@Cofer669
Last seen: Mon 17 May, 2021
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: How can a "hero" with blue and orange morality be made relatable? Nyarlathotep, the Black Pharaoh, seeks to enter the realm of Earth to rule over mankind. Unfortunately, he is prevented from
Nyarlathotep, the Black Pharaoh, seeks to enter the realm of Earth to rule over mankind. Unfortunately, he is prevented from doing so by a barrier that blocks eldritch deities from crossing over. To get around this, he breaks his soul up into thousands of pieces and seeds them into thousands unborn children. These kids become immortal avatars of Nyarlathotep called Nylanders, who do battle with each other over the centuries through one-on-one engagements to the death. When one is killed, the other "eats" the loser and gains their power and memories, absorbing them into themselves. When all pieces of the deity have joined, Nyarlathotep will become whole within one body and would be reborn on the mortal plane. In the end, there can be only one.
As each child is killed/destroyed, the remaining Nylanders gain that power equally. As the Nylanders are killed over the centuries, the rate of power absorption would increase each time, with the final two battling being the strongest of their brethren. These warriors also possess a piece of the deity's consciousness hidden deep within their minds. As the souls merge with each other, the collective consciousness of Nyarlathotep gains more self-awareness, regaining its memories and sense of self. The remaining warriors become more deity than human, until the final battle in which the full mind of the god emerges within the body of the winner. However, the god that emerges has been "corrupted" by human emotions. As he gained the memories and knowledge of the Nylanders across thousands of years, it has caused its personality to change from the being it once was. Its eldritch side, which seems to dominate and enslave, must constantly battle its human feelings.
Characters with a blue and orange morality mindset often have a warped logic and see the world very differently from normal people, even when they try to be good. These characters' moral framework is so utterly alien and foreign to human experience that we can't peg them as "good" or "evil". As a result, we would see their actions as appaling, even though they are perfectly rational and arrive to their conclusions based on their own reasonable logic. They may even find our actions as horrific as we find theirs, with both sides unable or unwilling to understand the other due to their reasoning being built on irreconcilable perspectives. We can see this to some extent in the polarizing of politics today, although nowhere near as alien as to humans and elder gods. Seeing as most writers are human beings, it is hard for use to write from the perspective of a deity in a way that makes sense to the reader.
How can you overcome this block?
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: Re: Am I starting my story too late? In my story the MC joins this pseudo-militia. The process for every new person is to sign up, go to training, and then be sorted into teams and wait to
You have several options:
Rewrite the training so that it links back to something important.
Start even later, show important things in flashbacks, or rewrite it so the important things are explored in the present.
Start earlier and gloss over the unimportant parts like the training.
and more...
The main point is, all of these can work.
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: I've written a raw manuscript; what are the next steps? More than 10 years ago, I wrote two books for Manning Publications, a publisher of technical non-fiction books. I didn't need to search
More than 10 years ago, I wrote two books for Manning Publications, a publisher of technical non-fiction books. I didn't need to search for a publisher, I was offered a book contract, first by O'Reilly, then by Manning. I chose Manning Publications.
Now I've written a completely different book. If I had to write the text for the back cover, it would read like this:
Founders of tech startups don't read business books. I can tell
because I help startups by making them "investor-ready" and I notice
that technical founders know all there is to know about writing code,
the Cloud, and apps. Unfortunately, they often have no clue what the
due diligence process is about; they don't know the difference between
a call option and a put option; and they can't justify why their
company is worth millions of dollars.
Truth to be told, I didn't know any of those things either when I
wrote the first lines of code that would result in iText, a free and
open source PDF library. I would have called you crazy if you told me
that this hobby project would eventually make me a multimillionaire.
"Steve Jobs, A Biography" was one of the few business books I read,
and although I liked the book, "being like Steve Jobs" was neither
realistic nor desirable.
In "The Accidental Entrepreneur", I take the reader with me on my
personal journey. I share the ups and downs of being a developer
forced into business to save his free and open source project. Along
the way, we learn what being an entrepreneur is about. After reading
this book, you'll also know the vocabulary you'll need when looking
for an investor. Whatever I did, you can do too.
The raw draft has about 87.5K words; I have put a full TOC on LinkedIn.
Audience
The original target audience consisted of aspiring tech entrepreneurs. I originally wrote the book in Dutch (my mother tongue) and printed a limited hardcover edition of 200 copies to test the market. I noticed that it was also popular with established entrepreneurs who recognize their own struggle in my story.
