@Shanna875
Last seen: Mon 17 May, 2021
Signature:
Recent posts
: Re: I accidentally added a character, and then forgot to write them in for the rest of the series I am a young author writing a fantasy series. When I was looking over my manuscript, I realized
This is the kind of thing you figure out in revision. I do this all the time in early drafts, dropping characters, adding new ones, renaming them, changing their marital status, changing their gender, etc.
Pay attention as you read through your drafts whether that character adds anything to the story. If so, then you can bring her back or combine her with an existing character. If not, then put her in your notebook for a future story.
0 Reactions React
: Re: How to give your characters enough dialogue? In my story, there are quite a lot of characters. It can be difficult for me to give them dialogue. For example, let's say that there are a five
Dialogue, just like everything else in a well-written story, has a purpose: either to advance the overall plot or to develop the characters. Who speaks and says what in what scene depends on what needs to be said and who the focus is on. Even if you want to develop all 5 characters, it doesn't necessarily have to happen all at once for everyone in every scene, even when all of them are present. Perhaps Tim and Sally are the focus of the current plot point/character development, so even if Harry, Shawn, and Linda are also at the same house party, they say comparatively little that is actually told the reader, because they are off chatting with one another about plot-unimportant things while Tim and Sally sit in the corner together and discuss their recently deceased friend Roger.
That said, when you have five characters in a room together, you don't want any of them to "disappear" either. It occurs to me you may really be asking about how to avoid this phenomenon: the vanishing of characters (and it can happen to your setting as well!) when the writing doesn't keep the reader present enough in the space the scene occurs in. Usually this is because the dialogue/focus is so caught up in whatever the main thought the writer is trying to get across that it forgets to include descriptions, sensory details, etc. about what is around the characters at that time.
I remember when I wrote a story in college, two characters were having a serious conversation in the backseat of a car, and my professor asked me, "Where did the car go?" Essentially, I was so focused on the characters' reactions and dialogue that it was all you could see from what I had written. They might as well have been sitting at a cafe, or in a movie theater, or anywhere else, because there was very little to remind the reader of where they actually were for the whole passage.
This happens with other characters in a setting too, if you aren't careful. Tim and Sally are talking, and pretty soon you realize, "Hey, where did Linda, Shawn, and Harry get to? They were in the room as well, but we've heard nor seen nothing from them for three paragraphs now!"
The solution to this problem isn't necessarily to just give the others more dialogue, but rather to ensure the entire setting, them included, isn't left behind. Sure, maybe one of the others says something from time to time. They might break into the conversation to make themselves know, like here, where Linda just arrived:
"Sally, I think that..." Tim paused as Linda appeared next to Sally's
chair.
"I haven't had a chance to ask how you're doing," she said.
Sally offered her a half smile. "I'm okay. Thanks for asking."
"I'm glad you're hanging in there, girl. Nice to see you as well, Tim." He nodded.
"Hey, Linda! Come help me with this pizza!" Shawn called from the kitchen, and Linda gave Sally one more reassuring smile before she
turned away.
More often, though, I think you'll find action and sensory input from by the other characters sufficient and less disruptive for any given scene:
Tim paused and glanced to the side as a clatter echoed across the
room. Shawn had dropped the punch bowl and was now swearing as he
looked down at his wet pants and shoes. Clumsy as always. Tim and
Sally shared a smile.
Linda's laughter carried across the room, at odds with the grim
expression on Tim's face, and Sally sighed. "I don't know, Tim. I
thought I could get answers, but all I've found is more questions."
Tim raised his voice to be heard over Shawn and Harry's roughhousing
behind them. "I don't know what to think anymore, Sally. Nothing seems
to add up like it should."
"I know." She leaned forward slightly so he
could hear her and spoke low, "I'm starting to think his death
wasn't an accident at all."
Someone bumped into her chair and she
startled, glancing back to see Shawn's sheepish grin. "Sorry," he
said, then bounded back across the room toward Harry, whooping.
