@Goswami879
Last seen: Mon 17 May, 2021
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: Re: How to "inform" the reader of changes in narrator? Writing low-quality novels on my spare time is my hobby and I'm currently "working" on one where the story about a country with an
How exciting! I hope your work goes well.
On changing narrators:
I think that what you said you want to do is difficult due to, I think, making the characters unique enough in their own voices that the reader will have no problem distinguishing one from the other.
That being so, the question becomes how does a character have a “voice� A more intimate question would be the same question, however, this time direct it at yourself. Is your own voice, as an individual in the world—not as a writer—one that is distinguishable from another?
I think those three questions directed at oneself and the characters will help one learn how to write people, which, I think, is the best way to make characters stand out, not only by their actions alone, but through their words. The thing is that the words have to make the characters sound different more than their actions when it comes to narrative.
On dialogue after considering narrative:
This is difficult because now you have your characters unique in narrative, however, you may not want to sound repetitive in dialogue after having the characters in the dialogue just had a narrative section.
I think this is where your question on sound techniques comes in. By sound techniques I take you to mean how characters annunciate, dictate, and oblique uses of speech. If that is the case, I can’t be of help because I think the questions posted in the section above are what one needs to write people.
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: Re: Website that pays for writing fairly About a month ago, I stumbled upon a website that claims to pay writers fairly and transparently out of advertising revenue. For the life of me, I cannot
Sorry for bothering everyone -- I found it! It's called Discourse Blog. discourseblog.com/turning-the-page/ It is a left-leaning writing cooperative that seeks to remunerate their contributors fairly. There is also Defector, a sports website with a similar ethos.
Now that I've spent 4+ hours scouring the Internet, I'm going to see what it's like outside...
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: Re: Are there very large format POD publishers? I have a low quantity book project that will need a book sized A3 with 1000-1500 pages. Is there a print on demand provider out there that could
Better late than never...
The realistic answer to your question is NO. Tabloid / A3 is much larger than reasonably priced POD houses can handle. You might have to try a company that specialises in large books, like atlases.
Alternatively, you can go down the Do It Yourself route. Most local printshops (in the US, Staples, Office Depot or UPS Store) can handle tabloid sized paper. I'm sure their counterparts in Europe can handle A3. If you don't want to drill a/o punch holes in the paper yourself, just have them use pre-punched paper. You might even be able to get them to use your own paper, so long as it's compatible with laser printers.
I recently finished an "art project based around writing" myself, a work of fantasy geopoesy. No POD book makers can handle tabloid, so it was off to the UPS Store for me!
Once they printed it, it was just a matter of binding & making a cover. I use a modified Oriental binding stitch for the pages, and cloth tapes to attach the book boards and glue for the end papers & leather cover.
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: Re: Should I be concerned about covering the same stuff in multiple self-help books? I currently don't work with a writing mentor, and was wondering if I should worry about covering the same things
Here are things to consider while deciding whether or not to repeat information:
How much overlap is there between the audiences of the two books?
If your two books are Cooking for College Students and Cooking for a Family of Five, then you should assuredly repeat the information, because most people only belong in one of those audiences, and therefore will only read one book.
On the other hand, if your two books are Cooking Chicken and Cooking Beef, then there is a much higher chance that one person will read both books.
How fixed is the reading order?
On the other hand, even if your two books are in fact Cooking Chicken and Cooking Beef, you can't be assured that a reader will in fact read both of them, and certainly can't be assured that they will read the chicken book first. On the other hand, if your two books are Cooking Simple Chicken Dishes and Cooking Advanced Chicken Dishes then readers are far more likely to pick up the first book before acquiring the second.
How important is the information?
Some information is critical to readers' understanding. Some is not. Most falls somewhere in the middle. Assume the worst case scenario - your reader picks up the second book without knowing the first book exists. (This will happen - even if they're labeled volume 1 and volume 2). What happens? Do they die of food poisoning because they tried to cook their chicken medium rare? Or do they miss one cool trick to quickly debone a chicken? One of those outcomes is disastrous - the other is minor.
How much space does the information take up?
If it's only a paragraph, then you might as well include it regardless. Worst case is that some people spend an extra minute or two reading things they already know. On the other hand if it's five chapters then maybe leave the redundant copy out of the second book.
Alternatively, summarize and reference
If the repeated information is long, but too important to leave out entirely, then consider summarizing and then referencing your other book.
Step 4: Debone the chicken. For more information on quickly deboning a chicken, see Cooking Simple Chicken Dishes, chapter 2.
Here you get the best of both worlds - you give your readers the information they need without taking up too much space, and instruct them on how to find the rest of the information. As a bonus, it serves as a plug for your other book and might gain you a few extra purchases.