Furthermore, the book was much appreciated by M&A consultants, Business Angels and VCs. They recommended the book to founders looking for an investment. The book helps them explain the choices that need to be made, and the consequences of those choices.
Finally, I’d say that this book is for everyone who is eager to learn more about doing business, but hates being taught. If I look at myself: I hate business books that tell me what to do. I don’t believe in authors of business books claiming having found the recipe to become a millionaire.
I prefer being inspired by an entrepreneur who walked the talk, and who isn’t ashamed of being open about the miserable failures that preceded the eventual success.
Important: The English version isn't a translation. I removed some fragments that were typical for Belgium, but that probably wouldn't be understood in an international context. I added content that is more US-oriented.
Market
I didn't do much marketing for the Dutch version; I gave away 30 copies and sold 150 copies. I packaged all the books manually, and I brought each package to the postal office on my bicycle. In other words: it was a small operation.
Getting feedback was my main goal:
Comments on Goodreads
Comments on Social Media (most of them are in Dutch)
In pre-Covid19 times, I was a speaker at events and conferences all over the world:
JavaOne / OracleCodeOne, San Francisco, CA: speaker in 2014, 2015, 2016
PDF Days: 2014: Washington DC / New York, 2015: Cologne; 2016: Berlin; 2017: Berlin.
Great Indian Developer Summit (GIDS), Bengaluru, India: keynote 2016, 2017, 2018
SXSW, Austin, TX: participant forum 2016; speaker 2018
I’m also a guest lecturer at different academic institutions in Belgium:
University College Leuven Limburg: yearly guest lecture about cultural differences in business.
Solvay Brussels School, Business & Economics, Brussels: guest lecture about valuing a company for the Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Antwerp Management School: Masterclass Investor Readiness
For a more comprehensive list of speaking engagements, see lowagie.com/speaker I am quite active on social media:
I have more than 6,500 followers on Twitter
I have about 1,700 connections on LinkedIn
I have a reputation of almost 70K on Stack Overflow (that’s well within the top 1%)
I've also won some awards:
Business Awards:
BelCham Entrepreneurship Awards: winner “Most Promising Company of the Year 2014â€
Deloitte’s Technology Fast50: winner Belgian edition 2014
JavaOne Rockstar Award: winner 2015
American Business Awards: Bronze Stevie for Innovative Company 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
International Business Awards: Silver Stevie for Innovative Company 2016, 2017, 2018
European Business Awards:
2015/16: National Public Champion "RSM Entrepreneur of the Year"
2016/17: National Champion "Business of the Year with turnover of 0 - 25M euro"
2017/18: National Champion "ELITE Award for Growth Strategy of the Year"
Literary Awards:
Literary Award of the City of Harelbeke, Belgium: winner in 1994
Literary Award of the City of Gorinchem, The Netherlands: winner in 2019
For a full overview of the awards, see lowagie.com/awards There are thousands of developers using iText, and most of them know me as the creator of this popular library and as the founder of the iText companies. That makes it easy for me to be accepted as a speaker at events or as a guest lecturer in business schools. In the past, I had to limit my speaking engagements because of lack of time, now that I am no longer affiliated with iText Group, writing, and promoting my books can be a full-time job.
Flaws
There are some of the flaws in the current version of the manuscript that need fixing:
The first part is about my youth. While readers in Belgium liked these chapters because I talk about Belgian companies, this may not be interesting enough for international readers. I need a developmental editor who can help me select what is important, and what isn't.
Some parts might be too technical for non-technical readers. The target audience consists of technical founders, but I want to make the technical parts as simple as possible.
I am not as proficient in English as a writer born in the UK or the US. There are probably quite some grammatical and spelling errors in my manuscript.
I do not want to self-publish this book. I want to work with a publisher.
When I worked with Manning Publications, I was assigned a developmental editor, a copy editor, and a proofreader. I'm looking for a publisher that can offer the same level of support. I'm not looking to hire a copy editor; I'm looking for the full package. That is, among others: a developmental editor for flaws 1 and 2; a copy editor for flaw 3.
What should be my next steps? What would you recommend me to do with the manuscript?
I was told that I should look for a literary agent? Which agent would be best for this type of book?
Which conditions should I expect when I find a literary agent?