Hmm, I think I have the making of a very cheesy murder mystery / possible romance novel here XD XD
One final point: At various point in your novel, assuming all five characters are meant to be important, each of the characters should have scenes where they have more dialogue and "moments" that help develop them. If you notice that there is one character who is always just kind of "there", standing around while everyone else talks and does things and comes up with the plans, then this character is currently just window dressing, and you need to take a good look at them. You need to ask if they have a real role to play in the story, and if so, why aren't they filling it? Perhaps another character is already filling the role you meant them to fill. Perhaps you don't actually need this character at all and should cut them entirely.
I once had a character whom I just couldn't get to come into their own, and I eventually realized that it was because their role in the story overlapped too much with the roles of two of my other characters, who each had a more interesting base personality and background, and had each therefore become the character who "dominated" their position in the story. I fixed this by removing the neglected character from the primary plot and placing them in a separate situation on their own, which allowed them show off their strengths and flaws out from under the others' shadows, while their absence simultaneously created a conflict for the other characters.
Side note: love interests, in particular (especially female ones), often suffer from the "cardboard cutout person" phenomenon, where they have no active role other than to exist as eye-candy for the main character to drool over. They stand around and look hot while the other characters do everything. If you want to have a love interest, you need to find a plot-relevant active role for them to play and develop the character to have their own personality, motives, and flaws. It will instantly improve the character and your story, I promise.
0 Reactions React
: Scientific Research Paper Is it okay to reference material from a previous paragraph, like as follows "In paragraph 3" or "In the introduction"? Or do I have reassert the idea,
Is it okay to reference material from a previous paragraph, like as follows "In paragraph 3" or "In the introduction"? Or do I have reassert the idea, if so does it have to require a citation again?
0 Reactions React
: Re: What pronoun to use for a sentient, self aware AI? I have a sentient AI in a story. He sentience aspect is mostly an unexpected result and some characters in the story do not believe it.
You are righting a story here, not a paper, yes? So I would argue the question might not be, "what pronoun should I always use for this AI?" but rather, I would say that much depends on the characters in your story, their personalities, backgrounds, beliefs, and inclinations. THEY are the ones who are going to be interacting with, and referring to, said AI, after all. Everyone is aware that the AI has no sex, of course, since it is a machine. But we refer to sexless objects by gendered pronouns all the time. A very common example would be the way ships are often referred to as "she". For a closer example, take Siri. Siri is a machine, an "it", if you will, but because the voice "sounds" female, people often say "she" and "her" when talking about Siri.
Are (non sentient) AIs common in your world, and if so, how do people usually refer to them? Do they use "he" or "she" and so on based on the AI's voice or some other arbitrary criteria (is the voice completely sexless too? If so then it would probably depend on a given person's perception). Do most people in society just refer to AIs as "it"? Or is it entirely different from person to person with no societal standard; people just call them what they choose? Whatever the "norm" is in your society will affect how many of your characters refer to your AI, whether they are aware it is sentient or not.
This is also affected by individual characters' traits. Some will fall outside the societal norm, or come from backgrounds with an entirely different norm. The way each of them thinks about the AI may vary widely. For instance, if your AI "sounds" female like Siri, and one of your characters believes it is sentient and another does not, the one who doesn't believe it may say "it" to emphasize that they think it is nothing more than an object, while the one believes it is sentient may call it "she" specifically because they find the depersonification implied by "it" to be offensive, even though they are aware that "she" isn't completely accurate either.
Finally, there is, of course, the AI itself. It's sentient, so it is entitled to an opinion here. Does it have a preference? If so, it may simply tell people how it wants to be called. In which case, maybe you can tell who actually "believes" in its sentience by who refers to it in the way it requests. Or maybe it doesn't care, (and it's very possible a sentient AI may find the whole sex and gender stuff humans are so obsessed with to be silly and it could care less) and so it lets people call it whatever as long as they aren't disrespecting it. The answer to this last part will probably help determine how you, if you write as an omniscient narrator or from the AIs perspective, refer to it in narration. When narrating from a given character's perspective, you would probably refer to the AI using the pronoun that character would use. (if you use a single narrator, it could be an interesting way to show how they view the AI. Maybe at first they aren't buying that the AI is really sentient, and their narration refers to the AI as "it" and/or other objectifying terms, but later on you can tell when they begin to believe it because there is a change in the way they think about the AI, and the pronouns used in their narration change along with that.)
