@Dunderdale623
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: Re: Can I use they/them pronouns in a medieval style fantasy novel? I'm writing a book and I'd really love to include a person with they/them pronouns. However, the novel takes place in a sort
Can I use they/them pronouns in a medieval style fantasy novel?
A simple answer is that you can but your characters can't.
Thus, when you describe the character's actions, you use gender-neutral pronouns but when the characters speak, they use "he" or "she" according to how they perceive the person.
Part of your plot could refer to them struggling to find acceptance in a medieval world but in fact if you read about Joan of Arc and other famous people in history, you will find that perceived gender was not much of an obstacle.
Cross-dressing, gender identity, and sexuality of Joan of Arc
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: Re: When editing, should I use track changes? I want to keep a file for each of my editing stages throughout my self-editing process. Should I use track changes when I am editing so that I can
This is a matter of personal preference. To me, it makes a lot of sense to track all changes I make. I even take it a step further and use git as a source control system for writing, which gives me access to a full history of all changes and the ability to arbitrarily revert and even branch/merge when I want to. This probably wouldn't work with Word, though, as it's designed for text-based-formats. I use it with LaTeX.
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: As an author, can I afford to get emotionally attached to my work? It's said that to be a good writer you ought to "Write what you feel and feel what you write." While this sounds
It's said that to be a good writer you ought to "Write what you feel and feel what you write." While this sounds logical, I sometimes find that being too attached to my work cramps my writing style and stymies my ability to think critically and analytically.
But at the same time, I cannot write about topics which don't inspire me. Writing about something which does not inspire me and excite me, makes writing sher torture: A dull, drab and boring affair.
So where should I draw the line?
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: Copyright issues when using images from a TV show in my book I'm writing an episode guide for a TV show and I think it would be helpful to include a couple of screenshots/images from each
I'm writing an episode guide for a TV show and I think it would be helpful to include a couple of screenshots/images from each episode plus maybe 4 or 5 more images throughout the book. What is the legal position in doing this? I'm in the UK but it would probably be useful to know the situation globally as well as in the UK for this.
I'm thinking that it could be construed as fair use as I'm not copying the work and the usage is in context with the discussion but I naturally don't want to be sued for copyright infringement. Especially when I don't expect my book to sell more than a few hundred copies!
I've seen this question (Copyright of a TV series when used as reference?) which implies that using screenshots could be ok but it doesn't really answer my question.
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: Everyone has a book in them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay. Does that apply to me? Everyone has a book in them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay I'm not
Everyone has a book in them, but in most cases that’s where it should
stay
I'm not an author. I'm retired. The last time I wrote fiction was probably an essay when I was 10 years old.
For years a fictional story has been taking place in my mind. There are important characters and they have struggles.
There are two timelines for the main two characters. What happens in their early life affects what happens when they are older. To make this work for a reader I would have to intertwine these stories, jumping from one to the other.
The problem
I have no narrative writing experience and especially I have no experience of structuring a fictional work, let alone with interacting timelines. Basically I have no experience of writing fiction.
As a musician, I'm aware that you don't just pick up an instrument for the first time and immediately start playing a virtuoso concerto. It takes years of practice.
Question
I only have one story in me (that I'm aware of). I have no writing skills. How should I tackle writing this story?
(a) Practice writing lots of other short stories that I'm not particularly interested in. Would that even help?
(b) Write a draft. Leave it aside for a year and come back to see if makes sense?
(c) Something else I haven't thought of?
Or, I suppose, just keep it in my head and not write it at all.
Note
I could just keep it in my head. However if I invest in writing it, I would want others to read it. Yet I have no confidence that a first novel would be any good. After that I don't have any ideas that I want to publish so I would have wasted my best story as a learning experience.
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: 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
Reading what you've told me, I can understand why you might be confused. First "Parallelism" is a grammar technique where the structure of your sentences run in parallel to each other (e.g., sentence 1 has a structure X, sentence 2 has a structure X' that is a mirror reflection of sentence 1's structure). Second, with respect to the thesis structure, think of it like this:
X "Because" (W,Y,Z,...)
X is whatever position you are taking (e.g., Enkidu and Grendel share several similarities) and (W,Y,Z,...) are the positions that help prove your position X to be the case. For Example, if you are writing a paper on the fact you believe that Enkidu and Grendel are similar (i.e., you are trying to prove the case that they are similar), then your thesis is 'Grendel and Enkidu are to similar to each other' "Because" 'They are mythological figures, Considered to be animalistic and beastly, and Are mythological antiheroes'
Then in the rest of your paper, you will argue for why the (X,Y,Z,...) components of your thesis prove true the X component. Typically speaking, your introduction provides context to what subject you're talking about, but no evidence in support of your thesis since your thesis is supposed to come at the very end of the introduction.
As far as the highlighting part goes, in my opinion, English teachers tend to grasp at straws when explaining pretty much anything. So don't put too much emphasis on what highlighting actually means.