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: Re: How to call a paper or book holding charms/incantation/magic formula? Hope the title is clear enough. I'm also looking for any vocabulary related to the act of writing magic ( 'runes' as a
To answer your main question. A book containing spells and rituals is a Grimoire. The term is widely used in modern Wicca and other areas.
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: How do I make a love story, that isn't cliche but different from others? Okay, so I just wanted to know what is the less cliche way of making a romantic fanfiction. I know this question is
Okay, so I just wanted to know what is the less cliche way of making a romantic fanfiction.
I know this question is short, but I just want to know.
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: Re: How to stop using she in creative writing Hi can someone please help me to stop using she so much in this paragraph. Clitter, clatter. The heavy metal case carrying her belongings rolled over
Honestly, it isn't that much. There is only a single "she". I can see the repetitive "her"; but this isn't a big issue for my taste, at least not in this extract.
However, you could try this:
Clitter, clatter. The heavy metal case carrying her belongings rolled over the small divides in the polished white floor, sliding sideways with every disoriented turn Akio made towards the exit. The wind howled outside the airport, displacing a piece of dark brown hair on the woman's cheek. Goosebumps crawled amongst the stubble growing on her legs. Akio's cold hands rubbed together to create a pocket of warmth which she clung to. Her feet were glued to the ground as her mind wondered of the new adventures that lied ahead. It was a new beginning.
Basically, the advice here is, to use "she" or "her" interchangeably with the character's name, gender -or simply "the", if it's obvious who we're talking about- and to try not to have the same one repeat many times in a row.
You might feel like things are repetitive, but truth is, most books are written with what feels like two alternatives to the pronoun, and trying to add fancy ways to describe it all the time may clutter things up too much, though that's personal preference. Clean up what bothers you most, leave the rest alone, I'd say.
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: Re: How to write realistic injury scenes? I'm currently writing an apocalypse themed story. As with the territory, death and/or injuries happen. I'm wondering how other writers write these scenes
Read a textbook on forensic science. They cover all the fun topics like:
if ripped apart with a nail, which direction does the skin shear
was she really raped
bullet exit wounds
hacked apart cadavers
this was the first 20 pages.
Find it at a bookstore near a medical doctor university or online.
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: Re: How can I overcome that paralyzing fear that my writing isn’t good enough I've written a large section of my book. The questions that keep haunting me are: Is this story unique? Will people
As with anything in life, you just do. If you're not good at it, you'll get where you want to be, with time. Write, write, write. It doesn't matter if what you write is terrifically bad, short, if it has lots of errors in it; because that's the only way you'll learn.
The fastest way to learn is to fail.
I started out writing very, very short stories -300 words were a lot for me- that then turned into 10-pagers, and some day stories that I actually enjoyed.
The important thing here is the mindset. It's not going to be perfect, nor are you going to write a phenomenal book in your first year of writing. Be realistic, but also do what you like to do, don't force yourself to be perfect with the first try.
You have to enjoy the process, not necessarily the result.
Write ahead, don't spend your time on going back and revising, rearranging and correcting your text, nobody needs it to be perfect if you don't expect it to be.
Everybody writes a lot of nonsense, poorly written characters, stories that lack depth. But that's how they get to write amazingly interesting characters, witty jokes and mind-blowing plot twists later on.
I'm no man to say my writing is perfect, but again, I don't care. I enjoy writing a lot and that's what matters to me. I love it and am never going to stop. Sometimes I show something to my friends that I'm particularly proud of - but I don't get too discouraged if they say they don't like it.
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: Re: Is there a way I can print a book only for myself? As selfish as this sounds, I’m really interested in having my own book printed physically for myself. I don’t intend to sell it or
I print very small scale print runs (like 5 copies of a thesis) at my local Copyshop in A4 and then have them use a binding machine on that stack.
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: Re: How to name characters of unspecific nationality and race? I am writing a generic story. I have a setting that is not tied to a specific region on earth, though the story certainly does occur
There exist some names, which are common throughout Europe and North America, no idea about the rest of the world:
Peter
Maria
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: Re: Handwriting change I currently have bad handwriting and even though I have been writing every day for years I still have very poor handwriting, it is sometimes un-legible. So I thought I should
From the perspective of someone who:
recently learned to write with the left hand as well as right
once upon a time did a little martial arts:
Slow down.
Relax your arm and hand muscles.
As months pass, you can start increasing the speed. You will probably do it too early, so notice any drops in quality. And back up. If you are doing it "quickly but with errors" you are teaching yourself (your muscle memory) to make errors.
