@Nimeshi163
Last seen: Mon 17 May, 2021
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: Re: Erotic fiction: Kindle Direct Publishing guidelines on pornography In the KDP content guidelines it says: Pornography We don't accept pornography or offensive depictions of graphic sexual acts.
I have had a book blocked by KDP. It consisted of a number of images of a nude man, not particularly sexual, but many close-ups of his penis. The form letter said the company had concerns about porn and/or copyright. I could not figure whether it was either or both of these.
Amazon sells books that are highly sexual, but I assume that is a separate matter from publishing.
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: Re: Where to go next in the writing process? I'm a new writer, have been working on a novel length piece of work for the past couple of years, and I have always been the kind of person to
It sounds like you've tried being both a planner and a "pantser". Planners tend to do a lot of upfront planning, while "pantsers" tend to write "by the seat of their pants". Neither approach is wrong, so long as it feels natural to you and helps you achieve your goal of finishing the novel. Stephen King is known to be a "pantser" and needs no introduction.
As for where to go next, I think the most important step is to finish your first draft. As established screenwriter and novelist C. Robert Cargill likes to say, "a finished thing can be fixed." It might be that your first draft is your final version; however, it's more likely you'd want to do a couple of rewrites to get it polished to a sheen. You might:
Do a character pass. Focus one or more of your rewrites on specific characters, following their journey through the story and fine-tuning their arcs.
Do a dialogue pass. In one of your rewrites, concentrate cleaning up the dialogue. Take out extraneous words, expressions like "you know", "um". These can be distracting for readers. Streamline it.
Cut out the clutter. Similar to a dialogue pass, every time you rewrite, think very carefully about what each scene in your novel does. If it doesn't move the plot forward or develop your characters, maybe it's time to cut it.
Once you're satisfied that you can't improve your novel further by yourself, get some beta readers. Consider their feedback carefully. If there's a common criticism between readers, it might point to a deeper issue that you might want to focus on in a future draft.
These are simply suggestions. Personally, I would recommend listening to the Write Along podcast by Cargill and Dave Chen. Each episode is a treasure trove of writing advice, and it's entertaining too!
I don't think it's necessary to start with "what does your novel want to say". This message often reveals itself as you write, from your subconscious mind, as your unique voice tells your story.
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: Re: Is an audience really required to develop writing? I like writing, particularly on topics of realism and general self-help. Some of my posts are opinion-based, and some are emotive pieces. My
If you're only writing for the fun of it than what's the point of having an audience? Especially when that audience is unappreciative.
I say write. Just write. You don't need to post it anywhere or show it to anyone (Although you can if you want to), just write. The only person who ever has to see your novels or short stories or whatever it is you write, is you. You don't need approval or attention or anything like that.
If you find writing what those people want to read boring then just don't write what those people want to read. Write what you want to write and don't worry about the rest of them.
Now I also noticed that you said you wanted to improve your writing. If you want to do that, an audience might be required, but not an audience like that. Get your mom, you dad, maybe your siblings if you have any. Get your friends and your teachers and see if you could get them to read over your stories and tell you what they think about it. Going online to Quora is unnecessary.
Basically just do what you love doing. If you love writing, then write what you love, if you love your stories getting no appreciation, then continue posting them on Quora. It's you choice.
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: Re: Is it acceptable to punctuate and capitalize a dialogue tag like a separate sentence? When a piece of writing has a quoted sentence followed by a dialogue tag, the sentence is usually ended
For standard dialogue tags, it makes no sense. Said John. does not make any sense by itself. However, a character action in between dialogue does make sense by itself: "Hello." John tilted his hat.
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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
Oh man. Writing research papers is my biggest weakness. I always did poorly in English and History because of research papers.
One common problem people face with academic writing is verboseness. This is often caused by the word count minimum most teachers use for papers. It's intended to force students to put more content in their papers and search deeper into their topic, but what it actually encourages is writing long, verbose, fluffy sentences. It incentivizes adding extra words and sentences that don't contribute to the overall structure of the paper.
My English teacher senior year in high school had a brilliant solution. Instead of a word minimum, she assigned us a paper with a 500 word maximum. All of us fluffers struggled getting all of our analysis into that tight 500 word limit. Dealing with that kind of limit really makes you crack down on fluffy writing and only write what is necessary.
About not starting easily, I got nothing. All I can say is that I snacked on candy a lot while trying to write research papers and it actually severely hindered my ability to concentrate. Sugary foods and critical thinking don't mix.
