@Caterina108
Last seen: Mon 17 May, 2021
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: Giving journeys a sense of scale Journeying is a central part of my novel. However, it gets really boring really quickly to describe them walking through the same landscape for a few weeks.
Journeying is a central part of my novel. However, it gets really boring really quickly to describe them walking through the same landscape for a few weeks. I want to skip to the parts that are interesting to keep readers engaged, but I am afraid this will limit the sense of scale of that journey. It's difficult to find a middle ground between portraying days of journeying in the cold harsh weather and then their relief when they reach a village. How do I manage to skip over most of the journeying while still impressing the general feeling of that journey?
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: How can I find a good idea for a dragon-battle scene? First of all, hello! I really, really, really do want to have an answer for my question. I’ve been writing a novel about dragons, but
First of all, hello!
I really, really, really do want to have an answer for my question. I’ve been writing a novel about dragons, but I can’t finish it. I’m just at loss of words (and ideas).
To summarize the plot, it’s about a young adult, Luther, who obtains a female dragon that he’s going to name Chance as a pet. He’ll receive an invitation from a big community named the League which will ask him to join it because its members truly need new and young dragon Riders. He’s forced to, and in this League, he discovers the existence of other dragons and a lot of people having different ranks. It goes from Apprentice to Master, passing by Rider, Healer, Whisperer, and eventually Trainer. There’s a lot to explain about that, so I’ll avoid it because it isn’t the major problem.
At the end of the story, the “big bad villain†shows up, being a huge, enormous, giant dragon named Nameless (yes, I used adjectives that meant the same thing three times, and yes, his name is Nameless), commanded by a human called Preston. It’s him who’s the big problem because Nameless obeys him, and if he dies, then the dragon won’t have any order to listen to and will stop causing trouble to everyone; that’s the League’s idea. However, it’s a bit more complicated to kill Preston since he’s on the dragon’s back.
What you don’t know for now is that Luther had a pretty big quarrel between some of the League’s Masters, which led him to get suspended of his duty as a Rider. His equipment for riding Chance were taken away from him and his dragon was imprisoned to prevent him from riding her. Luther gets into a so-called depression because he thinks everything is falling apart, but that’s when one of his friends shows up and they have a discussion and, well, a lot of things happen, until finally, Luther starts to boil with courage (and rage) and decides to help the League defeat the enemy.
So, back to Preston and Nameless... Everyone is surprised when they see Luther flying towards them on Chance’s back, his equipment on him, and well, he becomes the hero of the day when he fights Nameless. At the end, he and his dragon die beside each other.
That’s where I’m stuck. I thought about many ideas, each one not fitting my ideal, until finally, I watched the movie How To Train Your Dragon. Right, I know it’s completely out of context for you, but actually, this movie is my inspiration. The battle at the final scene is incredible... Someone could watch it for me, please? It’s great. I mean, look at the script. To resume it: Hiccup saves Astrid with Toothless, enrages the Green Death, the three go flying up to the dark clouds high above, Toothless manages to enrage his opponent more, he and Hiccup fall down, the Night Fury spits out his strange blue-and-purple fireball into the Green Death’s mouth, its body ignites and explodes from the inside, Hiccup gets thrown off Toothless’s back when the Green Death’s tail hits them, and Toothless saves him from the fire.
Aye aye. That’s all. What I had to say (to stop make you wait for my problem) is that I can’t figure out how to imagine a scene worthy of this one. I don’t mean to recreate something like this, but I just want to take the reader away, make him see the fire and the tension inside everyone’s eyes. I want them to be afraid for my characters. However, I just can’t find an epic scene in my head. I can only see my characters instead of HTTYD’s because they fit. Please, someone has an idea for an epic scene? I’m not asking to give me every detail you can imagine, just some beautiful moments showing friendship (Even though you don’t have a clear view on Luther’s and Chance’s friendship, like if Luther steals her food, is she going to kill him or give him a last chance?) or a fighting spirit or anything else that could be an inspiration for the battle.
I hope I explained myself clearly. If not, please, ask me anything you’d want to know.
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: In a book with multiple co-authors, how do you clarify who is "talking" when? This is in the non-fiction space. I'm writing a book with a colleague. Throughout the book, there are times when
This is in the non-fiction space. I'm writing a book with a colleague. Throughout the book, there are times when we refer to individual experiences; for example, in one place I talk about a class that I teach.