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: Re: How to stick to your vision when you’re highly suggestible? As a person, I'm a bit of a people-pleaser. I tend to bend over backward to avoid conflict and make people happy. I've reached
I'm fond of the following quote from Neil Gaiman:
Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for
them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what
they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
You're the cook, they're the diner. If they don't like the taste of the omelet, you can't tell them they're wrong. But it's up to you to figure out what's wrong and how to fix it.
The tester/editor does not have the required perspective to tell you how to fix the problem. They don't know what the story is supposed to be, and until the story works, they will guess what it's supposed to be and guess wrong.
They don't know what your motivations are for writing it. They don't know all the blind alleys you tried and crawled out of. All they know is whether it works or not. The best they can do is point to a specific part that doesn't seem to work, but just because that's where the symptoms show, doesn't mean that that's where the problem is.
Their job is to say if it works, your job is to find the problem. If you keep these two concerns separate, you can have a very healthy relation with any tester or editor.
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: Resources to describe medieval clothing from different cultures? I realise this may not be the best place for this question, but I'm not sure where else to ask. I'd like to describe specific
I realise this may not be the best place for this question, but I'm not sure where else to ask. I'd like to describe specific clothing from various societies existing when feudalism was still around, and while, for instance, descriptions in ASOIAF are quite helpful, they cover mostly Western European feudal clothing/armour descriptions.
I do not have a particular culture in mind, though I'd love to dabble in East Asian cultures during feudalism. The only one I'm familiar with is Imperial Japan because of classes I've had on the subject, but I'd like a broad array of descriptions from different countries/cultures.
Is there a place/thread/sub-reddit/forum/website/etc I could browse to find helpful descriptions based on cultures and era?
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: Re: Should my character speak like an layman or a Latin teacher? 'He tracked and updated 182 patient statuses' OR 'He tracked and updated 182 patient stati?' I believe "statuses" is correct. However,
In this case, the use of "status" can be misleading. Patients an programs are better described as having a state.
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: Re: Can you legally write a book based on technical concepts that someone else’s coined? Is there any issues with writing a book and publishing it that is based on topics and concepts that the
You are essentially describing the purposes of Scientific writing. Scientific papers are written citing earlier works and then confirming, developing or possibly refuting them.
This is how science works.
Your suggestion of doing the same, with technical books replacing scientific papers, is just following the same principles. As long as you give full credit for where your quotes or concepts come from, and don't copy great tracts of text verbatim, there is no difference.
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: Can I use a small part of a real newspaper/online article in fiction? Can I use a small part of a real newspaper/online article in fiction? Hi everyone I write crime fiction set in my home
Can I use a small part of a real newspaper/online article in fiction?
Hi everyone
I write crime fiction set in my home town, and in my latest novel, a kidnapped woman is left alone in a disused outbuilding of a former mine works, with two local newspapers to read. (The Evening Sentinel)
I would like to use the following paragraph, taken from an online news report about Stoke-on-Trent: the town in which the book is set...
Stoke-on-Trent has become a symbol of left-behind Britain. It is the alleged ‘capital of Brexit’.
Stoke is the victim of a triple economic crisis and a triple identity crisis. Its pottery, steel and coal-mining industries were among the earliest victims of the de-industrialisation of Britain which began under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. The city’s public services have been hollowed out by the austerity drive of the past decade. Its town centres, stricken by the collapse of traditional shopping habits, range from the depressed to the derelict.
SOURCE: unherd.com/2019/11/stoke-the-city-that-britain-forgot/
And make it so the article is actually in the Evening Sentinel, simply because she has no access to any form of phone or computer.
Huge thanks in advance for any advice.
J.F.Burgess www.jfburgess.co.uk/home
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: Re: How do I publish my first articles? I am a freelance writer through Fiverr.com, but I am looking to get better gigs being that I cannot share my work outside of the website. I want to venture
if you are looking to get noticed from other sites or blogs where your contents are,
I recommend steemit.com or medium.com also though there may be lots more out there
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: Re: Horror story in a hospital: how to unsettle the reader? I'm new and I hope to do this thing right, soo Hi! I'm willing to write a short story about a girl who wakes up in a hospital and
I expect that a large part of the problem is that you are trying to make cleanliness seem unsettling. This is difficult because it's usually the unclean that unsettles us. It would be easy to make the hospital unsettling by filling it with flies or by making the walls ever so slightly undulate like the lining of a stomach. But something overly clean and sterile is somehow less directly unsettling to us.
