make new warts. But they're smaller, and not so numerous. And after enough revisions, they disappear.
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: Re: Will changing a protagonist into an antagonist alienate readers? It's really hard for me to write questions here without giving a complete info dump on my story. Every time I start to explain
I think your protagonist and antagonist have a complex and very interesting relationship; could you have the original antagonist confront the protagonist at the end and participate in her redemption?
Teaming up to defeat the EVIL ORGANIZATION could be a part of the motivation, but the obsession and history between those two is enough to build a captivating story on.
This mixing of good and evil has hundreds of examples both classical and modern. You're not being weird, you're playing on storytelling expectations to keep it interesting.
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: Re: Don't look at what I did there This question is about hiding from the reader the fact that I am skipping some steps. Worse, perhaps, I don't want to show them, and I may have no clue or
Another option would be to let your characters talk about the actions in the missing time without letting the reader know.
You will never believe how I got out of there!
and then end of story or chapter. No explanation for the reader.
I like that this is quite immersive. If you see Mary running out of a building and sceaming for help you don't think "Hmh, how did she get out of that building?", you think "Holy shit, what's happening?", "I have to help her!" or "Are there evil men following her? Am I in danger now as well?"
I have to admit you can only do this in a peaceful environment after the action and the climax is over. It really depends on the story.
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: Do I need to change the title of my book because it is similar to the Transformers Universe? I used the name Primus and Primes for my book and these are from the transformers universe. My
I used the name Primus and Primes for my book and these are from the transformers universe. My concept is totally different. Is this a copyright infringement?
I introduced a secret society named "The Primus" in my book. In the transformers universe, Primus is the entity that created Autobots.
In my book I also included that the Prime is the superior rank in the secret society of Primus.
Do I need to change the names before publication?
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: How to foreshadow to avoid a 'deus ex machina'-construction The plot in my story revolves around a certain ability of the MC that is normally not available, unless the circumstances are just
The plot in my story revolves around a certain ability of the MC that is normally not available, unless the circumstances are just right. Therefore, it is not mentioned in the story as a solution to the MC's problem, as the ability is considered to be something from a legend and not really an option.
I want to avoid to just throw the existence of said ability into the climax of the story as a deus ex machina. However, it also makes no sense to talk about it extensively beforehand due to above reasons. I'm also afraid that talking too much about it will give away the climax to the reader.
How do I foreshadow the existence of this ability effectively without telling too much or too little? Will an anecdote or a story 'from legend' be what I'm looking for? When do I talk about it?
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