@Moriarity138
Last seen: Mon 17 May, 2021
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: Re: Any tips for young writers? I am a 15 years old boy who likes to read/watch/play anything that has a good story in it - especially fantasy. Everytime I finished one, I always feel like that
I am now a grown-up writer, with children close to your age, but I have been writing since I was a child, and can definitely identify with your experience --it's still very much like that for me.
Here are the main things I wish I had known about writing at age 15:
Write a lot, and enjoy the process of writing. Don't be focused on the goal of publishing, or rush through to the next project. The best writers are in love with writing. They would write even if no one ever read it. The more you write, the better you get. If you write three or four books by age 20, even if they never get published, you will be a good writer by the time you get there.
Get feedback, but don't take it personally. For years, I would get very emotional about having my writing read --it was like having my dreams and soul analyzed and rejected. Or, when people liked it, I felt as though they were affirming me. THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT APPROACH. Whether people respond to your writing is usually about the work you put in, not about who you are as a person. Getting feedback is essential to learning how to reach your readers (see my answer to this recent question). With that said, always do your best, but don't be crushed if people don't respond. Not every piece of writing is for every audience.
When you finish something, try to sell it. A lot of success as a writer has nothing to do with how good a writer you are. It is all about being a good salesperson for your work. If you start practicing early, you will get good at that as well. You are never too young to sell your writing, and if it doesn't sell --which is likely --you still will have gained experience and the confidence to try. Short stories in youth magazines would be a great place to start submitting.
Best of luck! I am looking forward to reading your books and stories one day.
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: Re: How can I make the story less predictable? I'm working on my first novel. As I was going through the initial chapters, I felt that the story is quite simple and predictable (in the initial
I'm going to share a change I made in the story I'm writing recently. My old version was to begin with the character, a day in his life, an unsuccessful day at his sales job returning home to his curry noodles and internet when he gets the phone call that changes his life and I felt that was a perfectly fine place to begin. Introduce the character and start with a day in his life.
It occurred to me recently that the reader gets into the story much better if I begin two weeks later at his job interview with the company that hires him, because that's where the story gets juicy. I lose some conversation over breakfast with the antagonist but I'm OK with that. I think starting where it gets interesting is much better than starting at the beginning.
You mentioned it's a revenge story and in being a revenge story, you need some buildup, but try to find the point where what's happening is essential to the story or character development and start there. It's OK to cut a few chapters, at least, it's OK if you're me. I've done it.
For example - if you begin with "The neighbor moved next door yesterday and he seems OK, but I wish he'd turn the music down" - not very interesting. You're hinting that he may not care about you, but nothing juicy.
Compared with "The neighbor moved in next door and now my dog is gone." - that pulls the reader in.
Or the more creepy. I turned and saw a pair of eyes staring at me through my window. I grabbed my son's baseball bat and ran outside but whoever it was, they were too fast. They were gone. I looked around for clues. Anything that might tell me who it was who was staring at me through my window and but all was quiet. A gentle wind blows by and I hear a faint click. The gate to my neighbor's house is unlatched.
Begin with some kind of tension. Find the point that you can't eliminate without hurting your story or losing key character elements and eliminate everything before then.
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: Re: Dealing with lackluster plot failure So, I wrote the beginning of something about novel-sized. I drafted totally sweet, lovable protagonists in an interesting, original relationship, I placed them
Could you try some nonlinear storytelling? Drop us into the middle of the action, and then backtrack little by little to give us context as we need it? Or, even more daring, just omit a lot of the buildup, and let the reader be in the dark about some of it? Sometimes good writing is all about knowing what to explain and what to leave a mystery.
One final suggestion. Even if you don't end up telling this as a nonlinear story, you don't have to WRITE it in order. Write all the most exciting and interesting parts first, and then see what you need to weave those together.
