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@Courtney562

Courtney562

Last seen: Mon 17 May, 2021

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 topic : Re: I’m having a rough time starting my second book in my series. Is this normal? I am a young author writing a fantasy series. When I was writing the first book, it was easy and words literally

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Starting a book can be extremely difficult. So yes, it is very normal.
Some books are just easier to start, some are harder. To overcome this, you can skip the beginning, just for now. Some writers don't write from the start to the beginning. They write from the end to the beginning. Or maybe you could write the middle, and end, and then return to the beginning when you are ready or done.
This happens to me too. I feel lost, but I still, know where I'm going. When I feel this, I usually think something like, "My writing's not good, maybe I will have to start a new draft." If you have similar thoughts criticizing your work, just ignore those thoughts and keep on writing. The first draft is the hardest, so it is okay if it's not perfect at the start.

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 topic : Re: Can the villain be introduced too late? An important aspect of my story is the dread of my villain. He is slowly built up throughout the story, with a bunch of characters here and there talking

Courtney562 @Courtney562

No. Your story is not taking too long to get to the villain.
I think that having your antagonist physically show up later is fine. This is making me think of Voldemort, the main antagonist in the Harry Potter series. Voldemort doesn't physically appear until it reaches near the end. And then the chapters before that introduce the problem, and occasionally talk about Voldemort doing all sorts of evil things, like murder, torture, that sort of stuff.
Having your book a 100k word length, while your antagonist only appears in 1k words...it might make your readers feel a bit cheated. I would suggest that your antagonist physically appears somewhere like 1/4 of the story. It makes the readers feel a bit more satisfied. Because 1k is particularly short...but I think that building up the reputation of the villain might fill that in a bit.
Your novel actually sounds interesting, other than that. A little suggestion for you is to make the secondary villains difficult to fight. Maybe just moderately difficult. The main antagonist probably should be more frightening than them all, so making the secondary characters look intimidating, and also coming across the fact that the main villain is probably more scarier...it builds a lot of tension and mystery.

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 topic : 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

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Posted in: #Copyright #CreativeWriting #Fantasy #Plagiarism

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 a self-published author had the same invented name for her kingdom; only the spelling differed by one letter.
I really don’t want to change my kingdom’s name, but I also don’t want to face anything legal. Is this considered copyright infringement, or is it okay to move forward with publishing my book as is?
Thank you in advance for any help/advice anyone has to offer.

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 topic : You absolutely can write a book even if you are behind school work! I started writing my own novel when I was about your age! While it's quite brilliant for you to have a ambition like

Courtney562 @Courtney562

You absolutely can write a book even if you are behind school work! I started writing my own novel when I was about your age!
While it's quite brilliant for you to have a ambition like that, this website's policy is for users 13 and older.
Good luck on your writing journey!!!

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 topic : Re: Is it all right to write a memoir like a novel? I wanted to share my true story as if I were writing a fictional story. For example, the author Terry McMillan's novel called, "Disappearing

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Absolutely! Many authors have already done it before. I think that writing your memoir as a novel makes it more engaging. Many authors have already done it before, such as the book "Educated by Tara Westover.

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 topic : What qualifies for an antagonist? I'm a young author writing a realism-fantasy novel. My "antagonist" is this man who sends the protagonist away against his daughter's wishes(this is the

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Posted in: #Antagonist #CharacterDevelopment #Characters #CreativeWriting #Fiction

I'm a young author writing a realism-fantasy novel. My "antagonist" is this man who sends the protagonist away against his daughter's wishes(this is the climax of the story). He does it sort of for the safety of his family, but also does it for money. However, the "antagonist" isn't evil; he is just a broken and cruel man who loves his daughter on the inside.
Could he be mean enough to be considered the antagonist(similar to Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter, evil and someone you really hate, but not exactly the someone really evil to be considered a villain)?