Also, your university writing center should be able to be a resource helpful in this area.
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: How can concurrent/dual dialogue be implemented in short story/fiction writing? I am currently writing a short story that has two intertwined narratives told in inverse chronological order from
I am currently writing a short story that has two intertwined narratives told in inverse chronological order from each other. The two narratives meet/converge at the moment the protagonists receive information about the consequences of a particular action (the main conflict of the narratives), and diverging from each other thereafter. Instead of having the exposition twice (there is no difference in the information relayed), I am trying to interleave the information in a way where there is no redundancy to the reader, but still maintains the inverse chronology of the narratives. Are there any efficient ways to go about this?
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: Re: How can I indicate time passing? There is a scene in which my main character is hiding from the villain while they are both in the same room. I want this to be a suspenseful and agonizing
The MC glanced at his watch/mobile phone. A whole hour had passed already and he was beginning to get ...
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: Re: I want to write about a suicide, how should I do it? I want to have a book (or multiple) have a suicide in it, and I want to write the suicide. I don't know how exactly to go about that.
This is indeed a real danger if you write about suicide. The effect is known as copycat suicide or suicide contagion, and it can indeed be triggered by reading - one of the most famous early examples was The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe, a novel in which the protagonist commits suicide which came out near the end of the 18th century and caused a spike of suicides among young men at the time. (You'll sometimes find the phenomenon called "The Werther effect" as a result.)
The good news is that because this is such a risk, you're not alone. If you Google "suicide depiction", "suicide depiction fiction" and the like you will find many guidelines compiled by interested parties such as mental health organizations for how to write about suicide without triggering this. A lot of them are for journalism, in order to prevent suicide clusters arising from careless reporting (example: WHO guidelines, Reporting on Suicide website), but some of the journalism advice is applicable to fiction as well. There are also some guidelines specifically for fiction, such as the Action Alliance Recommendations for Depicting Suicide or the Samaritans Guide to Depicting Suicide in Literature.
Some of the advice:
Do not show the method of suicide. (This varies from "don't depict it in detail" to "don't in any way say or allude to what the method was" in different guidelines, but basically everyone agrees that this is the big one to avoid.)
Don't show the suicide note, if there is one.
Depict it as a complex situation that was the result of multiple factors instead of caused by a single issue or event
Try to avoid portraying the suicide as having a positive outcome - bullies regretting their behaviour, estranged parents getting back together, any way in which the character gets what they want by suicide
Don't glamorize it. Don't show it as a quick, painless escape from the character's problems.
Include a content warning, but be aware this isn't a fail-safe - not everyone vulnerable to suicide contagion at that moment may be aware of it.
Of note: I haven't found anything specifically talking about the emotional depiction as of yet, but a lot of the guidelines are for journalism or movies where it wouldn't apply. My past experience as a depressed teenager leads me to think an in-depth depiction of someone deciding to kill themselves and carrying it out could also be highly dangerous - at the very least, it's the sort of thing I would have steered far away from for safety reasons when I was depressed.
In general, I urge you to do the research because there really are a lot of resources here. And regarding your specific question... I'd suggest you really think about whether showing the actual suicide is necessary for your story. You can achieve a ton of emotional impact by fading to black at certain points or using another POV, with far less risk.
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: Re: Switching from past to present tense in fiction writing Is it acceptable to switch to present tense when writing in third person POV past tense? (Not only within dialog.) For example:
Like F1Krazy said, you can do it if you turn your first example into a single sentence separated by a comma.
However, the reason for this is that "Their footsteps echoing through the hall" is not present tense! "Echoing" is a participle, and the whole thing is a phrase/subclause which modifies the main sentence. (A nominative absolute including a participle, apparently, for those interested in the grammar.) This means that:
it must be attached to a main clause, and
said main clause can be past tense with no problems.
Present tense would be
Their footsteps echo through the hall
or (present progressive)
Their footsteps are echoing through the hall
and you can definitely not use either of those in combination with your first, past tense sentence.
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: Re: How to quote an inanimate object When I write something that an object, like a clock, says should it be as though I was referring to a character talking (e.g. The clock read "1:13") or without
It depends on message from the object. If, like a clock, it is simply showing some information, then quotes don't fit the need. To use your clock example,
The blinding red digits on the alarm clock said it was 4:13 AM. Time to catch a quick nap before the daylight, and the next attack.
If the clock were more of an anthropomorphic character:
The blinding red digits burned forth from my aging alarm clock. The dial showed 4:13 AM, but the clock shouted to me, "Again, you have no time to sleep! Again! When will this change?"
