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: Re: Email Signature of a Complicated Name My name is complicated, which is similar to the following name that I make up. Full name: Man Ka Au Yeung First name: Man Ka Middle name: Last name: Au
We already knew that names were problematic but I agree yours will be a source of confusion.
I wouldn't know where to separate the names, if you write name(s) first or the surname(s). Not even the adequate pronoun.
Stating the fields so explicitly is uncommon, but seems the most sound solution. I would probably try to make it blend more with the rest of the signature, by also naming other fields, like an id card.
Additionally, I would recommend to sign with the name you would like to be addressed. Some people disagrees on this, but it's a hint that can help convey ho you want to be addressed. So, you could end the email as Sincerely, Man Ka if you wanted to be addressed as Dear Man Ka. Sincerely, Mr Au Yeung is not something I have seen, although it's used with other prefixes such as Sincerely, Dr Au Yeung.
Using a non-breaking space between the parts, i.e. Man Ka Au Yeung may help for computers that automatically split on a space character, but is way too subtle for humans.
Sincerely,
Man Ka, case Specialist
--
Elm Trade Inc.
First name: Man Ka
Last name: Au Yeung
Telephone: +12 1234 5678
Fax: +12 1234 5678
Address: Street, Floor, Borough, City, Province
Postal code: 12345
Goal: serve the needs of our customers as if they were our own ones
Ultimately, it's your choice how to present a signature. If this is for a corporate email, the company may have some guidelines (or even hard rules) on what and how to set. Otherwise, it is up to you what and how to say, depending on what you want to convey (which is not just the text itself). Signatures range from long and extremely formal to signing with emoji, such as Senator . In some cases the goal could be a "dull" signature to be perceived as seriousness, whereas a startup could prefer to emphasize instead a lightly style more familiar, or use made-up titles. Some will include complex images in the signature that take ten times the space of the actual email body, others will go for simplicity and use a plaintext one. Listen to feedback you may get, of course, see how you see your own signature as you use it, and tweak as many times as needed, but there's not a "wrong" signature.¹
¹ When talking about the body itself. I'm not including there technical errors (such as malformed html), orthographic mistakes, or technology choices. Only the high-level definition on what to write.
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: Re: How to write natural-sounding dialogue? Writing dialogue for my novel has proved to be more of a challenge than I anticipated. It all seems clunky and unnatural. Any tips for writing natural
Natural sounding dialogue is a contradiction in terms. Well written dialog is more like the 'Best of Conversation' rather than like real people talking.
Tips for writing good dialog:
Reverse Engineering: read other writers you enjoy reading and try to see how they structured their dialog.
Eliminate the Negative: A common source of clunky dialog the writing trying to push exposition into the story through characters talking about stuff they'd already know about their backstory, or their common world, their situation, and so on. If you are doing this, then read through your dialog and scratch out every word that conveys information all characters in the conversation would already reasonably know about anything in their world. Interesting people don't tell other interesting people what they already know.
Minimization: People make idle chatter. "Hi. How are you? Fine. That's Great." Characters that do that are boring and dull. Have your characters only speak to move the story forward or create empathy for the reader or react to events (actions, dialog, movement, things happening in the environment). Ideally, every piece of dialog should do two or three things -- evoke interest or engagement with reader, communicate the character of the character, move story forward, etc. That's hard to do all the time, so at a minimum it should do at least one of those things.
Character's speak like they want to be heard: Just like vain people who speak in blustering praise of themselves or in humble brags, the characters reveal their nature or character in their lexicon. Each character should sound like a different person, unless they are raised and educated to the same level and blah blah. So dumb characters ought to sound dumb and highly educated characters should sound very well educated. Highly educated characters trying to communicate with dumb characters should sound like ... Well, I am sure you get it by now. One method to learn this is to use writing level tools to assess the grade level of your writing. Then try to raise and lower your writing.
Lastly, don't worry about dialog on your first pass of the story. Just get it on paper. Then re-read your work and think about the juiciest core of what your characters are trying to communicate in that bit of the story. Then distill it down to be the most effective and shortest dialog needed to communicate the character want, reaction and feelings in that moment of the story.
