Questions tagged [style]
This tag should be used for questions that deal with a consistent style in your writing, such as when asking about typical ways to introduce a certain aspect to your reader by showing-telling or if you are concerned that your readers might feel that a change in the point of view might be perceived as inconcsistency.
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Vague vs Specific: When to provide motivation details for action in a story?
I'm reading Wired for Story, by Lisa Cron, where she writes the following about being vague or omitting information that the reader does not know:
...being vague is never a good idea...
...Like most ...
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2
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Can a third-person narrator ask questions instead of the characters?
In novels, when the PoV follows a particular character, is pretty common that we get to hear his/her thoughts. Sometimes, those thoughts take the form of questions that the character ask himself:
...
10
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2
answers
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Delivering sarcasm
Most of us who have spent more than a few days reading things and interacting with people on the internet know how difficult it is to convey sarcasm. There is no tone there is only the words on our ...
5
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1
answer
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Turning away from the 3-act structure - what guides my pacing now?
Not all stories follow a 3-act structure. As an example, Les Misérables is rather episodic in its nature: first there's the story of Bishop Myriel and how he meets Jean Valjean, then there's Fantine's ...
5
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1
answer
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en dash with space for non-integer?
I have a simple question. What's the correct writing style?
1.1–8.4%
or
1.1 – 8.4%
Without space around an en dash looks much better for my eyes. But I read somewhere that if it is a decimal number (...
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0
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Acceptable and unacceptable number shifts in writing [closed]
Many writing handbooks say unnecessary number shifts should be avoided. But are all number shifts bad?
What about the following?
Glass harps haven’t entirely disappeared, though. You can still find ...
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6
answers
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Should a narrator ever describe things based on a character's view instead of facts?
There is something I find myself doing often while writing, and I don't even know what to call it, but I would like to know if its good practice. It happens when I'm writing from a third-person ...
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9
answers
482
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How can I make a non-linear timeline less confusing?
My story is broken into 8 sections. Sections 1 and 2 take place simultaneously, in two different worlds. The other 6 continue in a linear fashion (switching back & forth between the two worlds as ...
26
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2
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How to make readers know that my work has used a hidden constraint?
According to this wikipedia article, Constrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern. The same link also ...
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10
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My story is written in English, but is set in my home country. What language should I use for the dialogue?
I'm an amateur writer from the Philippines. I am writing a novelette for an international writing contest. My story is written in English, but is set here, in my country, with my POV character being ...
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4
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'Ellipsis' - what do they convey and how to use them aptly in a Novel?
In the writing practises guides, it is usually mentioned that use of ellipsis is a bad practice.
But I have come across certain usages in professional writing.
To give an example;
In the novel Eat ...
12
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6
answers
4k
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Are paired adjectives bad style?
I have the habit of using paired adjectives in my writing:
The noise from the engine lulled her with its slow and monotonous rythim ...
... the lights on the ceiling filled the room in a soft ...
7
votes
2
answers
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How do we edit a novel that's written by several people?
Two other friends and I have been writing a fan fiction and we basically write a chapter each one after another every week. Now that we're nearing the end of the project, we've noticed that the ...
2
votes
1
answer
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Writing effectively under very brief constraints
I recently noticed a trend to a few of my questions. I am attracted to writing in places with extreme brevity. This makes sense to me on a personal level. I've always been attracted to one-liners and ...
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2
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481
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What is the best way to simulate grief?
I am new to the art of writing and have been wondering if there is a way to introduce the grief of loss(character dies) in my story, inturn while making the reader feel the grief. Is there a good ...
3
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3
answers
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Always sounding idiomatic as a non-native English speaker
A lot of people use Google's n-gram to see if something is idiomatic, but for a lot of non-native English speakers even that doesn't really help, so what would you suggest non-native speakers to do so ...
0
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3
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134
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How do I introduce this character?
I am writing a story these days and I want to introduce a character who is similar to a king. This character is introduced with heavy announcements by his minions who scream out words of admiration ...
12
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4
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Is using an 'empty' metaphor considered bad style?
I just had this sentence off my head:
A crown of fire spread through the country consuming everything on its
way.
What I mean by empty metaphor is a metaphor that doesn't really have any meaning ...
7
votes
1
answer
149
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The English language, if England had a dictatorship
European dictatorships left a profound cultural footprint in the local culture, to the point that a certain vocabulary, a certain manner of writing, and even a certain manner of speaking is evocative ...
10
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4
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How to know you are over-explaining and oversimplifying a subject?
Recently, I started writing articles about different subjects I learn on my own (programming, logic ...etc).
While writing, I have this tendency to overexplain, I know that readers are smart, but I ...
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10
answers
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Is it possible to narrate a novel in a faux-historical style without alienating the reader?
One thing that often annoys me in historical fiction or fantasy books is the dissonance between the writing style and the events and historical period described in the book. The writing is usually ...
5
votes
4
answers
978
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How to expand on scenes?
I guess you can call this a writing style, but whenever I do creative writing I write very concise. Which can be good as I don’t want scenes to drag on, but most of the time I feel I wrap up my scenes ...
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5
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What are the words that were used during Shakespeare's time that are seldom used nowadays?
I would like to write a Shakespearean poem that reads and sounds like a poem written during that time period. However, I don't know where I can find an exhaustive list of words that were used during ...
3
votes
1
answer
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When should you use extra long sentences, never?
I often see world-renowned thinkers and writers, such as Nietszche and Herman Melville, write extremely long sentences. When I was in high school, people said sentences should be as short as possible, ...
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2
answers
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Writing a Story From The End
There is a writing technique where a writer would imagine in her mind's eye where her story should end and will write it 'backwards'. Writing the end and then writing the chapters leading to end, so ...