0 Reactions React
: Re: What are some potential problems you can have if you happen to share similar names with an author? I am a freelance author consultant and have ran into a unique problem. My customer happens
As for legal trouble, you should ask the lawyers about that, not the writers. But I doubt she'd get into trouble, per se, since it is, after all, her own name. Though it's possible there is some rule about not using the same author name as another author (I know there can be with actors) and publishers might insist she get a pen name.
That said, even if it is allowed, I would strongly STRONGLY recommend she NOT use her own name if there is an existing author by that name who is well known. Everyone will get her "brand" mixed up with this other author's, making it hard for her to build her own. She's going to want her own unique platform with her own following; the last thing her image, marketing, and titles need is to be constantly confused with someone else's. Tell her to brainstorm a nice pen name (maybe help her do it, or find someone who is knowledgeable about such things to help with it!) It can be similar to her real name, if she wants, but it needs to be different enough it isn't going to get confused for someone else.
Basically, this is probably less an issue of "would I get in trouble?" and more one of "how do I keep my brand separate from this other person's?"
0 Reactions React
: Are there rules related to tense used? I started my novel in third person, past tense, then I changed it to third person present tense, then I changed it to first person present tense, and
I started my novel in third person, past tense, then I changed it to third person present tense, then I changed it to first person present tense, and now I've changed it to first person past tense. I think this is the most comfortable.
Are there any guidelines to subject matter/time setting of the novel, and so on, that I should know?
0 Reactions React
: Re: How can I handle a powerful mentor character without killing them off? I'm writing a book series that involves people with various superpowers. One of these characters and is more or less the
Your Mentor Is Not As Powerful As He Once Was
Mentor characters are meant to teach the main character some important skill - that doesn't mean they themselves have to be all that powerful - age wracks us all and forces us into retirement, and a good mentor character can guide the new hero into their role, even when they aren't themselves doing the same work.
Good examples of this include Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond - in this series, Bruce has long ago stopped performing his role as Batman - but the new Batman Terri McGinnis still learns from him how to fulfill that role.
Another example, without the character being old per-se, is in All Might from My Hero Academia - he literally passes on the torch to the new hero, and though he eventually loses his power to fight, continues to act as a mentor pushing the new line of heroes forward, and continues to be an engaging character in his own right.
0 Reactions React
: Phrases used to refer to “a large number/amount of something.†How do you choose one among many others? I always ask myself, when writing, which word or phrase to use to describe a large
I always ask myself, when writing, which word or phrase to use to describe a large number/amount of something because the English language has a huge variety of expressions as in the below examples.
a lot of, lots of, plenty of, a slew of, tons of, a mass of, masses
of, loads of, a stack of, a heap of, a myriad of, myriads of, many,
tens of, dozens of, hundreds of, thousands of, millions of, (and many
more!)
I know that some of them just modify either countable or non-countable nouns only. Also, I have no question about the use of such phrases as "tens of," and "hundreds of" because it is self-explanatory. The phrases I'm uncertain about when to use are, for instance, a lot of, lots of, plenty of, a slew of, and tons of.
How do you choose any one among the five or probably among many more options?
JUST FOR YOUR REFERENCE
I searched Ngram Viewer for the five phrases followed by six nouns: books, money, people, water, aid, and issues. With five out of the six words, "a lot of" is most frequently used. The only exception is "water", with which "plenty of" seems to be the best match.
books
money
people
water
aid
issues
0 Reactions React
: This is a PREREQUISITE of that, so that is WHAT of this? Anyone have a sensible word to finish the title above? I'm creating a semantic web, and some of the flip-sides to directional relationships
Anyone have a sensible word to finish the title above? I'm creating a semantic web, and some of the flip-sides to directional relationships are hard to track down due to their scarce usage. The specific consumer of this relationship, so far, is a technology tree. Other examples of relationships:
Non-directional relationship: Joe is a friend of Bob, Bob is a friend of Joe
Directional relationship: Sean is a father of Jill, Jill is a daughter of Sean
For the relationship in question I'm considering "contingent" or "dependent," discovered through using the thesaurus and dictionary. I'm not thrilled with these choices, though, and wonder if anyone knows of a better one. The answer does not have to be colloquial.
Bonus: If there are better terms I could be using to describe "non-directional" and "directional" relationships, please share. This is my world now, and it would help to learn the formal lexicon.