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: Re: I'm writing a book on my life, what publishers look into these type of books? Im a Mexican/American by the border of South Texas. I have a real story to tell from crime to redemption what
The majority of memoirs are by famous people, because they are the ones who have a built in audience. It's possible to sell a memoir as an unknown if you have an extraordinary life story, but it's not common. If you're in the second category, you'll need to be a really good writer, and you'll need to write your own story as if it was a novel --meaning it will need to be entertaining. True is not enough. With that said, the crime aspect definitely helps --there's a large audience out there for crime non-fiction. (Iceberg Slim is a good example of someone who became famous from writing a gritty urban crime memoir.)
You might consider writing an autobiographical novel instead, which is fiction based on your life. The advantage is that you don't have to stick exactly to the truth. You might have fewer friends and relatives mad at you (or old enemies looking for you)! And it's typically easier to find a publisher for a novel than for a memoir.
As far as where to sell it: Most big publishers and agents will do the occasional memoir. I'm sure there are some that specialize in it, you'll need to do a search. True Crime is a recognized genre, you might do a search for that: agentquery.com is a good place to start. Cash Money Content is a Simon & Schuster imprint that currently owns the Iceberg Slim library --they might be a good fit for you. Another good idea is looking for a targeted niche publisher --maybe a regional one that focuses on the Southwest, or one that is promoting Latino or Mexican voices (those do exist). You might not need an agent if you are working with a smaller publisher.
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: Re: Is it appropriate for one to use already existing content? Will it be considered copyright infringement if one would use already existing content, for example, a song? Can you be sued for copyright
Will it be considered copyright infringement if one would use already existing content, for example, a song?
Without permission, this is (very likely) copyright infringement.
Can you be sued for copyright infringement if you use this, even if you give the original artist credit?
You can sue anyone for anything, but in the situation you describe, your legal position would probably be disfavored. Credit does not, in and of itself, absolve you of copyright infringement. The original artist has the right to decide whether you may copy their original work; that's why it's called "copyright" (see for example 17 USC 106, and similar laws in other countries). Giving credit would absolve you of plagiarism, but copyright infringement and plagiarism are two entirely different things, and they follow different rules.
In the US, depending on a variety of complicated legal factors, you might or might not be able to credibly raise the defense of fair use (which is intended to cover short quotations, parodies, etc., see 17 USC 107). Other jurisdictions may have comparable legal concepts. You do not want to be in the position of raising such a defense. Fair use is extremely fact-intensive and ruinously expensive to litigate. If you plan to go down this road, you should probably consult an attorney (or ask your agent or traditional publisher, who might then decide to consult an attorney on your behalf).
Finally, if you are doing something non-commercial, such as writing fanfiction, then it's somewhat less likely that the original artist will go after you, in practice. This does not automatically make your use non-infringing, and some artists or creators have very strong negative feelings about fanfiction. Those people may well go after you, if they find out about it. In the US, I am not aware of any case law directly addressing whether fanfiction is considered fair use in some, most, or all cases, so this would be just as expensive to litigate.
Is this appropriate in a book, or is it best to come up with something more original?
With permission, for something relatively short such as an epigraph or other attributed quotation, it might be appropriate. But reproducing large quantities of the original works of others may make it harder for readers to connect with your unique authorial voice. It also means that, should any controversy related to the original artist arise, then your work may become tied to that controversy or stained by it.
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: Re: How can I read 700 pages in a day? It's been two months and I haven't completed one book, and this OP has read 700 pages in one day. So how can I increase my reading habits? Compared to
People who naturally read fast read in a different way than most people. They don't phonetically sound out the words, or hear them spoken in their head, and they don't read word by word. Instead, they read a large chunk of text at once, taking much of the details from contextual clues. This is sometimes called "whole language reading." It is a learnable skill --there are plenty of courses, books and programs designed to teach it. Don't be fooled by people who just say "read more." It is the natural way some people read, but it takes conscious effort to master for others.