What is the best/most accepted way to make that clear in the writing? What I have right now is (pretending our names are Alice and Bob)...
"For example, I (Alice) teach a class on competitive underwater basketweaving. When I teach that class, I start with basketweaving, then move it underwater."
The only alternatives I can think of would be..
"For example, Alice teaches a class on competitive underwater basketweaving. When she teaches that class, she starts with basketweaving, then moves it underwater."
Or...
"For example, Alice teaches a class on competitive underwater basketweaving. When I teach that class, I start with basketweaving, then I move it underwater."
The first feels clunky because of the parenthetical aside to clarify who the speaker is at that moment (also, our publisher didn't like this way of writing it). The second feels clunky because it results in me referring to myself in third person for a while. The third feels clunky because it shifts between third-person and first-person.
What's the best way to accomplish this? (And by 'best' way, I mean most accepted: if one of the ways that feels clunky to me is the accepted way, that's fine by me, I just want to follow convention)
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: Re: Should foreign personal titles be capitalized in English text? Should foreign language personal titles be capitalized in English fiction text? E.g. "How are you, Señor Rojas?" Do we follow
All honorifics or personal titles are capitalized in English as part of the name, whether they are "foreign" or not:
How are you, Mr. Johnson?
Look, here comes Colonel Mustard!
Her marriage is so tragic, she reminds me of Madame Bovary.
He bears a striking resemblance to Czar Nikolas.
In Spanish "señor" is not capitalized, but the style of the vast majority of publications is to capitalize it when used in an English work.
Note that none of those titles would be capitalized if they were not a title immediately before a name: the country was ruled by a czar; she was a madame; he reached the rank of colonel; and so on.
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: Is my novel Fantasy or Sci-Fi? I have a Wattpad account and I've been entering contests... I've been using the fantasy genre to describe my novel, but I just saw descriptions of fantasy and
I have a Wattpad account and I've been entering contests... I've been using the fantasy genre to describe my novel, but I just saw descriptions of fantasy and sci-fi and now I'm wondering if my novel is actually science fiction. The characters in charge are scientists, and they created basically a different realm? It's an island, and the only way in or out is for one character who has the power to move people from one place to another to move them. Here's the reason they have their powers:
One day, an MRI machine breaks in a hospital and radiation waves spread throughout the entire hospital, including the nursery. The babies in the nursery, since they were so little and their immune systems so weak, learned to live with all that radiation inside of them. Of those babies, the females grew up and had children of their own. Those children have been in a radiation-filled womb for nine months and so they have superpowers.
There are scientists trying to get them and experiment on them to figure out how to get powers of their own.
So, I'm not sure what genre my novel really fits in.
Does anyone know what genre I should be submitting my novels in?
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: Re: Is it correct to write: "Your payment's being processed"? Is it correct to write: "Your payment's being processed" ?
Yes. But you probably still shouldn't use it.
The apostrophe can (and in this case does) represent the contraction, but as motosubatsu mentions, it's ambiguous.
Also, from a practical point of view, the point of using a contraction is presumably to make it shorter and easier / quicker for people to read. But in this case, people will have a sort of muscle memory for the phrase 'Your payment is being processed', and if you change that it's probably it will actually take them longer to read, as they have to process it as new information, rather than stock information.
The risk of this delay, considering you've only gained the removal of a single space (because you've only removed one letter, and it's been replaced with a punctuation mark anyway), makes it seem like this is unlikely to be worthwhile.
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: Re: Any software for video game non-linear story design? Is there any software for making non-linear story or dialogues? I tried MS Word/Google Docs but that's not good for dialogues. In one complicated
You can also check out arcweave.com. It has a free plan, supports multiple boards and things like characters, items, locations e.t.c. You can also play out your sequences as a choice game.
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: Should I practice writing novels before starting the novel I want to write, or plan to do a lot of editting? tldr: Though I've been writing fiction for a long time, I have no real training
tldr: Though I've been writing fiction for a long time, I have no real training or experience. I've put a lot of thought into a fantasy novel idea (we'll call it the Hail Mary) and am excited to write it. Should I focus on other projects to hone my writing first, before going for the Hail Mary?
Long:
I started writing when I was young, I think I started my first novel when I was 11 and wrote through my teenage years. I was never one for outlining, and I didn't finish many of the novels I started, but I wrote pieces of ~15 novels between the ages of 11 and 17. The majority of these novels were in the fantasy genre.
