@Martha805
Last seen: Mon 17 May, 2021
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: How to write a letter asking for permission for something? I need to write a letter asking for permission to enter a facility to get my things, which I left during the pandemic. Does anyone
I need to write a letter asking for permission to enter a facility to get my things, which I left during the pandemic. Does anyone know how to write a good letter asking for permission for something?
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: Re: How to write a character with a bipolar personality? I need some help. I am already deep into 2 stories that involve composers and in both stories there is a character based on Ludwig van
If he’s bi-polar, it’s more likely that he lashes out at those he loves and that he knows love and care for him. It is safe for him to take it out on the people he trusts. I think it’s more likely that he is courteous and charming to strangers.
It’s not going to be what he says but how he say it. Friendly and seemingly gracious to strangers and belligerent and rude to close family and friends.
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: Re: Why's “egalitarian documentation†'cacophony'? I know cacophony means "harsh or unpleasant sound", but I don't know what “egalitarian documentation†means. I can see it's poly-syllabic
"Egalitarian documentation" can be considered a "cacophony" because it is comprised of so many different phonemes:
ɪˌgælɪˈteərɪən ˌdɒkjʊmɛnˈteɪʃən
Each piece fails to flow from what proceeds it, or connect to what follows it. It feels angular to say aloud.
It's not quite as bad a gargling a mouthful of Legos, but it's not far from trying to throw a box-full of pots and pans up a staircase.
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: Is it okay to use a lot of questions to show my characters' thoughts? First off, I'm sure someone will direct me to this question, and I want to make it clear that my question is different.
First off, I'm sure someone will direct me to this question, and I want to make it clear that my question is different. I find myself using a lot of questions in my writing to express my character's thoughts. I'm wondering if I do it too much and if there are any suggestions for how to do it less. Here is a short excerpt that will show you what I mean:
And then down a little later on:
Basically, I am trying to show that my character had a lot of questions that she doesn't have answers to and that she is trying to figure things out. Is there a better way to do this? Does asking so many questions annoy the reader?
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: Re: What pronoun to use for a sentient, self aware AI? I have a sentient AI in a story. He sentience aspect is mostly an unexpected result and some characters in the story do not believe it.
How a human refers to the AI reveals how willing they are to accept the AI's sentience. If the human views the AI as a pure mechanism (in the same category as a cellphone), the person would probably use "it". At the other end of the spectrum, if the person fully accepts the AI as a sentient entity (as I accept all account-holders here on SE to be :) ), the person would probably use "they/them", or the AI's self-identified gender (if any). (Consider using this as a cue to the reader about each character's acceptance of the AI.)
As a point of comparison for non-human interaction, reflect on how how people refer to animals, based on their proximity to human behaviour and culture. For most people, their pet's gender is important, and part of their of their emotional connection. Whereas, for people who eat meat, the gender of the farmed animal may be a concept without content.
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: Re: Is this beginning good for A STORY David Gemstone dives his head in a bucket full of water. "Bang" he hears a sound outside. He pulls out his revolver and walks out of the bathroom.
It could be. Depends what you do next with it.
Don't get me wrong, so far this sounds like it could be a great beginning for your story. However, instead of worrying about whether or not this is a good beginning, try focusing on just writing the whole story.
Presumably this is your first draft. At this point, don't think about the wording or chapters or phrasing. Just focus on writing the story. It's okay for it to be horrible. It's okay for it to sound so bad you're not sure anyone but you could read it. Just write it.
The polishing comes after you already have the story plot and idea all written out.
So, to summarize, write the entire story first. Then afterwards, once the entire story is written out, worry about improving and turning it into a good story.
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: How to Structure a single-perspective Novel into Chapters? Now my case is not novel-wide; I have to do this in one part of the novel, but I extended the question to a more generalised one,
Now my case is not novel-wide; I have to do this in one part of the novel, but I extended the question to a more generalised one, so that anybody else with the same question will find it useful just in case.
Suppose this scenario - I am following one person's POV, in first-person or third-person through this narration. It gets awkward when I make the jumps from scene to scene. This part, I presume, is easier when we have multiple threads and the alternating scheme makes up for the scene-jumps.
Consider the case of a POV action novel. How to omit those parts where our hero is brushing his teeth, taking a dump, sleeping etc without sounding deliberate ie as if these things have been effectively done, just that they are not worth a chapter in this book.
Those who are higher up the literary ladder, please help a first-timer out.
