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: Re: When two authors write a book, what order should I put them in? Me and my friend are currently writing a Sci-fi novel. When we publish it, we want both of our names to be on the cover.
Use a pseudonym
When writing Red Dwarf, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor used the pseudonym of Grant Naylor for their work. This avoids the problem of whose name comes first, by using a single arbitrary name as author.
Neal Stephenson took the same approach when he collaborated with his uncle George Jewsbury to write Interface, using the pseudonym Stephen Bury.
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: Re: Am I bringing my character back to life too much? This story is about a person in a sort of technologically advanced secret government organization that is basically SCP. The organization is
SCP Foundation website has this.
The Samsara Mobile Task Force is comprised of 4 semisynthetic individuals who can be restored from backup copies or regenerated, apparently indefinitely. As I understand it, individuals restored from backup do not have memories of the mission on which they were killed; they are brought up to speed by their comrades who survived the mission, if any. Individuals might be terminated and restored from backup if they are corrupted somehow, infected by contagious memes and so on.
I think being revivable is either a one time amazing thing (Bible style) or a recurring possibility (done in the above SCPs and many other fictions; I think of Highlander). You can get energy for your writing with interactions between revivable entities, their memories, experiences, and altered attitude towards death.
Depending on the rules for restoring, you could restore from backup while the original (perhaps thought to be dead) survives in some fashion and shows up later. Or you could produce a legion of one individual from backup. I think the Samsara force members are made of special stuff and must bring back some piece of the individual to be restored, because otherwise I am sure they would make more; these folks are useful.
Also there is potential energy between nonrevivables and revivables - one SCP has the reaction of a team being sent in alongside the Samsara force. This other team knows Samsara is sent when there is a high likelihood of members being killed.
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: Usually, when people repeat things or misspeak in speeches, you can do something like this: "I have read every single question and recent hundreds, thousands - hundreds of tips to help
Usually, when people repeat things or misspeak in speeches, you can do something like this:
"I have read every single question and recent hundreds, thousands - hundreds of tips to help students use these questions effectively."
Where you break it up with a little dash to show a pause in the speaker's thinking. You could also use periods (...) for this purpose.
Alternatively, you can use the time-honored newspaper trick and use [sic] to indicate the speaker misspoke.
"I have read every single question and recent hundreds thousands hundreds [sic] of tips to help students use these questions effectively."
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: Re: How best to describe multiple alien species in a short amount of time? I am in the beginning stages of writing what might be a space opera. The story starts in a society that consists of
In this context, these aliens are probably going to be very domestic and familiar to this character, just as familiar as dogs, birds and cats are to us in the real world. If she lives in this society of aliens, she has probably seen them before and interacted with them before. Therefore, if you're introducing many of them in quick succession, you don't need to go into great detail about what these species are like yet, not until it becomes directly relevant to the story. Details should only be included when they are important to the narrative.
Maybe a quick blurb would suffice if an alien is being interacted with, just for description's sake:
Larima took the identification card from the clerk. "Thank you," she said, in its tongue. The Oolongian blinked slowly with its five mustard-yellow eyes, evaluating her, then slithered off to attend other customers.
And do the same for the other species that are encountered - little snippets of description, only where necessary and relevant. Mention that the burly Gasnian trucker has four arms and orange scales, maybe, but don't go into any more detail than that. You want to leave some things to the imagination. Keep it brief.
However, if you have a major character who belongs to one of these alien species, that would probably warrant a full description. It doesn't have to be overly long - just as long as you would give for a human character she encounters. Or, if an alien's anatomy or quirks are directly relevant to the scene, i.e. if an alien is doing something unique to its biology, that would also be the time to provide a fuller description, if only just for humor or shock value.
The K'tarian stared at her for a moment, then coughed violently, its throat sac expanding; a streak of green, bubbling saliva dripped down from its mouth. Larima jumped back just in time for it to pool on the floor in a spreading, stinking puddle that burned slowly through the floor. "What the hell?" she asked, disbelievingly. The K'tarian shrugged carelessly and wiped its mouth on its sleeve. Apparently, for its kind, this was something akin to sneezing.