One option is to set aside an hour or so to work, or give yourself a daily goal, and when the time is up or the goal is met, reward yourself with a sugary treat. I can't say this has worked for me, but it sounds good on paper.
I get it, it's hard not to take criticism personally, especially if it's not delivered in a polite way. I find criticism is more helpful if it includes steps to improve. Ask your advisor or critic how your work can be improved, and then you'll have actionable advice instead of just negative comments.
Optionally, you can look at critique of others' works. On paper, this would help you see that the criticism isn't personal to you, but idk if it would work or not.
In summary:
Practice anti-fluff by writing papers with a word maximum
Don't eat sugary foods while writing the paper
Ask your critics for steps to improve
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: Re: Is it okay to use "It was all just a virtual world / dream" for a plot twist? I am currently writing a novel where I use "It was all just a dream" (IWAJAD) plot twist, just because
It's ok to use it if the dream is a very short scene, or if it takes place in the opening of the story. With short scenes, we have a very dreamlike duration, meaning IWAJAD doesn't delete or invalidate very much. It was only just a short scene after all. At the opening of a story, the scene can be longer. We're being introduced to one or more characters, and their general situation, setting, or a minor conflict they must overcome. Even if it's a chapter or two, it's ok to end the opening sequence with IWAJAD because this provides an opportunity to use the dream as a stepping stone for the larger story to come.
Ending a large section of the story with IWAJAD is cheap because it didn't happen, unless your world allows real events to happen in dreams, that affect more than one character. Ending an entire story with IWAJAD is doable but only when the story themes are about existentialism, solipsism, or the uncertainties of being a consciousness in a body. If the themes relate to reality's uncertain or absurd existence, then it might be ok to end the story with IWAJAD but this should be done tastefully and abruptly so that there is no world outside the dream. At that point it becomes a commentary, and what comes after IWAJAD isn't devalued, because there isn't anything there.
IWAJAD is generally hated because it devalues the events that occur within the dream. When writing good stories, we try to remove unnecessary events, because they tend to be skimmed or skipped so as to get to the good parts faster. The good parts are interesting, maybe surprising, and they matter. They change the plot and/or characters so it doesn't feel like our characters are standing in a pond.
If the events take place in a dream, they will be devalued unless those events actually affect the characters and places within the dream. At that point, the dream world becomes an extension of the real world, such as in VR, so the IWAJAD reveal wouldn't be as disappointing as if, say, the protagonist wakes up and finds the other characters returned to the status quo.
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: Re: If I remove the capacity for one of the primary flaws, is it inevitable I end up with a boring character? In this world, there are mortals (human beings) and divine beings (gods/goddess). The
Think about Asimov's Laws of Robotics that make them perfectly safe and predictable, but then has stories where they mess up in "unexpected" ways. IOW, he predicted computer programming.
Your character is affected by his mortal form. This includes limited knowledge and capability, and perhaps his learned behavior does not follow due to changes in assumptions; e.g. broken bones and general mortality will now affect his decisions in ways they did not matter before.
How is the new feature of personal damage, to the point of being un-recoverable, going to weigh in on the decision? This was never a concern before, so he may be paralyzed not knowing how to understand personal risk.
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: Citing quotes/footnotes In my memoir, I use several quotations. In the text I note who said them: e.g., "As author and diplomat Washington Irving, having mourned a fiancée and a brother,
In my memoir, I use several quotations. In the text I note who said them: e.g., "As author and diplomat Washington Irving, having mourned a fiancée and a brother, wrote: 'There is a sacredness in tears...'" I'm using Chicago style formatting. Do I also have to include a footnote and/or bibliography item saying where I found this quotation?
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: Re: What are the stages to self editing? I just finished writing my first draft of my novel, and I don't quite know the states of self-editing. Right now, I'm not looking for advice on professional
Get the Hemingway program for computer. Copy and paste passages into Hemingway and it will instantly highlight issues like adverb use and lots more. Its a program that has been used by journalists to make their articles 'pop.'
You can even just use the online version at hemmingwayapp.com but it is an unsecure site according to Firefox
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: Should I rigorously follow 15 beat structure for writing my novels? I am a novice writer with one novella published on Amazon. Recently I undertook a MOCC on Udemy called Write a Bestselling
I am a novice writer with one novella published on Amazon. Recently I undertook a MOCC on Udemy called Write a Bestselling Novel in 15 Steps. Then I also googled and researched the the 15 step structure. It felt like this structure is recommended by many on blogs and on youtube.
