@Phylliss352
Last seen: Mon 17 May, 2021
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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
This will agree with/repeat some of what other answers have said, but hopefully it provides another perspective.
If the story doesn't pick up after 14 chapters, however many thousands of words there is too much prelude. If you read those chapters carefully and ask what each part does, much will prove worthy of excising. Once you've lost sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters, characters and so on, take another look at what you felt worthy of preservation. If it's still too predictable, maybe some of what was revealed there should be postponed. Don't let the reader know anything before they really need to.
In fact, what's most important to reveal early on is what the characters are like, not the individual facts they're acting on. This is for two reasons: it makes us care more about the story, and it helps you control what's revealed and when, addressing the predictability issue.
You've still got the remaining chapters to write. As far as possible, throw your plans for these to the side for the moment. Make sure characters act in a way that's true to them, not to any plot you'd envisaged if that would be different. Besides,if you don't know what's coming next, how will your reader?
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: Re: What kind of writing would be considered offensive? I am a young author writing a fantasy series. In my series, the main character has two different eye colors and looks down on herself because
looks down on herself because she thinks she is ugly
That's the difference. You as the author aren't saying that from the outside, the character thinks of herself as that from the inside.
Many readers have issues today with HP Lovecraft, who (in common with many people of his class and era) was profoundly racist. Various stories describe how ugly someone is, simply because they are black - not as the person saying it, not even as the narrator saying it (and remember we don't have to like the narrator), but as the author stating a fact. That's what racist writing looks like. In Lovecraft's day, these opinions weren't even controversial, but we know better today.
Conversely, consider the politics of Afro-textured hair. Women of African origin have frequently internalised feelings of unattractiveness due to not meeting European standards of "beauty" (and may still do so). For a character to express this is not racist; it is a reflection of the character and how she interacts with the society around her. Similarly, characters who resort to cosmetic procedures (whether surgical or non-surgical) may express feelings about their appearance which relate to the character and not to racist attitudes from the author.
Of course the author could still be biased, whether consciously or unconsciously. If you don't have a lived experience of African-American cultures (plural!), you might want to check with someone who does, just in case you've made assumptions in good faith which are going to get you into trouble. Ditto cops. Those are going to be your biggest issues.
I suggest you're not so much in trouble with the eyes though.
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: Re: 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
Per The Snowflake Method, make a spreadsheet of all the scenes in your novel. Part of that spreadsheet is a scene description. You can write down what subplots are involved, which scene they start in, and which scene wraps them.
If you did an outline, then note down in the outline where each subplot starts, is furthered and is wrapped in that.
If you wrote seat-of-the-pants, then, making a spreadsheet may still be a good idea. Not all the scenes will make the final cut, and it's easier to edit, then re-edit, then re-edit again in a spreadsheet than a manuscript. If you see several subplot scenes get cut then you'll also have a list of places that can also be cut or edited.
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: Re: How widely-used is the term "omnibus?" I know "omnibus" to be a term describing multiple novels put into a single book, but I've never really heard or read the term anywhere else.
Here you go...
Google Trends and "omnibus" trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=omnibus
Here's an even better one comparing three terms. Now you can see how it is used relatively to something like "short story". trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=omnibus,novella,short%20story
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: Re: When writing the first book in a series, do you need to plan the next book also? I am just finishing my first book in a series that I started, and I'm wondering if you need to plan all
It depends! Dusting hands off with a smile of satisfaction.
Ah, you ask, "Upon what?"
Mostly upon what you as the writer want to do. Where you want to take your characters. How you want to explore the theme(s) in your writing. How you want the reader to feel at the end as well as along the way.
It is quite possible to write a whole series of books set in the same world in which the main characters hardly evolve. The books are loosely coupled, perhaps to the point that the reader can consume them in any order. In such a series, minimal planning is required.
It is also possible to write a series in which major events in the later books are foreshadowed throughout the earlier books. Characters may change dramatically through the series and events may build upon one another such that there is only one sequence of reading the books that makes any sense. This requires much in the way of planning.