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: Re: Copyright issues when using images from a TV show in my book I'm writing an episode guide for a TV show and I think it would be helpful to include a couple of screenshots/images from each
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, so definitely talk to an actual lawyer for final, actionable legal advice.
I think this question boils down to: "Can I use still images and/or screenshots from a television show in an informational guide, as covered under UK fair use?"
Yes. Still images from a television show, reproduced in a nonfiction guide as visual or educational aids, would absolutely be covered under UK fair use law (or "fair dealing"/"free use" as it is commonly referred to in the UK). You're using the images in an informational guide book, and there is a well-established precedent for using TV still images in books and TV guides without necessarily needing to pay for the rights to do so. As long as you limit the number of images to only what is necessary, you should be fine.
That being said, you'll still have to take care of all the usual digital image rights concerns and attributions. That is, you can't grab random screenshots or images off Google - you'll have to source them from somebody and provide appropriate attributions and get permissions, as you would if you were reproducing somebody's nature photographs in a wildlife guide or artwork in a museum guide. But as long as you do that appropriately, I see no issue here.
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: I'm trying to write a short story for an assignment and my word count is 5263 and 12 pages on google docs, is this too long? I just need help with writing my short story, I don't want
I just need help with writing my short story, I don't want to make it too long and I don't know if I'm over thinking this. Help?
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: Re: What are some signs of a chosen one nebulous enough that they can be mistaken? The setup: We have a fantasy world. A while back (like, 30-100 years; not really sure yet) a prophecy was given
There are several writing tropes oriented around misinterpreting prophecies or signs of "Chosen Ones" that may give you some ideas.
Prophecy Twist - The prophecy comes true as it was written, but in an unexpected way, and the signs didn't mean what everyone thought they meant. The classic example is Lord of the Rings, when the Witch-King confidently declares that no man can kill him... only to be killed by a woman.
"Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!"
Then Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. "But no living man am I!â€
Perhaps in your story, the character who thinks he's the "Chosen One" believes that because the prophecy lines up with him so well, it means it must be him, when in actuality the clues meant something completely different and were easily misinterpreted. Maybe the prophecy said the hero would be born on the fourth of Oktumber, and your false Chosen One is confident that's him, because it's his birthday... when in actuality, that's the day the true Chosen One's village was burned down and he decided to become a hero, thus making it the day of the true hero's "birth."
Prophetic Fallacy - The prophecy is incomplete, or outright deceptive, or told by a liar. Or, alternatively, the people who heard it, including the hero, heard it wrong.
To quote TV Tropes:
For example, a man might see himself being knocked down by a car and note that the time on a digital display is 10:51, then spend the entire episode trying to avoid going near a road, despite various events conspiring to put him in danger. He eventually makes it to 10:52 and thinks he is safe, but is knocked down an hour or so later and discovers that he saw the digital clock in a mirror and his actual time of death is 12:01.
Maybe in your story, the prophecy was incomplete and parts were missing. The false Hero believes that he's the one, and so does everyone else, because he doesn't have the missing parts that reveal the full prophecy, which actually lines up with the true Chosen One.
Prophecies Are Always Right - The prophecy is always right... or at least that's what everyone believes.
Perhaps in your story, the prophecy is seemingly ironclad, and so your false Chosen One is confident that it's him because he matches it perfectly. When in reality, the prophecy was just... wrong. It wasn't the true prophecy, or that's not how fate works, or it was just a big scam by some divine entity to mess with people. Whatever the case, the true Chosen One doesn't seem to fit, and so that's why nobody suspects they are the real Chosen One.
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: Re: I've written a raw manuscript; what are the next steps? More than 10 years ago, I wrote two books for Manning Publications, a publisher of technical non-fiction books. I didn't need to search
You have a solid platform, an existing audience, and you've already given out first copies of the book and had people read it and review it positively. You also have a track record of public speaking and interacting with writers, and some awards. All of these factors put you in a great spot for potentially approaching literary agents and liasons about publishing your book, and likely place you ahead of much of your competition.
Given all of this, I think you have a really solid chance of getting published if you can acquire the right literary agent and publishing partner to work with you, so here is an explanation of your potential next steps.