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: What can I ask my readers to help me and how? I have a growing non-fiction blog about challenging existing dogmas in my culture, and it has been attracting a good amount of readers. However
I have a growing non-fiction blog about challenging existing dogmas in my culture, and it has been attracting a good amount of readers. However its growth is still not optimal, as they just read or want to meet me, not really commit to help me. I don't want to be greedy or arrogant, but I think I can ask them if they can help me in some tasks, so that they can see the project growing, and I can have time to focus on writing new articles. I sincerely consider me as being overloaded right now. The tasks they may help includes:
Share it to other potential readers, either on their Facebook wall or via chat
Help me engage with other readers: manage pages, posts, comments
Write emails to other targets: publishers, people they don't know personally but probably see its importance in their work
My questions are:
Is this reasonable?
How should I approach them?
Related: What to ask next when people tell me that my article is excellent?
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: What makes a cliffhanger bad/good? In the second (not yet written) book of my novel series, the ending is a cliffhanger. A very hopeless one. The very hopelessness of it is deliberate. Not
In the second (not yet written) book of my novel series, the ending is a cliffhanger. A very hopeless one. The very hopelessness of it is deliberate. Not only am I signing them up for the next installment, but I'm shocking them in a way as to leave them traumatized and scared for the rest of the series (the books are generally quite hopeless and unforgiving). I want to create an everlasting suspense and fear for the characters by killing off a very narrative and plot important MC. Not only is his dead also instrumental for the plot, but as said, it serves to put the readers in the right mindset, and to contrast it with the first book's more hopeful ending.
But I am a bit scared of cliffhangers. Seeing the outrage over The Walking Dead's cliffhanger, I'd like to know the do's and dont's when it comes to creating one. Whereas The Walking Dead's cliffhanger centered around who a certain act was done to, my cliffhanger centers around what they're supposed to do next, in the coming book. What I suspect TWD did wrong is leaving the viewer with an annoyingly intense curiosity, and perhaps the lack of resolution factored in too. But with my cliffhanger, I feel like the death itself serves as a lot of resolution. And there are no annoying details left unanswered. The only question present is simply, what do we do next? In this way, the characters are as clueless as the readers.
But for all I know, this is an arbitrary difference, and the distinguishing of good and bad cliffhangers lies somewhere else. Perhaps there are no good cliffhangers? Or perhaps getting annoyed at cliffhangers is the issue itself?
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: How much traffic is considered to be publishable by publishers? Say I have a non-fiction blog that generate an amount of frequent readers. A publisher tells me that I can only publish when
Say I have a non-fiction blog that generate an amount of frequent readers. A publisher tells me that I can only publish when I can sell 2000 copies. How can I measure my traffic to know whether it's publishable or not?
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: When submitting an article to a journal, should the article be an attachment or a link to my blog? I have a research article (not really an article with academic standards, but display my
I have a research article (not really an article with academic standards, but display my analysis nevertheless) and I would like to submit it to a journal (not an academic one either, but has reputation). I wonder if I should attach the article as an attachment or a link?
Attachment: more trustworthy and convenient. But I would argue that opening a Word document is a pain in mobile, and isn't better than opening a link in computer
Link: can introduce other articles in it, and can have tracking tail to know whether the link is opened or not
So it seems that submitting it as a link has more pro than as an attachment. I foresee that there will be a concern that including the tracking link is not respecting the readers, but I suspect that if they are running a website already, they also do that to others as well.
A side question: how to get much feedback for my article, if it's rejected?
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: Type of binding and paper used I will be self-publishing a children book next year. The main format will be a board book, but seeing how expensive they are to make, transport and store. I'm
I will be self-publishing a children book next year. The main format will be a board book, but seeing how expensive they are to make, transport and store. I'm thinking about getting a bunch of normal books as well.
And this is where I got stuck, I don't know what paper and binding I need to use. Here are some books that have the format I would like to use:
The Teeny Weeny Tadpole by Sheridan Cain and Jack Tickle
Duck in the track by Jez Alborough
Open Very Carefully by Nicola O'byrne
Dinosaurs don't have bedtimes by Timothy Knapman
Silly Suzy Goose by Petr Horacek.
All of these books have similar binding and paper. If you have that book at home, could you let me know what binding and paper do they use?
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: Re: Thinking About Fantasy Names One of my favorite parts of writing is naming my people/places/systems. I look up synonyms of common words and add prefixes, or base things off of Latin roots, or
I started out like you, finding synonyms and working with them. But also, I look at languages that have a unique set of vowels and find their word for a feeling, noun or anything that represents my characters. Then I change them to roll easier when said out loud. One of my peoples have names inspired from arabic, one from sanskrit, one from old norse and my own language, norwegian.
Personally, I'm hesitant to use words derived from latin and greek, because when I do that, they look nothing like the rest. And that made quite a challenge when naming my tech. But my world is not earth and it doesn't make sense to me that my characters would use words like telephone, audio, aeroplane and so on in a galaxy where nobody had ever spoken greek or latin.
I love unique names, but they need to be easy to read. For instance, two sisters in my story have long names that looked okay at first. But then I realized they were hard to remember, even for me. I kept the names, but made a story of how they got their names. The sisters insists on shortening it to Sam and Hana. So that's what I as a narrator call them, too.
