@Steve161
Last seen: Mon 17 May, 2021
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: Can the villain be introduced too late? An important aspect of my story is the dread of my villain. He is slowly built up throughout the story, with a bunch of characters here and there talking
An important aspect of my story is the dread of my villain. He is slowly built up throughout the story, with a bunch of characters here and there talking of the terror he inflicts upon the world. People call the MC crazy for going after him. The villain is described with fearsome characteristics, and they're compared to secondary villains that are themselves pretty scary. However, these comparisons paint these secondary villains as barely anything in comparison to the big baddie.
However, accompanying all this reputation build-up, is also a narrative that takes a long time to get to the villain. Now, most of the time, the goal of taking down this villain is in the forefront of the narrative. The MC is doing these different kinds of missions that are all advancing him towards the ultimate goal, and sometimes he fails and has to get out of a tricky situation. I think that the narrative taking its time with all of this is okay, because it is all essential for the MC's arc and development, as well as side character's developments.
However, I'm a bit unsure when the second act begins (at least, I think of it as the second act). Here, the story's pace drops dramatically, and the narrative, as well as the MC, meanders a bit. They get lost, completely lost. And then they find themselves again. Heck, they even beat a few secondary villains that string them along a path that eventually leads them back on the hunt for the main villain.
Now, I'm back on this track towards the villain, and I've had a few chapter's just devoted to the long and arduous haul towards the villain. I'm nearly 70K words in however, and I've got lots to go. This is a pretty long novel, and there will be a lot of the book that contains the villain. As in, it's not like this book will be 100K and then the villain is only present in the last 1k of the book. No, the villain will be present in a lot of chapters, and so I don't think the villain's presence in the story will be bad proportionally, however, I'm just wondering if the story is taking too long to get to the villain.
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: Re: Illegal activities in autobiography So I want to write a self-help book on how I became Rich from being poor I want to write about my struggles from when I was poor which is including stealing
Depending upon the country you're in, this could amount to a confession. You could end up in legal trouble. It's best to check with a local lawyer.
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: Re: Story that's too depressing? (Warning, mention of sexual abuse!!) In the near future where humans have polluted and radiated the Earth so much that animals and plants have been going extinct
Of course you've only shared bits of your story, but based on what I've read, I'd guess that if you were going to perform surgery on someone that you would choose to do it with a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel. What you've described is completely lacking in nuance and subtlety.
A dystopia where things were bad for everyone all the time would not last too long. Instead, there needs to be a substantial population of people who are living a good life in the dystopia and who don't want to see it changed. Maybe the people living the good life still have it rough, but not nearly as rough as some others. I suggest that your storytelling alternate between telling the stories of the tortured individuals, as well as the stories of the other, more fortunate people. Most of the fortunate people do not have to actively participate in things like the torture, but they need to know that it exists and passively accept it. In order for that to happen, there should be a justification given as to why the mutants are being tortured.
But even with that, you've not given any reason why the reader should be interested in this story. To me that is the highest priority item that you need to work on. I encourage you to come up with a list of reasons why people would want to read your story. Who are you trying to reach? People who like torture porn? People who feel that the world is unjust, and who want to change that?
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: Struggling with using correct tenses, please help! I am writing my first book, which I am very passionate about, but there are small details in the art of writing that have me second guessing
I am writing my first book, which I am very passionate about, but there are small details in the art of writing that have me second guessing myself, and then comes the confusion.
I am writing in deep third person, and I have been told that when writing in third person POV, it is best to write in past tense. Now, whether or not this is true, I'm unsure. A lot of readers are not fond of books being written in present tense, apparently. What are some thoughts and opinions on this?
In regards to writing in past tense, I am struggling to wrap my head around describing a characters appearance and characteristics. For example, if I am describing a character that is kind and beautiful, and gives the best hugs, would I describe it as:
She was a beautiful woman with a kind, gentle soul. She gave the best hugs.
OR
She is a beautiful woman with a kind, gentle soul. She gives the best hugs.
Very bland examples, but I just want some guidance on this. Because even if the narrator is speaking in past tense, the qualities of the character were present, and may still be present at the time the narrator shares the story.
All help is appreciated :)
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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
Accept the facts. Humanity is dead. Upper life forms are dead. Life is dead.
Yet life is stubborn, evolution defeats all disasters and strives in spite of them.