How to contact an agent
Straight away, I will tell you to be warned: the vast majority of literary agents get hundreds of submissions each week, many of them out of the blue, from new authors with no platform, and for this reason and others they do not like to get unsolicited submissions, ever. If you attempt to submit your full manuscript without approaching them properly, you will likely get some very stern responses or will be ignored.
Therefore, you do not want to immediately submit a manuscript or even a partial manuscript unsolicited to anybody, nor do you want to cold call agents in search of somebody who can connect you with a publishing partner.
Instead, prepare a brief statement about who you are and what your book is about, and then reach out with polite, very brief communications to agents who you believe fit you best and have made it clear they would be open to those types of submissions. Try to get recommended by other authors or people who can vouch for you as a quality writer. Keep these communications brief and do not badger or come across as needy, as that is a huge turn-off to agents.
Here is an outline of what you can say:
Introduce yourself and provide your credentials and awards right away. Establish that you have a platform. "I am a public speaker for... etc. etc."
Provide a very brief summary of your book, eight sentences or less. Give the genre, the title or working title, and the main plot points and characters. Designate who your audience is - in your case, professionals in your field who would find your book helpful to them as a guide.
Respectfully ask if they would be interested in reading the manuscript and provide a few ways to contact you.
If this communication gets no response or a brief rejection notice, they are not interested. This could be because your work is not a good fit for the publisher, or they are just not looking for your specific genre right now, or any other number of reasons, many of them beyond your control. Don't take rejection at this stage personally, and keep trying!
When you find an agent and get into the publishing process
Another big warning here: there comes a point where you lose control of your book after you sign it off to a publisher. They will stop wanting your input and will not invite you to decisions about it. They will likely choose the cover art, design the book jacket, and garner press entirely without you. They may even change the title!
You can do one of two things about this. You can make an effort to be active in this process, or you can just step back and let them handle it. I highly recommend the latter, as publishers make money for a reason and they generally know what they're doing. You may come across poorly if you try too hard to control the choices they make about marketing or selling your book, so be careful about any feedback you try to give them.
However, it is good to try and be at least semi-active in the decision-making process, especially if you can come across as knowing your genre well. Prepare as much as you can for any meetings you are invited to, and be ready for both scenarios - they may want your input, or they may not want your input. It is highly dependent on the publisher and the type of deal you signed. In my experience, smaller publishers will tend to let you be more active in the process, while larger publishers couldn't give a crap about you. This is all part of the publishing process. It's normal.
What to do if you get published
If your book lands on shelves, great! But you're not done! You still have to go out there and self-promote, do book tours, sign copies, and get engaged with your audience. Be active with your first readers and try to build a community. Make a forum about your book, provide contact information for readers to get in touch with you and ask you questions, etc. All of this helps a ton in building hype around your book and increasing your visibility as an author and your sales. If you have a positive community around your work and good word of mouth, the rest will come naturally.
Be prepared, however: you will likely not make much money on your first book. You will likely be approached for a sequel if it does modestly well, and that is where you will start making the big bucks. But you'll have to do a bit of belt-tightening until then if you plan on making writing your full-time job, so just be prepared for it! Don't necessarily count on the book being successful, but you should be very proud of yourself when it is.
I hope this advice was helpful!
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: Re: Is it a bad writing practice to start sentences with a verb? I realized I start sentences with the, he, she, it, after and then all the time. So I'm starting to use verbs instead. Here is
Every word, and how you use it are tools in your toolbox. You can follow proper grammar, or twist it to barely understandable, and these are still just tools.
What happens when you start your sentences with verbs? What is that tool used for?
The verb is the meat of the sentence. It's the most important word in the sentence. In fact if you don't have one, then you have a fragment. Other words in the sentence just describe the verb. Who is doing, the action, how is the action being done. Other even less important words describe the actors who are doing the action. The more flowery the writing, the more words you have besides the verb.
So now let's think about starting with verbs. We are jumping straight to the most important part. We don't have time to waste with other words. This makes the writing feel fast, direct, intense, personal. If those are the things you want, start with a verb. If they are not, then surround the verb with other words to give it the feeling that you need.
As always writing is best when it has ups and down. Sentences should be of varied lengths, and structure. You can't use any one tool for the whole piece of writing. Use many tools to create something interesting and changing, where the grammar itself is part of telling the story.