Basically, what it is; screenwriter Blake Snyder's book Save the cat rewritten for novelists. So the steps are created for writing novels using the steps for screenwriting.
I am about to start writing my second novel which is an action thriller. I tried to run my idea past the steps given but was not able to fit everything as taught.
I have two questions here,
1. Does the novel writing community adhere to these 15 steps? In other words, does everybody(movies and novels) in the present times follow these 15 steps and are they widely known?
And
2. Should I rigorously follow these steps if I have to write an epic novel or should these steps be taken as mere guidelines?
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: Re: How do I write "fantasy counterpart cultures" without being accused of cultural appropriation? In my book series, the various planets of the galaxy are inhabited by different cultures, most of
You probably cannot, but since the idea of "Cultural Appropriation" is absurd and a complete misunderstanding of how knowledge and culture flows across humanity then just ignore anyone who accuses you of it.
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: Re: What would happen if a character died of an allergy? Ok, I know this sounds really weird. I just don't know where to ask. Anyway, one of my characters sneaks into the woods and gets bitten
When my brother died of a drug overdose all my parents had to do was identify the body and make funeral arrangements. I don't think they will have to do much more than that.
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: Re: Can I have a non-living thing with its own perspective? We typically have third person or first person narratives in literature. I have a requirement - to unveil the suspense, I want a non-living
This is a scattershot answer because I'm a washed up literature student.
I just finished reading Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower, which is entirely narrated by a rock. The fact that a rock is narrating the story is gradually revealed, and its unusual perspective builds some anticipation.
I also recall a chapter of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow is narrated from the perspective of Byron the Bulb, a sentient lightbulb. Actually, the novel includes many unusual perspectives such as an octopus and an escaped dog subjected to Pavlovian experiments.
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: Re: How do you get feedback when sharing your ideas makes you not want to write? I have a problem in that if I ever tell people about my story ideas, I lose motivation and eventually stop working
The other responses give wonderful advice that alleviate the symptoms. I find the root cause for my own block is perfectionism.
Becoming enveloped in the world I’m trying to portray, writing as many details as possible, mentally watching the characters, describing their inner worlds etc. Over months, it feels as if this is a part of me. When I give it to someone else to read, it’s not mine anymore and even constructive criticism can feel like a personal attack. If I feel like putting the pen down for awhile, I’m struggling with my own expectations.
Rationally, I understand that no book is perfect as a rough draft. As someone who perpetually held everything I did to a higher standard, I find I still need to adjust. The last time I froze was after getting good constructive feedback, I had to tackle my expectations again. I gave myself permission to be a student and admitted some of the areas I need practice. At that point, I knew there is only one way to get practice. I tried a different outline technique and read up on a few others before writing a few scenes where the characters accomplish multiple plot points in one scene.
All my life, I wrote stories, so I never questioned why. Once I found out what purpose it served and what is most important to me, I was able to target the perfectionism. When I can’t bring myself to edit a story, I write something else. Keep the momentum going.
The bottom line is always the characters for me. These are people I want the world to meet, the more I understand what readers are expecting, the better chance my characters will interact with more readers. I want readers to react emotionally, to suspend their reality because they can’t put the book down. I’m too objective to polish and tighten a novel by myself, constructive criticism will let me know what is more interesting to an outsider.
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: Critics said my first novel is too descriptive. Would they say the same about my new novel? My first language is Arabic. Please ignore the grammatical mistakes. I've published a novel about 6
My first language is Arabic. Please ignore the grammatical mistakes.
I've published a novel about 6 years ago, and most of the critics who read it thought that it was too descriptive.
Now I'm worried if my second novel to be published has the same mistake. It is a fantasy novel. I keep thinking whether it is too descriptive too but I think I understand why someone would say that about my first novel.
I know that I said too much in my first novel (I wrote it when I was 19). I've been through a lot and I wanted my voice to be heard. I think I wrote too much because it's hard to express yourself where I live.
I think my second novel is relatively slow-paced but full of action. It is highly descriptive too but honestly, I feel that I don't describe without a reason. I rarely describe for merely aesthetic reasons, or just to prove a point in my head. I mean, I feel deep inside that the descriptions are justified in my second novel, but I'm still a bit confused.