Create your own new life forms, evolved from plant, marine or current lower level life forms. Give them intelligence. Allow more types to have higher levels of consciousness this time around. Create crocodile against cherry blossoms wars.
And then... allow a team of human space explorers that were stuck for thousands of years in suspended animation, land back on the earth that they can view as extraterrestrial. The mutant may even be one of them, affected in time, during suspended animation, by radiation that the others have escaped.
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: Is it too cliche to use multiple fantasy creatures at once? I've been planning out a novel for a while and the main concept is that the main character is Elf/human/robot hybrid with superpowers
I've been planning out a novel for a while and the main concept is that the main character is Elf/human/robot hybrid with superpowers and is set to defeat an opposing Elf when she arrives in her world. My main issue with this at the moment is I don't it want to read as a Tolkien book or something, not that it's bad. I just don't want it to seem fake having at least three different species in one book all at once, or that I took deep inspiration from other fantasy books (which I haven't, as I haven't read many fantasy books, to be honest). I think I might be overthinking this since this tends to happen when I become invested in a story.
Edit: I should have added more details to my original question, but I guess they're not really Elves, but very similar. Also, the robots don't really contain any powers, think like the Androids from Detriot: Become Human, but more robot in appearance. Also, the Elves aren't from the same world as the robots; kind of like alternate realities sorta thing. I just don't know whether it's too outlandish to do this because of the alternate realities and fantasy elements interacting with the more sci-fi world. Both species aren't overpowered and most of their power comes from weaponry, so it's evenish
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: Capitalization for a thought mid-sentence This is an example of something I've run into: I felt my excitement grow at the view, with “now THIS is a true alien world!†running through my
This is an example of something I've run into:
I felt my excitement grow at the view, with “now THIS is a true alien world!†running through my mind.
Should the "n" in "now" be capitalized here or not?
Other examples I've seen don't address this since they either occur at the start of the sentence or have "I" at the beginning of the thought.
Thank you!
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: Re: Is it true that the need for marketing/promoting one's books is a "myth"? For indie fiction authors, is it true that if one simply writes and publishes regularly, one will begin to see sales
If you ask me, writing a book and hoping that it would be picked up and read by many without publicity is like sending an SOS message in a bottle floating at sea and hoping that multiple ships will immediately respond to your call and make a beeline to rescue you.
The fact is, it's an ocean out there. There are hundreds, if not thousands of authors out there who are self-publishing their books and hoping that their work will become the #1 bestseller. And that simply ain't gonna happen. Why? Because the universe just doesn't care.
Conversely, all it takes is one good book for your other books to sell. The trick is to not give up and continue writing. Yes, publicity is the prime factor in selling a book. Only if the world is aware about your book, will the world condescend to buy it.
Established authors too spend a pile in publicity for their works in the form of book launches, giveaways, 3d trailers etc. So if the biggies don't think twice about publicity, then how can we mere mortals think that our book will sell without it?
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: Re: Does a glossary make sense in a computer science thesis I am currently writing my master thesis in computer science, more specifically on voice activity detection, a sub-area of automatic speech
Thanks for pointing me at Academia.SE. The answer I got there and consider useful is as follows:
I'd encourage you to include a glossary.
I expect your work to use a mixed vocabulary from different fields of science, e.g. computer science, signal processing, or even linguistics. Your paper might be read by people who are not as familiar with all these fields as you are. And some of the terms might not have a common, generally-accepted definition. Or they might gain a different meaning over time (e.g. "AI" now has a rather different meaning today than it had in its early years).
So, defining and explaining the vocabulary that you use seems quite necessary to me, to make your paper accessible to an audience from slightly different fields of research, and understandable for a longer period in time.
As a (maybe old-fashioned?) reader, I'd prefer to have these definitions in one place, not forcing the reader to search through all occurrences of the word just to find its meaning.
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: Re: Does first-person have to be "recounted" after the fact? I'm writing a horror short-story, and at the end the main character dies and his partner is whisked away forever. I had intended to
There have been a number of books and movies that included "And then I died -- but I got better!" moments. One of the best done ones was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (movie, 1988): "And that was but one of many times I have died -- an experience I highly recommend!"
Another end-run is like the ending of Fallen (movie, 1998) -- "I told you, this was a story about the time I almost died." The mislead, from the first words of the prologue, was that the antagonist's speech was narrated in the protagonist's voice, and written so it seemed, right up until the end, to be the protagonist narrating (from the grave, as it appeared).