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: Re: Would incorporating a constructed language into my story this way cause confusion later? This is part of the story I'm working on: “Imikagaw†a feminine voice called out as she put her hand
Writing isn't like filming a movie. In a movie it's trivial to show detail. Swing the camera over the set and you're done. A one-second clip can contain tens or hundreds of tiny details depending on how productive the set dressers felt that day.
Writers can't use this trick. To describe a scene they need to spend costly words from their budget, and every word spent describing a nice vase is one less to spend on a plot twist, motivation, or character arc development.
Budget-minded authors partly outsource the creation of details to the reader. The author provides the most pertinent details, under the assumption the reader will fill in the rest. This does create a difference in vision between everyone who reads the book, but, does that really matter as long as they all understand the story?
In your excerpt, the dialogue is a detail. Maybe the language is a collection of random keystrokes, maybe it's a brainbreaker of a conlang. Either way, my eyes glaze over the same way they'd do if an author were to describe a nice vase for three whole paragraphs.
The characters don't speak the viewpoint character's language, but they still have bodies. They still move about, show their emotions and intentions with gestures and actions. And though the words they speak don't make sense, the tone of their voice still inflects depending on whether they're angry or sad.
To convey the mood of this scene, cut all those meaningless words and substitute descriptions of not only what these characters do, but how they do it. A challenge, but doable.
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: Re: How to give out a character’s backstory without info-dumping? In my story, I follow a group of characters traveling across a post-nuclear wasteland. I’ve written all the characters (there are
In every job interview I've ever had, when asked to tell something about myself I bring up the massive cake I had for my seventh birthday. You will not believe the size of this thing, or the time and skill that went into sculpting the marzipan princess posed on the top layer in a graceful plié. Almost too beautiful to eat, I had my parents completely fill up the two camera rolls - meant to document the party - with cake pictures. But in the end I'm glad I had a taste because--
Hey, why are your eyes glazing over? This is relevant backstory. You're just like those interviewers who asked me to move on to my employment history!
Backstory is incredibly important to characters for a variety of reasons. Past events shape us in everything we do. Our preferences, the choices we make, the people we love or hate, our bad and good traits, they're all influenced by how we've been hurt at some earlier point in life. A character who doesn't come across as having had a life before the book's first word immediately stands out as fake. But, much like my birthday cake story, that doesn't mean every detail is important.
Like sculpting statues, sharing backstory is a negative art. The master does not add material to the work, but chisels away at the existing layers to show the beauty which has been hiding in the rock all along.
The author could include ten pages of backstory at the start of a chapter to introduce a character. Include a full paragraph of the character reflecting on how much he misses his pre-apocalypse job at KFC, where he'd sneak a chicken wing when he was hungry and the manager didn't look. This isn't engaging writing. It all takes place in the character's head and a potential reader will likely yell 'get on with it' somewhere around page two of the flashback.
Alternatively, have a scene in which the character comes across a stray dog and shoots it, naps a flint, lets out a long and tired sigh, then reluctantly skins his kill. This scene takes place entirely in the present, but the 'long and tired sigh' hints at how life used to be different in the before days.
Does that mean you should never include backstory, ever? No, there very well might be points where you can and should. The 'writing rules' are suggestions at best, but in my own writing I have the 'rule' one of the following two qualifiers must be present for inclusion of backstory to be acceptable.
Relevancy.
Is the piece of backstory I am about to include relevant to the scene and the larger story? When a character engages in a fist fight with someone, it's relevant to know the character used to be a professional boxer. When having a tea party with his six year-old daughter, not so much.
Necessity.
Will my story make less sense if I leave out a piece of backstory? Then include it. The fact a character once nearly drowned when she forded a river and is now scared of large bodies of water is an important fact to mention when she decides to take the long way around a river she's currently standing in front of.
Do keep sections of backstory short. If you can't tweet it, delete it. The book you're writing should be about the most important thing to have ever happened in your character's life (or if you intend to write a sequel, the most important thing so far.) If the backstory is more interesting than the actual story, you have a big problem.