Some ideas:
Make the lead character extra uncomfortable Put her in a hospital gown. Spend plenty of time on describing her cold, bare feet. Let her pull an IV out of her arm that has been in far too long.
Increase the contrast with the hospital before the event It's difficult to make a hospital seem safe and and comfortable, but focus on warmth, many friendly nurses and doctors, warm light, and the safety of being taken care of by experts. Make mention of young parents picking up their newborn babies. Make sure the ailment is minor, so that the character knows she will soon be healthy again. Then after the event, draw on everything that is horrible about hospitals. The uncertainty, the loneliness, the fear and constant reminders of mortality. Muse at length on the cold maternity ward with its flickering lights and empty cribs.
Make other aspects of the hospital more directly unsettling Make it cold. Make it dark, or if the light must be bright (which does feel more sterile), make the light bright blue, like a staring into a spotlight when you have a migraine. Make it smell of bleach, as though the sterility is only there to hide something terrible.
Make the character feel sick and unclean Make her body the opposite of the overly clean hospital. Make her sweat and shiver. Make her nails split and her skin crawl. Give her small cuts on her hands and feet that burn with the antiseptic that seems to line the walls and floor. It's like the hospital considers her sick and unclean, like a foreign body that needs to be eliminated.
Make things sterile that shouldn't be Show brightly colored fruit and vegetables that are just slightly off. Fresh-looking broccoli that that is just a little teal in color. Apples that are juicy, but the juice hits your lungs like ammonia, and the skin sticks to the pulp like paper held on by glue.
I think the contrast between what is good and what is horrible about hospitals is an especially fruitful theme. You can delve into that for more inspiration. Put all the good before the event and all the bad after. You can even read about people's hospital experiences to give you inspiration.
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: Re: Add Comma After "official" in "official third-party documentation"? I'm drafting an internal standard on internal documentation covering third-party products or services in my organization. Documentation
There are two adjectives in this phrase that modify the word documentation: official and third-party. If they are coordinating adjectives, a comma is required. If they are cumulative adjectives, no comma is necessary.
There are two tests to determine if adjectives before a noun are coordinating adjectives:
Can you replace such a comma with the coordinating conjunction "and"?
Can you flip the adjectives without altering the meaning?
In this case, "third-party, official documentation" doesn't work. It suggests that third-party documentation is its own thing, like fire truck or Christmas tree. The adjectives are, then, cumulative adjectives, and no comma is required (see Commas with Adjectives).
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: Re: How to arrange scattered ideas in a coherent manner to write an essay? I'm trying to write something like an essay for a blog. I'm clear about what central topic I want to write about. The
Strunk and White advise: Make the paragraph the unit of composition.
Break all your disparate ideas up into notions that can be described in a single paragraph. Some of these will follow each other logically as a sequence of a handful of paragraphs, and some will be single paragraphs that are entirely separate.
Some paragraphs will be dependent on others. Paragraphs A and B don't discuss the same thing, they don't need to be next to each other, but you can't read B until you've read A. You may even have cycles where C need to follow B and B needs to follow A and A needs to follow C.
What you have now is a graph, a lot of ideas and a lot of relations and dependencies between these ideas. As Steven Pinker discusses in The Sense of Style (highly recommended), the main job of a writer is to find a linear path through the graph of ideas. @Ray_Butterworth gives some good ideas above for how to do this. The main things I'd add are:
Pick a strong opening. Something that pulls the reader in and gives them a clear idea about what they're going to get. Make sure it resonates with the payoff.
Don't be afraid to cut paragraphs. You can always write another essay and use them there.
Work forward from the opening and backwards from the end. Stop when they meet, and discard the leftovers.
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: Re: How can you insert more emotions in scenes? I have a scene where my character has to feel scared, sad and alone. I'm good at describing her surrounding but describing feeling are a bit harder
Hemmingway has some solid advice (tip 5). Don't describe the emotion, describe the thing that caused the emotion.
Imagine a young couple, expecting their first child, and suffering a miscarriage. It's probably very difficult to describe accurately what that feels like, but even if you succeeded, it wouldn't make the reader actually feel it. If, however, you describe the sequence of events that caused the emotion: sudden stomach pains, the husband rushing to the hospital, waiting for hours to see the doctor, all that tension will induce emotion in the reader without you ever describing what anything feels like.