However, I don't have any professional writing experience. I read a ton (of course) and I've read articles online on how to write. I took two writing classes in college, but they were academic, style-type classes. (I'm an engineer, these classes were about that kind of technical writing.)
I can tell that my writing improves when I am writing more. So, since I haven't been writing as much in the past few years, I feel rusty. I've recently put a lot of time into developing a fantasy world and the plot to a story that is a culmination of the best ideas I've had in years. To the point where I've outlined it chapter by chapter-- something I rarely do-- and it's exciting and interesting (to me) the whole way through.
Should I dive in on starting to write this? Or, since this is my "Golden Goose" should I develop my writing style and practice before I start? I've been using five-minute prompts to write short stories within this world. Is this a good way to practice, or should I be focusing more on writing the actual novel and editing the hell out of it? Would it be better to start and finish an actual (short) novel for practice? (I have plenty of ideas, just not many as "good" as my Golden Goose.)
Any advice would be appreciated, I'm in uncharted territory. I've never wanted a piece of mine to come out better than this one! Thanks in advance :)
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: Re: In scientific writing, what is the protocol for shortening nouns? I often see place or species names shortened in scientific journal articles and would like to know what the correct protocol
Precision is more important than word count!
Don't abbreviate just for having fewer words.
Also, follow the conventions of specific fields. For scientific nomenclature, for example, genus name can be abbreviated to one letter when the genus is understood:
P. semiperverens, P. australis and P. aromata are found only in North America.
The examples in the question, in my mind, are not ideal. Using generic terms is better than using truncated terms. In other words, I'd shorten "Gough Island" to "the island" on subsequent mentions, and use "turtles" rather than "leatherbacks."
However, there are much worse examples of abbreviations used in technical and academic writing, so use whatever you prefer without resorting to non-words -- like "LT" for "leatherback turtle."
As always, check a reliable style guide for particular fields of study and organizations. Check Strunk & White for the best overview of clear, concise writing.
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: What could be a way to improve my English writing? I know there are general recommendations to improve English writing skills but I wonder if anyone could suggest hyper-personalized ways for
I know there are general recommendations to improve English writing skills but I wonder if anyone could suggest hyper-personalized ways for me. I studied English as a second language from middle school and also took some serious exams like TOEFL and GRE. I have been working at English speaking environment for almost 5 years but doing no specific attempt to further improve my English.
A few days ago, I submitted a scientific article to a conference without taking proofreading from native speakers. Two reviewers pointed out the manuscript requires polishing in terms of English and I began to wonder which specific aspects I'm lacking to be a good English writer. I hope there is a super kind expert who can recommend me what I should do. The following is a portion of text that I wrote:
On top of the renowned real world driving datasets, synthetic datasets are extensively utilized in our experiments. Employing synthetic dataset is becoming inevitable for training a deep neural network as it provides an effective and economic way to generate massive amount of data even with the accurate ground truth information. Using an open source 3D engine Blender, we implemented several virtual road driving scenes in various qualities, in terms of reality and number of objects (such as pedestrians and vehicles) in the scene.
While high quality scenes helped us to maintain smaller domain gaps to real world data, simpler scenes contributed to effciently increasing the diversity of the dataset. To ameliorate the lighting estimation capability of our network, we render the synthetic images as triplets. The two images in a triplet share each intrinsic component with a reference image in the triplet. In other words, one image has the same albedo as the reference while the shading is different and the other vice versa. We assume the network can distinguish the shading from actual differences in reflectance by exploiting this dataset. The following is the algorithm that we used to generate the triplet inputs:
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: Typing correctness - minimising errors such as DOuble capitals I've been doing a lot of technical writing work lately, and would like to increase my writing speed by minimising errors. One error
I've been doing a lot of technical writing work lately, and would like to increase my writing speed by minimising errors. One error that I tend to repeat is capitalising the first two letters of a word instead of just the first letter - especially when I'm typing quickly (transcribing text from a screenshot etc).
I use the Colemak keyboard layout, am fluent at touch typing, and usually use the left shift key for capitalising. I'm writing mostly in HelpSmith, which doesn't have autocorrection features - and I prefer manually fixing my errors than having a program autocorrect in case it misunderstands what I'm writing.
