Questions tagged [technique]
Common, repeatable methods of achieving particular storytelling effects or of avoiding narrative pitfalls.
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Would an equals sign as secondary language exact quotes be misinterpreted in literary fiction?
I have chosen to show an accented English that is only comprehensible to speakers of the secondary language.
The topic of translated sign language has been beat up and I accept that there is no ...
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Can supporting characters remain effective during long periods off screen?
My protagonist develops relationships early and gets kidnapped
In my literary fiction story spanning about a decade, new relationships develop, they join with the street gang. Old relationships fade. ...
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1
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Is the saving sidekick ever used outside of comedy?
I am writing a literary fiction, so it's not bound to genre tropes. Just the same, it has one a sidekick who may also be a foil. I'm not writing comedy although I have elements of humor, which life ...
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How do I make and decide whether a story should be a sequel or prequel?
I have lots of inspirations that I can make into stories, but I face this one question a lot: Should it be a prequel or sequel? Here's the thing: I'm an amateur writer, but I do have lots of potential ...
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How do I describe a character tripping but regaining their balance?
In the story, my protagonist is walking in a part of town that is not taken care of. My character, at this point in time, is super tired and trips over a clump of grass growing from the sidewalk.
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How do I know if my cast contains too many characters?
I have one MC that will discover more about themselves, and in that, they will discover the different parts of themselves — their psychology and their hidden desires. The deeper the person, the more ...
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Avoiding tedium and trivialisation from repeated events
I'm writing a sci-fi novel set on Earth in the recent past. In the novel, an alien giant robot destroys numerous cities in North America.
The first such occurrence, New York City, receives a lot of ...
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How am I supposed to use bad luck as a disadvantage?
So when I was thinking of a character, I tried my best to not make them a Mary Sue. We all know Mary Sue is the number one horrible character. As such I came up with ideas of characters that I can ...
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MC has selective mutism; what to do with dialogue?
In a book I’m writing, the main character (a 15-year-old girl) has/struggles with selective mutism. I’ve quickly run into the problem where she is in a “mute situation” where she doesn’t talk. I’ve ...
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How to format quick flash cuts of photos in a screenplay?
I am writing a script where there are quick flash cuts, where the current present action is then 'captured' in a still photo which is representing a 'highlight' on an Instagram post/story shown for ...
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Capitalising after punctuation within speech?
I've notices that Emily Bronte does not always capitalise in dialogue after exclamation marks or question marks, for example (light spoilers):
"Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! ...
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Share expert insights about a field without sounding arrogant or gaslight my audience
I've worked for a good number of years for a couple of big-tech companies (FAANG). I've seen just how efficient they are comparing to the rest of the IT industry.
I plan to tweet/linkedin about these ...
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Translating analogies in a 100 year old fairy tale
I am having a hard time translating analogies and descriptions in a fairy tale written a century ago. My fear is today's children will not understand the analogy at all or misunderstand it, and as ...
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Is it okay to explicitly explain the core idea of a work of fiction?
First, I'll explain what I mean when I say core idea of a work of fiction. It is the concept that the fictive work tries to be communicate (be it a poem or a piece of prose) through its metaphors, ...
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Bursts of plot development versus slow rising action
From most of the stories I've read, the plot development tends to follow a smooth curve. This has obvious advantages given the reader can start to use his/her imagination more, anticipating/worrying ...
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What options are available to remove the protagonist and still have a story
I will be writing a fictional story whereby there are only antagonists -- conflict instigators. I know what you're thinking: without a protagonist to combat with, how can there be conflict? This is a ...
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Novels with big time jump
In a father/son novel, there are two parts to the story: half the book follows the protagonist for a few years. Part two is twenty five years later. The story transitions with a 10 - 12 page narrative ...
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How can garden path sentences be used (and misused)?
"A garden path sentence is a grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that a reader's most likely interpretation will be incorrect; the reader is lured into a parse that turns out ...
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Trouble finding two-syllable and three-syllable rhymes (or near-rhymes) for "eld" as in "field"
I am using The Complete Rhyming Dictionary, edited by Clement Wood, as a reference as I work through a poem.