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: Fan-non fiction market appeal I found the discussion of flat vs round characters in the answer to this post pretty interesting: Example of a fictional story without any characters (the story
I found the discussion of flat vs round characters in the answer to this post pretty interesting: Example of a fictional story without any characters (the story being 1000+ words). Borrowing this analytical framework, that got me weighing the possibility of a story based on entirely 'flat characters.' Structure might entail something like:
characters come in, and exit story never reappearing
Presumably, there would be some kind of subject to anchor things (inanimate object/place)
Some events would be boring, other events might read as climaxes based on conventional analysis (though I would not treat them as climaxes, no build up, no foreshadowing, no afterthought)
A little something I whipped up to demonstrate
A tyrannosaurus ravaged through the gore of its most recent kill. The
Mesozoic sun glimmered brightly in the sky as the eviscerated corpse
dried up in matter of hours. In the distance the shriek of a
brachiosaurus ripped through the oxygen-dense air. It's painful demise
ended slowly between the jaws of a vicious predator moments before the
colossal impact of its body pummeled the earth.
Thoughts
And on and on it would go, with only modest transitions or even hard cuts between events. Here is my motivation:
I want to pioneer or develop a style "fan non-fiction" where we make things up using what modern science suggests would be plausible. So its definitely not non-fiction in the strictest sense, but I think it would be a simplification to label it as "fantasy."
The point is to avoid using conventional plot devices to show mother nature as she truly is, indifferent. Things happen, or maybe nothing happens, time just rolls on.
The target publication length would be about 500 pages long.
To compensate for the potential boredom that would set in from not being able to relate to any of the characters and/or lack of central plot, I would try to create value in descriptive, engaging, imagery-intensive sentences that are scientifically accurate.
Actually, it wouldn't really matter where you started reading the book, since it's the piece is just an aggregate of discrete events, but after reading all 500 pages, I would suspect someone would actually feel like they have witnessed the period of the Mesozoic for themselves.
Question
What are some likely concerns publishers would have, and how might I prepare to address them without compromising the spirit of my non-standard publication idea?
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: Re: How do I tastefully handle a female-to-male transforming character? My character is a girl who is later revealed in my story to be under a curse that allows her to transform into an older
I personally don't see it much as an LGBT story. The girl and the male spirit are two independent beings, in flesh and in spirit. The only quirk here is that they (at least the girl) are a first-person observers of other's actions.
Of course it can be made tasteless, for example by male spirit's lewd comments or girl's own desire to make sexual conquests in man's body - but you don't have to write it that way.
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: Re: Replacing a historical figure with a fictional one In a fiction novel with a strong historical foundation, can you replace a public figure with a fictional one? For instance, replacing the mayor
This is a fiction novel. Other than the restrictions you put upon yourself, there is no problem in changing some historical characters, dates, etc.
The limitation would probably be that you want to strictly follow historical events, or that you were afraid of an astute reader noticing that and thinking you were wrong / no longer enjoying the story (however, most readers will have no idea at all of the actual historical events around that).
Typically that could be explained as a slight deviation in your world vs ours. Mr Historical Character may have lost a tight the vote for the city council, leading to a different mayor. Or he could have lost a previous election inside his own party, being replaced by Mr. Fictional Character that nobody heard of in our world (but could perfectly have existed). That could even be mentioned inside the story where a character mentions that "Mr Historical would have been a better mayor in my opinion, it's a pity that shortly before the election he ended up in the hospital / escaped with his girlfriend / was mourning the loss of his father..."
It's also not unheard of to have an epilogue where the author acknowledges (excuses himself of) the licenses that were taken on writing the work: "I had to made J.Doe mayor of the city three years before he actually took office"
Although it may seem a big issue for you, these creative licenses aren't a big deal.
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: How do I write with a rhythm/cadence without losing command of the English language? I'm sorry. I know I've been posting a lot of questions lately. Many times in the past, when I tried to
I'm sorry. I know I've been posting a lot of questions lately.
Many times in the past, when I tried to write words with cadence and showed them to people, they said that I had poor command of the English language. They said my sentences were unidiomatic, improper in word order, and verbose. They also said that I was using words that didn't mean what I wanted them to mean, and that I was combining words in ways that didn't make sense. So they told me to practice writing clearly and without aiming for cadence.
Well, I already know I can write clearly and without aiming for cadence. But now I want to achieve cadence in much of my writing. My only problem is this issue I had in the past with butchering the English language every time I attempted cadence.
Is there any advice you can give me on maintaining clarity and good command of English while also matching my words to the cadence I wish?
I appreciate your answers. Thank you.
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: Re: Do I have to start my story with my main characters? What I mean is, does my story have to start with my main character being introduced, or can I start with their parents and then ease
Rather than asking people if you "have" to do something, I would suggest asking yourself "why" you want to do something. As an author you can do nearly anything you want. Some things will work, some things won't, but there aren't really any hard and fast rules. Chris in his answer gave some good examples of books that broke normal conventions, and did so successfully.