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: Re: How can I read 700 pages in a day? It's been two months and I haven't completed one book, and this OP has read 700 pages in one day. So how can I increase my reading habits? Compared to
I average around 100 average paperback pages an hour, so I could do 700 pages in 7 hours, which could strictly speaking count as one night. There are probably people that can read faster, but it will always take a few hours for a proper reading. If you don't have other things taking up your time, it's easy to read that many pages in one session. The linked OP mentions that he's young, which probably means he's going to school, which then means he can spend 6-8 hours a day doing whatever he likes, e.g. reading.
There is also speed reading, though for 700 pages it's not necessary and it often works by skipping parts, which is not something you'd do if you read for entertainment.
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: Re: This is a problem that doesn’t seem to have an answer My bad guy is very very very complicated. My entire story exists because for thousands of years (no one knows why) regular people from
What if getting her soul back is actually the way to SAVE her life?
So the elf leader said she would be killed by a warrior with a bone sword. So what? How many times was that guy right about anything since she's met him? 0?
Still... the thought that maybe this once what he said might not have been completely random garbage wouldn't leave her alone. So while killing every human she encountered - just to be safe - she spent quite some time hunting down survivors of his tribe to get information from them. Why did he say what he said? Did he know something she didn't?
And finally, she found out that it wasn't his own prophecy, but that he found... idk... maybe some ancient text that said something along the lines. But not exactly the way he said it. In fact, while she understood why he thought it was talking about her, that wasn't necessarily the truth. It was talking about the soulless huntress. Which clearly sounded like her, but if she managed to get her soul back that would not be her anymore. So all she had to do was get her soul back before the warrior with the bone blade appeared - forcing her to continue killing all humans on sight while searching for her soul.
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: Re: As an author, can I afford to get emotionally attached to my work? It's said that to be a good writer you ought to "Write what you feel and feel what you write." While this sounds
Write what you love and love what you write.
I wrote a scene that provided deep backstory on my MC - it was the moment he was orphaned. I connected with his parents, though they barely are mentioned and the man who killed them - fell asleep driving his rig and woke up driving through a sedan. I wept for that driver who knew he’d killed at least two people and his life was never the same.
I once heard it said when writing a tragic scene, if the author is not saddened, does not cry, why should the reader? That makes sense to me. If the writer feels deeply while writing, emotion becomes infused in the work.
Love your writing, but see it clearly.
If you do not write with passion, your writing will not connect to an audience. No one will read past the first page if you lack passion. It falls flat and the reader knows and puts it down.
Love your characters but know them well.
You do not want writing to be a chore - that 5k words a day that no one wants to read, including the author. The more fun you have writing, the more that will translate to the reader and your work will not be dull.
Draw that line firmly and clearly on the side of passion and interest.
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: Re: Should I write his/her or their? I am new in this site and I hope to convey my question in a correct manner. Any employee is also entitled to receive a reference letter. This document must
Use what feels right for the character.
I am old school SWE (Standard Written English) and was taught to respect number and case, so consider they/them plural pronouns.
What matters is what is right for the work. Let’s assume for a second that your character is female and she just wants to hide it for reasons of her own. Perhaps she needs a job that is for men only (no, I’m not missing the point) so chooses to hide gender.
How would she think of herself? What is her internal dialogue? Does she think of herself as a themselves? If so, run with it. Be true to the character and it will work. Be false to the character and it will ring false and fall flat.
My current work uses the F word a lot, as a verb, adjective, exclamation, gerund and I don’t swear. My characters do swear, as it suits their world and their situation. I am being true to them.
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: Re: Modifying common fantasy species like elves, dwarves, etc.? So I'm writing a science fiction story, with more fantasy that actual science. When I say "sci-fi" I really mean space opera.
[Warning: This answer contains links to TVTropes; you may find you lose several hours browsing after clicking them!]
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet
The names you use should communicate something to your readers.
Do you want to emphasise the similarities to elves, dwarves, etc from other stories? Then just use those words. Bear in mind that readers will not be put out if these aren't carbon copies of Tolkien's races, because providing a new take on existing races is a well-established trope in its own right (TVTropes calls it "Our Monsters Are Different"), and can be very successful (consider the vampires in Twilight vs the vampires in Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
Do you want to emphasise the differences and avoid comparison with elves, even if you've used them as inspiration? Then use a completely new word, but beware of "Calling a rabbit a smeerp" - i.e. make sure they really are different, not just re-badged.