0 Reactions React
: Re: How to show a character with multiple personalitites? To preface this, I have seen the question multiple personalities characters speech in text and I feel that my question is different enough,
You could imply that some of her appearance changes; for example: "My name is Eben - who are you?" Inquired the older man.
A mystic gloom surrounded Nair. Her smile was vicious, and her eyes became serious.
"I am Suoti."
You could also imply a change of scenery, like:
The light dimmed, and a mystical aurora gleamed from Niar.
"I'm Suoti."
This could, however, become a bit confusing, but the reader will eventually understand this change of scenery and personality.
Furthermore, you could have Niar talk about Suoti in 3rd person to make sure the reader understands the change of personality.
0 Reactions React
: Re: Alternative to "it is commonly said" I have a sentence I am trying to write that just doesn't feel right. It currently reads "It is commonly said that X, but the truth is that Y." The second
Try simply eliminating the first part of your sentences or eliminating the "It is commonly said":
Nobody slept.
The citizens were out for themselves.
They were not holding the reins; they were being led.
0 Reactions React
: Re: Hyphen for "multiple-response"? I'm writing a help document for a website that tests people. In much of the copy for the website, I've referred to "multiple-choice" questions with the hyphen.
According to the Chicago Manual of Style (You should check your own style guide), hyphens help to improve readability when you're using adjective phrases. In general, you'd hyphenate a phrase like "multiple response" when it appears before the word it modifies, but not afterward.
So: "multiple-response questions" and "questions that are multiple response."
There are exceptions, but I don't think yours is one of them.
(My Chicago Manual is older, 15th edition, and the relevant section there is 7.90.)
0 Reactions React
: Use italic for people names When I write non-scientific articles or other kind of texts online, I often use italic to emphasize the names of non-fictional human beings when they are important
When I write non-scientific articles or other kind of texts online, I often use italic to emphasize the names of non-fictional human beings when they are important and appear for the first time in the text. Is this considered a good/alright use of italics or is it weird/wrong?
Example: "The island of Pintada was first seen by the Spanish captain Francisco Hernandez during a trip between Cuba and Porto.
I think it's tiresome to use it every time someone new is introduced but I tend to do it for the most important people in a story. I have read plenty of advice on use with tiles (books, etc), for emphasis, foreign language, etc, but could not find any best practice for people names.
0 Reactions React
: Referring to machines and sensors as "knowing" I'm editing a technical text about autonomous systems. I feel the following sentence is anthropomorphizing a machine and also introduces some confusion
I'm editing a technical text about autonomous systems. I feel the following sentence is anthropomorphizing a machine and also introduces some confusion because it can be easily misread as talking about the machine operator knowledge:
A clear separation of control and protection is possible if the safety-critical protection function can be specified and implemented without having any knowledge of the workings of the control function.
It might just be coming back from a holiday, but I can't for the life of me think of a suitable alternative to talking about the machine having knowledge. Does anyone have any suggestions? Or... am I overthinking it, since now we have fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning that constantly use these terms?
(Note that there is also work to be done on the rest of the sentence since it is wordy, but I want to address this issue first!)
0 Reactions React
: Re: Should fairies be capitalized? I am not sure if the word fairies should be capitalized. I have not tried anything, I'm just confused and want this to be correct.
Let's find out. Merriam Webster is an expert on spelling and capitalization and they say that "fairy" is not capitalized.
0 Reactions React
: How do I fill these fields in using Scrivener? Is there some document properties to fill out? How do I fill in these notatable fields?
How do I fill in these notatable fields?
0 Reactions React
: Re: What are the different types of characters in a fictional story? I want to be able to correctly categorise and identify different characters in a story, predominantly fiction. I have read a
Yes if you watch stories like Star Wars of Game of Thrones, there is multiple main characters. Maybe most of the characters are important to the overall intrigue.
In a more classic way you could use a list of kind of people to structure your story :
protagonist aka main(s) character. Can be a hero or an anti-hero
deuteragonist (can be a sidekick or a main character as well)
mentor
nemesis / antagonist (the worst ennemy of the hero)
love interest
narrator (one character can tell your story)
secondary and tertiary characters that will be less developped but still useful at some point.
Nothing force you to use this as it is, but it worked well for many novels.