Do you think I should follow the critics' words or just do what I feel is right?
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: How to write useful and respectful comments and remarks on academic thesis, papers and other proof-read stuff to motivate and valuable author's work? You are probably familiar with this situation:
You are probably familiar with this situation: I spend weeks or months writing something and then give it to someone for proof-reading.
When I get it back, some remarks bother me or annoy me. Especially comments like "not understandable" or "what does it mean?" or "is it important?". And I think: "really!?" I invested hours in this sentence or paragraph, and the comments sound so arrogant. They feel like someone is saying, "Do it over; this is bullshit." Or do I leave it like it is and explain why it is correct - and wonder why the commentator didn't consider that maybe the issue lies on his side. I am often not sure if the commentator is aware of its implications.
But I have noticed that I have commented as a proof-reader in the same way (because I have never learned otherwise), and I want to change that. I don't find this a respectful, valuing, discussion-friendly way, and I would like to change this. You would never communicate with each other in this way in a conversation.
Now, I write in my comments more precisely which aspect I don't understand or try to explain how I understand it and why it makes no sense. I also try to make suggestions on how to improve. This takes more time, but I hope to show the author more appreciation for what he or she has written as well as for his previous work.
So I wanted to ask you:
Is there a guide or an overview of how to comment in such a valuable, friendly and respectful way?
How to write comments in a "friendly" and "appreciative" style?
How to criticize good and fair? Are there any blogs or literature about this topic? This is not only the daily bread at university but also in language classes at school. I want to motivate the students to re-work their papers because I don't want them to lose interest through "bad" comments.
Thanks for your help!
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: Re: I'm unable to read any book or write a single line So, there was a time when I could finish a book in 2 days. All I did was read books and sometimes I took some time out to write something
I've suffered something similar, though not exactly same situation.
My suggestion is that you make a simple excel sheet and daily record how many words you wrote and how many pages you read that day. Add a row every day. It doesn't matter if you only read few sentences or your mind wasn't concentrated during reading time. Just record the numbers and make a graph of them. It helps you to get a perspective.
Rest you can only depend on yourself.
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: Re: Should an emoji come before or after a full-stop? When I make a hilarious joke on social media it's easy to put an emoji/emoticon/smiley on the end. But sometimes I want to set the context
Inspired by MattOnyx who found the answer for the French language I decided to look at advice for the Dutch language. Luckily the answer was easy to find: the "Nederlandse Taalunie" (Dutch language union) who develops and stimulates the policies for the Dutch language has a website called "taaladvies" (language advice). Here you can find the following article:
taaladvies.net/taal/advies/vraag/1716/plaats_van_emoticon_of_smiley_in_een_zin_of_tekst/
The answer here is: if you post the emoji after a sentence it comes after the full stop. There has to be a space before and after the emoji. Examples here are:
We booked a weekend to London!
You have a lovely child! â¤ï¸
You can also use them within a sentence:
We are going to London and booked three musicals!
They make it clear the these guidelines are for all types of emoticons and smileys: both the 'western' :-) as well as the eastern ^_^ and images such as the heart â¤ï¸ emoji.
You can also put a punctuation mark after a smiley, although that can be confusing:
Linda will start a job in London :-/, but luckily we are going on a trip first.
Last but not least: they tell you that you can use them in informal written language, and that they don't belong in newspapers, magazines, or formal web texts.
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: Re: Adding coding template in a Google blogger I want to add a code viewer in Google Blogger like in image given below. How can I add it please help.
To add code snippet or examples in your blogs, you can use:
Block Codes
planetB Syntax highlight code
Code Blocks Add-ons for Google Doc
markup.su Highlighter
halite.me
Github gist
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: Can somebody write this text in 3rd person omniscient Father didn't seem to hear me. I'd never seen him so upset. What he said about Mother was true, but I couldn't make myself resent the
Father didn't seem to hear me. I'd never seen him so upset. What he said about Mother was true, but I couldn't make myself resent the long-ago Dwarf who had drawn those hands.
I pointed to the drawing in the center. "What is that creature called, Father? I've never seen one."
He shrugged. "And never will. It's a hydra — a nine-headed monster with poison breath. They died out ages ago. A good thing, too. They ate Dwarves. My grandfather told me about them. I didn't want to give you the nightmares I had."