In your case, I would ask myself the following questions and see where the answers lead me as an author:
Why do I want to start with a secondary character?
What will be gained by starting out with the family?/What will be lost if I start with the main character?
How much narrative time (how many pages/chapters) will take place between the initial setup and the time skip?
What do I want readers to get out of the opening? What emotional investments do I want them to form?
Are the pre-timeskip events interesting enough to draw the reader in and get them invested in the story as a whole?
Is the "lost time" (the time between the introduction and the end of the time skip) relevant to the story? Is it important/interesting?
Depending on your answers to these questions (and more), you can ultimately determine "In this particular story, is there value in avoiding starting with the main character?"
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: Skill with Cadence/Rhythm I think that in order to give the reader a pleasurable experience, prose needs to be harmonious at minimum, and rhythmic at best. The best expository prose flows smoothly;
I think that in order to give the reader a pleasurable experience, prose needs to be harmonious at minimum, and rhythmic at best. The best expository prose flows smoothly; and in my opinion, the best speeches move the audience with a powerful cadence, which, although poetic, still sounds like a human’s speech. Many of the epistles of Paul the Apostle in the KJV sound cadenced/rhythmic, but they still sound like Paul as a human being.
But not everyone seems able to write smoothly or rhythmically. This is not to insult anyone, but writing with harmony and rhythm are one of the skills that writers need to learn, and I am one of them. Even though I seem to manage it sometimes, many times I struggle to write with rhythm. In the first place, I grapple with imagining certain kinds of prosaic rhythms.
I think I lack the ability to yield certain kinds of cadence/rhythms, even though in the past I was able to do it. I want to know how this facility can be developed, if it is even a skill that can be learned. I know that rhythm is created by a run of stressed and unstressed syllables. But exactly which combination of those kinds of syllables makes a rhythm I like is one thing I struggle to imagine.
So, do you think there is a way for people who lack rhythmic talent to develop it as a skill? Or is it an ability you must be born with?
As for whether or not I have rhythmic talent, I don’t know. But for some reason I lack the ability lately.
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: Re: Does my book need to have a love triangle in it? I'm editing my book currently and I have a basis for a love triangle. Should I add one? I feel like it would add another subplot to my story
Don't worry about your lack of experience in that area
You're saying that this is a YA book, so presumably, your characters are not really all that old. Which - on the one hand - means that your lack of experience and awkwardness might actually be a lot more fitting than you might imagine, but also that it is very unlikely that your book will become more grown up by adding a love triangle. Although it sort of depends on what you mean by 'grown up' exactly. The fact that the characters are not all that old and mature yet will probably (and definitely should) come through with any romantic relationships they might form, making their young age more obvious than it would have been without.
Then again, it is absoluteley ridiculous what behaviour people in YA books get away with while the fans think it's charming. Probably because the fans are pretty young themselves. So even if you 'screw up' here or there, if your book is decent enough, people will ignore it or even come up with excuses (just think of all the extremely old men coming on to and actively stalking high school girls in vampire novels).
Should you add it? Absolutely!
Not because love triangles are fun (in fact, they tend to be very tedious to me). Not because they make the book more grown up (they won't).
But simply because the author (that's you) said:
I feel like it would add another subplot to my story and make it more
interesting
As far as I'm concerned, if you as the author think something would make your story more interesting, there's really no question about it. You don't need any additional reasons. Add it.
Then again, if what you meant by that sentence was that the simple act of adding any subplot would make your book more interesting, no matter what it's about... you might want to improve your main plot.
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: How to describe an explanation that merely justifies the current proposition by reference to another unproven proposition? I'm proposing an explanation for phenomenon "A". Other folks say
I'm proposing an explanation for phenomenon "A". Other folks say "No need! We already have an explanation for phenomenon A, it's a natural consequence of phenomenon B". Problem is, phenomenon B is also unexplained. I want to call this out in a polite but firm way.
I've thought of:
This pushes the question off onto unexplained "B"
This is merely shifting the burden of explanation.
This is probably a logical fallacy with a Name and Employment History, but I can't think what it is. Any thoughts?
Thanks! =)
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: Re: How can I handle a powerful mentor character without killing them off? I'm writing a book series that involves people with various superpowers. One of these characters and is more or less the
The mentor trusts the protagonist
One man cannot take on the world alone, not even this superhuman mentor. They have been training up apprentices to help them out, to stand as additional bastions of goodness against a cruel world. Part of this is allowing them to act on their own.