0 Reactions React
: Re: Are there any sites where authors can offer up their novel manuscripts for sale to other authors (who may want to buy ghostwritten work)? Sometimes it is much easier for a writer to simply
I'm not exactly sure: do you want to write first and then try to find someone?
But ghostwriting is more about answering the need of someone, so it's the opposite.
What you are requesting is closer from traditional publishing than ghostwriting: I write and then I sell.
I don't see any platform doing what you request; if you're searching for freelance platforms for ghostwriters then try Upwork and those kinds of websites.
0 Reactions React
: Re: When writing in third person perspective, how do you differentiate the 'she' or the 'he' from the other 'he's and 'she's? Every time I write and read the 'she's and the 'he's especially in
Personnally I organize my writing in this way :
"I'm against this ! told John, protesting vividly. He stood up from his seat.
- You cannot stop us from taking this decision !" replied Steve. He stood up too.
Afterwards, you can continue to use "he/his" if you continue to talk about Steve. Otherwise you need to specify that John is doing something.
That seems to me the simplest and clearest way to describe things.
Good luck to you !
0 Reactions React
: Re: Text Appearing Between the Lines in Scrivener I have been editing scrivener across devices, and when I edit text across multiple devices, the text appears midway between the lines. I can find
I presume that the different applications don't use exactly the same formatting rules and thus it cannot work properly.
I have the same kind of problem if I highlight things in a same book in my Kindle app and also in my Kindle device. One added functionnalities on the app overlap the highlighting function in the normal Kindle device and create bugs.
Depending on the devices you can find help here :
Mac - Windows - General support
I advise you to be very specific in your questions there (which devices are used, application version, give files as examples).
If you don't find then maybe you must limit yourself to only one main device (or at least have the exact same configuration between a workstation and a laptop by example). The last option would be to work on an alternative of Scrievner
0 Reactions React
: Re: Writing a letter from the future I'm writing a letter from the future to my dear friends, posing as the child they're about to have. The main aim of the letter is to be amusing, but also
A letter is from the future so we are talking about science fiction. It makes us think about science, but letter is for current time and also readers are of the current time. So whatever will happen to language in 2050, whether new slangs introduce, new acronyms, new phrases or even total English has been changed the main thing which you need to remember is that readers need to read that in English of the current era.
Let's come to science, Natural Language Processing is an active research topic in the current computer science field. According to current research text summarization and machine translations are very popular. Also "Concept Search" is a popular term. So if we combine these technologies together (which is even valid for today, and hopefully will be at their fully functional form in 2050), we will get something like this
" Son will write Mail in his/her own language(Maybe he/she moved to some other place rather then English, even if it is more Modern English then nowadays) and the computer program understand the "Concept of the letter" and also know the "History of the Person" (Becuase software will hold trillions of data or even larger), and that software will translate that "Conceptual Email" into a normal 2019 readable Email."
But one more thing which will be fully Developed in 2050 is EEG communication, which is via thoughts, Researchers had found very useful results and hopefully they will be able to place a sensor on mind and computers will interact through thoughts of Person and maybe Idea comes to a Mind of the person in 2050 and no need to write a single word just by thinking the receiver of the Letter and "Concept of the Letter" will result into a 2019 readable Letter. (Depends on how much advance YOUR 2050 is :)
0 Reactions React
: Re: Using different times for different narrative purposes I'm writing a biography. And I want it to be written in English, although I'm not a native speaker. Can I use different times to highlight
Check this great summary on how to use the different tenses in english
I can also advise you to use Grammarly to check your overall document, style, grammar and spelling. The free version is interesting, and if you need more there is a paid version.
I hope this will help !
0 Reactions React
: Re: Are there any free offline outlining tools? I'm looking for a tool, that lets me enter and rearrange plot points into an outline and link them to other events and storylines in a graphical
You might use Twine
This is an open source tool that is originally made to create interactive stories.
So, writing in blocks and visualize the structure of your story can be easily done.
If you use the "online" version (means only without installing), you can still use it offline (everything is inside your web browser).