I stared. To think that an Old One had drawn it. "It's like we're looking back in time." Father grunted. He began scraping one glowing hand with an adze, hoping to catch flakes of bright in a small pail. But none of the bryght came off. "It's been spread too thin for too many centuries. I won't give up, though. No child of long ago shall endanger Dwarves today."
"You think a child did this?"
"Who else?" Father asked. "Tracing around a hand, then drawing a picture of a creature that was almost extinct. Yet how could parents allow such nonsense with a priceless resource?"
I touched one of the glowing hands. "Are you sure it's not an adult's? Look how much smaller mine is." Father shrugged and started scraping again. "Perhaps the girl or boy wanted the hands to look larger. Who can know, so long afterward?"
I stepped closer to the wall. "When I was young, I used to draw. But my animals were just scribbles. This monster looks almost real enough to crawl off the wall. Could any child draw so well?"
"One with talent, unquestionably." Father's voice was as sharp as the tool he scraped across the stone. "Talent, but no sense."
He stepped back. "I'm getting nowhere. We'll need to take down most of the wall's surface. We can grind it down and sift out the bryght elsewhere. I'll get started while you fetch the others."
Something felt wrong, so wrong that for the first time in my life, I let myself openly disagree with Father. "I think an adult drew these pictures. Look how high up they are. And she or he must have had a good reason, or the bryght would have been removed long ago. Perhaps we should leave the wall alone."
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: Orphan heading OR isolated heading OR other? Most of the writing style guides I've looked at define/discuss the terms "orphan" and "widow" with respect to written prose (paragraphs) only. They
Most of the writing style guides I've looked at define/discuss the terms "orphan" and "widow" with respect to written prose (paragraphs) only. They make no mention of orphan headings.
When searching online for orphan +heading I find the occasional blog post or how-to article that uses the term orphan heading (or similar), but these sources are not what I consider "official" (published) writing style guides.
So I'm wondering whether the term orphan heading is considered a well-known and accepted term for "a heading or subheading that appears by itself at the bottom of a column of text or a page" (or similar definition).
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: Re: A particular case of character creation: the "Inner Conflict" in Luke Skywalker I don't no if this is a off-topic question but the main doubt, in my opinion, is solid on the character development
I don't know if the writers had the knowledge and intention the "Inner Conflict" is the current term used for "Moral Injury" for treating combat PTSD or military PTSD. It is the term currently taught, and a great source for information about "Inner Conflict" of the issue is the Elizabeth Dole Foundation and PsychArmor Institute at psycharmor.org .
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: Re: Writing a narcissistic psychopath as a compelling protagonist I'm in the middle of writing a book where the protagonist is a narcissistic psychopath, and while I personally am having a lot of
Some characters are loved precisely because they're arrogant, narcissistic, sociopathic assholes. They don't alienate the audience by virtue of being charismatic, entertaining, or (even better) both. There's a TVTropes article called Awesome Ego:
This is the type of narcissist who constantly rants and raves about how mind-blowingly awesome they are, and the fans agree with them.
How do you make this kind of characters work?
Justify their massive ego with extraordinary skills.
You can (but don't have to) add some redeeming features, to round them out. This kind of characterization works best in more serious stories. Here's some examples, all taken from TVTropes:
Tony Stark in the MCU:
A brash-but-brilliant engineer who shows off his colossal wealth with
luxury, world-class accommodations and specialized expos, is the
in-universe poster child for playboys, talks a big game to everyone he
meets, and always has a swagger to his stride... also has a two-sided
Dark and Troubled Past, suffers from PTSD, carries around an
Inferiority Superiority Complex and a guilt complex, cares deeply for
his friends and teammates, is a father figure to his protege
Spider-Man, would sacrifice himself for the greater good, and is
terrified of not doing enough to keep the world safe. He's just very
good at hiding it.
Walter White in Breaking Bad:
Possibly the only reason anyone roots for Walter White later on in
Breaking Bad. He may Kick the Dog several times an episode at least,
but he throws out awesome moments and bombastic speeches just as
frequently. The best example of this would be his exchange with (and
subsequent dominance over) rival drug dealers from Phoenix at the
beginning of "Say My Name".
Dio Brando in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
Dio Brando is a good contender for the biggest Jerkass in manga
history, and it shows... but he's so charismatic, it doesn't really
matter.
See this scene for an example of what they mean.
Make them so narcissistic/sociopathic that the reader can laugh at them.