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: Re: Creating a unique spin on a nuclear apocalypse? Basically, my story follows a group of 6 people (and 1 mutant human) exploring a barren wasteland of what used to be the USA. The world they
They have The Plague, but they also have The Internet
Before the apocalypse, a lot of solar panels got deployed, and so some infrastructure is still running.
Personal solar recharges are common, and so personal mobile computers (a.k.a. cell phones). The audio switching is broken, but the internet somewhat works if you are in proximity of a big city.
Humans are few and rare. But there are no more vaccines, so any common diseases are now a potential plague. So no much hospitality from any traveler.
Write about these unfortunate travelers :)
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: Re: Is it a copyright infringement if I include a magical newspaper with moving pictures in my novel? I want to add a magical newspaper in my novel. In the newspaper, all the images are moving,
No. A newspaper with moving pictures is an idea, and ideas cannot be copyrighted. The only way you would be infringing on Harry Potter's copyright would be if you included actual characters or locations from it, such as Harry himself or Hogwarts Castle.
If your novel takes too many ideas from Harry Potter, you can be sued for plagiarism, but that's an entirely different concept than copyright infringement. A single idea (in this case, the moving newspaper) is not enough for you to be sued for plagiarism.
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: Re: How should I write an autobiography if some elements are illegal? Lets say that I wanted to write an autobiography but some elements of my life (particularly relevant to certain choice) are
I think this is strictly a legal matter, specifically laws on whether or not an autobiography can be considered testimony. That may vary by your location.
Definitely look for that on a law site though.
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: Re: Has the idea for my story already been taken? I want to write a story about a place called Kingdom Come, where you can come in but you cannot go (i.e. you are not allowed to leave). Has
The answer to "Has this story idea already been done?" is always yes, regardless of what the idea actually is. Everything's already been done. In your particular case, the one example I can think of immediately is the TV show Once Upon a Time, where anyone who enters the town of Storybrook becomes unable to leave due to mysterious forces (there are probably better examples, that's just the one that came to mind).
Fortunately for you, ideas are not protected by copyright and cannot be "taken"; one person cannot claim a story idea and then prevent anyone else from ever using that same idea. So it doesn't matter one iota whether your idea has already been done or not. As long as your story isn't a scene-for-scene copy of an existing story, nobody could possibly accuse you of plagiarism.
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: Re: If you're writing a story where the location is based in the USA, should you adapt your spelling to the American way, rather than British? If an Australian writer writes a story based in America
Write your book that feels natural for you, and the differences between American and British English is really trivial, like the use of the "u" in certain words. Just tell a really compelling story and your audience will forget that it's written in British English.
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: Re: Is this character too similar to a real person? I’m writing this fictional story and based a character off this guy I saw in a documentary. He isn’t well known at all (other than being
I think you're worrying a little too much about this. If their faces are the only things that are similar, then you're perfectly fine. Plenty of comic book characters have been modelled after real-world people without any legal issues - famously, Nick Fury was modelled after Samuel L Jackson several years before Jackson started playing him in the films.
I'd expect that, if the man from the documentary ever read your book, he might notice the physical similarity, but he would never guess that the character was actually inspired by him, and he would have no legal basis to sue you even if he did. The characters seem different enough that there's no chance of confusing one with the other.
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: Living Things From Non-Living atoms and molecules The most amazing thing about a living system is that it is made up of non-living atoms and molecules!!! This beautiful thought just got
The most amazing thing about a living system is that it is made up of non-living atoms and molecules!!!
This beautiful thought just got me awestruck, the abstract feelings that we have are just some exchange of non-living compounds that indeed control us...
Even myself thinking or writing this text is due to these non-living stuff.
so the saintly concept of desires are a null set is actually a scientific concept, we let these non-living compounds control ourselves, and maybe one day we know how to control them.
What are your thoughts on this?
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: Re: How do I avoid using punctuation inside quotation marks in technical writing? As a computer programmer, I comment my code. For example: The following lines are dependent on "source 1" and
As a programmer, you may appreciate that clarity is key in technical documentation. If you write
The password is "X7&t,dH," and should be entered on the login screen.
Readers will expect the password to be exactly what’s encompassed within the quotes, not to have to mentally parse the last character as a punctuation mark to be excluded.