Note that you do not have to know the exact structure of the follow on books, or even the number of those books. But you probably would be well served to know where you want the story and characters to end up at the conclusion of the series, plus the major events that lead the reader through the story.
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: Can the first-person narrator use both past and present tenses? My first person narrator is telling his story in the past tense but there are present tense realities too that get me confused
My first person narrator is telling his story in the past tense but there are present tense realities too that get me confused what tense to use.
For instance, here are two paragraphs:
When I came into the room, the lady stopped and stared. I am six-foot six, burly and bronzed from working so much in the sun, and I am used to ladies staring at me in a roomful of other men. But there was something in the way she looked at me that made me take off my hat and stand up even taller. I know that look, too.
When I came into the room, the lady stopped and stared. I was six-foot six, burly and bronzed from working so much in the sun, and I was used to ladies staring at me in a roomful of other men. But there was something in the way she looked at me that made me take off my hat and stand up even taller. I knew that look, too.
Does anyone else have any difficulty deciding what tense to use or whether to use both the past and present tense? I can only find reference to a FP/Past and FP/Present online, but not both.
Is there a name for this so I can research it further, or is it not even a thing?
Which of these examples is better or more usual?
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: Re: Is it possible to write a short story in 500 words? There is a short story contest where the limit is five hundred (500) words and I want to know if that is a possible limit for a short
For an embarrassment of riches, look no further than the popular song from at least the middle ages to today. I don't know what percentage of lyrics are stories, but it's high. There's even a whole subcategory for them - ballads - although some of them are undoubtedly longer than 500 words.
My problem with giving examples is that there are way too many great ones! I'll just mention a few favorites.
Canadian Railroad Trilogy and In the Morning Rain - Gordon Lightfoot
For Free - Joni Mitchell
Mr. Bojangles - Jerry Jeff Walker
Rocky Raccoon and Norwegian Wood - Lennon and McCartney
Caves of Altamira and Gaucho - Steely Dan
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: Re: Misspelling and punctuation how to improve? Love telling/writing stories except I am the absolute worst at both spelling along with punctuation. Normally I care less about these things because
The purpose of writing is not for you to be perfect, it is for your prose to be (close to) perfect. No writer ever spits out perfect prose on the first go. It just isn't possible. That is why the writing gods created the act of revising to move the imperfect closer to perfect.
Grammarly is a useful tool in this process. So are dictionaries. So are beta readers. So are spreadsheets, and checklists, and a dozen other things. Each of these, properly used, will improve the quality of the writing.
Rejoice in the savory sausages that come out of the process rather than the less savory input to the process.
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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
There's a difference between a good reader and a vociferous one, so I'll assume your question isn't a duplicate of this one, about whether a novelist has to read many novels. But they are connected.
My answer to that question highlighted the value to novelists of reading non-fiction discussions of writing that condense well-worn insights; if nothing else, this is more efficient than reading a novel, seeing what three or four things you think you've learned about writing from seeing what it did, and repeating with the next novel. I bent over backwards to seek how, in learning how to write well, one could hypothetically minimize novels read, though I still didn't think it would go to zero (then again, you don't either).
If my proposed techniques work, it's because they teach you how to read novels well, then has you read carefully chosen ones. So the lesson for your question is that a novelist has to be a good reader in the sense of knowing how to learn from another writer. English literature lessons in school may have provided you with a perspective on this: what is the author doing, and why, and how? But that was more focused on understanding social context than how to write something publishable today.
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: Re: Should I save some plot for the sequel of my novel or make the first book (too) long but complete? I wrote a sci-fi novel. It's around 120k words long with a neat 'ending' that wraps up
If you are doing a series, you want there to be (partially) unanswered questions still open at the end of each book, along with the promise that at least some of those answers will be supplied in the next book. The trick is to make each book worthwhile in its own right. That is, the purchase and consumption of the book was not a waste of time for the reader.
On the other hand, you do not want to surprise the reader with material, characters, and plot in the later instances of the series that were not at least foreshadowed in earlier instances. For example, cue the super-powerful villain who has committed evil for decades, represents the protagonist's antagonist in the latest book, and was not even hinted at in any of the earlier books. Especially, if it is obvious that the writer needed to dig their way out of a plot hole.