I tend to look for words that aren't used as much today, but readers will recognize them. Tools from a hundred years ago are excellent even as curse words or insults. And plants have thousands of names to choose from, whether you go for a less common used name or combine two.
Have fun writing :)
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: I abstain from using concise words in my writing, so as to "show" instead of "tell". Is this bad writing? Instead of explaining this whole practice, I'll rather give an example. In a scene
Instead of explaining this whole practice, I'll rather give an example. In a scene in my book, there is this character. This character is pompous and arrogant. I describe their gait shortly after their introduction, where using "pompous" would've been very informative (and concise). Instead, I describe their whole pompousness and arrogance through the collection of input they provide to the story.
Here is their introduction:
“It’s so sad seeing someone waste their lives in front of you. You’re just sitting there high out of your mind and looking blankly at a map, in the middle of class. Get a grip for fuck's sake,†a creaky voice buzzed into Alfie’s temple. He turned and saw Jenna. “Fuck off.†He turned back to his map and sighed. I’m not even high.
The bells rang and the school day was officially over. Most of the pupils were already on their way out as the riddling racket of the bells struck, whilst others were midway in the process of packing their books away. Alfie was, surprisingly, still at his desk, leaning on his chair with his arms behind his head. He was watching Jenna collectedly approach the teacher with whatever topic she was going to address. Alfie swore she walked up to the teacher's desk so often the outer lines of desks were shaped by her gait down the classroom.
Here is a collection of input on Jenna's personality, provided by both Jenna and Alfie. The individual pieces of input don't necessarily mean either arrogance or pompousness on their own, but it is all of them combined that hopefully shows the reader this. Walking collectedly doesn't need to mean you're pompous, but in the context, the reader is supposed to assume their outside "collectedness" is a product of that pompousness, as that makes sense with the context. Of course, it's not science, nothing is certain, it's all just to give the reader a feel of the character.
But doing it by showing the character feels a bit risky to me, sometimes. I am scared of too much ambiguity, leaving the character feeling empty, instead of invoking the reader with a feel of their personality. So, as I write, it think writing;
He was watching Jenna pompously approach...
This way, there is no ambiguity. My point comes across, undoubtedly and concisely. Because that's what it's about. Summarizing a part of her personality with one, concise word; pompous. But the problem her is that I'd be summarizing it. Telling, instead of showing. And that again leaves the characters feeling empty. At least, that's my understanding of it. So, which one is it? Should I use concise words to quickly get my points across, or should I take longer routes of giving the reader a feel of my points? Or is there some middle way?
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: Using different times for different narrative purposes I'm writing a biography. And I want it to be written in English, although I'm not a native speaker. Can I use different times to highlight
I'm writing a biography. And I want it to be written in English, although I'm not a native speaker. Can I use different times to highlight different narratives, like this:
Present - for describing events from point of view of the participants.
Past - for analysis from the author's point of view.
Future - for spoilers.
Is it a good idea for narrative in general? Also, is it ok for native English speakers?
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: How to write intercut scenes in a novel? I wish to write an intercut scene for a novel, where two very contrasting things are happening at the same time. The technique works really well on
I wish to write an intercut scene for a novel, where two very contrasting things are happening at the same time. The technique works really well on the screen, but I think we can use the same technique in a novel - especially for a built-up moment.
Any examples of this in novels or suggestions to best write it?
Thank you!
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: Re: How to "Start as close to the end as possible", and why to do so? Kurt Vonnegut has 8 tips on how to write a good story Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she
Having googled Kurt Vonnegut's writing tips, I found several different explanations of tip #5 . Since all explanations have some merit (as far as being useful advice), and since I don't know which one Vonnegut actually intended, I'll bring them all here.
The first explanation is the one Jedediah suggests: cut as much of the exposition as you can without sacrificing the story.
The second one goes: show right from the start where you're leading the story. In The Lord of the Rings we know from the second chapter onward that the goal of whatever happens is going to be the destruction of the Ring. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, we know it's all going towards blowing up the bridge. The reader shouldn't wonder where it's all going and why. (But he may well wonder how we're going to get there, and whether the goal will be achieved.)
The third explanation: try to bookend your story. By ending the story where you started it, or starting where you plan to end it, you show the journey that has been traversed in the course of the story. By showing something that hasn't changed, you're shining a spotlight on everything that has. An example would be The Lord of the Rings again, starting and ending in the Shire. But the characters have changed, and the world has changed. (More about bookends on tvtropes).
Again, I'm not sure which interpretation is the one Vonnegut had in mind, but I figure all of it is advice that might be useful.
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: Re: Double lies as sources of conflict in a single arc My protagonist lives with a deep lie that causes internal conflict and pain throughout the story but it basically cannot fuel any struggle
Human beings are complex and flawed creatures. We do not each have just the one flaw. We have multiple failings, and multiple lies we tell ourselves. Now, for a story one has to simplify reality somewhat - focus only on those lies and flaws that are conductive to telling the story. But if you simplify the story to the point of each character just having the one flaw, you've simplified your characters to the point that they're flat and made of cardboard.