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: Re: Should my character speak like an layman or a Latin teacher? 'He tracked and updated 182 patient statuses' OR 'He tracked and updated 182 patient stati?' I believe "statuses" is correct. However,
The Latin plural of status is statūs.
See "Second etymology" here.
A real Latin teacher would not stick Latin words into English, and so would say "statuses." If you want your character to be an obnoxious pedant but not an ignorant pedant, he or she should say statūs (typically pronounced the same as singular "status" in English).
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: How do you translate intentional language errors? I am watching and translating TV shows to practice certain languages. I was watching a tv show where the main character speaks English but occassionally
I am watching and translating TV shows to practice certain languages.
I was watching a tv show where the main character speaks English but occassionally make mistakes. For example, "That person really drives me up the hall". I believe the proper phrase is, "That proper drives me up the wall."
How do you translate the error without losing the essence of what just happened? The writer obviously did it for another character to react, so it is necessary to translate the error for the scene to make sense.
You could translate it literally. However, if the phrase is an idiom, there may not be a direct translation. So, do you translate the idiom into the language you want and then make a mistake that may not be the same but similar?
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: 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
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 part feels okay, but the first part feels like something you have to climb over to get to the point.
I've tried a couple other approaches but I'm not quite happy with them:
"It is popular to say that X, but in this case Y."
"X under normal circumstances, but Y."
Examples for X and Y can be:
The world slept; nobody slept
The citizens worked towards the betterment of society; everyone was out for themselves
They were holding the reins; they were being led
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: Re: Looking for a better word than "Yikes" I'm trying to find the right word to use in a (serious) comic I'm writing. The character is an eighteen year old American girl, talking to some older
From the context this person is entering without knocking or intentionally playing a joke? In this case she is startled. For that I like these: Eeep! Ooph!, Fuuhh!
For something truly frightening (like something actually scary like her brother with a bloody mask on): maybe turn the word she’s saying into a sound [“I’m juuUUUEEEAAAHHH!!],
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: Re: Should an emoji come before or after a full-stop? When I make a hilarious joke on social media it's easy to put an emoji/emoticon/smiley on the end. But sometimes I want to set the context
I would say an emoji does not belong in the middle of a paragraph any more than it belongs in the middle of a sentence. You could always start your new sentence on a new line after the emoji so it would always it would be like the first case you mentioned
In terms of parts of speech I would say an emoji is closest to an interjection. So put it anywhere you would normally put 'YAY' or 'BOOM'.
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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.
Why would it be in bad taste? Allusions to real-world events have been a part of literature for as long as literature has existed. Events such as the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius are so ancient as to be inoffensive. Arguably the Titanic is there as well.
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: The seller or the trader I'm having difficulty choosing the seller or the trader when describing a character. He is selling things at a flea market and I personally prefer the seller, the sound
I'm having difficulty choosing the seller or the trader when describing a character.
He is selling things at a flea market and I personally prefer the seller, the sound of it.
As English is not my first language I wonder if the trader would be more appropriate?
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: Re: What can I ask my readers to help me and how? I have a growing non-fiction blog about challenging existing dogmas in my culture, and it has been attracting a good amount of readers. However
Ask them for sources or documentation!
Since your topic can be considered as niche and pretty advanced, your target demographic is already made of well-cultured "colleagues". They might be themselves teachers and students of your culture's dogmas, and may have access to a wealth of documents, memoirs and books that might help you deepen your own knowledge and send you towards new topics for new blog articles - hence creating a vertuous circle.
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: Re: What is the best possible way to improve one's vocabulary? During my highschool days, the subject of vocabulary had not been enforced or rather most students were lazy about expanding their vocabulary
Many e-Readers and tablets have an integrated dictionary as a feature. As you read the book, you can highlight any word and immediately get a definition - which gives you the opportunity to broaden your vocabulary without disrupting your reading experience.
Of course, you might want to choose books that are outside of your comfort zone, such as literary classics with broadened vocabularies compared to more casual reading; another boon is that many of these books are available in the public domain.
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: Re: Is it illegal to write a book about how to do something illegal in some places? If I wrote a book about how to do something that is legal in some places but illegal in others, would I
In the United States, you can write a how-to manual for lots of stuff that's illegal to actually do. A famous use case is The Anarchist's Cookbook -- not the various PDF and text files that have been all over the Internet since it came online, but the late 1970s large format paperback which included detailed instructions for making explosives, and bombs from the explosives, drugs, and assassination tools.