Oh, the mentor is keeping an eye on things, checking in periodically — and they have a backup plan if things go awry — but, overall, they believe that the protagonist can overcome these trials (maybe even more so than the protagonist themselves does)
The mentor has then deliberately absented themselves from the situation, as an important lesson; this story is when your protagonist moves from being a child (constantly looking to their parent-figure for instruction and reassurance) to being an adult (striking out on their own, without a safety net)
Yes, this currently threat might be the best choice of times to go about it, but when you are as overpowered as the mentor is, you tend to underestimate how much difficulty lesser mortals will experience. And, they are checking in every so often — surely things won't go too off the rails between reports, right?
Eventually — most likely after several books — your protagonist will no longer look up to their mentor as an unattainable titan of strength and wisdom, but stand alongside them as friend, equal and ally.
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: Re: Which manual of style suggests using parentheses within parentheses? When it comes to nested parentheses, there are two options. (The first is to use square brackets for the inner text [like
I was able to find 3 publicly available British manuals of style which mention nested parentheses.
1. British Chicago Footnotes Referencing Guide
This is a guide for referencing using footnotes, as opposed to a general style guide. However, it briefly mentions nested parentheses:
The entire source need not be put in parentheses, which involves
changing existing parentheses to brackets and creating unnecessary clutter.
This suggests that parentheses are expected to be changed to brackets when they are nested.
2. GOV.UK Style Guide
In the “Brackets†section, the following is specified:
Use (round brackets), not [square brackets]. The only acceptable use of square brackets is for explanatory notes in reported speech:
“Thank you [Foreign Minister] Mr Smith.â€
Therefore, this style guide would use parentheses within parentheses.
3. European Commission English Style Guide
While this isn’t strictly a “British†style guide, I am including it since it mentions the following.
For reasons of stylistic consistency, the variety of English on which this Guide bases its instructions and advice is the standard usage of Britain and Ireland.
In the “Brackets†section, we have the following:
A second set of round brackets (not square brackets) can be used to set off text that itself contains text in brackets:
The conclusions of the analysis (in particular regarding fair trade, the
environment and transport (including green cars)) highlighted the following:
However, to avoid confusion, it may be better to use dashes (see 2.16):
The conclusions of the analysis – in particular regarding fair trade, the
environment and transport (including green cars) – highlighted the following:
Summary
I found 2 style guides that would use nested parentheses: The GOV.UK Style Guide and the European Commission English Style Guide (although the latter recommends using dashes if possible, in order to avoid confusion).
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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
If this is just a single paper holding your incantation, I would call it a scroll. A collection of scrolls could be then joined into a spell book or, if written as a single work, a Grimoire as noted by Chenmunka.
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: Re: Creating a unique spin on a nuclear apocalypse? Basically, my story follows a group of 6 people (and 1 mutant human) exploring a barren wasteland of what used to be the USA. The world they
Focus on what you are bringing to the table
Don't start with the focus on what you don't want to write. Focus on what you do want to write. What's special about your ideas, beyond the post-nuclear apocalypse? Are you writing a gritty survivalist novel? Or a technofuture novel? Look at how S.M. Stirling for example handled something akin to this in the Emberverse novels - his setting is not particularly new for post-apocalypse (not nuclear, but same idea really), but what it is, is well adapted to what his interest is here. Figure out what you're writing, and then let the setting evolve around that.
Maybe your story needs a decent population to really work - you're writing a story with a subplot involving a crime boss who's trying to take over a region. Okay, you need a decent number of people for that, plus you need enough of a functional society that there's time for crime! Or maybe you want to write about regional warlords - okay, so now you need weapons, some feudal structure, that implies more of an agrarian society with less tech.
Or, if you are more focused on the survivalist side of things, you want more of an empty wasteland, Fallout style. That can still be plenty unique, because of the story you write in that setting. If the story is good, the right setting for the story will feel right for the story, and not repetitious.
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: Re: Is it true that the need for marketing/promoting one's books is a "myth"? For indie fiction authors, is it true that if one simply writes and publishes regularly, one will begin to see sales
If you don't promote your book, how will people know about it? Even indie presses often market promote books. You don't necessarily have to go traditional routes, but a book that isn't put out there is unlikely to get much attention. It's certainly going to go to the bottom of the Amazon pile until you're lucky enough to attract enough attention of people buying it. If your book makes it to book shelves, you might be lucky enough that some people are interested in your book, but there's no guarantee. Keep in mind that even good writers that market and promote (or don't) are unlikely to earn enough to earn a living.
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: Re: Would having two time skips close together be weird? There's a story idea I've been playing with for years now but I feel like I need to do two time skips one after the other which may
Normally I don't like giving this advice with regards books (and, indeed, would tend to give quite the opposite), but in this case I feel it's warranted:
Think of it like a TV show for a moment.
This can be done in 2 ways: Either think of it as a single episode, where your prologue is the brief "stinger" before the title sequence starts (which represents your timeskip), or think of it as an entire series, where the early episodes are setting the scene and worldbuilding. If you have a timeskip like this, it would usually be at the end of the first episode (or, perhaps, a two-parter), and then get to the main story. In this style, having multiple timeskips won't work, and will leave the story feeling disjointed.