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 topic : Words use to describe racing heartbeat I think that it is too simple just to use "my heart pounded." I prefer something a little bit more elaborated. What sentence can I use besides

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Posted in: #Description #WordChoice

I think that it is too simple just to use "my heart pounded." I prefer something a little bit more elaborated. What sentence can I use besides from "my heart pounded?" Maybe you can include your own paragraph, or borrow a paragraph from a published work. I plan to use these answers for inspiration in my own novel.

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 topic : Re: All my characters sound the same. How can I change this? I am writing a fantasy series. I am a new writer. I am almost done with the first draft of the first book, I have about 400 pages.

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Hmm, that's a good question. Now that I think about it, I feel like my story also has the same problem!
So I think that to make your characters talk differently. Let me give you a example. Let's have a poetic girl, a average girl, and the cool girl. The poetic girl's greetings might sound poetic, the average girl might greet someone with a casual "hi, how are you?", while the cool girl might be something like "what's up?"
This answer sounds a bit cringey, but I hope you get the idea. Hope this helps! Good luck on your writing journey!

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 topic : How to give your characters enough dialogue? In my story, there are quite a lot of characters. It can be difficult for me to give them dialogue. For example, let's say that there are a five

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Posted in: #Characters

In my story, there are quite a lot of characters. It can be difficult for me to give them dialogue. For example, let's say that there are a five friends at a party. I would run into a habit of having only two of the characters speak. Is there a way I can distribute dialogue when there is a lot of characters?

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 topic : Re: 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

Courtney562 @Courtney562

If I understand correctly, you're asking roughly the following:

In most fiction, characters may be broadly classified as "good" or "evil." A good character is by default helpful, friendly, kind, and refuses to kill without good cause; an evil character is hurtful, deceitful, and does not value human life.
In D&D, characters may also be broadly classified as "lawful" or "chaotic." A lawful character values predictability, and will try to learn and follow society's rules all the time (even if those rules seem personally disadvantageous to him at the moment). A chaotic character values unpredictability (even if the "unpredictable" course of action involves personal risk), and does not value society's rules at all.
In Nyarworld, characters may be broadly classified as "blue" or "orange."
As the writer, how do I get my readers to understand what a blue character is like?
How do I get my readers to understand what an orange character is like?

See the problem? Without knowing what you mean by "blue" and "orange," we can't possibly explain to you how to explain it!
Step 1 is for you yourself to have some mental idea of what you mean.
Step 2 is to come up with some concrete examples. Pick a scenario from the plot (or just invent one), and explain in writing what a blue character would do, and then explain in writing what an orange character would do. In particular, explain what Bob would do, assuming that this was the moment that his blueness really chose to assert itself; and explain what Alice would do, assuming that this was the moment that her orangeness really chose to assert itself.
Do Step 2 a few times.
Step 3 might be to read over those scenarios and try to extract the commonalities and express them in English. Or, you might just take those scenarios and put them into the story, so that the reader ends up seeing what blue and orange characters do.
In short: Show, don't tell.

UPDATE to add: Clearly some concrete examples would help. Perhaps your "blue-morality" characters all agree on the innate moral value of shiny objects. Er... well, that's just Gollum, I guess, so you don't need my help to write that. Well, it's Nyarlathotep, so maybe what he wants is to return to a primordial state, recreate his ancient dominion — er, that's just "nostalgia" or "desire for the comforts of home," so you don't need my help to write that. Maybe he wants to Kill All Humans, like the Daleks? (There's an example of characters that are hard to relate to!) Well, figure out Nyarlathotep's personality as it relates to his underlying motivation to Kill All Humans; are we to him as ants are to us? Can we use words like "nuisance" or "disgust" to frame his attitude?
Then, the trick is, once you the writer know that key idea that explains his motivation, don't tell the reader in those words. Keep those words your writerly secret, and show his attitudes — basically, make him act "in character."
When all else fails, the Rule of Cool still applies; I don't think anyone ever complained that they couldn't grok Dracula's motivation.