Do you want to make the name feel realistic in-universe? That might be an excuse to rename them, if "alfven" is the correct Elvish word for "elf" - but bear in mind that most of your book is in English, so you need to decide when to use these in-universe names. For instance, you might call them elves in narration, but sprinkle words of their own language into their speech:
In the council hall of the elves, the messenger stood up to speak:
"The news I bring should be of concern to all alfven ..."
Meanwhile, a dwarf might talk about "the elves", implying that they are using the Dwarvish colloquial word, translated to English for the reader's benefit.
Or you might decide that the "real" names are kept only for in-universe texts, like excerpts from imaginary reference works between chapters, which used sparingly can be a way to bring colour and background information.
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: Re: When editing, should I use track changes? I want to keep a file for each of my editing stages throughout my self-editing process. Should I use track changes when I am editing so that I can
Note that you can compare to versions of a document, one a "descendant" of the other to view its differences. "Track changes" feature may makes this easier for you, though. You can have the changes hidden when you are simply editing.
As for a better option, I would probably use a source control version system (svn, git…). They are really good at keeping track of what changes. These are normally used for computer programs source code but they will work with any type of files. If the file format is not text-based (such as writing the document in LaTeX), you will miss some features (e.g. you will be opening an external program for each comparison, you won't be able to easily view when was a change made...) as it will be versioning an opaque file an opaque file, but the basic features of saving multiple versions, that you can then compare between will be there.
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: Should I write a foreign character's dialogue in their language? When it comes down to story writing, it's always nice to have variety in characters. Such as a character who speaks Spanish more
When it comes down to story writing, it's always nice to have variety in characters. Such as a character who speaks Spanish more than English or is bilingual with both languages. But say if the character or their parents hardly speak any English.
Here's an example:
Would it be appropriate to write it as:
"He said tomato is a fruit. Not a vegetable, mom." The character translates to his mother in Spanish for her to understand a lot clearer.
Or:
"Dijo que el tomate es una fruta. No es un vegetal, mamá." The character explains to his mother in Spanish.
I feel like the first one would work better since it's not guaranteed every reader would know how to pronounce the dialogue in a different language from their native tongue. But at the same time, I feel like writing it in a different language adds a clearer perspective rather than simply saying: "the character expalained in [insert language]".
I have a character who speaks predominately Arabic and I've incorporated the dialogue of what the character is saying to his parents in Arabic while in parenthesis the translation. I suppose the reader could ignore the dialogue and skip to the translation.
But thoughts? Which would you recommend? Writing the dialogue in the native language or saying that the character spoke in the native language?
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: Children's books are published all the time Publishers were all children once, and have memories of what they liked. Furthermore, they can find children and learn what current children like from
Children's books are published all the time
Publishers were all children once, and have memories of what they liked. Furthermore, they can find children and learn what current children like from an adult perspective. Your book will be no different from the many others published for children.
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: Is there a way I can print a book only for myself? As selfish as this sounds, I’m really interested in having my own book printed physically for myself. I don’t intend to sell it or
As selfish as this sounds, I’m really interested in having my own book printed physically for myself. I don’t intend to sell it or distribute it, and I’m primarily interested in having my book that I’ve been writing printed.
I’ve started off with writing my stories on Wattpad, and while they do have ways to get your book published, it’s kind of a long shot for me. Especially since it’s a fanfiction, is there a way I could get my online fanfiction printed?
I know it is possible to get a fanfiction published, but for me, I do not plan to distribute or sell the book, and I just want it printed solely for me. That’s all. Is there a way I could do this?
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: How to research and create an authentic setting for a story set in a foreign country? As a writer, for authenticity and to avoid distracting errors, I need to portray my story setting correctly.
As a writer, for authenticity and to avoid distracting errors, I need to portray my story setting correctly. For example, I live in the UK and need to know whether guests can tay overnight at hospitals in the USA:
Character A is in a serious accident and is rushed to the hospital while unconscious. His significant other (Character B) is contacted and told he is in hospital.