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: What if you want to write two separate books at once? I am a young author writing a fantasy series, and while browsing writing prompts and trying to better my writing yesterday, I got an
I am a young author writing a fantasy series, and while browsing writing prompts and trying to better my writing yesterday, I got an idea for another, totally different series. I am in love with the one I am writing, but the one that I thought of is also very exiting.
Should I stop the one I am writing to write the other one? Or should I write them both at the same time? Should I cast the other one to the side until I’m done with this one? Or should I forget about the other one?
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: Re: Why is writing so hard? Are there any self-help books for scientific writing? Not to make this a post complaining about my inability to write, but I'd like to understand the universal challenges
I know this seems weird, but I only ever had one barrier. My arch nemesis. Evil on paper. Worse than my antagonist.
Dialogue.
I was reviewing my paper when I noticed that all my characters sounded exactly the same, and spoke to each other really weird. The guy who lived on the farm spoke without an accent. The girl who lived homeless and uneducated in Washington spoke sophisticated. My main character who had been through many traumatic experiences spoke... cleaner. The characters who didn’t know English well spoke it well. It was a big problem.
So I jumped online for answers. And came to this website. I asked a few questions, got a few answers, and started editing my characters voices. The farm guy got an accent. The homeless girl didn’t know a few words and needed help with them. The main character was mean and cussed. The elves spoke choppy and weird.
Problem solved! The end.
That’s the short version of the story. Actually it took me a while to research how different people spoke in different areas. For the homeless girl, I had to decide when she ran away and what level of education she received, in what area. Then I had to look up what people with that education level had learned, and had to be careful not to make her say something beyond what she knew. This was very difficult because sometimes I needed to make my characters say something and they couldn’t. Especially with farm guy. I hated giving him an accent because it made him sound stupid, when he was the sparkling jewel of my cast beside the main character. But the accent was him. I couldn’t take it away just because I didn’t like it. You have to be consistent with your rules in whatever you’re writing.
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: Can you be too detailed in fantasy writing? I am wondering if there is such a thing as “too detailed†in writing. If yes, then I want to know if I am doing it. I will insert a descriptive
I am wondering if there is such a thing as “too detailed†in writing. If yes, then I want to know if I am doing it. I will insert a descriptive paragraph from my own writing below.
Its scaly head was easily the size of a large minivan in the shape of a diamond, with a glistening black forked tongue the length of my body. It’s eyes were glowing a yellowish-green like headlights in the dying sun. It opened its mouth, revealing fangs the length of my arms, dripping with inky black venom. It’s mouth was ringed with a crusty brown substance, and with horror I realized it was dried blood. The loudest, most horrible noise I’d ever heard shook the ground at my feet. It sounded almost like the worlds largest maraca.
Is this too descriptive? Or just right? If it’s good you should be able to guess what kind of animal this is.
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: Re: Writing: Balancing Barbarism And Magic I'm having some issues with balancing the world in my story. My story is centered around a magical world where the people are brutal. There is political
Maybe make magic the punishment.
Maybe the government hoards all the magic, and punishes people with it.
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: Is it okay to kill a main character? I am a young author writing a fantasy series. I started this book with a light bulb idea late one night while reading Peter Pan. I didn’t know anything
I am a young author writing a fantasy series. I started this book with a light bulb idea late one night while reading Peter Pan.
I didn’t know anything about writing, but I ADORE reading, so I pulled out a notebook and let my mind flow. I started with a Prologue that I ended up deleting, because it gave away to much information, but in that moment I decided to make my POV first person.
So I started developing characters.
For my main character, I thought it would be easier to write the main character as me, but a few years older. Only later I read that there can be problems with making that character perfect, but my character has huge flaws. In fact, if she wasn’t the main character people would hate her.
Anyway, I developed an epic heroic tragic love story, between her and the second character I thought of, Dylan, Camryn’s future boyfriend.
I created Dylan to die. Why?
Dylan would be killed by the antagonist. The main character, Camryn, before Dylan’s death, wanted to find a different way to beat her (love compassion etc...) Well, there wasn’t another way. I poured my heart and soul into the antagonist, making her practically invincible except if you did this one thing then you could kill her.
Anyway, Dylan’s death is important because it makes Camryn bent on revenge, finally killing the antagonist. This all seemed like a great idea.
At first.
Then I got emotionally attached to Dylan. I know that is supposed to happen, but I fell in love with the guy. Naturally, since I made the main character after me, I made the main characters love interest after my crush. I gave him a backstory, hometown, all that colorful stuff.
And now I’m wondering, should I make this a bitter sweet victory?