However, that brings us to the other way in which a TV series can build the world and expectations: a series of self-contained episodes which prime us on the world in which the story is based, before throwing us into the first lengthy 'arc'. This is, perhaps, something to play with: Instead of having 2 timeskips, have several, and make the skip shorter (both in the scene itself, and the amount of time skipped) each time - show snippets of the training, glimpses which also serve to teach the reader what the character is learning, introduce us to the characters, giving us chances to see "the rookie" failing through inexperience (at first), and gradually overcoming those mistakes. Rather than a montage of lots of very brief snapshots, you give fewer, longer scenes.
Don't overdo it though - this should probably all add up to the first couple of chapters, ending on an indication along the lines of "and that brings us up to today", letting your reader know that things are about to settle in for the long-haul.
Start with the Prison scene (T-18 months, start of story)
Push onward to her introduction to the hidden world (T±0, ends the first chapter)
Add an event about 9 months into her training - perhaps a test or dummy mission? (T+9 months, starts the second chapter)
Another 6 months, another event. Make it mirror the first in some way, to show the character's development. Perhaps she's now the one mentoring a fresh-face? (T+15 months)
3 more months, time for a 'graduation' of some sort. She's still a rookie, but now at least she's competent in the basics, and ready to properly participate in the hidden world (T+18 months)
For the next 6 months, consider a few (very few) callbacks to the earlier events, and allusions to other events that have happened in the time we skipped, which might be referenced in flashbacks later on - a paragraph - or less - for each, to give a flavour of her new life.
Chapter 3 starts the main story (T+24 months)
An important thing to note here - you need to make the scenes short, and (ideally) you need to make subsequent scenes even shorter. This then means that Chapter 3, drawing the story out at length, will more obviously be the start of the "proper" story. It's a bit like a circling a drain: every loop brings you slightly closer to falling down the plughole, and every loop takes less time to complete.
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: Re: Changing Genres in the Middle of a Story Let's say the story was introduced as a romance, then somewhere in the middle it becomes a horror/thriller, would you immediately think it's bad? Would
Your story must fulfill the promises it makes, or readers will not enjoy it
Every book begins by creating expectations for the reader. The expectations start with the cover and title, and are built throughout the beginning of the book. If readers do not feel that the book satisfied their expectations, they will find it disappointing.
To illustrate why your idea, as described, is likely to fail, here are some example readers.
Harry loves romance, but hates horror. They were very excited when they saw your book, and immediately began to read it. Upon getting to the twist they dropped it and walked away. Now they refuse to read anything by you, and will encourage all their friends to avoid your books.
Jessica loves horror, but hates romance. They took one look at your book and walked away. They have no interest in reading a fluffy romance, and they'll never get far enough into it to find out they would have liked the book.
Chris loves romance and horror. They saw your book and added it to their "fluffy reading" stack, to save for a nice comfy read some time in the future when they were having a bad day. When they got around to reading it, they were unprepared for the horror and had to put it down. They might have liked the book under other circumstances, but now they associate it with the distress they were feeling that day, and can't finish it.
Alex loves horror and likes romance. They were warned ahead of time about the twist in your book and therefore picked it up eagerly. However, the twist fell flat for them because they knew it was coming, and they only found the book to be mediocre because of it.
Jordan likes horror and romance. They found your book without forewarning, enjoyed the twist, and thinks that this is the greatest book ever written. I guess 1 out of 5 isn't bad?
It's really only 1 out of 4, because Harry was never going to like your book. And of course your potential readership can't be neatly and evenly split between Jessica, Chris, Alex, and Jordan. But I think you see my point. There are a number of ways in which hiding your true genre has the potential to alienate your readership, which is something you absolutely want to avoid.
For further reading, I recommend Fulfilling the Reader's Fantasies on the Writing Excuses Podcast.
A discussion on fulfilling the promises we make to our readers—specifically the genre-specific promises made by the simple fact of where the book is shelved.
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: Re: Any software for video game non-linear story design? Is there any software for making non-linear story or dialogues? I tried MS Word/Google Docs but that's not good for dialogues. In one complicated
This just recently launched on Steam :). It is currently a bit ugly though. Slow, exported JSON is messy and some vital UI functions lack shortcuts. Zooming options are also poor, not supporting intuitive gestures. But it's quite cheap. Hopefully they will improve it. store.steampowered.com/app/1273620/Dialogue_Designer/
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: Re: What name should I use? I am writing about my local airport which has had two other names which name should I use through out the writing about it? An example is JFK in New York was originally
There are 3 things to consider here: the story being told, the telling of the story, and the reading of the story.