The ideal here would be to establish a rich context for the story in terms of economics, law, politics, culture, science, technology and make it clear that the story told in each book is just one of many stories taking place against that context. The context does not have to be super detailed. For example, we introduce our villain of the moment, a proud graduate of the prestigious University of Villainy, and current treasurer of The Club of Nastiness. And before you exhaust yourself, hating this villain, note that, if this villain stumbles (or is pushed) off the cliff, the economic and historical situation of our story is such that another villain of much the same demeanor will be forced into existence.
If you are honest with your readers and they understand that this is a series and each book will provide some, but not all, of the story, and the part that you do provide is worthwhile, I think that you will be OK.
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: Re: How do I write a friendship between a boy prince and an older commander? In my story, there is a certain man in his late twenties, who is one of the commanders in a war against a great
The concept of friendship covers a lot of ground. As you note, the twenty-year difference would be a much different thing if the characters were ten years older. A friendship between a 30-year-old and a 10-year-old could work if they came from a common background; that is, they both grew up in the same neighborhood. Add royal status to the mix and you have a hard problem.
The only scenario that occurred to me was that the older man lost a child (and perhaps a wife) and the royal boy becomes a substitute for the lost child. Let the child have a lost parent or a distant parent that is strict and demanding. The boy wants to do well but does not know how to. The man knows what to do but has no one to teach. Now each character has a need that the other can satisfy.
On a trip accompanied by the older man and isolated from the Court, the child asks, if this happens, what should I do. The older man replies that it is not his place to instruct but the child, as a Royal, insists. The older man treats it as a hypothetical situation. The child listens, absorbs, and learns. Another question and another hypothetical answer. Then, one of those what-if situations becomes reality; the child reacts properly and the relationship is re-enforced. Rinse, repeat.
Such a relationship has a natural tension, and an inevitable conflict. Just what a storyteller needs to make a story work. However, I am not sure that such a relationship, particularly in the early years, could be called a friendship. It might turn into one when the child becomes a man. But perhaps your story can make that work.
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: I do not want to dissuade you from writing a book, no matter what your age is. However, this forum is designed to help the writer who has already selected an idea and is now looking for
I do not want to dissuade you from writing a book, no matter what your age is. However, this forum is designed to help the writer who has already selected an idea and is now looking for advice on achieving a given effect. This might be the design of characters, the structuring of scenes, the specifics of dialogue, or the use of point of view. Not what to write, but how to go about writing. The possible topics are endless.
Rather than dumping paragraphs of technique and process on you, let me suggest three practical things that you can do at any age.
First, start small. Write a short story that focuses in on a single topic; expresses a narrow, constrained notion; and can be written in a limited amount of time. Do not worry overly much about quality. Get the words down, finish the story, and celebrate. You now have something that you can revise, something that you can show others, something that you can get feedback on (even if it is only from your future self). Take it out after enough time has passed to make a re-reading fresh and untainted by the memories of what you thought that you wrote. You may well find that the story on the page is only a shadow of the story that was in your head.
Second, write every day, if possible. Even if it is only for 20 minutes. It might be an outline of what you want to say in your writing. It might be (what you hope will be) finished prose. It might be the revision of a single paragraph. The goal here is to develop the habit of writing, no matter what the distractions are, no matter how you feel, no matter whatever.
Third, invest in technique. Spelling, grammar, story structure, and punctuation are all things that you can spend a few minutes on and achieve some skill and speed. Accept the fact that you will never achieve mastery. Console yourself that few if any writers get even close. But try anyway.
If you follow these suggestions, almost all of what you write will not be excellent. The goal of these (and other) suggestions is for you to develop judgement about what is "sort of good" and what is not. The "sort of good" items can perhaps be revised into something that is very good. And perhaps a fraction of these might be good enough to publish. Focus on these survivors. Even one of these published stories gives you the right to declare yourself an author. And that, at any age, is a wondrous thing.