Take a simple story: Othello. Othello is jealous, that's part of the story. There's a lie he's been told - that's another part. And there's an insecurity in him about his position as a stranger - Iago can play on this insecurity to fuel Othello's jealousy. And even then, it takes a certain mindset to proceed from jealousy to murdering your wife.
Take a different simple story: Harry Potter. Harry isn't very smart. His inability to think before acting is repeatedly used by Voldemort, in addition to landing him into trouble without Voldemort's involvement. In addition to that, Harry is rash, rather lazy, and that's before we add into the mix the misunderstandings and the lies from other characters.
Complex characters are interesting characters. Don't think of your characters as checklists of traits - think of them as people, with multiple strengths and weaknesses.
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: Re: How do I introduce dark themes? My story involves a superhuman organization that aims to overthrow the main government, through any means necessary. This involves murder and some rather gruesome
Four chapters in, your readers should have an idea what they're in for. Not everything that's going to happen, but certainly a hint. Once you've hinted that there is darkness, you can skirt it, turn your back on it for a while, or plunge right into it as you see fit in different parts of your story. But it can't just show up out of nowhere more than a quarter of the way through.
Yo mention Harry Potter, so I will use that as an example. Voldemort is in fact mentioned right in the first chapter, by Dumbledore and McGonagall:
'What they're saying,' she pressed on, 'is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead.'
Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.
'Lily and James ... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it ... Oh, Albus ...'
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, chapter 1 - The Boy Who Lived
Death isn't going to be brushed over in this story.
'It's - it's true?' faltered Professor McGonagall. 'After all he's done ... all the people he's killed ...
ibid
That Voldemort was a serious monster. And there's no sense of giving him this much page-time if that's the last we're going to hear of him.
After that first mention, we spend quite some time without anything "dark" happening. Hagrid mentions Voldemort and gives us more information about him when he meets Harry - we get another hint that Voldemort is important. But overall, most of the first book is "fun in magic-land". Nonetheless, there in the first chapter we saw a gun on the wall. When the gun fires, it's not out of the blue.
Every time Voldemort's attempted return is thwarted, the gun jams. But a gun that doesn't fire is boring. Eventually, the gun has got to fire, Voldemort has got to come back. In the first chapter of the first book we got a promise of darkness. Sooner or later, the promise has got to be realised. And each time the promise is repeated, our anticipation grows. So when Voldemort finally returns, there's got to be enough darkness to satisfy the promise.
That's what you've got to provide in your first chapters - a gun on the wall. Whatever your dark themes are, hint at them in the first chapters, hint some more a while later. When you need the darkness to finally show its face, you've got the gun on the wall - all you need is to take it off and pull the trigger.
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: Re: How to realistically describe pain? So, I was doing a writing excersie, I came up with, to help me with sentence structuring and developing my style. One thing, I ran into, however, was that
When I don't know how to do something, I look for examples of how somebody else did it. Here's an example from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. The main character, a wizard, had a kinetic shield spell ready, while the enemies came with a flamethrower. Turns out shield doesn't stop heat:
It hurt. Oh, God, it hurt. The fingers of my left hand were the first to feel it, and then my palm and wrist, all in the space of a second. If you've never been burned, you can't imagine the pain. And my fingers, where millions of tactile nerves were able to send panicked damage-messages to my brain, felt as if they had simply exploded and been replaced with howling agony.
I jerked my hand back, and felt my focus waver, the shield start to fade. I gritted my teeth, and somehow managed to dig up the strength to extend my hand again, hardening the shield and my will. I backed away in shuffling half steps, my mind almost drowning in pain, desperately keeping the shield up.
[...]
I saw blisters rising on my left hand. I felt my fingers curling into a claw. They looked thinner, as if made of melting wax, and I could see the shadows of my bones beneath the flesh.
Jim Butcher, Blood Rites, chapter 33
There are several things going on here.
First, there's what is happening. A man's hand is being burnt. You think of that, it makes you shiver. And there's detail: the fingers curling involuntarily, the flesh melting away from the bone. Your thought is made to linger on that uncomfortable shiver. You imagine the pain, you don't even need to be told that it hurts - you know it does.
Second, we are told that it's painful: "it hurt", "my mind almost drowning in pain". Such statements are empty on their own - we've heard them too often. But within the picture already created, they support the overall structure. They are like the cerebral part of the mind registering that "it hurts".
Third, "Oh God". This is the cry of pain that escapes one's lips, the loss of control. It's almost an involuntary reaction, very familiar to anyone who's experienced any sudden pain. It's an accent, and a signal.
Fourth, there is the description: "my fingers, where millions of tactile nerves were able to send panicked damage-messages to my brain, felt as if they had simply exploded and been replaced with howling agony". One image. You don't want more than one - it becomes confusing and repetitive. That one image makes the reader linger for a moment on imagining the pain - while they're reading this description, they cannot move on. This image needs to be sufficiently imaginative and brief - otherwise boredom sets in, we lose sympathy for the character. And again, it cannot stand on its own.