If your story is set before the name changed, then any dialogue or signs should show the old name. If it is set after the name has changed, then any signs should show the new name, but dialogue will vary depending on the person speaking - some may prefer the old name and keep using it, others may forget or not know it has changed, or just use it out of force of habit.
Depending on the narration of your story, you may choose between the two - for example, if the narration is in the past tense (someone is telling a story which has already happened, rather than telling it as it happens), then it may make sense to have the narrator explain the name change in an aside. Of course, you may then need to take into account when the narration is set. If the whole story is a flashback being told by a character in a narrative wrapper which is still before the name change, then you don't have that excuse or option.
Less commonly, you have the option of adding a footnote when the name first comes up, to explain (and, perhaps again later, if there is a large gap when the airport isn't mentioned) as an Author's or Editor's commentary. This is more appropriate for a non-fiction work, such as a history book
Dean called for a taxi. "Take me to Idlewild Airport," he said (This being before it was renamed to JFK Airport).
Dean called for a taxi to take him to JFK Airport - or, as it was called at the time, Idlewild Airport.
Dean called for a taxi to take him to Idlewild Airport1
1"Idlewild Airport" was renamed to "John F. Kennedy International Airport" on 24 December, 1964
I would usually say here that the main thing to maintain is consistency - however, as alluded to in the second paragraph, this may be consistency within characters, rather than the story. Which name the characters choose to use can give the reader a view of their mindset or personality.
Finally, consider your audience: you would handle this differently when aiming at teens or young adults, versus comfortably retired readers who remember the old name. Are they liable to get confused by you using the old name? Or, are they going to find it comforting and familiar, helping them to accept the setting and the era?
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: First, you need a reason why they did not show up in the first trilogy: was it set on a different continent, where the Nukui-Paub were not operating? (Have they decided to expand, or has
First, you need a reason why they did not show up in the first trilogy: was it set on a different continent, where the Nukui-Paub were not operating? (Have they decided to expand, or has your protagonist moved?) Were they working against the antagonist of the first trilogy? (This may let you "redeem" a popular villain from the earlier books, giving them a sympathetic reason for their actions) There is a reason why lots of books or TV shows expand geography as they go: it's the principle of "Big Fish, Small Pond" at play, and moving the protagonist to a bigger pond from one which the bigger fish overlooked or ignored.
Next, pick out all of the unsolved mysteries, unanswered questions, and moments of "fridge-logic" (e.g. ""but why did that character happen to turn up at just the right time to save our heroes?") in your old trilogy. Then examine each one very carefully, and see if there are a small number which could reasonably be explained as related to your new villains, without causing more plot holes.
If you do this right, you may be able to convince the reader that they can see the shadow of the Nukui-Paub slithering around in the original trilogy as a hidden faction.
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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
What does the time spend hiding do to your character? Pick things that start off easy to manage, but becomes hard to maintain (especially under stress or pressure), and talk about those. For example, if they are squeezed into a wardrobe, staying as still as possible:
As the villain paced the room, she shivered in her hiding spot. Every time he walked out of view of the thin gap between the doors, her heart jumped with the fear that he would approach the wardrobe, fling it wide open, and catch her. The effort to keep her breathing slow and quiet began to feel like Sisyphus pushing a boulder uphill, straining to keep it from rolling back down, picking up speed and sound on its way to the bottom in a crushing defeat.
Her arms and legs started to tremble, the exertion of staying in one place for so long gradually building up in a slow burn, the urge to move, to scratch, to do anything but stay safely hidden growing with every passing moment. The beating of the blood in her veins seemed to boom out, and she was sure he would hear it, the agonising torment of "what if"s playing through her mind in an unending saga of paranoia.
And then, mercifully, he left. At first, she remained frozen - almost expecting him to burst back in the moment she moved. Gradually, she let out a long, deep breath, tension draining from her frame as she slid down the wall and sank to the floor with a faint scrawp of cloth on wood. That was close.
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: Re: How do I teach my protagonist high level programming? I am working on a science fiction story about robots and the protagonists needs to hack the main computer to stop the robots. Edit: The
Programming is an umbrella term, and hacking is one of its disciplines — a difficult one at that. A little programming knowledge most definitely won't let you hack anything more than your neighbor's badly-protected WiFi.
I've never done any hacking myself, but I'm fairly certain it is not something you can learn well in a day or even a week.
(Also, this may seem counterintuitive to a non-programmer, but high-level programming is in fact easier and further-removed from hacking than low-level programming. But that's beside the point.)
Until you clarify the situation in your novel, it's hard to come up with ideas, but I'll try my best.
Think of hacking into a computer a lot like breaking into a protected building: there's no one way to do it. You have to learn a wide variety of skills, like lock-picking, silent movement, good situational awareness. You'll need lots of tools, too. Similarly, there are methods and tools for hacking, but some will work on some things and and some won't. It's like solving a problem with many solutions. You don't just "learn it" any more than you learn how to break into the Pentagon by mastering lock-picking (well, so I assume).