(Kill Dylan)
Or have them live happily ever after. (Let Dylan live)
I hate this option in books because real life just doesn’t work that way. but now as the author, it’s really hard for me to kill him. AND I would have to completely re-write the script for the last book.
There are pros and cons.
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: What makes a book young adult I am a young author writing my first series . I’m not writing my books simply because I want to or that I am frustrated with other books, but those are some
I am a young author writing my first series . I’m not writing my books simply because I want to or that I am frustrated with other books, but those are some reasons.
The book I am writing is pure fantasy, with underlying genres of romance, tragedy, politics, and post-apocalyptic. But mainly fantasy.
I am targeting an audience of middle school and high school. When reading my favorite series targeted to the same audience, I became frustrated at the facet that no one ever really got hurt, and no one ever really died, despite the authors emphasis on how dangerous and violent this world was.
So when writing my own novel I cranked up the heat. One of the antagonists is a sixty-foot-tall giant with corpses dangling from his horns, and he thinks of killing as a game. This is just one of the servants of the real antagonist, the main bad guy. I have already made some people die, and am not afraid to make my characters be injured, because in real life odds are they would already be dead.
I’m wondering if I am being too violent, and if that would make my book “inappropriate†for younger readers, say, fifth and sixth grade.
I did not include other parts of my story in this question, but the common odds of death for my characters are typically a fifty/fifty chance, and about every three in ten people end up dying. In the past of my story, EVERYONE died until a certain character showed up, so this is a significant improvement for them.
I am not just constantly making people die or get hurt, but it happens to each main character at least once in each book, to emphasize that this actually IS dangerous.
I’m pretty much wondering if you can be too violent when writing , and if this would change the kind of audience that reads your work
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: What are some tips to keep on track of your plot I am a new writer writing a fantasy series, and earlier today I found myself thinking “Yay! I’m almost done with the main plot of my
I am a new writer writing a fantasy series, and earlier today I found myself thinking “Yay! I’m almost done with the main plot of my first book!â€
Then I realized I was nowhere near done with the underlying plots, and if I finished the book in a few chapters there would be tons of loose ends.
What are some tips to keep on track of all your internal/external conflicts and plots so that you don’t forget about one and leave a question unanswered?
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: Re: How do I write from a girl's POV? Ok, I know this question might seem a little bit weird. But I really need to know. How do I write from a girl's POV? I'm a 13 year old boy and I'm
Write like you would for a boy, but carefully change the pronouns to she/her. There’s literally no difference character-wise. If you feel like anything is out of character about it, go back and correct it in your editing process.
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: Re: Can there be too many obstacles in a character’s path? My current WIP involves a deliberate miscarriage of justice. I started out with three main characters: J - a young girl who is effected
It's all in how you write the story.
I'm going to be honest with you because I think you can take it, so here it goes.
Your story has a lot of potential to be really interesting, especially if you make it sound real. If it doesn't sound real, then a) no one is going to read it, and b) it doesn't matter if your story is too complicated or not because no one is going to want to read it.
I think that your plot could be interesting. Complicating a story more just makes it sound real, and that's good. But if you make the complications arbitrary (with no point), then you just have complications for the sake of having complications.
This is a link that helps you understand if you have too much plot in your story.
Beta readers are also a great way to figure out if your story is too complicated. If your readers follow your story and understand what's happening, then great! You don't have an overcomplicated plot. But if they get confused at key parts of the story, then your book is too confusing and you need to change something.
The bottom line is this: make it readable and understandable. if it isn't those things, then yes, you have too many obstacles in your story.
I hope this helped. :)
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: This is a great question! I can relate because I am also a young author (I'm not gonna say my exact age but I'm younger than eighteen). My advice to you is to not listen to what other
This is a great question! I can relate because I am also a young author (I'm not gonna say my exact age but I'm younger than eighteen). My advice to you is to not listen to what other people say, because if you do all you're going to think about when you sit down to write is what you can't do instead of what you can.
subscribe to get emails from informational blogs for writers in general (I like the Write Practice a lot) and ones for teen writers also (like Underlined). If you scour the internet enough, you can find some really good places to learn from, even if you aren't willing/able to pay.
This is a link to a post about young authors who also published young. One of them was even your age (12)!
Just keep your head up! If you practice long enough and keep writing, you can become great.
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: Re: How long should each paragraph be in fiction writing? In high school and even college most students are told to aim for around 5-6 sentences per paragraph. I am now trying to write fiction,
Paragraphs should be as long as they want to be. That sounds useless, but it is really the best answer to your question.