Do you need all those elements? Definitely not. They are tools you can use. And there are other tools, such as the physiological reaction to pain (dizziness, nausea, etc.)
The most important thing is, you don't need to describe pain. You need your readers to imagine pain. Those aren't quite the same thing. Sometimes less description, less detail, can do the trick - you give the reader enough, and let them fill in the blanks. In particular, it's very hard to imagine "abstract" pain. One imagines a particular kind of pain (burns feel differently from blunt trauma, for instance) in a particular organ. So before you describe pain, you need to paint the picture of what's going on. Once you've done that, the reader's imagination will do half the work for you. We're wired to empathise.
(Which by the way makes the task of describing a non-humanoid's pain harder - I do not intuitively feel what wings or air sacks feel like. You'd have to do the work for me - compare the sensation to something I know better. Sure, air sacks are like lungs, I understand that. But I don't feel that, unless you evoke some sensation - being unable to get enough air, or something similar.)
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: Re: Basing my protagonist on myself (I asked another question about this novella here.) In a novella I'm writing, I explore the lives of a young Hispanic woman, Ramona, and her brother, Rafael,
There are pitfalls into which you are more likely to fall if you base your protagonists on yourself and/or people you care about. These pitfalls can trouble you regardless, but if you're basing a character on yourself, you need to be particularly aware of them. Here are some, in no particular order:
Mary-Sue characters: how self-critical are you? Are you giving your character your weaknesses, your worse traits, your mistakes; or are you writing the character as the kind of person you would have liked to be? Each character needs to be ultimately human, not super-perfect.
Wish fulfilment: what happens to your characters - does it follow from the story, or does it happen because you want it for your insert-character? Does Prince Charming fall in love with your character because she's earned it, or because you want a Prince Charming for yourself?
Nothing bad can happen: are you comfortable having bad things happen to your characters - things that might traumatise them? Are you comfortable killing them if your plot calls for it? Or do you love them so much, because they are "you", that you protect them from the full impact of what the plot can wreak on their heads?
That said, to some extent of course you'll be putting something of yourself and of people around you into your characters. Little details you observe in people around you can make your characters come to life and be unique. Your understanding of good and bad, of how people are, how they think, how one might respond to a situation and how one should respond - all those things inevitably seep into your writing. So it's not a question of "whether", but of "how much".
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: If the main character isn't sure whether what they're seeing is a drug-induced fantasy or a real occurrence, perhaps the reader doesn't need to know either, at least not at first. If a character
If the main character isn't sure whether what they're seeing is a drug-induced fantasy or a real occurrence, perhaps the reader doesn't need to know either, at least not at first.
If a character has been drugged and is hallucinating, what's happening is "real" to him. He experiences things and responds to them. But there might well be hints that something isn't right: the character's body not responding as he expects, jumps in what is going on without a hint of what happened between, a lack of logical sequence of events. The character might even notice those things and wonder at them. Eventually, those "wrong" elements would build up to an understanding that this isn't really happening (or else, your fantasy world is really weird). An example of things not following the kind of sequence they would in real life:
Then he heard a noise in the distance. At first he thought it was a great wind coming over the leaves of the forest. Then he knew that it was not leaves, but the sound of the Sea far-off; a sound he had never heard in waking life, though it had often troubled his dreams. Suddenly he found he was out in the open. There were no trees after all. He was on a dark heath, and there was a strange salt smell in the air. Looking up he saw before him a tall white tower, standing alone on a high ridge. A great desire came over him to climb the tower and see the Sea. He started to struggle up the ridge towards the tower: but suddenly a light came in the sky, and there was a noise of thunder.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, book I, chapter 5 - "A Conspiracy Unmasked"
The character is "suddenly" out in the open. There is lightning and thunder, but no hint of coming storm or anything like that has been given before. This is "dream logic" as @DanBron puts it in a comment.
If a character experiences something that is extremely unusual for them, they might discount it as their mind playing tricks, especially if they have experienced being drugged or having vivid dreams before. Consider: if you saw a dragon over your city, would you immediately believe your eyes, or would you think you're seeing things? When the dragon affects more senses than just sight - when you hear its roar, when you feel the heat of its fire and the stench of its body, most crucially - when you hear people screaming, that is other people responding to its presence - then it becomes easier to believe that what you're seeing is indeed a dragon. (Even so, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever is built around the main character refusing to believe that the fantasy epic he's experiencing is not in fact a hallucination.)
If, nonetheless, you wish to maintain the distinction right from the start, you can start your dream sequence with "it seemed to him that" or a similar phrase. That would set up the whole ensuing sequence as not-real. An example:
In the dead night, Frodo lay in a dream without light. Then he saw the young moon rising; under its thin light there loomed before him a black wall of rock, pierced by a dark arch like a great gate. It seemed to Frodo that he was lifted up, and passing over he saw that the rock-wall was a circle of hills, and that within it was a plain, and in the midst of the plain stood a pinnacle of stone, like a vast tower but not made by hands. On its top stood the figure of a man.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, book I, chapter 7 - "In the House of Tom Bombadil"
In this case, we are explicitly told that what Frodo sees is a dream.