3
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2
answers
861
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Does the 'writing-style' change when book gets translated into another language?
I am studying the writing style of Leo Tolstoy by reading an English translation of Anna Karenina.
As a general rule, do translations affect the original style? In what ways?
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16
answers
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Do hard to pronounce names break immersion?
I have a character in my book named Jiolluav (with the correct accent, Zholl-you-of or /ʒōl-'yoo-äv/), and I've written my entire "novel" (it's a work in progress) using this name. When I asked a ...
6
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2
answers
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Historical Present in English?
As a historian, I at times get my fingers on Latin texts. Latin has a rather peculiar use of past and present tenses:
Usually, texts are written in Imperfect, which is the 'simple past', with things ...
8
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4
answers
637
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Tips and tricks to describe more
I'm careful with the phrasing of this question as it is dangerously close to be opinion based. Everyone has their preference regarding the amount of description they expect to find in a work of ...
2
votes
2
answers
114
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Advice on how to beat word repetition in dialogue [duplicate]
Long story short: I default to simple words like "Said" in dialogue much too often. I'm hesitant to abuse the thesaurus due to advice I've been given, as well.
Slightly longer version: When I'm ...
2
votes
4
answers
574
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Replacing adverbs
I understand the reasons so many people have dislike for adverbs in writing, but I'm struggling with how to find a real balance.
For example, these adverbs can die:
"He ran quickly" is easily ...
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3
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Is this an oxymoron, and what would be the purpose of making seemingly illogical statements in writing? [closed]
Here's a piece of writing I came up with:
The rolling billows rocked the mighty galleon
cradling it madly as if it were but a mere child.
There are many seeming contradictions: When we think "...
2
votes
4
answers
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of copying writing styles?
I come from a non-native English speaking country and, from my own analysis, I will say I have an intermediate level English fluency (IELTS score 7). Some of the articles on my blog were chosen by an ...
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2
answers
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Is sentence in English with long subject bad?
I heard from someone that in English, sentences with a long subject are considered confusing and hard to read. Is it true?
An example for such a sentence:
...(Some statements about how ...
0
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2
answers
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Is it redundant to use "billowing winds" and "petulant waves" in the same sentence? [closed]
"The ship sailed through the billowing winds and the petulant waves."
Is it redundant? Because, if I say billowing, the reader would probably think petulant waves is too redundant. What do you think?
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4
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Can my characters interact with my narrator? (and vice versa)
I know that this idea is not totally 'revolutionary' as this type of narration has been used in Breakfast of champions, for example. But, Unlike Vonnegut, I want the 'Narrator talks to the characters ...
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vote
2
answers
220
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Varying POV and tense
My novel is written in the third person. When changing POV between different scenes (or chapters), is it OK if the parts for different POV characters use different tenses: some - the past tense, and ...
2
votes
5
answers
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How do I make my book longer?
I have a writing tendency where I get straight to the point, especially when I already have an amazing storyline. The ending goes especially quick. I need to figure out how to move the story along, in ...
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votes
4
answers
238
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Is using too many different metres and rhyming schemes bad?
I have been working on a poem for some time now. It is divided into various "Parts" and it will be a long one when completed.
Due to the very nature of what I am writing, I just let my thoughts and ...
5
votes
3
answers
181
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How to write in a more conversational tone?
I come from an academic background. Writing has always been an easy thing to me, but almost all of my practice outside of poetry has been in academic writing.
I'll find myself writing in the way ...
5
votes
3
answers
547
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Different ways to emphasize
My previous question was "Are paragraph spacing used for emphasis?" and that got me thinking even deeper about emphasizing.
I'd like to emphasize to create tension and make the reader continue ...
6
votes
2
answers
245
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How to determine which details are important enough to be mentioned in a text-based roleplay?
I have recently joined a real-time chat-based roleplay group. Most of the people seem to be sticking to 100 to 250 words when it comes to making their posts, but sometimes I get overly descriptive and ...
2
votes
1
answer
105
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How to write a good application? [closed]
I recently wrote an application to get into a different program for high school. Now I feel like I could have done better with being more formal and get my message across that this program is suitable ...
5
votes
1
answer
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Where to put a description of software tools used in a thesis?
At the moment I'm writing my master-thesis in the area of information systems. Because I developed some code to demonstrate my approach, I also mention some software tools in my proof-of-concept ...
6
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2
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How to Write about Events the 1st-person Protagonist Hasn't Witnessed?
I’ve written a few stories now just at home, however I haven’t seemed to crack one thing. I always write in 1st person as I enjoy the intimacy between protagonist and reader, however what if I wanted ...
7
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6
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Writing a crying scene
Writing a crying scene makes me accidentally do repetitions like "the tears which were on her face broke down into a slithering stream..." and then putting the word tears again and again.
What ...
9
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9
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806
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Using big words without sounding like a thesaurus junkie
I have a problem; my natural writing style is very high-brow. It often utilizes complex, flowery language. Much of the time, however, I find that it gives the impression that I am but taking a simple ...
3
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2
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Writing last name of a person in an essay
I am writing a research paper where it talks a great deal about a particular individual. I have already introduced the full name in the essay, should I address him by his last name after there on ...
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4
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472
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Any recommendations on books to assist with prose/style?
I’m currently in my third edit of my novel and focusing on particular scenes.
One particular scene I am happy with the beats and the structure, but I am struggling to capture the tension and the ...
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2
answers
275
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How to stylize notes/book-passages being read inside my story?
In course of joining a friend of mine during her NaNoWriMo escapades, I tried myself at actually writing a story set in a world I'm building.
I've found there are certain rules when writing a novel. ...