It's events that make readers feel, not descriptions of emotions.
The further you trace the events back, the more you layer the emotion. Contrast the shock of the miscarriage by showing the joy of a successful pregnancy. Of course, don't describe the joy, show the difficulty in getting pregnant, and then release that tension. Go back further, why does becoming a parent mean so much to both of them? The further back you go, the bigger the payoff.
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: Does including a lot of tropes in a single idea pay off well? The other day, I was working on a Supernatural Fiction genre and I was stuck in a dilemma. I had two choices, whether I could
The other day, I was working on a Supernatural Fiction genre and I was stuck in a dilemma. I had two choices, whether I could focus on one trope, that is, just the vampires and their conspiracies or I could introduce other tropes like, werewolves or maybe Satan. Also, more tropes meant more introduction of characters which risks my plot to become messier and if I remain stable on a single trope, I feel maybe it won't be enough.
And this is what I am not able to decide, well to me the former choice seems to be a cooler one, though I seriously fear that it would become a bit chaotic and confusing. And the latter one, well there, I think what if I am not able to do justice with my plot by focusing the whole story on the same frame?
What should I do?
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: Re: A rhyming dictionary worth bookmarking online or purchasing? Has anyone come across any really good rhyming dictionaries? If so, what makes it worth having/bookmarking? (eg. completeness/ease
I forget the name of the book I have but it is by Rosalind Fergusson. It would be unbeatable. I am not at home at present so I can't check but it has "Rhyming" in the name. I have seen no better and I am sure one would not exist. I think it is by Penguin. Every word is exact and there are no "near rhymes" which is a waste of time anyway.
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: Is it better to go verb-then-name or name-then-verb when writing sentences with quotes? Which of these is correct? The first? The second? Both? verb then name: "She's late again," said Jason.
Which of these is correct? The first? The second? Both?
verb then name:
"She's late again," said Jason.
name then verb:
"She's late again," Jason said.
I have almost always used the first version, but an editor said I should use the second version. She claimed the first version is grammatically incorrect even though it is common.
If the proper noun is replaced with a pronoun, then it sounds incorrect and even somewhat antiquated.
verb then pronoun:
"She's late again," said he.
pronoun then verb:
"She's late again," he said.
When I read a few novels, I checked the order, and it seems to be convention to allow "verb then name".
Is the first form allowed when writing stories in "antiquated English"? (i.e. - The story takes place centuries ago.)
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: How can a mass murderer portray remorse for an immoral act? This concept is based off of an scp foundation wiki monster. http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-231 An ancient deity called the scarlet king
This concept is based off of an scp foundation wiki monster. www.scp-wiki.net/scp-231
An ancient deity called the scarlet king exists across several dimensions, but is prevented from entering our world due to a magical barrier. A cult formed in his name with the purpose of bringing him into the mortal realm to rule humanity by opening up a portal between dimensions, allowing his essence to seep through and take residence within an infertile cultist as a developing fetus. However, the gods essence is so massive that it cannot be contained within one individual, and must disperse his essence among other individuals in order to cross over. Thus, seven volunteer cultists were chosen to carry a "shard" of the deity, becoming what the cult referred to as the seven brides of the Scarlett king.
These seven were captured and taken in by secret governmental forces from the scp foundation, who seek to prevent these shards from being born through a process called Montauk-110. 6 brides died in complications during labor or suicide, with the seventh bride successfully giving birth after the sealing ritual failed. The coming of the Scarlett king caused calamity around the planet, with earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters spontaneously occurred with no explicable warning in various countries, leading to the deaths of 10 million people. The foundation have linked this strange occurrence with the birth of the child. Although powerful, it was a baby and weak enough to be controlled with the various incantations and sigils that the foundation laid in preparation for it, due to it being only 1/7th of the full god.
The child was raised by the foundation in an attempt to use its power in the service of humanity, but it escaped after a few years. This child grew up seeking to make a life for itself in the mortal world while being hounded by other forces: The cult who want to ordain him as their god, the foundation who wishes to use him for their purposes, and other groups who want to destroy him altogether. Through all of this, he has to come to terms with the fact that he caused the deaths of 10 million people, as well as other significant damage around the world. Killer's remorse is often looked down upon as a way to gain sympathy in order to not be held responsible for a crime, or for leniency. How do you get this across with a character without delving into self pity?