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: Re: How do you prevent a character from being a creator's pet? I have a character that I really like. They were originally intended to be the main villain for a particular story arc and then
If you really don't want them to be the main character, you must think one or more characters are more deserving. All right:
List them;
Since you understand this one character so well, work out in as much detail as possible what they think of your listed characters and vice versa, and of relationships between those other characters;
Make any necessary corrections to these apparent facts to account for the one character's biases, misconceptions etc.;
Once you're happy with this rich understanding of all those other characters, make those, together with the aforementioned important moments, integral to a rewrite, ensuring you show these facts rather than telling them because, apart from all the other reasons we normally do that, it'll give you even more ideas for how to flesh out your preferred characters;
Accept as you do this rewrite that that one character may still be a big deal, so don't fight what happens.
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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
To begin, with Lewis Carroll: If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.
To continue, the question is, what your intent is in writing the story? What changes do you want to effect in the reader as they read the story?
A man has a dark side, characterized by demons. Perhaps the demons represent the notion that everyone has original sin (or words appropriate to a particular faith). Perhaps the demons represent the notion that modern life deadens our innate empathy. Perhaps the demons represent the notion that the existence of rock-and-roll/comics/Democrats/Republicans/thin-crust-pizzas corrupts the goodness of the individual. And so on and so on. Each of these possibilities requires a different colorization and texture for the demons.
I assume that once you describe the demons, you have thoughts about how the protagonist (and by extension, the readers) should respond and, thus, defeat the demons. Perhaps meditation, prayer, good works, tithing, or animal sacrifice are the answer. Maybe something else. More importantly, how you motivate the readers to adopt your "best practices." Describing a particular utopia in which the best practices are widespread sometimes works. But, for what it is worth, scaring the hell out of the worshipers (readers) is a time-honored tradition. Do it my way or suffer the pains of eternal fires (or bad hair days/endless cable news/bland frozen meals). Do I have your attention now?
So, the creepier, the better. But the responsible writer will ensure that there is a viable path out of the madness. No one wants to deal with a mob of folks all riled up with no clear place to go.
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: Re: How to write a scene were a character is falling in darkness? Hello everyone I'm having issues on writing a scene about death. My character just died and I want to set a scene were she
Unfortunately, you have not supplied sufficient details to be be able to answer your questions. Rather than give you answers, I am going to pose some questions to highlight the missing details. These are largely issues of technique rather than content, but that is what this forum is all about.
What is the genre of the story? If a woman has died and is falling in darkness, the conventional wisdom is that the only thing that we would sense is the thud when the lifeless body hits bottom. But your question suggests that conventional wisdom does not hold here. Is this paranormal or some other genre that allows for a "life" after death? Is there a religious component to the story? Without the answers to these and other related questions, the possible stories number in the millions. Way too many for us to figure out what to recommend.
What is the point of view? Is the falling woman telling her story (assuming some form of afterlife) in first person? Is she telling it in near real time (present tense) or from a more distant vantage point (past tense)? Is someone else telling the story (third person past tense)? Perhaps, the person who pushed the falling woman? Perhaps, the person who failed to prevent the death and fall? In any case, can the narrator see into the thoughts and knowledge of the falling woman? The same story will read much differently when it is told as a first person, present tense story from the same events told as a third person, past tense story.
Who is this woman? Is she blameless or is she getting what she deserves? What is it about her that makes the reader want to care about her and her fate? What will we learn by reading her story? What can we learn from the changes that she goes through (or does not go through) in the story?
There are many more questions that need to be answered, but these few should give you an idea of the kind of analysis that you need to do before you can complete the story. We could guess at the answers, but this is (or will be) your story and the responsibility for answering is yours as well.
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: Re: To what extent should a writer care about the impact of their work IRL? Let's get straight to the core issue: Books, movies, and so on can indeed influence reality, and reality can influence
A huge question for which I do not have anything close to a complete answer. What i do have are some observations.
First, there is a hint in your question that there is some pool of absolute truth and that if we were to bathe in that pool, all of our sins would be washed away. Even if such a pool were to exist, the world is filled with differences of opinion that can only be judged by whether they are useful in a particular context. I am old enough to remember when rock and roll was the Devil's work and now it is elevator music. I can find no value in trying to decide which position is "the right choice" and which is not. This is a trivial example when compared to deep philosophical questions about the purpose of life and the individual's goals versus the needs of society as a whole. Thus, much of writing addresses topics for which there is, at least in my opinion, no "right" answer.