Inflate their ego to the point that it's so over-the-top, that you're more likely to laugh at how absurd their actions are, than be alienated by what they're doing.
Dennis from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia:
The most sociopathic of the characters, Dennis is abrasive,
narcissistic, self-absorbed, manipulative and callous. Much of his
inflated ego is perpetuated by his Ivy League education at the
University of Pennsylvania where he minored in Psychology.
Everyone in that show is a sociopath, but he's the worst of them. He's the last person to be friends with, but his antics are quite entertaining. See this scene where the main characters go to a therapist, or this scene where he goes berserk because someone slighted the "Golden God's" (that's what he calls/considers himself) car.
Eric Cartman from South Park:
Yes, he is a smarmy, self-serving, thoroughly sociopathic bully who
has no qualms about doing literally whatever he wants, damn the
consequences. But one side effect is that he's so completely fucked up
that he can occasionally be called upon to get everyone else out of
catastrophic situations when all else seems lost — and he does so in
ways so ruthlessly efficient and imaginative, only he could have ever
come up with them. In The Movie, for starters, he saves the entire
world from being swallowed by the legions of Hell by electrocuting an
undead Saddam Hussein with a combination of an overcharged
anti-swearing implant and his own colorful vocabulary.
Make the sociopath be charismatic and entertaining, so that the reader can laugh with them.
This works best with self-aware characters, who know exactly what they're doing, and they're enjoying it, and their anarchic and destructive energy is contagious. Some good examples can be found in the page Heroic Comedic Sociopath.
The Mask in the comics:
His comics incarnation, meanwhile, is a pure-up Villain Protagonist.
It also helps that so many of the characters who get picked on by The
Mask are Asshole Victims. In fact, in the movie it often seems as if
Edge City is swarming with all kinds of pests, weirdos, bullies, and
all-around Jerkasses whose only purpose in life is to drive Stanley to
impossible levels of madness and inspire him to wreak creatively
ghoulish destruction as The Mask.
Kai in Kung Fu Panda 3:
Kai from Kung Fu Panda 3 has one hell of an ego on him, constantly
boasting about his accomplishments (and getting annoyed when they
aren't recognized), along with having way too much fun in the villain
role for his own good. The fact that he does all of this while still
being very competent has made him quite endearing to the fandom.
Handsome Jack in the Borderlands games:
Handsome Jack is regarded as one of the most memorable video game
antagonists in recent years since the commercial and critical success
of Borderlands 2; players love to hate him for his disturbing yet
hilariously twisted morals, his bombastic personality, his bizarre
sense of humor, his strangely emotional nuances (that don't de-fang
his cruelty or megalomania in any way) [...]
See the spoon story for a short example, but really, he has many great lines.
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: How to Attribute Poem (written by someone else) in Novel I am writing historical fiction. I am contemplating my character to compose a poem that was actually composed by someone in India, likely
I am writing historical fiction.
I am contemplating my character to compose a poem that was actually composed by someone in India, likely 1950s. This poet passed away in 2005.
How to attribute this in my novel? In other words, my novel should say this poem is from this actual poet, even though novel shows that fictional character penned it herself.
Would a footnote be acceptable?
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: Should Person Write Query Letter and Synopsis in Chronological Order Even Though Story is Told in Pieces I am attempting to write my first novel, a historical fiction. To help focus my story,
I am attempting to write my first novel, a historical fiction.
To help focus my story, I wrote the Query Letter and Synopsis in chronological order.
However, the story is a narration by an old lady who is speaking to a reporter, hence story will most likely be out of order.
I believe chronological Query Letter and Synopsis is acceptable, even though story is told out of order (as long as it make sense to reader, ultimately).
Thoughts?
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: Re: 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'm not a publisher but I have read a whole, whole lot. So this is based on my observations.
Pictures tend to be full-page, and tend to be black-and-white with only a few exceptions.
Placement is usually one of the following:
The pictures are all in one place, usually in the middle of the book
There are pictures interspersed throughout the book, on pages next to the scene they are relevant to.
I am personally partial to #2 . However I will also note that #2 seems to be done mostly only in children's books. I don't know why this is, as it seems much more practical to me to have the picture next to what it is describing.
At the end of the day though, this is something you would work with your publisher/editor on.