Note also that in fantasy literature, a dream might contain a vision of things to come, or of things that happened before, or are happening elsewhere. (As in the LotR example above.) Thus the line between dream and reality blurs even more.
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: Bathos is not the mere fact of a serious moment being followed by a light one. It is an intrusion of a cheap vulgar laugh into a dramatic scene. It undermines the seriousness of the stakes,
Bathos is not the mere fact of a serious moment being followed by a light one. It is an intrusion of a cheap vulgar laugh into a dramatic scene. It undermines the seriousness of the stakes, the drama of the scene, the meaningfulness of your story. It says "don't take any of this too seriously." Which is why it is criticised in the Marvel Universe films - it's as if the writers hesitate to commit to what they've created. They start a crescendo of emotion, get frightened by the drama and break it with a laugh instead of letting the crescendo reach its climax.
Bathos can also be used intentionally to achieve the same effect, but that is not what you're looking for. You can read more about bathos on Wikipedia and on LiteraryDevices.
@KeithMorrison , speaking of the United 232 pilot, provides an excellent example of humour that does not undermine the drama of the situation: "You want to be particular and make it a runway, huh?" Nothing about this joke says "don't take this too seriously". The opposite is true. You can hear an undercurrent of fear in that sentence, and the fact that this fear is controlled with humour builds the tension of the scene rather than breaking it.
Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front provides countless examples of similar humour. On it's very first page the soldiers get double rations because half of them died, and what was the cook supposed to do with the extra food? When characters start seeing the humour in such a situation, as a reader you know things are bad.
In both above examples, I wouldn't expect the readers to laugh. The situation is too tense. Laughter is a release. Here there is humour in the situation, but there is no release. Roberto Benigni in La Vita e Bella explores this at great length: first there is romantic comedy, the jokes make you laugh. Then comes the Holocaust, and those same jokes put you on the edge of your seat, mocking the nazis is terrifying because of the danger, because you know what's going on. Finally,
there comes the tank. And you laugh, because this is a joke you did not expect, and because now you are allowed relief - the horror is over. And you cry too, because now you can release all pent-up emotion, and there's plenty to cry about.
So there's your answer: not every bit of humour undermines the seriousness of the situation. As @Llewellyn states, it depends both on the characters, and on the kind of jokes. But above all else, you want to avoid the kind of jokes that say "don't take this situation too seriously". Because the "situation" is the story you're trying to tell. You want it to be taken seriously. (It's fine if you don't want your story to be taken too seriously - consider comedies. But from your question it appears that you in particular, for this particular story, want it to be taken seriously.)
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: Re: Is it a good idea to leave minor world details to the reader's imagination? As a writer, I used to write short stories and poems. As a reader, fantasy is my favorite genre. And I am currently
I think any fantasy story benefits greatly from in-universe terms that have no meaning to a reader. It gives us the very distinct impression we're not in Kansas anymore. But I also think this is a case where showing and telling is appropriate. And you need to be careful, because overuse can be a problem.
Don't just throw out a word. Saying "she dreamt of lillahs" tells me nothing. As you did in your example, adding a normal word or phrase beside it tells me approximately what it is, even if I don't know the details. "She dreamt of lillah birds" tells me what she's dreaming of, while adding that fantasy flair.
Only use such terms where it's useful. Don't just throw them into the text to make things seem alien. In your lillah bird example, the name of the bird is incidental to the fact that your subject is being calmed by listening to them. In the case of the flower pot, it seems more forced. In general, I would only use these terms where it would be important to the character in question.
Bad:
As Adam approached his house, memories of his late wife, Sue, flooded his mind. She had spent so much time caring for the place. Until the cancer set in.
Suddenly, Adam realized he hadn't yet moved from the sidewalk. Pushing the memories away, he hurried up the walkway to the front door. On the way past, he smelled the bettornim flowers that filled the pots along the driveway.… (Here, the flowers are just random details.)
Better:
As Adam approached his house, the scent of the bettornim flowers flooded his mind with memories of his late wife, Sue. She had spent so many hours tending to them in their pots along the driveway, caring for them almost as well as her children. Until the cancer set in.
Suddenly, Adam realized he hadn't yet moved from the sidewalk. Pushing the memories away, he hurried up the walkway to the front door… (Here, the flowers are explicitly acting on Adam, so we feel like they belong to the story.)
If you're going to use the terms more generically, I would tend to use them from a character's perspective, rather than from the narrator's perspective. This makes it feel more like we're hearing these terms because we're in an alien world, and less like the writer is trying to shove fantasy down our throats.