Second, you say people are dumb; I say that they are busy. Whole swathes of the world just work for me. I vaguely understand how my car works, but my mechanic barely trusts me to drive my car into his shop. I could cite dozens of other examples where I make use of items and have no idea how they work or how they showed up. I am not alone. We have our priorities; topics seriously important to others just do not make it to our list of things to think about. And I have no intention of apologizing for my inattention; I am too busy taking care of the things that are important to me.
Third, even if there were a single source of truth and I had the time and energy to understand that truth in depth, I would still want the freedom to write about lies and evil. I have met folks who say that the only book that is needed is the Bible; there is, and can be, no value in reading anything else. And if it is not (a particular version of) the Bible, then it is some other holy work. I believe in the tradition that says that the truth is only learned through argument; rote recitation of slogans is not enough. It may not be fun to read about the crazies and criminals but it can be instructive.
Fourth, I view writing as a contribution to a conversation spanning cultures, based upon geographies or the times or particular news channels. I listen/read/view the contributions of others. I respond with my own notions. Others respond. And so it goes. It is a messy process. And almost certainly most of the verbiage is ignored and ultimately lost. But some writing plants seeds that grow and thrive. The cultural context changes and perhaps we are all better for that. But I cannot know if my notion is the one that plants the "golden seed" or the one that ends up in a land fill until I have written and published it. It might be years/decades/centuries before that judgement is fully rendered. And if history is a guide, the judgement will almost certainly change with each generation.
Write. Accept the fact that the writing will be wrong in some sense. Write again.
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: Re: What makes a complete monster fun? My metaverse is really short on villains. That's a problem as there are many characters whose heroism is defined by the enemy they fight. A noble savage can't
The best villains, for my money, are fully-fleshed out individuals who have a clear logic behind their actions. Nastiness for the sake of nastiness wears thin quite quickly.
Say I have a villain who has killed dozens or hundreds of innocent people. That is bad. But let the villain have a turn on the stage where he justifies those deaths by claiming that the dead are better off not living in the vile corruption of the modern world and we shudder at the evil. Or let the villain say that he, the villain, is the chosen one and that the harvested vitality of the victims makes the villain more powerful and we respond with disgust. Or let the readers get to know some of the victims and then have them watch as the villain takes their lives for trivial reasons.
The best villains have a reason for what they are doing. It might be greed. It might be power over others. It might be glory. It might be religious. And if that reason leads them to destroy others in novel ways, all the better. It is not enough that they die, they must die in abject terror in order to extract the maximum vital essence. A seven-year-old child is best because they can understand what is happening to them and are powerless to stop it.
What you want is for your readers to wake up next week and scream in terror. Perverted motives of clever villains are the way to go.
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: Re: How to introduce a "fourth reason" after having stated that there are "three main reasons"? In an academic paper, I have written "There are three main arguments for why X is not Z."
It depends on one detail you didn't mention. Is the "essay" the same as your "paper", or is the paper already published?
If you're able to edit what you wrote before because it's still being drafted, the question is really about what you want to convey early on. In that case, you can say there are three widely recognized reasons, and you will discuss them and a fourth underappreciated reason. That's academically valuable, of course.
If on the other hand the argument "three main arguments" has already been published, the question is about how to make clear your addendum isn't back-tracking. In that case, you can say that you summarised the literature's three main arguments against X being Z in a prior publication, and that in the current publication you're mentioning another that is less important but poorly appreciated.
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: Re: Would it be bad taste or honoring to name a Starship after historical places, ex: Pompeii? In my book, Earth is gone and are all the counties and a majority of the population and cultures.
As a writer, you should be trying to manipulate the readers of your writing to achieve a specific emotional state. Evocative language, twisty plots, rich characters, and snappy dialogue are all tools of the craft. Names are especially useful. A carefully chosen name can convey loads of information in a minimum of textual space.