However there are trade-offs. A slower reader may enjoy the language more, become more immersed in the reading, and take in more of the details. With that said --don't confuse this with skimming! It is entirely possible to increase speed without lowering comprehension.
As both a natural and a trained speed-reader, I can attest that there are many advantages to being able to speed read at will. However, there are still times I force myself to slow down, or even to read the words out loud to fully appreciate them. Slower reading can even be an asset to a writer --many great authors have struggled as readers. It forces them to engage with individual word choice at a deeper level.
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: Re: Can I publish a book set in the Harry Potter universe? I know similar questions have been asked. But also, consider that I want to publish a book in countries other than the US or UK.
You can't publish a book explicitly set in a world created by another author without appropriate permissions, which you will not get.
Most authors and publishers turn a blind eye to fan fiction AS LONG AS IT IS NOT MONETIZED. But the moment you try to make money from this, you are stealing someone else's intellectual property.
With that said, Harry Potter didn't invent the idea of a magical world or magical school. You could certainly publish a book about a magic world existing alongside the mundane one, as long as Harry Potter characters and settings don't make appearances. No schools named "Hogwarts" or "Beauxbatons." Use HP as an inspiration --don't copy it.
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: When I was about 12, I also found out what I want to become: a programmer. I enjoyed working with computers, writing programs and decided early on that this is something I want to do professionally
When I was about 12, I also found out what I want to become: a programmer. I enjoyed working with computers, writing programs and decided early on that this is something I want to do professionally later on.
This has given me a somewhat clear education path and all in all, I'm very glad to have had the fortune of knowing where I want to go early on; it gave me a head-start when I entered work-life. So if you want to become an author, focus on your path ahead and not on the bystanders. Think about what you want/need to learn to make this dream a reality:
Are there courses in your school you can take that may be useful?
Are there hobbies that are related you can pick up (like writing for a school paper or things like acting/improv theatre, role playing)?
What kind of schools do you want to go to later on and what's needed for you to get there?
Are there any clubs you can join that may be useful?
Which often-overlooked secondary skills are you going to need (like negotiating contracts, doing taxes and other stuff when self-employed) and how can you learn those?
Some of these questions are for "today", some are for your more distant future. Thinking about them and finding answers (even if they are "it's not going to work this way") bring you a step closer to your goal.
I imagine with writing it's somewhat similar to programming: you have to explore different styles, keep on doing that, be embarrassed by what you produced a year earlier (this means you made progress). As a pupil, you can do that without much financial pressure. You don't have to earn money yet to get something to eat: a big advantage, you can thus use the time you want to dedicate to writing to actually produce whatever you want, instead of what is earning you enough to eat.
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: Explain the lack of commas in James Joyce's "The Dead" I am closely reading/editing (for my own benefit) the text of Dubliners, the collection of short stories written by James Joyce. In some
I am closely reading/editing (for my own benefit) the text of Dubliners, the collection of short stories written by James Joyce.
In some stories, such as The Dead, there are many instances of what you might call run-on sentences, with little or no commas. Here's a shining example (taken from The Dead):
Mary Jane waited on her pupils and saw that they got the best slices and Aunt Kate and Aunt Julia opened and carried across from the piano bottles of stout and ale for the gentlemen and bottles of minerals for the ladies.
This text is taken from Project Gutenberg. It matches a Penguin edition I have, which in turn is taken from a critical edition by Scholes and Litz. (You can also view the first edition here at archive.org.)
To my brain, the text seems to require at least one comma, after the best slices.
Here's a second, more egregious example (also taken from The Dead):
Her blue felt hat would show off the bronze of her
hair against the darkness and the dark panels of her skirt would show
off the light ones.
In my opinion, the above text needs a comma after against the darkness. The reason is that it's ambiguous without it.
My question is this: is this really Joyce's intention, or is it a mistake in the typesetting?
If it is indeed his intention, then what effect is he trying to achieve?