Would character B be allowed to stay in the hospital overnight with the unconscious character A once he is stable? Sorry, this is so specific, but google was very vague and only supplied answers for planned overnight visits or specific locations instead of in general.
What is the best way to gather this information and create an authentic setting?
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: Is it really necessary for a novelist to follow phrase structure rules radically? I have read many novels and found that the writers do not follow basic phrase structure rules while constructing
I have read many novels and found that the writers do not follow basic phrase structure rules while constructing a sentence. For example, they may write a sentence with only one word like "Fear" And sometimes, they may come up with a compound sentence made up of imperative and interrogative.
Is this allowed, or should writers follow accepted grammar rules?
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: Re: At what point in my story should I get beta readers? I'm writing a book right now. I want to get beta readers for it, but at what point in the story should I get beta readers? Should I
This answer may fall somewhat into sophistry...
The term "Beta Reader" comes from Software Development, where you have "beta testers". This, in turn, comes from the terminology used by IBM to describe their release life cycle:
Pre-Alpha : Work in progress, before first full build.
Alpha : First viable product build. This may not contain all final features, and may contain features which will be cut.
Beta : First feature complete build. While (in theory) the software is fully usable, it may contain significant bugs / issues to fix
Silver (a.k.a. "Release Candidate") : Known issues have been fixed or mitigated and, unless new major issues are discovered, can be released without embarrassing the creators. This is often considered to be a special type of Beta.
Gold (a.k.a. "Production Release") : The final Release Candidate, which has passed all testing and verification. This is a 'promoted' Silver, and is what goes out to customers.
Strictly speaking, a "Beta Reader" should then not be before the second full-draft. You can also have "Alpha Readers" (who examine the story from the perspective of a reader before it is complete, to identify where things will need to be added or removed) and, most commonly in Professional Publishing, "Critique Partners" (other writers who examine the story from the perspective of an author) and "Proofreaders" (who examine only the spelling and grammar, but to not comment on the content)
Many people will refer to Alpha Readers (and sometime Critique Partners or Proofreaders) as Beta Readers, but it is often useful to (for reasons that Mary mentions in comments) keep your Alpha Readers and Beta Readers separate. This way, you can get a fresh perspective from someone who isn't remembering, anticipating, or looking for old plot points / plot holes that have since been removed, and won't be thrown off stride as much by new ones you have introduced. (Think of all the people complaining "but they changed this and that" when a book is adapted for TV or Cinema, versus the people who never read the book!)
As such - and, this is my subjective opinion, so feel free to disagree:
Alpha Readers: Once the first draft is finished. These are to help you find gaping plot holes that need fixing, or boring / irrelevant parts of the story that changing or removing.
Beta Readers: Once the Alpha Readers can no longer find large flaws or holes in your plot, and you no longer need to add / remove subplots, story arcs or characters. Try to make these different people from the Alpha Readers.
Critique Partners: As early as you think you won't be too embarrassed. Because they are looking at your work as another author, they will probably be more sensitive to things like trope-usage or writing style than an average reader. You can try joining a writers circle / writing club to get this advice, and to help provide it to others. They can sometimes help to shape and direct the plot, before the first draft is complete.
Proofreaders: Frequently. Very frequently. Definitely after every draft, but possibly within drafts too - you can get software to do a cursory examination between chapters, but they often miss edge-cases or obscure / unusual situations. Ideally, the Alpha and Beta readers don't get to see anything until it has been proofread.
Note that "Critique Partners" and "Proofreaders" are often available as trained professionals for hire. Alpha and Beta Readers typically are not, because you're looking for the reactions of a normal reader or fan.
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: Re: How do you prevent a character from being a creator's pet? I have a character that I really like. They were originally intended to be the main villain for a particular story arc and then
You have 2 "issues" here, if you want to continue on your original story. First, the issue that you have identified: making this character not take over. Second, the (bigger) issue you've only briefly alluded to:
The interesting traits only show up in the "What-If?"