Some names will have a sound or shape that conveys the intended message. Dr. Yucky Slime-Mold will find it difficult to be the hero. Other names bring up memories of past events. The writer's use of these names (with their positive and negative aspects) is a part of a conversation that started in the distant past. An essential part of that conversation is the reaction that the characters in the story have to the names.
"I serve on the Spaceship Pompeii. Our ship's official motto is to 'Be prepared for damn near anything.' I have lived through more situations on this ship than I have the time to tell of or that you have the credence to believe in. It is a terrible name for a ship but it is all too fitting for a ship that flies in a universe that delights in serving up shit. And, thus, our unofficial motto is 'Bring it on!'"
Bad name? Yeah! Badder ship and crew? Oh, yeah! But maybe a better story.
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: Re: Does objective criticism exist, and if yes, does it matter? So, the rather controversial concepts of objective criticism and objectively bad art are a fairly hot topic, even more so nowadays.
I would think that it is obvious that one could define a set of criteria for written work and objectively check off each individual criterion. One could score such things as vocabulary usage, gender roles, historical and scientific accuracy, and political correctness. I have deliberately not looked up "Objective Criticism" and I may well be missing key concepts.
The problem that I have is with the selection of the criteria. Sort of a "Who judges the judges" kind of a problem. In my limited circle of friends, there are many different views on what constitutes an "excellent novel" or a "great TV series." Depending upon my own mood, I assign greatness on a shifting scale. Today, I favor the classics; tomorrow, something light and fluffy; a few days from now, something to stretch my understanding. I cannot say with any confidence that one set of criteria is better than any other. I am not even sure that I should care all that much. I read what satisfies me. I do not think that I am that much different from all of the other readers.
It may well be that there is a difference of meta-viewpoint. I, as a reader and as a writer, view writing as a form of conversation. Writer Alice writes a book on a topic. Readers respond to that book by buying and discussing the book and the topic. Writer Bob writes a second book that, in effect, adds to that conversation. And so it goes. Within this meta-viewpoint, a book is good if it contributes to the conversation. And ultimately, it is readers who make that judgement.
On the other hand, there is the meta-viewpoint that readers are dumb and need to be taught to understand what excellence truly is. The "great" novel is not so much a part of a two-way conversation as it is a part of a one-way tutorial. Probably some truth in that approach, but only if it is offered as something to consider rather than revealed eternal truth. Here, readers and to some extent writers take a backseat to elites with opinions.
But, of course, we should talk this over.
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: Re: Stuck : how do i continue . Once characters has exchanged numbers This is my first novel..i am stuck at two characters who already have a liking for each other and have exchanged numbers.
Write up a dozen or more possibilities. They do not have to be realistic. In fact, the more outrageous they are, the better. The purpose is to free up your imagination.
He has a sister that is having problems and needs advice. She has a fatal disease that she either knows about or does not know about. He inherits serious money or debt. She is invited to an event and needs and escort. He has a secret and is ashamed of it. She has been abused in some way in her childhood. Maybe she has a vivid imagination and only thinks that he might be a spy or a hit man. Maybe he thinks that his lower class status will be a barrier to the relationship.
I took a few minutes. Think what you can accomplish in a day.
Once you have the dozen possibilities, you can consider how you might draw inspiration from them.
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: Re: How would I go about censoring adult language in my book? I have to present my book(s) to a Christian publisher and I was wondering, how would I go about censoring adult language or should
It depends on the book.
If your book is non-fiction, any bad language should be as a result of direct quotes from people. Your publisher should have guidelines about this. Ask them. 100 years ago you would have always seen dashed lines representing swearing. 50 years ago, perhaps not so much. Today, I would normally expect not at all - but your publisher should have a policy.
If your book is fiction, consider your audience. If your audience could include children, then your book should probably be edited anyway. If your audience is adults though, and swearing is relatively common in your book, I suggest that a dedicated publisher of Christian literature is probably not the place to take your manuscript.
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: Re: How much more expensive is to publish a book in color than black and white? I know that you want to say "It depends on the company, the quantity, the quality, the publisher, the time of
It depends on the company, the quantity, the quality, the publisher, the time of the year, etc. etc.