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: Re: Breaking the Rules There are many style guides that urge writers to use the active voice and to avoid nominalizations. But many good books I've read often violate these rules. So when should
I generally agree with Chris: You should break "the rules" to the extent that you understand what they are trying to accomplish and you still believe that breaking them is the most natural way to make yourself understood.
However, there are exceptions to this exception, especially in the field of journalism. If you are writing copy for a newspaper, you should be following their house style reasonably closely. Similarly, if you are yourself publishing a newspaper, magazine, or even a (professional) blog, you should either pick an existing style guide and follow it, or create your own house style and follow it. More generally, if you have been asked to follow a particular style guide for some piece of writing, you should think carefully about why you were asked to follow that guide, and the overall format you will be writing in, before deciding to break any rules.
In contexts where writing is heavy on facts and light on opinion or emotion, it's generally accepted that creativity and expressiveness yield to pragmatism and uniformity. You may still need to break a rule from time to time, if the alternative would be unclear to your readers, but this will be rare. Rules should usually only be broken for reasons of clarity, and not for a more general "I want the reader to think/feel X" purpose.
Editorials and some non-traditional articles will enjoy greater creative freedom. These pieces are advocating for a point of view, or trying to give the reader a novel experience (e.g. what it's like to be a specific person, or to live in a specific place). In that case, deviation from the rules is more acceptable, though it should still be used with care. At the end of the day, your article should "look like it belongs" next to the other articles in the same publication, and if your style is wildly different from everyone else's, it won't. So deviate where it matters, but follow the guide closely where it doesn't.
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: A solution I've seen is as follows: When the character's first introduced they use the alias. Bob enters the library. Standing at a bookshelf is a LIBRARIAN, filing some books.
A solution I've seen is as follows: When the character's first introduced they use the alias.
Bob enters the library. Standing at a bookshelf is a LIBRARIAN, filing
some books.
BOB
Do you have any books?
LIBRARIAN
Shh.
then, later, they're re-introduced with both names:
Bob enters the library, followed by the two thugs, each armed with a heavy
cudgel. The Librarian is at the central desk, and Bob walks swiftly to it
and joins her.
BOB
You need to get out of here.
Those two are dangerous.
LIBRARIAN
I'll be better able to help you
if you just come behind the desk.
He moves behind the desk, to see the Librarian is holding a Detonics
ScoreMaster in her lap.
BOB
What? Who the hell are you?
LIBRARIAN
Susie.
BOB
Can you use that thing?
SUSIE (formerly LIBRARIAN)
Sure.
Susie stands up and shoots the two thugs in one swift and easy move.
And from then on you use the second name.
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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
There are many ways to talk about emotions obliquely. You can put them into metaphors:
The ocean is gray, and I am lost in the tidepools, with their swirling sands.
You can talk about the context:
Day fifty-three since she left, and the house grows ever more quiet
You can deny them.
Why do you ask? I've never felt happier! Why shouldn't I be happy?
You can depict them physically.
What is this wetness on my cheek?
Or all of the above
The ocean is gray
and I am lost in the tidepools
with their swirling sands: Day fifty-three
since she left
and the house grows evermore quiet
Why do you ask?
I've never felt happier!
Why shouldn't I be happy?
What is this wetness
on my cheek?
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: Re: Should I end my book on a major cliffhanger? I am writing a YA fantasy series, and I'm wondering if the first book should end in a major cliffhanger. Right as the book ends, the main characters
As much as readers claim to hate this, it can definitely drive future sales. Roger Zelazny ended every single book in his long running, popular Amber series on a cliffhanger, including the last one.
My advice would be to to provide some closure in your book, either before the cliffhanger or as a part of it. Bring some story arcs to a close, answer some unanswered questions. That shows the reader that you're not just stringing them along indefinitely.