If it were illegal (then) to write and publish such material, I can be pretty confident I wouldn't have been able to openly buy a copy from B. Dalton Books in 1979.
Now, this is not to say you won't get "on a list" if you publish a book about how to commit certain kinds of crime, but honestly, in this world, sex work isn't where the government's eyes (at least in America) are turned -- they're much more interested in various kinds of terrorism. As such, it might not be possible to find a publisher to buy The Anarchist's Cookbook if it were newly written today, but today, one doesn't need a publisher -- an editor, a few proofreaders, a cover artist, and an Amazon account will do the job. At least until Amazon pulls a book they don't like, legal or not...
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: Re: Current events may have ruined a name I was going to use In the middle-grade series I'm working on, there are two organizations: one led by the antagonist, and one that opposes them, which
In your specific case you can probably ignore it. "Coronavirus" is the temporary, generic name. It's about to be given a real one: www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51371770
The virus theme relates to a previous "it will fade away" answer. The story I heard mentioned previous news-making coronaviruses: SARS, MERS, N1H1. I think today you could name a dog Mers or Ni-Hi, and no-one would think twice
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: How can you show a character trembling without telling the reader I'm trying to write this scene where the character is trembling but it's unrealistically. "My heart was pounding beneath my chest.
I'm trying to write this scene where the character is trembling but it's unrealistically.
"My heart was pounding beneath my chest. I trembled and felt terrible pain as if someone had hit me in the stomach."
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: Is it a big no-no to have different sections in each chapter? For non fiction writing, is it a must to structure all chapters in the same way? For example, a book has a few chapters, with
For non fiction writing, is it a must to structure all chapters in the same way?
For example, a book has a few chapters, with each chapter having a few sections that name the topic that's being addressed in that section. For larger chapters there is a "Conclusions" or "Final thoughts" section to remind the reader some important points from that chapter. But for smaller chapters there is no "Conclusions" or "Final thoughts" section.
Is this bad? Do I need "Conclusions" or "Final thoughts" sections for all of the chapters, or for none at all, to keep the same consistency? Is there some other way to separate these extra sections from the other sections of the chapters while keeping some consistency with the rest of the chapters?
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: Re: Which term is more appropriate and mainstream in fiction: made up proper nouns or invented proper nouns? I am working with a beginner writer to help typeset their book for self-publishing. They
I don't think either is "more appropriate" in every situation.
"Invented" is somewhat formal. It suggests to me that the author is thinking about the story world. In contrast, "made up" sounds to me as if the author is playing there.
Tolkien invented the languages spoken in Middle Earth. Lewis Carroll made up the words for Jabberwocky.
Which your friend wants depends on how each fits the tone of the rest of the book.
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: 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
I want to be able to correctly categorise and identify different characters in a story, predominantly fiction. I have read a lot about different types of characters--flat, round, static, dynamic, protagonists, antagonists, hero, and so on--but I find it all so overwhelming.
Can there be more than one main character? can their be a protagonist and other main characters that the story focuses on? For example: Lisa is the protagonist, the story begins with her and will eventually end with her. But then we introduce two new characters who will largely impact her life, and they become the focus as well, we also see their growth in the story. Would those two new characters be considered the main characters as well?
And then we have all the other characters that don't play large roles in the story, but they are also important as well. For example, close friends, siblings, parents.
How do you categorise so many different characters?
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: Re: RNG 109 Watermark I've been reading up a bunch of Screenplays from movies that I liked and came across a couple of them with a curious watermark on them, saying "RNG-109". I noticed this on
Your samples are watermarks originally added to printed and (more recently) electronically distributed scripts.
The code is designed to identify who received that particular copy of the script. Their use as a security feature is grossly overrated in the industry.
It is normally added by the production office or the script coordinator.
It is a feature of Final Draft, WriterDuet, Highland 2, Fade In (and other screenwriting) software. It can also be added by Studio Binder, Scenechronize and other production management software.
Most implementations of the watermark are now trivially easy to remove on pdf files. But they were difficult to defeat back in the days of printed scripts that were then scanned.
The watermark also incidentally allows production staff to return pages (or sides) found lying around on-set to their owner if the watermark is the Actor's name.
The watermark is never used for revision control. The title page and page header is used to identify revised pages of the script.