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 topic : Re: Do publishers and editors require a certain font for the manuscript? I was about to print my manuscript when a sudden thought occurred to me, do publishers require a certain font? I didn’t

Courtney562 @Courtney562

First off, congratulations on finishing your manuscript. To answer your question, I'm going to quote an excellent writing book called The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman. He talks about a lot of common writing problems from the point of view of an agent or editor, so it tells you a lot about what turns agents and editors off from your manuscript and what you can do to fix that. The very first chapter is about presentation, and he talks about font there:

Your text should be printed in black ink, in a 12-point type font. [...] If your font is too large, [...] it will look abnormal, [...] or too small, [...] it will be hard to read--the last thing you want to give to someone who is overburdened with reading. [...] If you're unsure of the size, always err on the side of making your font too large.

I'll grant you, this book is twenty years old, so things may have changed, but he doesn't specifically mention that one particular font is preferred or required over any others. He just asks that you use a plain, ordinary, easy-to-read font, printed cleanly, not too small, double-spaced and with one-inch margins on either side. He also recommends not using lots of different fonts in the same manuscript.
Having said that. I don't know how many publishers are accepting Internet queries these days, but it seems like it would be a good idea to check that first, before printing anything. Maybe a better plan would be to search for publishers, especially those who specialize in your genre (I'm assuming this is fiction; if not, then your type of work), make a list of the ones who look the most promising, and find out their requirements for manuscript submissions. That way, you can avoid doing anything that would get you rejected out of hand, before anyone even sees your manuscript. If they accept virtual submissions, you won't have to print at all!
Also, as a side note, even if you do need to send in a traditional printed manuscript, it's not recommended to send the entire work in a query. One or two chapters alone should suffice. But again, this is a generalization, and you should make sure you're aware of the requirements of the publishers you're querying!
Once again, congratulations, and good luck!

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 topic : Re: Order of body paragraphs/examples in essay writing Short version: In an essay that aims to persuade and leave an impact on the reader (which also involves making it flow logically), is it more

Courtney562 @Courtney562

So, quickly, my credentials:

When I was in high school (admittedly quite a few years ago), I took both AP English courses, passed with 5s, and wrote many persuasive essays with excellent teachers who frequently had extremely high passing rates.
As a high school student and for a few years after, I tutored students for the SAT, including the essay section, and have had students go from scores in the 10s to scores in the 20s reliably.
I still to this day beta read and edit student essays.

The comments indicate this was originally for an examination, so it is with this experience that I would recommend starting with the smallest scale example and work your way towards larger.
When you write your thesis statement, you will have to include all of your basic arguments are in it in the order which they occur in the essay. So, your introduction will include the most global example and it will be the final and, thus, most memorable part of the thesis statement. Your reader will not have to slog through your personal example just to know if there's anything else.
(I know that phrasing sounds a bit harsh, but as a reader I've seen many students fall for the trap that their interpretation of a meaningful event in their lives translates to an effective argument. You have to prove that it does with evidence.)
If a reader is not convinced by your first argument, they may be tempted to skim. Teachers, professors, teaching assistants, and standardized test graders all have many essays to read. If their skimming is rewarded with bigger examples with meatier analysis, they'll be more tempted to stop skimming and continuing reading. If their skimming is rewarded with many "I" and "my" statements, they may not be as tempted because of my point above that those examples tend to be weaker and more lacking in analysis.
From there, the essay progresses nicely to the conclusion. The conclusion should include an even more macro scale argument—if possible, an attempt at a universal truth—as well as a one-sentence summary of why your arguments and examples above prove what it is you're trying to prove. This sentence will present your arguments again in the order that they were presented in the essay, so again the largest example will be the final part and leave the most lasting impression.