The truth of the matter is, in prose writing, there are no hard and fast concrete rules you can apply. Everything is a matter of taste. That doesn't mean that it's the wild west and anything goes - there's writing that is awkward and stilted and unpleasant and that hits the wrong tone, and you want to avoid that. But you need to get used to looking at prose writing from a subjective point of view. Instead of measuring whether you hit the right concrete metrics, you need to think about what you want to achieve and whether the approach you're taking realizes your goals.
In the case of deciding how long paragraphs should be, you're looking at the ideas of sentence structure, pacing, and musicality. In prose writing, you want the way you arrange your words to read pleasantly off the page. For a fight scene, you might want a frantic pace. So short, choppy sentences arranged in short, 1-3 sentence paragraphs give your writing a breathless feel that propels the reader down the page. But when your characters have a chance to catch their breath and emotionally process everything that's happened to them, you probably want a more introspective pace. Long, flowing sentences arranged in dense paragraphs, full of questions asked to nobody and ideas that struggle to find something to connect with, make sense.
Every novel I've read has some paragraphs that are only a few words long, paragraphs that fill up most of a page, and everything in-between.
Don't feel like you have to make each paragraph fit within some kind of measuring stick in order to be Correct. Instead, think about what you're trying to say at each point in your story. Let your paragraphs tell you how long they need to be. Make them musical, and allow them to break up ideas naturally instead of forcibly separating or conjoining ideas that shouldn't be pulled apart or crammed together.
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: Re: Use of commas with non-dialogue-tag verbs before and after dialogue I've recently found myself second guessing a convention I've followed for a while where with a piece of dialogue, for instance:
Yes, you need a comma there. "came down" is acting the role of "said" in that sentence: it is direct dialogue.
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: One thing you need to know is that you don't have to plan. Plenty of people can get a piece of writing done if they don't plan or if they have a plan in their head so they don't want
One thing you need to know is that you don't have to plan.
Plenty of people can get a piece of writing done if they don't plan or if they have a plan in their head so they don't want to write it down. You need to ask yourself do I need to plan? If you need an outline to be able to carry through the piece of writing without drifting away from your goal, then yes, you need to plan. But if you don't distract easily and the piece is relatively short, then you don't need to plan.
If you have decided that you want to plan your writing piece, try and take the parts of writing you like and put them into the planning process. For example, if you love world-building and creating characters, then you can start your planning process with one of those things and end it with the other to keep you going through to the end.
There are so many different ways to plan a novel, and different ways work for different people. One way that works for me is on the The Write Practice, a great site for writers. This is that link.
I hope I helped a bit. :)
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: Re: How can you express sadness without using any word non-figuratively related to sadness? How can you express sadness without using any word non-figuratively related to sadness? I have been told
You can also express sadness, depression or unhappiness etc indirectly through the way the person sees the world ie
The window unremittently showed him a bleak landscape;
She saw the gravestone's worn engraving, she struggled to hear his voice in her head;
The cat's milk saucer, dried up and unwashed for weeks,reminded her of her loss, yet its removal would deprive her of a last link.
How, and in what particular way do you feel, when you or the person you are writing about is sad? – Ask yourself this, and your own personal, individual sense of sadness will come to the fore.
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: Re: Lack of Creativity with Language I feel as though my mind is uncreative because I keep coming up with trite words and comparisons. For instance, I if I want to say something is the highest
It can be very difficult for some writers to inject a little 'creativity' into their writing.
I think what you're looking for is 'imagery'. We don't always need to say exactly what something is - we can say what it's like - what it feels like, reminds us of, and is comparable to. This can be much more evocative and powerful than bluntly stating a fact.
Here are some imagery techniques to help you get started...
Simile
When we say that something is like something else. The snow fell like icing sugar from a sieve.
Metaphor
When we say that something is something else. Icing sugar snow, falling from some great sieve in the sky.
Personification
When we speak about something that isn’t alive, as though it is alive. The lorry peered at me with its headlights, watching, its engine growling at me.
Symbolism
This is usually a small piece of imagery that ties to a bigger element of the story. For example, a red door might symbolise blood. In Harry Potter, snakes symbolise evil and sneakiness. Whenever we see a snake in Harry Potter, we know we have something to worry about!
The Senses
Don’t forget that we don’t just ‘see’ and ‘hear’ things. To really bring something to life, we can use the other senses too. For a location, we could mention the crunch of the snow underfoot. The smell of cakes and buns from the bakery over the road. Smoke in the air, so bitter you could taste it.
There are lots more, but these are a good starting point. Some of them take practice. I would advise that you read lots of books to help get a sense of how other writers do it, and to gather inspiration.