Can you recommend typing techniques that can help reduce my error rate?
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: Re: Misspelling and punctuation how to improve? Love telling/writing stories except I am the absolute worst at both spelling along with punctuation. Normally I care less about these things because
Don't feel bad. Few people, if any, are perfect writers. As an editor, I'd rather fix spelling and grammar and other technical aspects of writing for someone who can tell a story well than struggle with a poor storyteller who is technically a good writer.
For example, I'm a competent writer with a good handle on PUGS (punctuation, usage, grammar, and spelling) but I dearly wish storytelling came to me as readily as writing mechanics do. The reality is, you write the best stuff you can and then work with editors and proofreaders to help make it the best it can be.
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: Why is starting sentences with "And" a problem? "And" is a conjunction. Conjunctions are meant to join thoughts, ideas, phrases, actions. Placing "and" at the start
Why is starting sentences with "And" a problem?
"And" is a conjunction. Conjunctions are meant to join thoughts, ideas, phrases, actions. Placing "and" at the start of a sentence means it is joining nothing -- exactly opposite of its intended usage.
Sentences that start with "And" are often "sentence fragments." Sentence fragments are a no-no in formal writing.
Starting a sentence with "and" can be a sign of lazy writing. Starting several sentences with "and" can be a sign of very lazy writing, or a compulsion.
In creative writing -- song lyrics, poetry, essays, dialogue -- there's nothing wrong with starting a sentence or two with "and." In school papers, business writing, and similar situations in which formal grammar is expected, it's bad.
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: Can anyone recommend a website or other sources that can evaluate my essays and offer feedback I want some professional or expert to review my essays and offer me feedback on how can I improve,
I want some professional or expert to review my essays and offer me feedback on how can I improve, things I could to do write better, tell me mistakes, etc. and inspire the examiner to award me more marks.
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: Re: Changing Genres in the Middle of a Story Let's say the story was introduced as a romance, then somewhere in the middle it becomes a horror/thriller, would you immediately think it's bad? Would
Genre is a contract you make with the audience. If the genre is action/adventure, you're promising the audience that there will be an action sequence to resolve the plot. If its horror, you're promising that the ending will be terrifying. If it's romance, you're promising love. Comedy...laughs.
If you change the genre partway through a story, you're breaking a promise. It's bait and switch. Your audience will be angry and disappointed.
Of course, it is possible to combine genres, but you have to understand what you're promising the reader, and you have to fulfill the contract: give them what you promised.
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: Re: If you're writing a story where the location is based in the USA, should you adapt your spelling to the American way, rather than British? If an Australian writer writes a story based in America
Your question had been answered already. I just want to tell you that you focus on language that you and your targeted audience know. Let say you want to write American English, and you know not much about it, so will you continue with it? Let say you understand it very well what about your targeted audience? You look around your audience and consider them first before you. One of the Rules in the English language says Just Other first and yourself last{JOY}.
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: My characters parents are dead, what now? In my book, my main character has unfortunately lost her parents. But before the plot, I have nothing. I don't want to do an orphanage, foster homes,
In my book, my main character has unfortunately lost her parents. But before the plot, I have nothing. I don't want to do an orphanage, foster homes, or give her a family at all. The idea of her living on the street is okay, but I would have to change her whole personality for stereotype purposes. In many novels parents die, then the character goes on to live somewhere else. Harry Potter goes off to live with his aunt and uncle. But I don't like the sound of her going to live with another family because later in the book she discovers a new family. I had come up with a really original idea, but I don't like the sound of it either. 1. Its too complicated, 2. It just won't go well with the story. So the question. What should I do? Where should she go after her parents die? Cause I'm lost.
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: Re: Can I get in trouble for discrimination by writing an epic fantasy based on Medieval England like Lord of the Rings? The Lord of the Rings has been criticized by actor John Boyega for having
If you write an epic fantasy based in Medieval England and only include white-skinned characters, then you would be misrepresenting history and could be accurately accused of discrimination - even if it were unintentional
Some people claim that including a variation of skin tones in certain historical settings is tantamount to ‘rewriting’ history to suit our modern sensibilities.
But in most cases the truth is that including such variety is setting the record straight.
‘History’ as we know it, is not some infallible truth set in stone. Every single history book was written by a human being who was a product of their own time and culture and affected by their own prejudices of their own era.
So ‘rewriting’ history makes sense if it means getting a clearer picture based on further evidence which has come to light.