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 topic : Re: Improving my story opening? I'm writing a story about a woman driving cross-country in search of her childhood home. There, she discovers the small town has grown to a suburban sprawl, and she's

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Ignoring content, a few things stand out.
One, you shift tenses. You say "Grace isn't sure..." and then "Grace came upon...". Stick to one tense. If it were me, and you're already going for a distant POV, past tense might be my choice, but that's up to you.
Two, you have a few extraneous commas in your compound verbal phrases in the first paragraph.

... And, of course, things have changed. Highway 9 now avoids towns it
used to pass right through and curves in places she remembers being
straight. Saltwater Pond is now a mere puddle and has more roads
leading to it than she remembers.

Removing them keeps the reader from pausing unnaturally.
Three, as a small thing, there's a bit of repetition that might could be eliminated. If you go on to describe changes, and you're not trying to use a deep POV where the character is internally reflecting on "my, my, how things have changed!", you can just cut that line. You can also cut out the "in fact" for the same reason.

When Grace goes looking for the Woodbridge's house, in Gardner Valley,
it's been years since she was in this part of the country. Highway 9 now avoids towns it used to pass right through and curves in places she remembers being
straight. Saltwater Pond is now a mere puddle and has more roads
leading to it than she remembers. She doesn't remember any
roads, just a mock gravel path looping lazily around its borders.

But, ultimately, these are little things. I think that what your opening paragraphs may be missing is a real hook. Lots of places change, and the reader doesn't know about this place or have any reason to be invested yet. This is also a bit of a trope on its own as a beginning: a character stuck in a car on their way to something that'll help kick off the plot.
What you could try to do is obscure why Grace is having trouble finding things. She's looking for her childhood home, but the reader doesn't know that. I don't know her character, but if she's desperately trying to find something that she can't grasp anymore, there'd be anger and resentment that might show up at red lights she almost runs, stop signs she almost misses, and other drivers' dismay that someone's going too slow in the left lane because they're trying to ask Siri how far away they are. These are more emotional hooks. The reader has to decide whether they want or suspect Grace will be in an accident. These scenes show her lost, and it'd be up to you later to explain why.

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 topic : 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

Courtney562 @Courtney562

I agree with others that alliteration is a tool, but I'd also think about whether alliteration can serve other purposes.
This is a technique that's common in Roman poetry: using the sounds of what's being described as onomatopoeic alliteration.

She cut the cucumber on the cutting board.

This imitates the sound of the chopping of the knife.

Bill stared at the sloshy ocean foam sliding against the boat.

"S" sounds for the sloshy waves.

Aru sat on the couch, sipped her beer, and speculated about her career path.

Each "s" sound is a sip of her beer.

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 topic : Re: Do thesis statements have to follow a specific order? I am 40 years old, returning to college a second time. I have just been informed by my teacher that a thesis statement must always list

Courtney562 @Courtney562

If this is an undergraduate course, your instructor has the right idea. I think you're focused a little too much on the ordering part to hear the full idea of what a good thesis statement is.
Nothing is communicated with "Enkidu and Grendel have similarities." Any two of anything will contain at least some similarities.
I'm not familiar enough with those two characters to continue with that example, but hopefully the idea of "Voldemort and Darth Vader have similarities" communicates the same type of statement and is not a thesis statement. "Voldemort and Darth Vader are similar because both are victims of abusive childhoods, have complicated relationships with their families, and inspire fear with distinctive scary facial features" is a thesis statement.
Thus, armed with a three-pronged thesis statement, you spend the next parts of your essay providing evidence for each argument of your thesis. The thesis above has no evidence built in. You have to prove that they had abusive childhoods and this affects their later actions with examples from the movies, facts about psychology, similar historical accounts, whatever. And then do that for the next two arguments.
This is why the instructor recommended following the same order. It's a logical flow. To go from that sentence to something other than the first point is a disruption of that flow.