I've seen some companies charge as if the whole book is color. And others charge as if only select pages that needed to be colored are color. And of course, your paper quality is very important. What might be alright for a manga would not work for a cookbook.
I often use Lulu's pricing calculator to get my estimates: xpress.lulu.com/pricing
The book you linked to, when printed in black and white is .42.
In low-quality color, which would work in that particular instance (few to no pictures, just color for your code): .43
About 44% more expensive to print.
The price will rise substantially if you change your paper quality and print quality to include pictures. Coated paper is now .10. And high-quality ("premium") color with coated paper is .18.
Part of the cost of printing is setting up the book, glue, cover, and overhead. Due to the higher paper quality and ink and the same initial costs for the set-up, the price difference can actually increase the more pages you add to your book.
All in all, expect to pay at least roughly 30% of the printing cost at a minimum to add color for short books (around 100 pages) up to around 55% more for large books (500 pages).
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: Starting a literary magazine Because of the corona outbreak, I'm stuck at home (as I'm sure lots of you are) and I decided to start a nonprofit online literary magazine dedicated to providing
Because of the corona outbreak, I'm stuck at home (as I'm sure lots of you are) and I decided to start a nonprofit online literary magazine dedicated to providing a platform for marginalized voices. However, I'm not completely sure how to establish a reader base and also encourage submissions for issues. Does anybody have any ideas/tips?
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: Re: How does one avoid inevitable influences being obvious when writing something like superheroes? So I have been debating writing a story idea I have had swimming in my head for a long time.
While powers are important and defining to a character, think about what else makes a character - is Hancock "basically Superman"? They have similar powers, but the characters, personal issues and story is completely different. Is Vegeta "basically Goku"? Definitely not, the characters share a lot of powers but the difference is clearly in the character, motivations and the resulting conflicts and stories. They are not redundant. The Incredibles are basically the Fantastic Four, if we talk about powers - except they have completely different problems, conflicts and stories.
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: Re: What makes something "anime"? I read the following question on WorldBuilding.SE last week: What early middle ages weapons would suit an extremely strong child? I thought the premise was interesting,
We need to define what counts as Anime. I am going to discard the literal definition of "animated motion picture from Japan" in favor of a cultural one.
Some scholars suggest defining anime as specifically or quintessentially Japanese may be related to a new form of Orientalism. [...]
Anime is a diverse art form with distinctive production methods and techniques that have been adapted over time in response to emergent technologies. It combines graphic art, characterization, cinematography, and other forms of imaginative and individualistic techniques. [ref]
Therefore, as an art style and cultural manifestation with dozens of sub-genres, we have the following points that can be considered as "anime" in the context of the references you supplied:
Larger-than-life combat prowess (from shonen): The weapons, combatants, and techniques used are over-the-top and disregard physics. This keys with the oriental mysticism surrounding martial arts (as seen in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Example: DragonBall Goku's Kamehameha or the Genki-Dama.
It fits perfectly with the premise of the linked question:
[...]what dark age weapon would suit best for a 7 year old girl, which has the strength of a dozen strong men?
The imagery in the question also ties in with another popular anime trope, the badass little girl. [ref 1]- [ref 2].
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: Subtle Difference in Sentence Structure "P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrel. He grasped Harry's hand. V.S. "P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrel, grasping Harry's hand. In the first sentence,
"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrel. He grasped Harry's hand.
V.S.
"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrel, grasping Harry's hand.
In the first sentence, it feels as though Professor Quirrel waits for a second or two after talking to grasp Harry's hand while in the second sentence, it feels as though Professor Quirrel immediately grasped Harry's hand after talking, right?