Mr. Robot has accurate depictions. I recommend watching that for ideas.
That said, have you considered the more physical aspect of hacking? You don't need higher education to smash a computer if you've managed to locate it and get into the room. Or, better yet, you could disable or destroy the power source.
You could also introduce a pre-programmed "kill switch" — perhaps one of the people who worked on the robots was afraid of them being misused, so (s)he added an easy way to stop them. In that case, your protagonist just needs to get to that "switch". (Quotation marks because it doesn't have to actually be a switch.)
As Tau mentioned in the comments below, your character could resort to phishing. This is not technical at all, but rather a social manipulation to get inside access. For instance, sending an email to one of the employees in a company and impersonating, say, the IT security chief lets the character ask for sensitive information, like a password.
Finally, you can introduce scenes where your character had to do a bit of hacking, starting with very easy things (like breaking into a badly-protected network) and going up from there. That way, the character won't have to learn the whole thing in one go; only one small key part. (Or, rather than learn, acquire a key tool.)
I realize these are not the answers you were hoping for, but I don't know if what you want is possible, outside of your character taking a hacking bootcamp. That is, of course, a potential solution, but not a very interesting one. You could maybe do a pretty montage in a movie, but not in a book. See the link in the first comment. Essentially, what it boils down to is: make the montage/bootcamp its own mini-arc.
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: Re: How to time "big reveal" and twist moments? My question is similar to this one and in the same general vein as this one, but I think it's sufficiently different to warrant its own question.
As JonStonecash noted, this depends on the kind of story you want to build.
I would consider that it is appropriate to reveal this at the beginning of the first chapter. I expect you wanted to write a story about an android detective, and you want your readers to know he is an android. This is the kind of thing that would be shown in the backcover: "Our android protagonist will need to find out..."
This would allow you to include a number of to the problems he faces by being an android:
On The Caves of Steel R. Daneel Olivaw had an id card without that 'problematic' R. initial (meaning "Robot") which would have restricted him e.g. in the public transport. Your society may be "racist", not allowing your robot to do certain things or ask certain questions. Or quite the opposite, by being an android, he could be able to sneak in certain places without being noticed as a "rational being".
He might want to access some important building, but visitors need to go through a metal detector (which he would trip, even bearing no arms). Or even some places could X-rays people to ensure only humans enter.
This is probably the case in casinos, where an android, with perfect memory, would have an important advantage on many card games.
In a different story, he could be personally involved when investigating a murder that was blamed to his creator / android factory. In which case he could end up sold at auction / destroyed.
While not so directly involved, a corrupt cybersecurity software company could be responsible for some faulty software that harmed an android friend. The company could be bribing some politicians, lobbying so that all androids must install in their "brains" certain software they make (which our protagonist is reluctant to do, as it doesn't trust them at all).
All of these would require the reader to be in-the-know (which other people with whom it interacts may be aware of or not).
The first chapter should pave the ground for the rest of the story, and thus it seems the perfect place to provide this important 'detail'.
Or you could make a story where it is a twist point that is revealed at the end of the story changing its perspective, such as
Robot Visions by Isaac Asimov
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: How does one strengthen their sense of rhythm? Many pieces of writing are succinct, but they are not rhythmical, giving no pleasure to the ear of the reader. The reason for that is likely
Many pieces of writing are succinct, but they are not rhythmical, giving no pleasure to the ear of the reader. The reason for that is likely this: The writers themselves either are unmindful of rhythm when they write, or possess a poor ability to formulate rhythm. So the question I want to ask is this: How does a writer strengthen their ear for rhythm?
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: Re: I want to write a gay sex scene, the characters are both virgins, and I don't know how to do it without looking like a fool. any advice? my name is Christine. I'm writing a book, and I
The most important thing is to understand why the sex scene is in your story.
Are you trying to inform the reader about the characters' emotional states? Are the things they do during the scene going to be plot relevant? Are you trying to entertain or titillate the readers?
Once you know what you are trying to accomplish, you can figure out how you will achieve those goals. Choose adjectives and descriptors that will emphasize the mood that you wish to convey, and draw attention to the aspects of the scene that are important.
And if you can't figure out what the scene is adding to your story, maybe you don't need it at all. A fade to black that cuts straight to the pillow talk is perfectly acceptable if that is where the important details of your story are.
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: Re: how do I tell my main character’s backstory throughout the book? I'm loosely working on a trilogy. Book One and Two are supposed to contain the main character’s backstory, divided by two
Get us interested in the characters first.