This tells us that the character's "interesting backstory, personality, and worldview" are all in the author's notes, and not in the story. You need to weave them in, either through flashbacks, or breaks in their "what-have-I-done"-induced depression and PTSD: the moments where they manage to forget all the evil they need to atone for, and be themselves again. These can be happy distractions, raising their spirits, or situations where they are too busy to wallow: disasters and emergencies. Either way, their redemption/recovery arc isn't truly over until they can come to terms with what they did, and return to some semblance of their true personality.
Going back to your first issue, not wanting them to overshadow your protagonist: you've picked some interesting characters for comparison there. Now, here's a couple of counter-examples: Piccolo Jr and Prince Vegeta, from Dragon Ball. Both have more interesting backstories, personalities and worldviews than the protagonists. Both are (to differing extents) reformed villains. But, neither "take over" the story.
This is, in part, because we only see aspects of their life, and (for the most part) only as it relates to the protagonist. We rarely see what other hobbies and interests they have outside of their rivalry with Goku. We don't see Vegeta romancing Bulma between world-ending threats. We don't see Piccolo, well, doing anything on his own behalf, except train himself, train Gohan, and meditate in the wilderness (usually for info-dump purposes). When they are on-screen, it is to help tell the Protagonists' story, not their own.
As for your "beating up the outsider" problem: try refactoring it so that violence isn't the heroes' first resort: they are forced into it to make the villain stop, listen and realise. Not a fight to kill or injure, but a fight to restrain or stop them from carrying out an action (overly simplified, "keep them away from the big red button")
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: Re: My writing is stiff at the start, I think I need an attitude adjustment My story is raring to be put on paper. But the first paragraph, indeed the first chapter, is stiff as a board. Way
Start two chapters early
If it takes you a couple of chapters to get into the flow of writing, then start writing two or three chapters before where you plan on opening your story. These chapters aren't ever going to be seen by the readers - they're purely for your own writerly benefit. After you've finished your story then go back and cut the chapters in editing. If there's anything worth salvaging, you can slide it into other chapters as needed.
From a larger philosophical perspective - you should not be concerned about quality in a first draft. The majority of the words in a first draft will never be read by anyone but yourself. For some writers, none of the words in their first drafts ever see the light of day. The first draft is for the writer and the writer alone, to be a framework that later and better drafts can be built off of.
Generally speaking, constantly rewriting the first chapter is unlikely to help, because you aren't gaining anything between rewrites. You don't know anything more about your story after rewrite 3 than you did after rewrite 2. So write other things. Write a chapter about what your protagonist did on the Wednesday before the story starts. Write a scene that sets up the inciting incident. Write three pages of your protagonist singing to themself in the shower.
None of these things are things you would actually want to put in your story. But the act of creating them will help expand the amount of information that you personally have about the story and characters, and will help you when you go back and revisit that first chapter.
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: Re: How can I show time passing with no way to measure time? In the writing, I was doing recently, a character is locked up in a wagon and dragged across the country by rich slavers. How could
What sort of time period are we looking at? Hours? Days? Weeks? Months?
Over a period of hours, it's going to be things like the angle of shadows (how high in the sky the sun is), the temperature, et cetera.
At days, it comes down to water breaks: a dead slave is worth no money, so they need to be given something to drink occasionally. Are the drugged slaves roused from their stupor just enough to manage this without drowning?
Once you reach weeks, you start to notice things like beards growing, or weight loss from not being fed properly. Add food to the water breaks - probably a gruel of some sort, not particularly nice or nutritious, but still an indication that time has passed.
Consider also the Slavers themselves - the guards in the caravan will rotate through a shift schedule, they will (presumably) change clothes every so often. And, finally, geography - different sounds and smells may indicate to the character that they must be at least such and such a distance from where they started. Brine for sea ports, certain types of flowers or animals, the quality of the road or track that they are travelling on, the accents of people talking outside the caravan.
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: Re: Alternative for "first" at the beginning of a sentence I am writing a paper in the mathematics field, and I found out that very often (too often) I begin sentences and paragraphs with the
On the one hand, this will depend on which usage of "first" you are employing. On the other hand, you have provided us with an example sentence.