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: Re: How do I balance immature levity and flaws and character growth? I am working on a series where one of the intended primary draws is character drama and growth. I have an ensemble cast of
No matter how much real or fictional people grow, they never become perfect. That's one of those observations that simultaneously seems impossible and obvious: obvious because no-one is ever perfect, and impossible because how do they keep finding new imperfections that need work? My own experience - in myself, in people I've known, in people I've known of, in fictional characters I've loved in other words, and in characters I've created - is that it comes down to a few things (I'll illustrate with TV examples because they tend to have enough duration to be comparable to your situation, in a way a single novel might not):
Growth comes at a cost. The Doctor in Doctor Who gradually became more caring about others, more sure of his (later her) right to intercede in other's affairs, and more forthright in challenging their own people. All good, right? But this eventually culminated, at least in many in-universe detractors' eyes, in self-righteous hypocrisy, self-appointed policing of others, and a willingness to sacrifice their species. Once aware of that, the Doctor experimented with various forms of retreat from such overreach, only to find it cost dependents dearly. More recently, she has tried a more constrained and empathetic form of intercession. At the time of writing, the most recently aired episode, The Haunting of Villa Diodati, even this hasn't worked right for her, and she had to revisit some of the darkness she overdid in the past. In other words, 2 steps forward, 1 step back... only in more than one dimension.
Characters grow in a specific way, because of difficult choices they make about how to do it. In one episode of Silicon Valley, Dinesh seeks Richard's advice when there are no right answers to deal with a crisis. Richard tells him he's found it's more about finding the one wrong answer you can live with. In that scene, it seems like an aspect of in-the-moment decisions. But if you look at Richard's character arc over the series, it seems to also characterize the ways a character chooses to experiment with self-growth. As per the above point, they often have to get worse in one way to get better in another, if only because of overshooting like a pendulum.
One often doesn't know whether a change is for the better until one has gone so far down it one can't really walk it back; one can only see how to grow next. This time, I'll talk about my own work. I have a protagonist who, in her first book, keeps to herself because she is terrified of the way the world threatens her, only to realize how much power she can exert over it, in ways no-one else can. This leads her to morally dubious actions to keep herself safe, and later to try to help others in her own 10-year-old way, until she has a what-you-are-in-the-dark moment at the end. In a later story, she learns that coming out of her shell attracts dangers half-similar to what she'd envisaged, and at first tries to do even shadier things to neutralize such dangers. But as she gets older, her caring for those weaker than herself grows, and eventually she dedicates her life to a cause she can't expect to ever see fulfilled. In the story I'm working on now, unforeseen events allow her to see the end result of what she did, and everyone's happy with it but herself. Then she's forced to take a leadership role she never sought, and has to change again to do it right.
Much growth is needed because of new problems. A character with such experience can give half-valid advice to someone else. This is connected to my second and third bullet points (and arguably also my first), and I could illustrate it with the same examples, but this time I'll talk about Frasier instead. Roz became a parent after a few seasons, and wasn't confident she'd do it well until Frasier told her about how long it had taken him to learn certain important facts about it. Later, Niles admits his love for Daphne and she reciprocates, but she eventually challenges him to explain why he'd be more loyal to her than his ex-wife, and he explains it's because this is his first relationship not attributable to what others expected of him. What these examples have in common is that character A advises B on how to deal with a situation B didn't find forced upon them until recently, whereas A can speak about it from much older experiences, often predating the first episode.
I suspect you can think of examples of these points applying elsewhere - in your work, in other fiction, and in real life.
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: Re: Describe the combination of eye shadow and tear In this picture, the woman's tear has turned black because it was mixed with her eye shadow. How would you describe it in a dramatic way?
The bluish black streak trickled down her face, her eyes wet and overflowing with moisture. The tears, mingling with the bruised coloured make up she wore appeared as though she was crying dark, misted, and gloomy teardrops, each falling from her eyes and leaving behind them a thick, black trail staining her flushed, pink, and slightly damp cheeks.
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: Writing a supernatural book with characters who have supernatural powers that have already been explored in other works? I am in the process of writing a book with many of the characters discovering
I am in the process of writing a book with many of the characters discovering that they have supernatural powers.
I am trying very hard to find 'original' powers that have not yet been created and explored, however a lot of my ideas (which I thought were my own!) have already been explored in other works.
How can I write my book and have it published if the characters have powers which are similar to those in other books out there.
I am not copying anyone and want to put my own spin on this.
Shall I waste anymore time with this idea, or will I be sued for copying people?
Please help!
Thank you :)
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