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: Re: Multiple First Person Narrators: how should I differentiate? I am writing a novel (it will eventually be a series of five novels) and there are multiple first-person narrators. Each chapter starts
As @RayButterworth alluded to, character voice is key here, and fortunately, it's not limited to this situation; it's an essential skill for writing dialogue as well.
Everyone speaks differently. Word choice is one aspect of this; do they prefer simple vocabulary, or flowery descriptions? Informal or formal modes of address? Perhaps they're usually quite casual, but get verbose and technical when their main subject of interest comes up. You're probably familiar with most or all of that from writing dialogue; every bit of it applies just as much to first-person narration.
An aspect more specific to narration is focus. Different narrators will notice (and record) different things about the same scene. Are they constantly taking notice of others' appearance? Do they pay attention to relationships, and where other characters stand with each other? Perhaps they hardly bother to mention more than the barest details of anyone they don't know well, but record the nuances of a room's decoration and the surrounding neighbourhood's architecture. Some of this stems from a character's personality, other parts from their personal interests, but it can say a lot about them while being surprisingly subtle at times.
There's also tone. How seriously does each narrator treat the events of the book? Does their narration include constant mental asides, or is it very focused on the moment? Perhaps they narrate as though for a personal record, complete with mental to-do notes, or perhaps they're thinking of a wider audience. One might use the narration to snark at their situation or other characters without being heard, while another simply says such things openly and a third doesn't even think them.
A mix of these can make for very distinct narrators without ever being blatant about it; just the character's name in the chapter title, as you're doing, should be quite sufficient. I would strongly recommend against varying typefaces, regardless of how many or how few narrators you have; either the difference will be small enough to be meaningless, or it'll be too much and you'll just give your readers eyestrain.
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: Firstly, it's certainly not going to be a 'waste of time' to write the story you want to tell, regardless of which genre it might end up being described as. Fantasy is a very broad genre;
Firstly, it's certainly not going to be a 'waste of time' to write the story you want to tell, regardless of which genre it might end up being described as.
Fantasy is a very broad genre; any story recognizably set in a world other than our own can easily be described as fantasy if it doesn't focus strongly on themes that would suggest another (the effects of technological change for science fiction, for example).
However, it's true that some people will hear 'fantasy' and expect magic. If you wish to avoid those preconceptions, consider using the broader term speculative fiction, which encompasses any work not set in the real world.
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: Re: Is this allowed to use the name of Templar and other Order like Teutonic, Santiago, Hospitaler, etc as my fiction story? i'm new here, but i really want to make a question about using real
So, you want to create a fictional order in a fictional settings that uses the name of the Templars as well as other historical organisations?
So, kinda like the Templar Order in the Dragon Age video game?
If nothing happened to Bioware for that decision (and nothing did), then you're safe.
It's not like this is the first time a historical person or group are taken and used in a fictional setting.
The only worry you could have is that your Templar Order didn't have enough of a resemblance, ie they looked more like musketeer or roman legionnaires, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
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: Re: Is it okay to put an inversion in a song lyrics? In the dark alley of my youth, light, it shone from the cloud-ladden sky. I've been listening to the chirping in the trees.
I think the name for what you want to do is Hyperbaton
From a writing and English comprehension standpoint, I don't see a problem with it. The meaning of the sentence is perfectly clear, and unless you are working under some kind of constraint, there's really not much to stop you.
If you're worried about it being good, however, I would consider advice from an
old professor I had-
"All remarkable writing has form and function, and form always must always serve a function."
I can't say I completely agree, but it's something to consider. What is the purpose of this structure?
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: Re: Is writing about your childhood in creative writing/fiction class necessary? I have the same teacher for both a Journaling autobiographical class and a fictional writing class. While I expected
Chophousepop use this moment as an opportunity.
I would say that for a writer to mirror a character in a story after their own life would be a challenge. So much so, that doing so would bog down the story making character development feeling forced as opposed to being organic. Don’t take your teacher’s request this too personal but rather build a fictional character that you may identify with instead.
You identify with this character because there may be something you and the character have in common. Best commonalities to explore would be values as opposed life events.
Randy Ingermanson has a great expression that your character can speak in their character voice to establish values.
Your character says: “Nothing is more important to me than…â€
You feel in the blank.
Flesh your character based on traits that don’t reflect on your areas of your life that you feel are private.
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