The final thing I'd say is, sometimes it's fine to just be blunt. Not everything has to be poetic, and often it's clearer to just describe something exactly how it is.
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: 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
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 and make it more interesting, but I've never been romantically involved with someone (to any extent) so that part of the book might feel awkward since I have no real-world experience.
My book is YA fantasy, and in that genre, you often see love triangles happen. I want my book to be more 'grown up' than it is right now, and I feel that adding a love triangle could help that.
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: Re: Should a writer be a good reader? Someone who wants to be a writer, has a good idea in his/her brain but is not much of a reader. Can that person be a good writer given that he/she has
YES.
At least, in the sense that the writer should try to read as much as possible. If you want to become a better writer (why else would you be here?) then you have to study the craft. As long as you keep reading and keep trying to read more, then you will get better. This is just a fundamental truth to writing. you have to take in writing so that you know how to structure sentences if you want them to be funny, or serious, or informative. Blog posts and such can help you with that, but if you want to progress faster, you just have to start reading more.
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: Re: Is it sometimes okay to info dump to enhance your story even if it's not necessary to the plot I am writing a YA novel in 3rd person limited. The first scene of the chapter opens in a high
I wouldn't call a paragraph or two of giving basic information about the setting an infodump. I'd say that's just describing the setting!
There's definitely a point where you're describing more about a location than is worthwhile. But setting is one of the most basic elements of storytelling. Giving the reader enough information to know where they are in the story's world is such a basic thing that it's hard to give words to it. And a handful of sentences isn't going to be so long that you risk losing the reader.
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: Re: Does self-publishing one's eBook online hurt a writer's chances of later selling the same book to a traditional publisher? Prior to asking this question, I have found and read similar questions
Kindle KDP says the following about ISBN numbers:
This free ISBN can only be used on KDP for distribution to Amazon and
its distributors. It cannot be used with another publisher or
self-publishing service.
Therefore, I assume they can decide how and where you sell it. Whereas when having your own ISBN, you could sell it in multiple places.
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: Re: How can I write complex and believable characters? How do I write characters that are more grounded, complex and believable so that readers can resonate with them and makes my novel more compelling?
Welcome to WSE, @ {Ishan2077} !
I will provide the intuition you must use for this purpose. In my opinion, there is no such way to accomplish things in novel-writing. But by noting your requirements (from your inspiration or sales-pitch), you can close in. The whole point is to narrow down the choices through intelligent analysis.
Each novel, or any literary piece for that matter, is driven by its characters.
So - it should be no surprise that the construction of characters is tied to the theme of the novel, or to be precise, its environment. Begin with an environment/setting of your choice; this will guide you to the kind of characters that populate this world. Now - if you have a more traditional setting, you can make good use of timeless classical tropes in literature, such as the 'swashbuckler' and the 'old hag' (Remember Indiana Jones and Cruela De Vil).
If you go for a more rebellious set of characters, you must intentionally flout the rules your setting poses. For example, Jane Austen's novels provide female protagonists who resent the way society suppresses their will, particularly in the choice of husbands. To do this, you must first figure out the rules.
It is helpful to maintain journals to explore your characters. You must know your character inside out: needs, requirements, emotional state, perception, and last but not the least, physical features. A good way to get more insight into character-building is by reading more books, and paying attention. Don't read for sport; read to process the characterization. And details like accents and tics go a long way in differentiating your characters. It is not necessary your character be justifiable or likeable. They must be believable.
Your next challenge after you do your homework regarding this will be putting together a story.
Good luck with that!
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: Can a novel chapter have a suspenseful flashforward opening? Like in the TV serials, can we have the opening section of the novel relate the ending or some part in between of the chapter (as
Like in the TV serials, can we have the opening section of the novel relate the ending or some part in between of the chapter (as a flashforward) to add suspense and keep the reader guessing as to how events got there in the first place?
How could this be formatted?
Has any author already done so?
Is there a specific word for this?
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: Is it permissible to have a non-linear narrative in a three act structure? Would I be breaking any rules, literary conventions or be doing something that is wrong or redundant as a narrative
Would I be breaking any rules, literary conventions or be doing something that is wrong or redundant as a narrative technique?
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: Re: Starting a book with a scene from the middle So. I'm currently working on a novel. (It's my first ever.) I need all the help I can get. I had an idea where I start with a scene which
Writing a novel might be complicated but it depends on how inspired you are.
You can start the novel from any part of the story, the beginning, middle or even the end. All of them are acceptable.
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