I don't think any reader loves a cliffhanger, but I really only hate them, as a reader, when it feels like the author is cheating us by a) deliberately withholding the real ending, b) disguising the fact that they just don't have a satisfying ending or c) cynically trying to sell more books (i.e. making decisions for commercial reasons, not artistic ones). I don't even mind a cliffhanger as a final ending (no sequel), if it makes good artistic sense (which is to say, if ambiguity is playing an actual role, and isn't just an easy out). There's no ending I love more than of the movie Children of Men, and that one is a complete cliffhanger.
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: Re: How to clearly distinguish the settings of different scenes from each other, and make them "feel" different? Background I've been working on doing nitty-gritty editor revisions of my detective novel
In my experience, when your settings run together, it's because you haven't done the work to fully imagine and render them in your mind. I'm not the most observant person, so whether I'm remembering a setting or inventing one, it tends to be fuzzy and abstract by default (writers who are highly visually observant tend not to have that problem).
What helps is to make the places more real in your mind. If possible, go in person to a similar location and observe it with all your senses. If not, do some research , find pictures online, draw maps, do some visualizations, and so forth.
You won't end up using all those details, but just having that in the back of your mind will make your setting more rich and three-dimensional. The same goes for character descriptions as well. It's work that doesn't come natural to me, but when I do it, I notice the difference. Your characters stop feeling like they're floating in a formless void.
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: Re: How should I write two huge evil reveals in one climax? I am only plotting my story as of right now, and I'm trying to put together a good climax. So far, A's parents were murdered by C.
As outlined, I see three major problems with this:
It's undermotivated - B "has never cared for" either side? That's pretty weak motivation for double-crossing betrayal.
It doesn't make much sense - Why wouldn't B have killed A or C before, given that she had both of their trust?
One betrayal undercuts the emotional impact of the other, and without much gain.
However, I see a solution that would improve all of these issues:
Give B a solid, very good reason for hating C, and then make her betrayal of A the price she has paid to win C's trust. I wouldn't have her actually target A --again, it strains credibility she would have held off so long if that was her aim. Instead, her betrayal of A opens the door for her to strike at C.
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: Re: Is it too cliche to use multiple fantasy creatures at once? I've been planning out a novel for a while and the main concept is that the main character is Elf/human/robot hybrid with superpowers
There are three costs associated with adding extra fantasy or science-fiction elements to a narrative.
It increases the necessary suspension of disbelief. Readers have to let go of a certain amount of "realist" expectations to enjoy even a realistic story, and that burden is bigger for fantasy work. SF & F readers enjoy doing this, but it does make it harder when they have to swallow multiple different elements that aren't related to each other. A world with both elves and robots is a big ask, from this point of view.
It involves more worldbuilding/exposition. Unlike a realist story, a fantasy story must introduce the basic rules of the way the world works, so it involves more effort to make the setting seem real and three-dimensional. With a hybrid story, there can be just too much worldbuilding to fit into the book, so the writer is forced to rely on readers' already established notions of "elf" and "robot", which is what makes a book feel derivative and lazy.
It can easily lead to overpowered situations. A danger for books with fantasy elements is that characters can easily be depicted as so powerful that it's tough to believe they have any problems they can't just magic their way out of. Someone who is both an elf and a robot is probably pretty tough and powerful. Is the reader really going to be invested in her journey? Or scared for her when she's "in danger"?
None of this is a reason to NOT do it. And in fact, the concept sounds pretty intriguing. But it would take a lot of work and skill to pull it off successfully. This isn't an easy idea to make believable.
On the other hand, maybe "believable" isn't your goal. In that case, maybe this idea isn't really a novel --maybe it would be better as a script for a ultra-cool superhero comic, or animated series.
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: Re: Realistically writing culture shock for this character? I want some help writing a character. Her name is Christina and she lived in an underground bunker, in a post-apocalyptic world, so she’s
If there are a group of them they probably won't suffer from culture shock, unless they're living as part of a larger community.
Sounds more like they will be camping in a wilderness, which obviously will have challenges , but they will bring their culture, language, assumptions and prejudices with them.