But remember to backup (archive) regularly or export your story, in case of crash of your browser.
twinery.org/2/#!/welcome
0 Reactions React
: Re: How do I get beta readers? I wouldn't feel comfortable asking friends and family to read my work and getting their feedback. And I don't have an online platform to ask strangers. What are
I presume that the social networks can be a good starting point
Subscribe to some niche Facebook groups that match your book genre and ask openly. Some might be happy to help
You can also call on Twitter on some hashtags (maybe on #WritingCommunity )
And if you have a budget for that, you will always find people if you pay. Maybe a freelance editor on a site like Upwork or else.
Good luck with your book !
0 Reactions React
: Re: Is there a convention about the use of Old English in Hymns? Is it wrong to modernise the words? Although most hymns were written in earlier centuries, I notice that modern-day collections of
The language of old hymns is often richer and more poetic than modern hymns, that may be why their language has been maintained. "Bethlem" and "o'er" seem to me like contracted words used to fit the meter of the song that accompanies the lyrics. "Blesséd" may just be indicating that the word is two syllables instead of "blessed" (pronounced "blest"), again, for the purpose of fitting a meter.
0 Reactions React
: Italicising Fictional Company names throughout If I have created a fictional theatre with it’s own name, and italicise the name with it’s first appearance in the story, do I need to keep
If I have created a fictional theatre with it’s own name, and italicise the name with it’s first appearance in the story, do I need to keep it in italics whenever it’s mentioned after that?
Eg: We made our way to The New Grand Duchess Theatre. I was excited. It had been closed down for years...
(Later in story)
....I couldn’t wait to tell Henry all about The New Grand Duchess Theatre in all her renovated glory.
So basically, does the theatre’s name need to be kept in the same format or can I lose the italics after it’s first mentioned?
0 Reactions React
: Re: Is there any difference between these two sentences? (Adverbs) I'm just trying to work around the whole "Adverbs are the devil" rule. Is there any difference between these two lines in regards
Another difference between the two forms is that the first makes it clear where the patronising smile is directed, i.e. whom it's patronising.
In the second, the smile could have been there before; it could be a reaction to someone or something else (present or remembered).
If you want to avoid an adverb (and other answers have shown why that's not necessarily a useful goal), you could mention the patronising smile in relation to the people involved, e.g.:
“Don't worry your pretty little heads about it,†he told them with a patronising smile.
(Though in that example, it's probably clear from the speech alone…)
0 Reactions React
: Getting an editor after the second draft Losely related with my latest question: Should one invest in a professional editor before querying? I've finished - not without sweat - my second draft.
Losely related with my latest question: Should one invest in a professional editor before querying?
I've finished - not without sweat - my second draft. While I'm satisfied with the overall result, I can't shake the feeling that something is not quite right with my novel. Maybe it came out a little childish, maybe there are useless repetitions of themes, or maybe, again, some characters are shallow.
As the author, I feel like I'm a little shortsighted right now. I can't point out the flaws exactly, or how to fix them; moreover, I'm not sure if they are actual flaws or they are perceived flaws.
This bias is one reason why I'm skeptical of going into a third, lone draft. The other reason is that I've worked almost nonstop on the novel in the last year, and I'm starting to get sick of reading the same scenes.
Of course, I'm no way special and I suppose the same could be said for a lot of author in my situation.
So, would it be a good idea to call a professional editor after the second draft?
0 Reactions React
: Re: How to organize ideas to start writing a novel? Beginner here. So, I have tons of ideas for a novel, and in fact I want to write one (even a series), but I'm struggling a lot in actually
Something that has helped me is to have a list of the chapters of the novel with a short summary of each one. Don't worry if there are gray spots on it, in fact that is good as it allows the story to develop itself while writing.
Also, don't worry if you need to change it, the important thing is that at any moment, you have a map to know where you come from and where are you heading to in the story.
0 Reactions React
: Re: Author changing name Let us suppose an unmarried female author. She publishes something. Then she gets married, and chooses to change her surname to her husband's. Obviously, she can choose not
One example is Janet Jeppson, who wrote a few books under the name ‘J. O. Jeppson’, but after marrying Isaac Asimov wrote many more (some alone, some with her husband), mostly under the name ‘Janet Asimov’, but occasionally as ‘J. O. Jeppson’ or ‘Janet Jeppson Asimov’.
0 Reactions React
Terms of Use Powered by ePowerPress Stock Market News!
© selfpublishingguru.com2024 All Rights reserved.