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: Can we use a title that alludes the opposite of what we're arguing for? Let's say you decide to claim that time is absolute and not relative as Einstein said. Can you still use a title like
Let's say you decide to claim that time is absolute and not relative as Einstein said. Can you still use a title like "Einstein's time", "Relativity of time", "The geometry of time", "Time dilatation", etc? Why? I sometimes feel there's a gray area where it could be alright, but it's hard for me to identify them, but for a seasoned writer it could be a lot easier. What do you think?
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: What genre would a fictional eyewitness account of a real historical event fall under? I've written a short story about a true historical incident which involves a very famous person in history.
I've written a short story about a true historical incident which involves a very famous person in history. The incident is true as are the people involved in it. But the story is a fictional eyewitness narrative of that incident from a person who was not mentioned in it, but could have been one of the principal witnesses.
What genre does this story fall under?
It can't be Alternate History because the narrative mentions an incident which actually happened.
Could it be Historical? Could be termed as Biographical?
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: Re: How can I make "acts of patience" exciting? This answer to the question Averting Real Women Don’t Wear Dresses introduces a distinction between acts of patience and acts of daring. [...] when
@Amadeus describes an "act of patience" as "not doing". I would argue that an "act of patience" can also be about keeping on doing, day after day, something that is very hard to do - it is about perseverance.
As an example, take The Wild Swans, or any work derived from that fairy tale. The main character must knit shirts of stinging nettle for her bewitched brothers to save them from a spell, and she must maintain silence the whole time. Tension is derived both from the pain she experiences working the stinging nettle, and from it becoming increasingly harder for her to keep her silence - much that is dear to her is threatened, even unto her life itself, and she must balance that against the success of her quest. There's a strong possibility of failure - the necessary element @Amadeus speaks about.
In The Lord of the Rings, Sam is characterised by following and supporting, not by "daring". He observes while Frodo acts. Yet as the story progresses, more and more we're in his head rather than in Frodo's, raising arguments regarding which one of them is the main character. The role of the loyal friend is an "act of patience" - the failure we care about is not his own, but the failure of the character he supports. This is similar not to the fan at home supporting his team, but rather to the coach.
(Note that Frodo too is characterised more by perseverance than by daring. Day after day he makes the same choice - to go on. But for him accepting the quest at least was an act of daring. He is similar to the Wild Swans example. For Sam there isn't even that. Contrast them with Merry and Pippin who leap into battle.)
The Pianist is a film in which the main character "acts" very little - instead he endures - an "act of patience". Here tension is derived from what he must endure, and the question of whether he will survive. I would also put All Quiet on the Western Front in the same category. Such tales aren't really about the individual, but about the group this individual represents - it is acting rather than being acted upon that makes an individual stand out. But the story doesn't become less interesting for that. There is sufficient action and tension forced by the environment.
In all those varied cases, the character will continue doing as they were doing. Hence "patience". Tension, hardship, possibility of failure, must therefore be derived from the resistance increasing. If the character started out walking on solid ground, he'll find himself plodding through mud, snow, quicksand, a brick wall.
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: Re: How to write from a cat's perspective? I want to write a short story from the perspective of a cat who wants to kill a bird that extremely annoys her. Just like Tom is trying every time
I think I might be rephrasing what @MarkBaker says, but perhaps stating it differently would be helpful, especially since he seems to have attracted some antagonism.
You're telling a story. What is your story about? No, it's not about "a cat chasing a bird". What's it about at its core? Is it about hunter and prey? Is it about the futility of chasing an unattainable goal? What idea(s) do you want to express or explore?
What your story is about defines how you tell it. When Seton Thompson wrote The Pacing Mustang, for example, he wrote a story about freedom. He recognised that freedom and an indomitable spirit in the mustang, and then he focused on it and exaggerated it. A real horse might stop eating, but it won't commit suicide by jumping off a cliff. The story you want to tell is bound up with the character who tells it.
Once you know what your story is about, you know who your character is - what kind of "person" your cat is. (Or vice versa - if you know the "person", you know the story.) From there, you'd need to add decoration to convince us that this "person" is a cat: the smell of things, the sensation of pouncing - all the physical attributes of the experience of being a cat. The senses your character has are those of a cat, and its body is that of a cat. Study cats, so you can transmit that realistically. But its emotions, its thoughts, its experience of concepts like "love", "responsibility", "freedom" etc. - those are human. They are merely wrapped up in a cat's body, presumably for the purpose of making some attribute sharper than it would have been otherwise.
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