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: Re: When does a partially random event go from reasonably possible to contrived "deus ex machina"? There will always be some amount of luck, some amount of chance and randomness in any story. This
All literature relies on coincidence. That's because a narrative isn't a duplicate of life, it's a condensation of it, where things are brought into close proximity for maximum effect. So the audience is prepared to accept a certain amount of coincidence.
The general rule of thumb is this. Coincidence feels like a cheat when it makes things easier for the characters, illegitimately, which is to say, without them putting the work in. The detective happens to find the stolen jewel in the first pawn shop he finds. Everyone groans. But when it makes things harder for the characters, it's much more palatable. Why, of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, does Ilsa walk into Rick's? Who cares, it's the challenging event that sets the story in motion. The underlying reason is that we read to learn. We can learn a lot from seeing a character deal with an unlucky break. But we can't learn anything from watching someone who's undeservedly lucky all the time.
If coincidence is doing too much water-carrying for the writer, that can get annoying as well. If the writer consistently relies on improbable coincidences to put the characters in interesting situations, that begins to feel real fake, real fast. In the last Harry Potter, is it a string of coincidences that the villain is reliably able to find the hero? No, it turns out there's a hidden mechanism at work. Again, it comes down to being able to relate it to our own lives and challenges. A long string of meaningless unlucky breaks doesn't feel any more real than a long string of lucky ones.
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: Re: Is there a way I can print a book only for myself? As selfish as this sounds, I’m really interested in having my own book printed physically for myself. I don’t intend to sell it or
Yes, this is relatively easy to do these days through Print On Demand services. One that I've personally used in the past is Lulu.com. Their user interface is easy, and their POD books are of comparable quality to what you would see from a traditional publisher. The price per book is also comparable to what you would pay retail for a standard book. They do both hardcover and softcover. Amazon.com has a similar service called "CreateSpace", with ties to the main Amazon site.
When I did POD, those two were the industry leaders. However, that was a decade ago, so my information may be stale. A quick search for POD (Print on Demand) should help you find out.
The caveat with all this is that you will either need to do all formatting, layout, cover design, and so forth yourself. Otherwise, you'll pay a premium for someone else to do it for you. As with many industries, a lot of how POD makes money is through upselling high-priced optional extras.
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: Re: Multiple hyperlinks I'm writing a paper using Microsoft Word that must have all figures in Appendices. I have found myself in this situation: I use one figure to define multiple concepts, I
You can accomplish your goal this way:
Create a macro. I named mine "AltLeft".
Open the macro editor and add the SendKeys command, like this:
Sub AltLeft()
' AltLeft Macro
SendKeys ("%{LEFT}")
End Sub
The string "%{LEFT}" tells Word to send the Alt-LeftArrow key sequence. This key sequence will take the user back to the last hyperlink clicked.
Assign the AltLeft macro to a button and save it to your document. (Note: you will have to save the document in Word's macro-enabled format (.docm) so that the macro will work.)
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: Re: 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
Paying attention to rhythm (i.e., caring about it) is the first step. After that, I recommend reading some instructional material on the subject. A book that has helped me greatly in many areas of writing (not just rhythm) is On Writing Well by William F. Zinsser. It is probably out of print, but if you can get hold of a copy, I highly recommend it.
One more suggestion: read what you have written aloud. Doing so will uncover many problems with rhythm and wording.
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: Re: I can't write without an inspiration I've been writing a book for almost a year now. But it takes so long because I have to wait for "inspiration". Sometimes I will get an idea that makes
Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.
— Michelangelo Buonarroti
There is a convincing, exciting, captivating story that you are carving from blank paper with your plans and words.
If you are not in the mood for working on some of the finest part of your story, you can go somewhere else and roughly chip out big fragments. These are the bits that don't need inspiration. As you reveal more and more of the entire form, you will come back to little areas and you'll get excited about finishing them.