Initially, you could say "to start with", or "to begin". Working from the assumption that you are listing steps in a process or algorithm, you can commence by deciding if it is even necessary to use full paragraphs:
1) Determine if bullet points or an enumerated list makes the point clearer
2) Consider the possibility of lines of pseudo-code or a flowchart
3) For each sub-task in isolation, GoTo 1
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: Re: How to "show" a "Yes" head confirmation How can I "show" that my character is saying "yes" as a respond from a question? The only thing that comes to my mind is Mike moves his head,
The word you are looking for is "nod".
Mike nods his head, confirming that he was okay.
"Shakes" his head would be used for negation.
It's usually a good idea to include context that reinforces the message the character is sending ("confirming that he is okay" in this case), for readers who are unfamiliar with the gestures. I'm also not entirely sure how universal the gestures are - research should be done before including the gesture in your story.
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: Book on sentence structure/variety Is there a good book on sentence structure and variety? My goal is to improve the way my sentences flow on the page and to improve the reader experience.
Is there a good book on sentence structure and variety?
My goal is to improve the way my sentences flow on the page and to improve the reader experience.
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: Re: Searching for a word about a particular feeling I'm trying to find a very specific word for a very specific feeling, and have had zero luck other places on the Internet with finding even a
I think your story will be more profound if you describe this feeling in more words. Like you wrote , it might help the readers empathize more . If you write “ she/he was excited “ or something in one word it isn’t quite just as profound . Idk if it makes sense
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: Writing an abusive scene My character is getting physically abused by her father . I tried writing fight scenes and violent scenes before but they always seemed .. very weird . Can you give
My character is getting physically abused by her father . I tried writing fight scenes and violent scenes before but they always seemed .. very weird . Can you give me some advice on writing an scenes that include violence ? Any small tip is very appreciated !
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: Re: When someone sees something frightening, how can I make it obvious without sounding cliche? I write a lot of horror, and I notice that my characters use "Oh my God!" when they're frightened
Try writing their thoughts of the moment, and how their body reacts (ex: heart beating fast). Also keep in mind that there are 3 ways a character can react to a scary event. Everyone's different so it depends on the personality you gave them. 1. The runner; 2. The fighter; 3. Frozen in spot.
For example the thoughts of a runner might be “I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die!! I need to hide! Omg omg it’s right behind me."
A fighter might sound like “Hah! You don’t scare me! Do you think that bloody knife can stop me from taking you down?â€
And the frozen in spot is panicking in their mind because they can’t move their body.
Like I said above, it depends on their personality. Also your story will sound even scarier if you add more description and less dialogue. "Oh my god!†isn’t enough. Hope this helped a bit.
Good luck with your story! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
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: I need my character to be honest What I am writing is a love story. The problem is: I am trying to make my female character tell the truth to her love interest--the truth about herself.
What I am writing is a love story. The problem is: I am trying to make my female character tell the truth to her love interest--the truth about herself.
What’s stopping her from telling him is that when she told the truth to her ex, he ended up killed. So she is afraid the love interest will see the same end.
How can I make her tell him? Any advice on forbidden love?
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: Re: Rules of Misdirection in Stories I am wondering if there are any rules for misdirection like how would you tell if a misdirection was done right or wrong in a story? Are there do's and don'ts
Robert Heinlein said ‘the best way to lie is to tell the truth so no one believes you.‘
I think this applies to foreshadowing in storytelling. If you can foreshadow what is going to happen in your story, but the form and structure ensures that it will be taken out of context and misconstrued, then you have a wonderful misdirection that will hold up at the end of the story.
As far as rules of misdirection,
Only unreliable narrators can lie so by contrast your reliable narrator can never deliberately mislead the reader. They can be wrong and make mistakes, but that means the narrators discovery of their error needs to coincide with the discovery of the truth. I think this is difficult to do with out it feeling like a cheat.
You can as much misdirection in your story as you want as long as it doesn’t interfere with telling the story.
The best misdirects are the small aside events in a story that be confused with revealing character or establishing setting and scene.
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: Re: How can I keep secret a major detail known to the POV protagonist? How do you write a story where the point-of-view character knows something, but you want to keep it a secret from the reader
There are many ways to do this. The POV character can just not mention something. The problem is the reader will feel cheated. I am going to focus my answer on how not to make this feel like a cheat.