Black female astronauts? You’re having a laugh!
The most striking example I’ve found of this regards black women in Nasa.
If I wrote a story based in NASA, and I included a few black women among the scientists., mathematicians and engineers, then people would be lining up to accuse me of crow-barring people in to meet some positive discrimination agenda.
But in fact they’ve been there for as long as Nasa has existed: In 1958, when NASA was formed, Mary Jackson became its first African-American female engineer.
Bet you didn’t know black women have also been in space.
Still… surely there weren’t any non-whites in medieval England?
“People of colour are not an anachronism.†@medievalpoc (check out this twitter feed for a wealth of evidence)
“By the 15th century there were immigrants from all over Europe in Medieval England and they were spread all over the country. We know this from documents that have survived including letters, court records and - most of all - tax records.â€
“One Medieval historian has said that the records show that no one was more than ten miles away from an immigrant. Foreign-born people included goldsmiths, bakers, inn-keepers, doctors, priests, farm labourers, tailors, brewers, weavers.â€
Source: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zyrymnb/revision/2
Don’t worry about getting into trouble, worry about being accurate
So if you would like to write an epic fantasy based on Medieval England, then it would be better to do some historical research, rather than basing the historical interpretation on a single fantasy author.
In fact, if you did want to use a fantasy author as your source, you could do worse than George RR Martin, as his world is much more realistic in reflecting a variety of intermingling and interdependent cultures (not to mention remembering that women exist).
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: Re: Which plot should I use while outlining my plot beats? I'm writing a crime/mystery fiction novel. The main plot involves a murder at the start, a case that my protagonist, a police detective,
Firstly, I think your concept sounds very intriguing.
In answer to your question, I would recommend the 'present' plot should be your main plot, and the missing wife should be the subplot.
Although the subplot might be more highly emotional, it's still in the past and the actions driving things forward will still be the recent murder, as that's what your detective is having to act on.
However, your subplot can still be very strong, 'sub' doesn't have to mean 'minor' or 'unimportant'. It can be just a little step behind the main plot.
But for the purposes of deciding which one to focus your beats on, I would go with the recent murder.
There's a plot template here you might find useful: www.novel-software.com/CMS/FILES/Plot%20Outlines/MysteryCrimeThrillerPlotOutline.pdf
Disclosure - we made this plot outline.
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: Re: Can MS Word perform single-source help authoring? My company is using Microsoft Word to manage thousands of documents that ultimately end up publishing only to a couple outputs: primarily PDF
It's possible, but it might be difficult and more error prone. This is a big decision and effort. I would want to do research, plan the implementation project, create custom templates, etc. Depending on the existing day-to-day workload, I wouldn't want to do this type of implementation in less than 6 months to a year, and preferably only as a pilot project at first.
Pros:
-- You can script things in Word with VB for Applications -- IF you have the skilled resources.
--Word has a lot of powerful features that are needed for documentation.
--Everyone has a copy in most organizations.
--Your documentation is already in Word.
Cons:
--Word DOES NOT lend itself to separating style from content -- at least not without contortions.
--Word gets unstable when working with large documents and a lot of embedded and interlinked objects.
--Word output to HTML is problematic -- non-standard, can be ridiculously complex and use stylesheets (CSS) in the least-efficient ways.
--Word is not a content management system.
--Word does not allow simultaneous editing on a file by multiple people.
--Word does not have version control/source code repository functions.
FrameMaker is an alternative, but is also pricey.
I'm personally doing single-sourcing with HTML using the MS Web Expressions editor and using FAR Help tools to create online Help from the HTML. Then, using some custom tools and good-old hand-editing to turn the HTML topics into PDF manuals.
As a long-time documentation specialist, I'll also just point out that few writers and editors want to work this way; it's always management that thinks documentation can be made entirely efficient by not "duplicating" content and by "push-button" output to multiple formats. Except that well-made, usable and useful documentation is written for a specific media, format and audience, and is edited and formatted and produced specifically for that purpose; it is not done by pouring words into containers and using some code to re-purpose all the paragraphs by running them through templates. Watch out for all efforts to reduce writers and editors to automated routines, and to reduce all information to "re-usable" "content."
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: Re: Do 'text walls' scare off readers? A comment on a recent question of mine claims Right, so that's [large unformatted text blocks scaring off some readers in certain contexts is] a myth.