Think about a huge block of marble. "Oh, I'm going to go sculpt an ear to perfection." Why would you get excited about that? But when you see a man with arms and legs and a nose, you give the man a name, you see his posture, you want to learn more about him. Even if the arms and legs and nose are very blocky.
And with so many areas that need to be fleshed out, you will get inspiration for something, somewhere, much more often.
The key, then, is to write as fast as possible in the early stages. Just write utter crap. Don't look for the right word. And don't go back to previous sentences. Inconsistency is fine. If you spend more than 30 seconds on a sentence, pretend you've finished it and start a new paragraph.
You may not enjoy it. But if you do it properly, it won't take a lot of time. (You might actually enjoy it anyway, since you are discovering the story arc rather than wading through some boring details.)
A common trap is that after you do this a while, you'll want to go back and flesh out details, which is a recipe for spending forever on it. Prioritise getting to the end of the story quickly and evaluating the story arc before doing too much fine-grained work.
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: How can I learn about the aesthetic rules behind composing new names for things? This is kind of difficult for me to describe, so let me lead with an example. Suppose I tell you there's a
This is kind of difficult for me to describe, so let me lead with an example. Suppose I tell you there's a creature named Humbarum and another named Axratax. I'll ask you to start imagining what they're like, even though you know nothing but their names: imagine their behaviour, their appearance. You'll probably be able to imagine at least a couple of things about at least one of them, and you might feel those same qualities couldn't be said of the other.
When we create new words to name things, the sounds of those words have connotations that mean things to us. This means there's compositional rules, and if we can understand them we can leverage them to better understand how to name things. And when a name doesn't feel quite right for a character, we could understand what about it might not be quite right and what we can do instead.
I'm interested in learning about those rules, and I imagine someone's done the science to understand and develop them, but I don't even know what this kind of thing is called. How can I learn about these rules? Is there a name for this subject I can look into? Are there formative texts I could read?
Related topics in naming: phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and the bouba/kiki effect.
In illustration, the theory of shape language is well understood: it asserts that characters can be composed of circles, rectangles, and triangles, and the shapes we use to build a character helps us say things about them. It seems weird, but it works. This seems like it's the phonetic equivalent of that.
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: Re: How do I blur the line between dream and reality? I intend to write a science fantasy where dream world plays as important role as reality. The dream world stated has quite a distinct feel
You, the author, are creating both the "real" world, and the dream world. From that point of view, neither intrinsically has more reality than the other. Bizarre things may happen in the dream world, but then, bizarre things happen in reality all the time. When things that contradict reality happen habitually in a narrative, we call that "fantasy fiction" and it's something that many readers are happy to suspend disbelief for.
The upshot is that if you treat this secondary world as its own, legitimate reality, and respect whatever rules you set up for it, it will be just as real to the reader as the primary reality. YOU are creating the rules for this universe. There's no way for the reader to judge that the secondary world isn't a valid alternate reality unless you undercut it in some way.
With that in mind, make sure that everything that happens in the dream world has real stakes and real consequences. Everything that happens in the movie version of "The Wizard of Oz" is a dream, but it doesn't feel like a cheat to most viewers, because it has a complete story arc, in which Dorothy genuinely has to grow and change. The dreams that cheat the readers are the ones that short-circuit the protagonist's journey or that give him or her unearned escapes or rewards.
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: Re: How can I make a disturbing first-person narrator compelling? I'm writing a story centered around a protagonist trying to live a normal life while suppressing his evil impulses and the temptation
I'm not sure making this un-creepy is either possible or desirable. Your premise is deliberately creepy, why fight against that? What you need to do is build empathy with your main character. If he's fighting really hard to be a good person, and not always succeeding, most people will be able to identify with that. For him, the stakes are just a bit higher, and the scenery a bit more intense.
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: 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
my name is Christine.
I'm writing a book, and I feel like it would be right to include a sex scene.
both characters are male, and both virgins as well, and I've never written a sex scene nor had sex.