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 topic : Re: Using "now" from a character's POV The story is written in 3rd person POV, close. But I feel like the very last end feels jarring. He trailed his hand along the railing as he climbed the

Courtney562 @Courtney562

I don't know if "Not now" changes the depth of the POV, but I would argue that both of those last two sentences are repeating the sentence before it. If it's so close to his chance, we know he can't afford an injury right now. There's a few other instances of repetition I might eliminate that make for more concise narration.

so he could catch himself if he fainted or if his legs gave out from
under him.

He's going to fall with either of those events. You can use either of those alone to convey the full consequence.

it wouldn’t do at all if he fell and busted his face open

If he falls, is it expected he'll bust his face open? If he busts his face open, is it easily assumed that it's from a fall?
If we squeeze out some of those repetitions, we could get something like this that still maintains the deep POV.

He trailed his hand along the railing as he climbed the stairs so he
could catch himself if his legs gave out from under
him. He was too close to fighting for the title to ruin his chances by busting his face open.

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 topic : Re: Does the main character have to be likable? I am often hearing / reading that the main character of your story should be likable or even if flawed should be something about them to get the

Courtney562 @Courtney562

I recently read through the short story Trapalanda by Charles Sheffield. In the 25-page or so story, the main character is rather unlikeable. He is selfish, sexist, and jealous of another disabled character. These are all bad traits, but they, along with the premise, make the story interesting regardless.
What's more, over the course of the story, we learn why the main character is the way he is. And although these revelations don't change how we feel about who the character is, it does help justify why he is. And these revelations, coupled with the fact that the story is written from a first-person perspective, mean we grow to understand and relate to the main character even when we may not agree with his choices.
Finally, without going into too much detail, the main character does not really complete his journey. The story leaves off on a positive note, but putting some thought into what lies ahead of him makes it seem pretty futile that he will achieve his goals. That being said, there is a narrative arc, and we see the completion of the journey through the lens of the other characters in the story.
I think these points definitely prove that a main character can be unlikeable, especially at first, but over the course of the story, if we get hooked by the premise, learn to relate to the character, and see the completion of the journey, then it's still a good story. If you ask me if I enjoyed reading through Trapalanda, my answer is yes, even if I didn't like the main character.

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 topic : My character is a child abductor; can he drive a brand-name car? I'm about to self-pub my first novel, a domestic thriller with a time-travel twist, and in the story, one of my main characters

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Posted in: #Fiction #Legal #Libel

I'm about to self-pub my first novel, a domestic thriller with a time-travel twist, and in the story, one of my main characters abducts a child (he's not a pedophile).
He owns a 1970 Barracuda--the car that he uses in the abduction--and I'm wondering if I'll run into any libel/legal issues with that. I don't mention the make (Plymouth).
Similarly, my other character, a charismatic pediatrician and all-around good guy drives a Tesla. From what I've researched, that shouldn't be a problem, nor should the fact that my MC drives a "beat-up, dependable old Civic".
Hoping for some definitive advice on this subject!

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 topic : 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

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Posted in: #Fiction #Novel

Should foreign language personal titles be capitalized in English fiction text?
E.g. "How are you, Señor Rojas?"
Do we follow English language rules for capitalization?
In Spanish it would read:
Cómo está señor Rojas?

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 topic : What is the authority on literary terms and phrases I'm thinking of terms like Character Development, Character Progression, Character Growth, Character Regression, Narrative Arc, Main Character,

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Posted in: #Resources #Terminology

I'm thinking of terms like Character Development, Character Progression, Character Growth, Character Regression, Narrative Arc, Main Character, Protagonist, Supporting Cast, Side Character, Deuteragonist, Antagonist
A lot of these terms have overlapping meanings, and sometimes spark debates online about what they mean. Depending on who is talking, character development is used in online discussions to refer to either:

a character possessing a clear or strong narrative arc

or

a round, or thoroughly fleshed out character

Another example where the terms seem to get muddy: Do you call Killua from the Japanese manga Hunter x Hunter a main character, or a side character? If he is a side character how is his status different from say Bisky from the same series (a character with less prominence than the "main circle" of characters). If he is a main character, how is he different from say Gon (the character who's perspective is the one we follow most of the time)
In the case of the former, I feel like there should be some authoritative source I can point to so as to clear up confusion when discussing writing with other people without it just being "because I said that's what it means". In the case of the latter, I am not sure what I should refer to these characters as myself.
I found the following answer for a question that is worded very similarly: Source for literary terms?
The problem with this answer is the glossary in question does not define the terms in question (the first thing I search for is character development)
Once upon a time every blog and dictionary you could find all agreed on the definition of character development, but over time more sources have been appearing for the looser (and perhaps lazy) definition. So I'm overall less trustful of writing blogs when they define "main character" and "side character", and they don't even seem to completely agree.
I also consulted "A DICTIONARY OF Literary Terms and Literary Theory: FIFTH EDITION J. A. CUDDON" and had similar results, no definition for character development

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 topic : Re: How can I make my roleplay sentences more interesting, and less lengthy? For the past four months, I've been writing back and forth with a friend of mine in a form of roleplay. Depending on

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Practice, practice, practice. The more you write, the better you'll get at coming up with new ways to tell stories.
It helps to write with others, who can help vary your writing style by injecting some variance into your format. One thing I've done is to have a different writer take on each character in the story, taking turns to add to the narrative — this is loosely described as text-based roleplay, and something I've had great success with for many years.
If you want to give this a shot, stop by our roleplaying community and introduce yourself; we've got tons of people you can collaborate with and an entire team of mentors who can help.

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 topic : How should endorsements be used? I have a long and analytic article. By its nature, it's hard to get clicks, and even raise skepticism. Luckily, I have an endorsement from a person who is

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Posted in: #Endorsement

I have a long and analytic article. By its nature, it's hard to get clicks, and even raise skepticism. Luckily, I have an endorsement from a person who is regarded as expert in the field, and I am permitted to use that endorsement.
How should I present that endorsement effectively? Should I put it at the top to catch more eyes, or at the bottom to leave the introduction first? How should I present it so that people won't perceive it as bragging?
I'm gonna put it in the red rectangle.

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 topic : Can I use a print on demand service for my novel with an explicit scene? I am looking to print the first novel I ever wrote for personal use—one physical copy to sit on my bookshelf as

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Posted in: #Fiction #PrintOnDemand #SelfPublishing

I am looking to print the first novel I ever wrote for personal use—one physical copy to sit on my bookshelf as a token for completing the first one (there have been multiple after this one). This leaves me looking at print-on-demand options which I've been exploring and came to no conclusions.
And then a co-worker told me this: Some POD services won't publish explicit content. I hadn't thought of this when I first started looking, and now I'm concerned that my book will be rejected for printing after sending it off. My novel definitely doesn't fit in the erotica category, although it is a romance of sorts. There is one extended explicit scene that is relevant to a character's development, but it's not intended to be read as pornography or for sexual enjoyment; I think it is obvious that the characters are not entirely comfortable with each other.
I did some looking around and found that this might be flagged for explicit content and would not be published, at least on Barnes & Noble Press. They were the only site that dealt with explicit content within the FAQ. Other sites like Lulu or IngramSpark didn't seem as up front about it, in that they didn't say yes or no.
My question is: should I be worried about this? Like I said, the book is not being distributed and would just be one copy, for me. Does it make sense to go through a company like Lulu or are there better alternatives?