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: Re: Rules of Misdirection in Stories I am wondering if there are any rules for misdirection like how would you tell if a misdirection was done right or wrong in a story? Are there do's and don'ts
Kurt Vonnegut is famous for saying,
Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
Misdirections can be helpful because the reader doesn't want it to be terribly obvious what's going to happen next. However, the real direction the plot is heading should be more sensible/compelling than the misdirection, if the reader were to stop and think about what you've told them about the character(s) and plot.
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: Re: Is it possible to combine clichés/tropes to make it not a cliché? I have read a couple romance books at most and so don’t claim to have very much experience with romance and clichés.
If you're writing romance, you'll need to embrace the tropes. Romances have one conflict: something artificial is keeping these two people apart. Virtually every device for doing that has been written: a misunderstanding, an existing relationship, an earlier relationship with the same person, feuding parents, misaligned career goals, differing ethnic or religious backgrounds, differing social status, a language barrier, lack of money, illness, magic, distance, even time. And every romance, by definition, ends the same way: the characters overcome the obstacles and commit to one another. (Something similar is true of drawing room mysteries, by the way.)
Instead, romance is more about the characters and the ways in which they bicker, struggle, worry, and scheme their way to love conquering all. Dialog, setting, and character color are what set romances apart.
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: Re: Can I use a real person's name as a pseudonym? I don't want to use my own name when publishing my book - my pseudonym is the name of a German actress. Is it ok to use it? It's not a
I think she could sue you.
I'm not a lawyer, I don't know German, nor the specifics of German law, but I was able to find something in the page about "personal rights". In particular, the section on "self-expression" (Selbstdarstellung). Machine translation is below:
The right to self-expression ensures that individuals can determine how they present themselves in public. It therefore protects him from unwanted, falsified or defamatory representation by third parties.
[...] the right to self-expression results in the right to determine whether one's own name should be published or publicly mentioned
Individual areas of personal rights are particularly protected by law [...] the name ( § 12 BGB) [...]
A violation of general personality rights, in particular through media reports or in the case of abusive criticism , can result in a claim for damages (Section 823 (1) BGB in conjunction with general personality rights as an "other right") or an injunctive relief or right to correction (§ 1004 BGB).
I don't think it can even be allowed under "fair use".
On one hand, I can't see any economic damages stemming from this. And non-material damages can be compensated only in serious cases. So you'd most likely be hit with a cease and desist, or an injunction to stop the publication and distribution until change your name.
You might be able to argue a sort of "fair use", something along the lines of the Rogers v. Grimaldi case:
This appeal presents a conflict between Rogers' right to protect her celebrated name and the right of others to express themselves freely in their own artistic work.
And it was decided that:
"suppressing an artistically relevant though ambiguous[ly] title[d] film" on trademark grounds "would unduly restrict expression."
But would I recommend wagering on "fair use", so to speak? No. Litigation is unpredictable, and even worse, a waste of your time and money, and it will cost you nothing to avoid it now.
Furthermore, that case was about a film title being misleading, so it's more of a matter of false advertising: you thought you were going to see Fred Astaire, you got ripped off.
In your case, what is misleading is who is the author. Which is much more relevant, because it'd be a violation of that actress' right to self-expression. I know it's not your intent to impersonate her, that your target audience is not someone who would be familiar with her, but there's clearly an ambiguity.
I don't think you can even claim you were acting in good faith, and that your intent wasn't to mislead, because you're already aware that you're using someone else's given name (compare the "All persons fictitious" disclaimer).
My advice is to just use another pseudonym.
To be extra safe, look it up on Google, Facebook, sites to find information about people (Pipl, White Pages...), and see if anyone already has that name, or is using it as a pseudonym already. If it isn't, then you didn't use it knowingly.
Try to make a cryptic pun on your own name. Say, pick the meaning of your name, look up a name with a similar meaning in another language, and use that.
Use a name that is unambiguously a pseudonym, like ancient Latin names, a mononym, or puns like "A. Nonymous", or "I. C. Wiener".
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: Re: How can we distinguish good metaphors from bad ones? How can we distinguish good metaphors from bad ones? I feel like a lot of figurative languages can border nonsense, but how much nonsense
It all depends on the skill of the writer. A badly made metaphor can easily destroy the mood or take the reader from the important details. In fact, writing non-sense without destroying the pace of the reader is a special art. There are popular fantasy Chinese novels that have pages of nonsense with less than twenty percent useful plot. Check this site (English translations).
So, as long as you can keep the reader glued to the page, anything goes. As for whether it's a good metaphor or bad one, we can only tell after reading.
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