If your code is
var greeting = "hello,"
what would you expect the value of greeting to be? Use the same convention for your comments; the people reading it are the same.
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: 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.
It's not clear from the question if you've literally used quotation marks and a hyphen or not. You should not use both.
Stylistically, it's more common than not to use a hyphen. But some people choose to use quotation marks instead, especially if there are many words being used adjectivally:
It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
It was a "once in a lifetime" moment.
Whichever style is used, the punctuation makes it clear that the group of words before the noun act together to modify the noun.
In the case of a simple two-word modifier, you sometimes don't need to do anything:
She ate an ice cream sandwich.
Although some people would write ice-cream sandwich, there is no real need because ice cream (in open form) is a common noun that's clearly understood by everyone.
Note that if, for some reason, you actually needed to talk about a cream sandwich (whatever that might be) modified by ice, hyphenation would have to be explicitly used so as to make it clear it wasn't meant in the common sense:
He owned an ice sculpture.
She ate an ice cream-sandwich.
I can't think of a scenario where an ice cream-sandwich could be an actual thing (as opposed to an everyday ice cream sandwich), or where ice would be used instead of iced, but if it were an actual thing, then the hyphen in that case would be essential.
Having said all of that, different style guides give different guidance.
The Chicago Manual of Style has a 12-page document on hyphenation, with specific examples and use cases. The most recent version of the guide is behind a paywall, but public versions of older versions can be found. Generally speaking, Chicago recommends that adjectival phrases be hyphenated—but it's document is 12-pages long because of the many specific exceptions.
Generally speaking, the Associated Press is more in favour of open adjectival phrases. But it too recommends hyphenated adjectival phrases if there's any likelihood of misinterpretation.
In your case, I doubt anybody would misunderstand what you mean if you used multiple choice questions or multiple response questions. So, unless you're following a specific rule, there's no semantic reason that would clearly indicate you should hyphenate.
However, whatever you do, be consistent. Either hyphenate both, or don't hyphenate either. (I can think of no stylistic or syntactical reason why one phrase would require different treatment from the other.)
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: Adjective alongside verb "Marlon walked suspicious along the corridor". It's important to stress that Marlon was (still) suspicious (not suspected, nor walking suspiciously) about something (that
"Marlon walked suspicious along the corridor".
It's important to stress that Marlon was (still) suspicious (not suspected, nor walking suspiciously) about something (that was already covered in the story just few sentences before) while walking along the corridor. But for a matter of fluidity, I don't want to write "Marlon, who was suspicious at that moment" (once the reader still has in mind the reason why) or something like that, but I can't see by myself if this structure sounds good.
Suggestions, please? (Thanks in advance).
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: How Would I Go About Self-Publishing My Novels by 2021? I've recently hired some professional proofreaders for all four of my novels this year, and my novels with respect to the Word document
I've recently hired some professional proofreaders for all four of my novels this year, and my novels with respect to the Word document have already been professionally formatted. I already applied my proofreader's suggestions and I hired two of them. But regardless, despite me still querying agents, I am having doubt that these agents would see the potential for my novels to make money. I am seriously thinking of self-publishing by next year if I can't find an agent by then, even when I register for a writer's conference that starts in October. But my question to you all is, if I proceed with self-publishing, how would I go about getting my books in actual bookstores? I don't really buy books online, I often shop at Barnes and Noble and the public library. How would I go about self-publishing in general?
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: Number of characters in ensemble for a musical In writing a musical I have 3 primary and 7 minor characters - some of whom can be also used in the ensemble. There are four scenes in the
In writing a musical I have 3 primary and 7 minor characters - some of whom can be also used in the ensemble. There are four scenes in the two act play in which an ensemble consisting of, at most at this point ,13 people, appears ( have already cut three) They are not a chorus..I have named the people in the ensemble and given them individual characteristics , although they are really townspeople and such. They create a tone for the scenes and the background of the pace and situation. I have been told by a playwright( of straight dramas) that this is far too many people unless I am aiming for Broadway...that no regional theatre will take it. Is this true? And should I take it into consideration? To lessen the number of people (and their individualities) would take away from the atmosphere and function of the scenes. Do I keep on track or lessen the impact and depth of the scenes by eliminating part of the ensemble?