Make the story editorialized. Make it clear from the beginning that the story is being told in some sort of scope, like a confession, a novel,an interview, or just a campfire story. Give the POV character a reason to lie or at least create suspense for the audience. Make this clear.
You can even establish the narrator as unreliable early on. Make him trip up in his own lie over something unimportant. Maybe he is vain and does not want to look bad to the audience. Let us understand why he would lie, or omit things. Then when the big plot twist comes in we won't feel cheated. We knew we should have always been weary of the narration.
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: Re: What do I do with this short story? I wrote a really, really, good short story recently, with an amazing main character. I want to use her again, but it doesn't feel right to put a character
Many short stories have been turned into novels
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes was a short story that was then adapted into a full novel. M. R. Carey turned Iphigenia In Aulis into The Girl with All the Gifts. Dragonflight, the first book of Anne McCaffery's Dragonriders of Pern began life as two novellas, Weyr Search and Dragonrider.
In all of these cases and more, the longer novel stands adjacent to the original stories. The story told in the short story is repeated in the novels, although sometimes with details changed to better fit the longer form story being told.
A second form of adaptation can be seen in Seanan McGuire's novella Rolling in the Deep, which was followed by the novel Into the Drowning Deep, and Mary Robinette Kowal's The Lady Astronaut of Mars, which served as foundation for The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky. This sounds a bit more like what you're interested in. The original story is part of the canon of the world, and the novels are additional stories in that world. Kowal's series even features the same character!
And there are also many novels that began life as short story collections. Callahan's Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson was a series of short stories collected together, as was I, Robot by Issac Asimov, and Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire. Collecting stories together like this does leave a mark, though. It is usually fairly easy to tell when a story began life as a short story collection. (In particular it is educational to look at Sparrow Hill Road, which began as a short story collection, and its sequel The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, which did not). That is not necessarily a bad thing. Many people enjoy the episodic feel of a novel made of short stories, and some stories are best told in that manner. It's like writing a TV show instead of a movie. Both are excellent storytelling mediums, but they are also different storytelling mediums.
The path you choose is up to you. All paths are equally valid, but the considerations you need to make for each one are different.
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: How do I make a dialogue tag for a man speaking to someone behind himself Currently I have a very uncomfortable sentence: '#####' announced Graham behind himself, turning his head away as
Currently I have a very uncomfortable sentence:
'#####' announced Graham behind himself, turning his head away as he knelt towards the window.
I just don't know how to phrase this. He's addressing someone who's behind him, while looking in a certain direction through a window.
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: Can I put 2 quotes in one sentence in my essay? In my essay I want to use 2 quotes that are both on the same page but are 4 lines apart. I didn't think I should use ellipsis b/c the
In my essay I want to use 2 quotes that are both on the same page but are 4 lines apart. I didn't think I should use ellipsis b/c the passages I want to quote are quite far apart.
What I want to write is:
Oedipus tells them, “Your pain strikes each of you alone, each in the confines of himself, no other. But my spirit grieves for the city, for myself and all of you†(162), and then says, “I sent Creon . . . to learn what I might do or say to save our city†(162).
Is this the correct?
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: Re: Listing of a Foundation by name in a ficitious novel We are interested in naming a Foundation by name in a fictious novel. The novel does not state any official positions the Foundation has
As a general rule, it's fine to use real organizations as part of a fictional story. Your characters can eat at Burger King, volunteer with Doctors without Borders, or listen to NPR without any issues. Doing so can help ground a story in reality, and fill in readers expectations without having to add superfluous exposition.
That said, you should pay attention to how you are portraying these organizations. Organizations tend to be very image conscious (for good reason), and negative portrayals are more likely to get a reaction than positive or neutral ones.
In other words, it's fine for your characters to eat at Burger King, or to be saved by heroic Burger King employees, but if you're planning to reveal that a fast food joint is run by demon-worshiping death cultists, maybe call that restaurant "Sandwich Prince" instead.
Also, be especially cautious around entertainment companies that have their own intellectual property to protect. They're far more likely to be picky about their properties' appearances in your story than your average organization.
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