Your first chapter either needs to be a 'prologue' of sorts - either starting before Character A goes missing, or outlining how Character B and Character C meet up with Character A again, so that we feel their engagement in the reunion. We don't need to care about Character A or the reunion ourselves at this point. We just need to care that Characters B & C care.
To take a couple of examples: Chapter 1 of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" does not begin with Harry waking up in the cupboard under the stairs, about to "reunite" with his wizarding heritage. Chapter 1 of "The Lord of the Rings" does not start with Frodo marching resolutely off towards Rivendell. Chapter 1 of "Murder on the Orient Express" does not start with a dead body.
So, give us a "hook", build up the characters - either all three directly, or Character A through anecdotes and musings given by Characters B & C as they approach the reunion - and rouse our curiosity to continue.
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: Re: Would you advise against having a fictional continent as the setting for a Science Fiction story? Let me elaborate. In things such as Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings (so, high fantasy),
Take a moment to consider the most famous Sci-Fi series that you can think of.
Is "Star Wars" one of them? How about "Firefly"? "Dragonriders of Pern"? Even - to a lesser extent - "Star Trek".
Sci-Fi not only regularly has fictional continents, but also fictional planets and galaxies, all with associated geography/cartography and political landscapes. Often these have semi-human inhabitants (to make it easier for the viewer or reader to comprehend), some of which have sometimes originated on Earth, but others haven't.
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: Re: As a writer, how to understand why others enjoy what you hate? One of my previous questions got an interesting answer. And posed an interesting problem. Namely, It will be difficult to make
I think it's all down to having an open mind and strengthening your grasp of what it means to be a storyteller.
In a sense, Jaws is essentially Beowulf. Would you go into a lit class and ask them why they like Beowulf? Do you hate Beowulf as intensely as you hate Jaws?
You shouldn't have to ask people what they like about stories in order to understand how stories work. Their answers will only reflect their own rationale. You have to understand the story.
eg. I don't like Twilight, but I understand who it was written for and the appeal of an unappealing female anti-heroine who manages to capture the interest of a centuries-old vampire. I understand why men like vampires and I understand all the different reasons why teenage girls like them.
I tried to watch 50 Shades because I was a fan of Dornan - I couldn't. I physically couldn't. And yet, for the past year, I've been spending my free time "studying" romance novels and why people like them, and I get it.
You have to take the red pill and dive deep.
Another example: I absolutely hate Green Book and I could write a book on why everyone should hate it. The internet is full of parodies of it, rightfully imo, because it seems objectively stupid and racist in the most absolute way, but I'm not confused by people who watch it and like it because I understand that people like journeys where two people reconcile their irreconcilable differences by the end. It's essentially Jim and Huck down the river. In a decade or two, somebody's going to make a movie about a cannibal and a vegan on a road trip to Vegas... that's just how stories go.
So yes, Jaws might be bad to you, but people like stories about heroes fighting monsters to protect innocents. It's as simple as that. They liked it when Theseus did it, they liked it when Ellen Ripley did it and they're going to keep on liking it forever until monsters stop being a part of our imagination.
Sharks are normal animals in real life, but Jaws isn't a documentary, it's a monster movie. The shark isn't a shark, it's a monster that's threatening life as the people on that beach know it.
Simply calling people stupid (as some comments have) because they don't agree with your taste isn't the answer if you want to understand storytelling.
I think instead of standing your ground on what you hate and what you resist, you should take a look at some Jungian theory on the collective unconscious on Youtube or somewhere. Take some time to truly understand tropes and trope subversion and all that before you mock them. Even cliches have their place in the story world. Whenever you have the time to spare, it's an interesting area to get lost in, to see how and why people love stories. The psychology behind it is fascinating.
Also, there's a book, The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker which is about 50 hours long (by audiobook iirc). You'll never be confused by people's love for a story ever again, no matter how stupid the story seems to you.
If you watch/read a popular story and hate it, that's perfectly fine, but if you're legit confused as to why people love it, that's a you problem. You asked why you should try to like it, you shouldn't, but you should understand it.
Don't try to change your taste to fit the popular mood. If you don't like barbarians as they are, that's fine. If you want to change it, fine. If you want to invoke the "My barbarians are different" trope, go ahead. But don't write it thinking that you're fixing it and doing it the correct way because you happen not to like the way other people do it.
There are reasons why people like the things they like. Readers have expectations. Especially in genre fiction. Don't write the next Dinosaur Lords.
We're all different people. One man's Shakespeare, is another man's toilet paper. Unless you're writing for yourself though, you need to understand the audience you're writing for. You really need to think long and hard as to why people like barbarians before you start recommending your mild-mannered version of it.
TLDR: A piece of advice that I got from learning to code that I apply to everything ever - before you break it, you better understand how it works inside out. Mel Brooks might not have been the authority on race relations but he was a master of joke construction which is what Springtime for Hitler is at the end of the day. It's a punchline.
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