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: How Would I Go About Sharing a Word Document to a Literary Agent? I was wondering, how would I go about sharing a Word document to a literary agent? I currently have all my professionally
I was wondering, how would I go about sharing a Word document to a literary agent? I currently have all my professionally proofread novels formatted. They are formatted as the following: 1 inch margins all around, font is Times New Roman with a font size of 12, there's a title page, and there are running headers with the title and the author name. However, my book is single-spaced. Also, my paragraphs are indented at 0.5, first-line and there are chapter headings. When an agent requests to read my book, do I turn on Tracked Changes to track all suggestions they make? If so, do I utilize the password protect option found in Word? Would putting a password for this be considered rude?
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: How do you quote a quote? There's this sentence from Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing that I want to use as a title
There's this sentence from Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing that I want to use as a title of my project, and I'm not sure if I properly quoted it.
This is the sentence I want to use:
"Does this spark joy?" If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it.
Is this quotation below correct?
"'Does this spark joy?' If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it."
Please help, thank you~
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: Re: 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
It's unusual, but not entirely without some kind of precedent.
For instance, as expressed by John August:
In screenplays, characters’ names in the scene description are capitalized only when a character first appears in the script. (And by capitalized, I mean in all caps, like MIKE or BOB.)
Granted, this is specific to screenplays—and the stylistic element is capitalization rather than italicization. Also note that, in this convention, I believe it's applied to every character.
I will say I've never heard of, or seen, this application of italics before. But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
It might be considered strange, and some editors would probably try to change it or caution you against it, but I wouldn't consider it necessarily wrong. Style is, after all, subjective.
However, that article does go on to say this:
Yes, I’ve seen exceptions … but I think the conventions make sense and should be followed.
So, if you're following convention, I would not recommend that particular style. However, if you feel strongly about it for some reason, it's your choice. Just be sure to be able to defend that choice to anybody who questions it—and also be able to come up a set of rules you can consistently apply that make it clear when one proper noun is put in italics and another isn't.
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: What is a Passion Project and Is It Considered a Bad Thing in the Minds of Agents and Publishers? I've heard from a literary agent that one of my books is a passion project. I told this
I've heard from a literary agent that one of my books is a passion project. I told this agent that I normally write speculative/fantasy fiction, and for one book - an international thriller/suspense, was something I wanted to explore to broaden my portfolio. This thriller novel is based in Saudi Arabia and is about a persecuted Christian who overcomes his oppressive exile. What is a passion project and is this something negative? Because I wrote that thriller novel to appease mainstream publishers.
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: 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
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 I just put a warning label on the title page?
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: Re: Is it a good idea to improve my writing skills by "fixing" what others wrote? So, I tried out a new thing. Take this segment from The Eye of Argon: The weather beaten trail wound ahead
To be fair, I'd recommend that you solely work on your writing before you start to critique others, especially if these others are already published. If they've published, they were likely already professionally edited. Your works have not. Perfect your own writing by reading aloud your work, and by giving it some rest. By this, I mean allowing at least a month or two weeks before reading through it. You have to read your work objectively.
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: Re: Sentence Variety Writers always talk about the importance of sentence variety in writing, but they never say which sentence type one should use for a specific scenario. So when do I use simple,
To answer your question, I'd suggest that you go with the flow, the rhythm of the sentences you create. Try establishing a rhyme scheme for your sentences when you use certain words. I tend to do this when I use the word, "then." For instance, in dialogue, I have always had the habit in doing the following:
"Wow!" He says.
My friends nods.
"Wow!" He then says again.
My friend has a certain look in his eye, a look of skepticism.
Sometimes, I would do this:
"He then lifts the cup but before he does - SPLAT! He puts the cup down to then..."
There's a rhythm to this sentence when I use the word, "then."
Almost parallel.
Some readers, about one person, didn't like my use of the word then but they were just trying to find something wrong with my writing to justify me paying them more. I heard of their scheme by a friend. I have thus ignored their feedback and found a person who gave me honest and sincere feedback without trying to stiff me for money. They said my use of the word, "then," didn't distract from the story. My sentence structure was 5 out of 5 she told me, assessing, but she did point it out in another story I wrote. I trust her feedback.
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