Really Bad:
The man rode up on his unctun with his many dites glittering like thajva gems in the wind. Here, we know the man arrived, and there's something glittering, but we really don't know anything else. Is an unctun a type of animal? Vehicle? Elevator? What about dites, and why do we care how they compare to some gem?
Bad:
The man rode up on his horse, with his many scarves glittering like thajva gems in the wind. Here, we at least know what's going on, and that his scarves are (for some reason we should probably explain better) glittering like something that probably glitters a lot. But the comparison seems a bit forced.
Better:
His purple eyes glittered magnificently in the sunlight -- Tatya likened them to freshly-polished thajva gems. Here, "magnificently" gives the reader Tatya's specific impression, and it is Tatya, not the narrator, likening them to thajva gems.
Selena gushed as she beheld his kingly, purple eyes, "Oh! Your eyes glitter like a thousand thajva gems in the sunlight!" Again, we've added Selena's impression of his eyes rather than simply describe them as "purple", and we're explicitly quoting her in the comparison.
If you're going to use certain terms extensively -- for example, the thajva gem plays a very important part in the local economy -- use a word that's short and easy to pronounce. My examples may not make sense in your native language since you will be used to different sounds than an English-speaker would normally use. I think thajva is a pretty good example itself, though the "jv" letter pairing is a bit weird to an English speaker.
Bad:
The thasagoriaphogleron gems were a staple of the local community, and the group knew they'd need to get their hands on some. "Excuse me, sir," Stephan queried a nearby shopkeeper, "where is the nearest exchange to convert my galactic credits to thasagoriaphogleron gems?" This is just obnoxious, especially if you're going to see the word every other paragraph.
Better:
The thasron gems, claimed by certain uppity scientific circles to be properly referred to as thasagoriaphogleron gems, were a staple of the local community, and the group knew they'd need to get their hands on some. "Excuse me, sir," Stephan queried a nearby shopkeeper, "where is the nearest exchange to convert my galactic credits to thasron gems?" Here, we've put the "proper" term in, given a little more flair to the universe, and made it clear "thasron" isn't the scientific name, but are now free to use a nice word the reader can easily say and remember throughout the rest of the story.
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: Re: Subverting the emotional woman and stoic man trope In my post-apocalyptic story, the split of male and female main/supporting characters is 50/50. The girls and women in the story, Eris, Marina,
There's more you can do with a trope than play it straight or subvert it. You can play with it in various ways: invert it (which you did), parody it, lampshade it, exploit it, and much much more. And you can avert it - that is, the trope just isn't present in your story at all. There are countless tropes you are averting in your writing, because there are just countless tropes, many of which aren't relevant to your story at all.
Whether you choose to engage with a trope, and how you choose to engage with it is up to you, as @MarkBaker explains. I can't thing of a trope that's a "holy cow" that should never be engaged. You can play with any trope you like. However, your goal is to tell a story. Tropes, and whatever you choose to do with them, are tools. They're the means, not the end. Don't let them get in the way of telling the story you want to tell.
As for the implications of playing with this particular trope, look at how it plays out, examine what it means, then decide whether you like this or want to change it. For example, you might see that the message that comes out is "balance is needed", or "each approach has it's time and place". If that's a message you like, go ahead. If you don't like what comes out from the way you chose to use a trope, change it.
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: Re: How do you make characters change believably? Changing is an important aspect of every character and is what makes them believable. Yet, if you remember the ending of Game of Thrones,
As others have pointed out in comments, it's too much to cover in just 1 answer (I won't be shocked if this gets closed as too broad) but I will attempt to cover the basics. There are two things that are necessary.
1: consistency.
A character, unless if they are literally schizophrenic, should be consistent, even in change: that is, you should change while remaining consistent. If they suddenly switch from the Light Side to the Dark side it should be because of the values they've held the whole time. When Anakin turned evil it was because he didn't trust the Jedi and was arguably jealous of their power, which was shown throughout the whole film and even in the film before. Also to protect Padme which he clearly already cared about leading up to his change because he'd been trying to find out how to protect her the whole time. The urge to be more powerful and to protect Padme didn't come out of nowhere, it had been there the whole time, he just found a new way to fulfill it.
2: foreshadowing.
When Anakin turned evil it wasn't all at once, for example in Episode II when he killed the tuskin raiders (to be fair having seen the original trilogy we knew he'd turn evil anyways). When we learned Palpatine was evil it was no shock because it was already hinted at, for example, the fact that he knew an ancient Sith legend. Remember that some foreshadowing should seem insignificant at the time, but will make sense looking back after the fact.
Overall if you look at it, Anakin didn't change all that much at the moment he agreed to become Palpatine's apprentice, he had already come to the edge of abandoning the Light Side, but it was here that he made the conscious decision to change. Kreia from Star Wars Kotor 2 sums it up very well
It's a quiet thing, to fall, but far more devastating to admit it
Of course, this answer was specifically about turning from good to bad but any change of heart or allegiance would follow roughly the same roles.
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