I'll say it's NOT just about formatting. Yes, solid set text (no extra leading, paragraph breaks, or short lines) is uninviting. But what's really a problem is written monotony -- long monologues, lack of rhythmic changes in wording, long paragraphs full of dense sentences, dialog that reads like writing rather than speaking, and descriptions that devolve into tedium.
Visually, yes, text without paragraph breaks or dialog looks uninviting. But writing can be bad and uninteresting even if there are paragraph breaks and quote marks.
Classic example: Atlas Shrugged. I counted one speech (a character speaking) that went on without any interruption for 21 pages. I might be wrong. It might have been 40 pages. Rand wasn't a novelist, she was a messianic lecturer, and that's why she had her "characters" pontificate for page after page after page, and then more pages. The whole thing is a boring wall of text. And yet, some people, mostly teenage boys and men who still think like teenage boys, think it's a fantastic novel (its main message, if you haven't been subjected to it, is "be selfish" -- so it's hard to see why it's popular with adolescent males).
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: Look at "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is the classic short story of a narrator's descent into madness, caused by post-partum depression and male oppression at a time
Look at "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is the classic short story of a narrator's descent into madness, caused by post-partum depression and male oppression at a time when women were considered inferior.
Read Mark Vonnegut's “The Eden Express,†about "his descent into schizophrenic madness in a counterâ€culture wilderness commune."
The first gives an example of a narrator not knowing she is going mad. The second has an astute author narrating his sudden descent into schizophrenia.
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: Re: What to ask next when people tell me that my article is excellent? So I have an article and one person comments that it is excellent. To make sure that they just don't skim it I ask "thank
I agree with the other answer, that asking for a single area of improvement is a great idea, as it takes the pressure off and focuses on your hunger to improve.
In addition, I would suggest that you really need to get feedback from more than one person, as writing and reading is so subjective you need a range of opinions to get a sense of where there are genuine areas that could benefit from rewriting and which things are just someone's personal taste.
Further to that, it's worth getting feedback from people who are experienced in giving feedback, or at least interested in doing so - it sounds like this person you got to read it doesn't have that much interest in giving feedback.
Using a website like scribophile, where users give each other detailed critiques, could help you get good critique from a range of people.
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: What word would people with outdated technology make up for a plane? In my story, my characters live in the wilderness, and they have no modern technology. They do see ruins from the past
In my story, my characters live in the wilderness, and they have no modern technology. They do see ruins from the past (from now) but other than that they have no idea how advanced other parts of the world might be, or of technology of the past. However, they often see the plane of a more advanced civilization (they are monitoring them to stop them from getting better technology) flying over them. It is thin and grey, very efficient but not too hard to see. I don't want these people, after seeing the plane for hundreds of years, to look up at it and go, 'it looked like a metal bird' because that seems so cliche. I want it to be clear that they have become so used to seeing it that it has been incorporated into their vocabulary. What word could I have them use for it instead? Honestly I would take anything that sounds like a real word and isn't super cheesy.
They're British, if that helps.
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: How to write a good eulogy I'm writing a book centred on loss and heartbreak and I keep getting stuck at a point where the main character has to give an eulogy at a funeral. I'm hoping
I'm writing a book centred on loss and heartbreak and I keep getting stuck at a point where the main character has to give an eulogy at a funeral. I'm hoping I can get some help or tips maybe? Thanks
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: Re: In modern Sci-Fi/Fantasy, does real world racism need to be addressed? I have read through a lot of questions regarding questions of a similar nature, but all of the questions I looked at involved
It's Science Fiction, so depending on how far in the future this is set, we may assume that today's problems are totally irrelevant - but that in the future, there might be totally different problems. And that there will be people that are victims of systematic discrimination. But not because they are black, but for example because they are part of the garbage collection clan.
On the other hand, we are today not overly concerned with the fate of future garbage collectors, so you as the author and the characters of your story may show any amount of prejudical behaviour towards them.
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: Re: How do I write romance if I've never been in love? I've been trying to write a good romance but it's falling a little flat. I think it might be because I've never been in love before. My
"Don't write about something you don't know about" is common advice.
The examples mentioned above are not very useful. It's true that George Lukas never held a lightsaber, and that Tom Clancy never captained a submarine. However, their works are not about that. These are just elements in a bigger plot, comprises of adventures, epic battle, intrigue, and so on. A successful writer will definitively know something about the psychological aspects of these to impregnate them into words.