I don't want it to be too detailed, and I prefer no talking, just describing how it was.
I can handle a post-sex scene, I just really need some help; how do I describe the first time? what adjectives should I use?
thank you in advance, Christine.
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: Re: How to NOT get sad when writing I am writing historical fiction novel. Some parts are very sad. I am identifying with my characters to develop and write about them. How to move past the sadness
Marium,
As writers, we often find ourselves in the middle of someone else's pain, suffering or turmoil. It comes with the territory. But in any area of life — including writing — we never produce our best work when we're down in the depths of grief or despair.
As a professional, you have to remain upbeat and at your best. But, as you know, detachment isn't an option because of the necessity to become mentally involved with the author, the character and the audience. We have to BE all of them at on-demand.
So here is what I do:
One of the best, quickest ways to rise back up to a higher emotion like "cheerfulness" is to take a break and take a walk. Don't think about the upsetting situation but rather just look around at whatever is there. A squirrel, a car, a tree, the sky, a cloud, the grass, the snow... whatever is there.
You will feel better within minutes whether 15 or 30. However long it takes, come back to the keyboard once you're back to your normal self. Take more frequent walks during the really rough patches.
Let me know how this works out for you, Marium.
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: Re: What is Considered to be a Large Portfolio to be Sent to Agents/Publishers? I am currently looking for an agent to represent a portfolio of books. But I was wondering, what is considered to
If you're an illustrator, you send a portfolio, because you are selling your talent, not any individual piece of work, and because you'll be using that talent to illustrate someone else's writing. But as a writer, you're selling an individual piece of writing, not your talent, so you should pick the best one, and sell that. Once you have a confirmed sale under your belt, you'll have the inside track on selling additional books.
A portfolio of writing is only for writers who have already proven successful, or who are doing writing-for-hire assignments such as ghostwriting or web content. There might be an exception to this rule if you were selling a series as a series, but no one ever buys or sells five unrelated stand-alone books as a group.
Also keep in mind that having multiple completed unsold projects is not generally considered a plus. Agents and publishers will be primarily interested in your past publications, and their reception. If the work you are submitting is very good, they will be glad to know you have follow-ups ready, but even writing quality is not a guarantee of sales, so they'll be more interested in a good sales track-record, if you have one.
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: I think that writing --or any form of art --can be a way of working through the chaos of emotions, and other aspects of life. From that point of view, the reason so many great artists
I think that writing --or any form of art --can be a way of working through the chaos of emotions, and other aspects of life. From that point of view, the reason so many great artists have chaotic lives is not because the art bring the chaos, but because it helps with it. The chaos comes first, and the art follows afterwards.
There was a time in my life when I wrote a lot of poetry, some of it that I still consider very good today. It coincided with one of the more unhappy and emotionally volatile times in my life. Now that my life is more stable, I find I never have the urge to write poetry --it seems to be something I don't currently need to do.
I would say that for the great poets, like the ones of which you speak, writing is not opposed to living and feeling. Instead, all three are part of a single fabric. If you don't feel the same urge in your own life right now, it might be that you don't connect your life and your writing the same way, or it might be that you aren't having experiences so intense, at this point, that you need poetry to find your way through them.
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: Pictures in my book I have recently been diagnosed with ALS. I was keeping a journal on the CaringBridge site, and I got enough feedback about it that I have decided to turn it into a book.
I have recently been diagnosed with ALS. I was keeping a journal on the CaringBridge site, and I got enough feedback about it that I have decided to turn it into a book. I have added memories of my growing up. I’m curious if it is acceptable to add pictures about some of my memories. They are pictures of me, so legal is not an issue. I’m just not sure if it’s okay to add pictures in a book like this. Also, any recommendations for where to put the pictures? My first thought was to have a collage at the end of the book with pictures of some of the things I talked about. Or would it be better to put a picture at that spot in the book? Any input would be appreciated.
Thank you.
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