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 topic : 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

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Depends on how long they've been reading.
When I first saw the Harry Potter books and movies, I compared them to Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea, a significant fraction of which centered around Ged's time in the School of Wizards on Roke ("at the center of the world"). In today's world, however, there are probably a hundred times as many people who have read the Potter books or seen the movies, as who have read the excellent Earthsea books. Others might think of the correspondence course from Bedknob and Broomstick either the two books, or the Disney movie that combined them. Or Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle, though the school was very much a minor side note in that. Brakebill's, the college in The Magicians, was billed as "Harry Potter but for adults". And never mind that the only similarity was a school dedicated to teaching magic.
But with a series that went above and beyond those (including the ones that were decades earlier -- Earthsea dates to the 1960s and Bedknob and Broomstick to the 1950s) to become a multi-billion dollar franchise, there's no way to avoid the comparison. If you want to distinguish yourself from Potter and Hogwarts, you need a more different world -- not just Hogwarts with twelve houses and more elective coursework.

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 topic : Re: A peculiar problem in my writing skills I have a problem and I'm not sure how common it is. I have often heard people say that reading will, just by pure habit, always develop the writing

Courtney562 @Courtney562

This problem is not peculiar. In my long career as a book editor, I have encountered many writers who have an intuitive grasp of writing but cannot analyze a problem or articulate the grammatical issues involved. I developed this skill in myself by reading many books on grammar and usage (popular books, not textbooks). A book favored by many writers and editors today is Garner's Modern English Usage by Bryan Garner.

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 topic : To facepalm or not to facepalm How would you describe a facepalm in a more formal sense? For example, he rubbed his head with his hand. Or, he rubbed his temples. Basically, my character here

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Posted in: #Characters #CreativeWriting

How would you describe a facepalm in a more formal sense?
For example, he rubbed his head with his hand. Or, he rubbed his temples.
Basically, my character here is really annoyed at the stupidity of another and so he's sighing and 'facepalming'.
Just something better than 'he facepalmed'.

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 topic : Re: How can I show a character's emotions through a phone call? When writing face-to-face dialogue, I like to give clues as to what the non-POV character is thinking and feeling through their actions.

Courtney562 @Courtney562

You also have the reaction scene from the POV to process that phone call to make their hidden feelings clear. You can use body language of the POV you're following but yes pitch and what they're hands are or aren't doing is also another.

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 topic : Well you're young for starters for me when I was young yes I could never finish a book or series I wrote on Fan Fiction the only ones I got through were opened ended by defult or were

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Well you're young for starters for me when I was young yes I could never finish a book or series I wrote on Fan Fiction the only ones I got through were opened ended by defult or were made to be one short event. I believe this was due to not knowing my ending I just wrote as it came up mostly starting in the middle of the action.

I think it's great you want to do this at nine two books I've found useful would be (1) Writing Demystified by Thomas B Sawyer - while its covering mostly the old TV show Murder she Wrote he really breaks down how a series is written and gives tons of insight into things that also co-align with writing novels, screenplays, ect. (2)Story Trumps Structure by Donald Mass - he is a mix of prepper and pantser meaning he plans a bit but writes with no plan at other points he goes over tips on how to do this so you can finish your book. I've learned before reading his book I was no planner I tried but his mix hybrid style is how I've been doing it my works for years and I'm writing the biggest project ever a book series so....

Just also remember writing is hard you are making it all from nothing or next to it so just get it written take a lot a notes so you can keep track of some important things but just get it down, edit it later, your first (and possibly several thereafter) drafts aren't going to be perfect you can fix it later just get it out and down and you will slowly learn what and who your characters are and dream up far better concepts to express that as you go onward.

If you need somethings to get your writings organized beyond Word a ALOT of folders you can try Y-writer its free and really easy for set up but once you learn your project needs to grow you can do Scrivener it's not a lot of money (I think ) but it is a massive black hole when you're starting out and your young it might look impossible to use but just use it as a research storage area and filing system with their collections feature I find it best to have copies of my billion notes in Scriv because when I go to the collection I want its just there.

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 topic : 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

Courtney562 @Courtney562

Posted in: #CreativeWriting #Editing #Grammar #Punctuation #Style

If an Australian writer writes a story based in America or another country that uses American English, should you change your spelling to American English, or continue using British English? Is this more of an editing technicality, or is this something that the writer needs to be mindful of?

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