What about writing a romantic novel about someone who has never been in love?
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: Re: Writing a novel that is set (semi-)inside an established universe How free are we to write a story that is set inside another universe, that doesn’t necessarily mention anyone or anything specifically
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 uniquely, and then as you write it may become your own.
It's like having the 5-paragraph essay structure -- not great for in-depth collegiate papers, but a great starting point, and a good way to cope with essay exams.
Some writers DO focus on "tie-in" and "licensed" works within a franchise. Often at SF cons there may be a panel on the pros and cons of working with that structure and maybe how to get started. (Keith R.A. DiCandido often is on these panels -- I met him at Balticon before I knew he wrote the Trek "Core of Engineers" sub-series -- and here's his mostly-updated bibliography, organized by world/franchise.)
I don't know the path to become one of these "official" in-universe writers (apparently it must involve not sleeping, as he does cons most weekends AND several weekly columns AND all these books and other published works, and he's polite and active on social media), but I have bought some writer's independent works because I like their franchise works, and vice-versa.
Harry Potter would be tricky, as JKR is still producing works in that universe (although she had a collaborator for the play) and has been known to issue Cease & Desist letters to fansites focused only on HP. (Fanfiction.net and ArchiveOfOurOwn seem to be safe.) I proposed a book to a publisher I know about "Lessons from Harry Potter" (for educators to write about things one can learn from the series - so strictly analytical essays, no in-world writings), and he refused it stating concerns about JKR's litigiousness.
U.S. Copyright law is typically lifetime+of+Author + 70 years for all works after 1978: other guidelines applied from 1920s-1970s (often involving renewals which frequently lapsed), but typically, in the U.S., anything pre-1924 is fair game. (Original Oz books!)
Very modern works (21st century) may have a CopyLeft, Creative Commons License with Remix/Derivative works options, etc. Cory Doctorow frequently has released his works on CC and believes that it's essential to all creation: craphound.com/news/2016/12/08/everything-is-a-remix-including-star-wars-and-thats-how-i-became-a-writer/ (a link to a podcast where he discusses those topics.) Doctorow's website used to more prominently display "Pay What You Want" and "Share What You Made" and other CC options.
I just wanted to provide an alternative to simply "No, don't do it."
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: Is there any other way to share information on a website apart from typical Blogging, YouTube or Podcast? I have a website and I want to share content mostly related to security and technology
I have a website and I want to share content mostly related to security and technology but most of the time I myself don't feel like reading long paragraphs. I am thinking about if there's a unique way of sharing knowledge in a fun and curious way of exploring things. I come up with Infographics but they won't be helpful to me because I also have to share code snippets. Do you think if there's any other way or any tricks which help my readers digest the content? I want to share and explain things but not in a messy way and I don't have a problem writing a lot but as a reader, I myself like to read concise and informative content.
Feel free to share your thoughts down.
Any guidance or tips will be highly appreciated
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: Re: In this day and age should the definition / categorisation of erotica be revised? My experience tells me that a disproportionate number of wannabe writers are prudes. I recently wrote a scene
It seems this is less a question of being prude and more a question of mismatched expectations.
Erotica comes in different forms - same as porn - as soft romantic form and hard pornographic form. If your book mixes extremes of both forms that easily triggers frustrations in either target group.
If you even go so far to put explicit scenes into otherwise non-erotic genres this can be even more surprising and shock an audience. That has nothing to do with being prude, and everything to do with expectations. If you read a novel, sci-fi or fantasy you typically do not expect explicit (hard) sex scenes (unless perhaps it is a fanfiction or a book of a particular mixed sub-genre).
Sex happening can in principle be an important element of a story, but then it mostly suffices to know that it happened. Scenes that illicit arousal serve a different more self-serving function of sexual fantasizing and masturbation inspiration. If placed in the middle of a book that otherwise is driven by story telling, deep characters, intellectual challenges etc. then for most people who like to read such books, this is an annoying distraction at best and likely offensive. Sex is still an intimate topic, even if it were not - most delicacies are way more enjoyable when they are properly introduced and not stuffed into your head when you least expect it. Too much erotic writing in an otherwise dry intellectual story can be like a fat soaked big burger presented as the desert of an exquisite five course menu in a five-star restaurant.
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