I can't tell if my search is not thorough enough or if there is a shortage of this ...
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How can I flavour quote-only dialogue?
When writing dialogue, I know it's sometimes normal/useful to drop attribution and provide only the direct quotes during dialogue, like so:
"Like we used to Mamma?"
"Einmitt, my little ...
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3
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Why does Faulkner get a pass for purple prose?
I've been accused of purple prose for single words. People will go through my work with a fine-tooth comb and interrogate me. "Why this big word?"
It feels like, if everyone doesn't ...
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How do I describe an accent from our world in a non-Earth fictional world?
In my writing, I feel it can give a character distinction if they have an accent; our main character(s) have an American accent, but the newly-introduced one of them has an Irish accent.
My problem, ...
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Least confusing way to structure 2 plot lines merging when one starts several years before the other
My story has two POV characters, Delilah and Jack, who start separate and meet ~ 1/4 of the way though. Delilah's story starts several years before the Jack's and is the entire reason he even has a ...
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How to "show not tell" hero's thought process?
This question is inspired by a different one - How to communicate characters' inner states?. Although it may seem similar at first glance, I find the difference quite profound. My question regards ...
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how to write the word "so as if it is slurred or exagerated [duplicate]
How should I write the word "so" as if it is slurred or exaggerated
for example:
I'm sooo sorry. I've been so miserable and lonely.
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How to communicate characters' inner states?
This is a huge question, parts of which have been answered on this site. However, this is one of the biggest challenges writers face, and so I think the question's relevancy matches the amount of work ...
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How to revise or edit an extremely long story?
I have a story that I am working on that is extremely long. The first volume in the series is about 120,000 words, and that is only about half of its predicted wordcount. Counting the other entries in ...
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How would you describe a character that is ‘dogmatic’ without referring to religion or politics?
I am trying to develop a character who has a very rigid world view but I want to use more than just a single adjective to bring out this character’s “quality”. I also do not want to inject any ...
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How best to write an anxious character?
A character is shy, anxious, anti-social, nervous, etc. So, when speaking, she often pauses or makes noises like “uhm”, err”, “uhh”, etc. I’m asking a couple questions:
What would be the best way to ...
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What is the process of creating a word using Latin and Greek word parts?
I am trying to create a word that means "division of a single God", but I am having some trouble. If I understand correctly, any word must have a suffix, root and prefix, but sometimes I ...
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What makes you turn off from reading a blog immediately?
What tell-tale intro elements are a red flag a piece of writing isn't worth your time?
I write commercially but am conscious that my online pieces often have a lower-than-hoped-for time on site.
My ...
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How to avoid overdoing deconstructive tendencies in writing?
The Issue
I'm a person who likes to take things apart to see how they work, and someone who likes to poke holes in ideas. As a result, it's not surprising that I've always been drawn to a writing ...
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Is it possible to use an intentional plot hole as a literary device?
Is it possible to use an intentional plot hole as a literary device? If not as a literary device, can you use a plot hole intentionally for other reasons? I am wondering if there are authors who use ...
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Writing an American-style book as an outsider to the culture
I am an aspiring writer from Pakistan. It's a south Asian country rich in culture. Our cultural heritage and history is very interesting, twisting and multifaceted. However, I have grown up reading ...
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What are some common purposes in using run-on sentences as a literary device?
Generally, this is considered grammatically incorrect, and called a
stylistic error. There are many examples of run-on sentences used as
literary devices in literature. However, not all long sentences ...
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Deciding potential scenes and keeping the tension in my short story
To give some background, my short story is written from the perspective of person K. His school friend A (they are both in their mid-twenties now) invites him to stay in Vegas for a short time, and K ...
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This my approach to make a superhuman combat sport more fair? [closed]
This isn't really a world-building question. Since I im asking for y'all thoughts on my writing and writing a general.
In the past, I said it would be hard to add an MMA/Boxing weight class type of ...
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Is "small-c conservative" or "capital-T Truth" redundant?
In English speech, it's perfectly normal to refer to the capitalization of a term to clarify if it's a proper noun or not—"The party's new approach is small-c conservative", because the ...
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How do you preserve emotions in a poem?
I am just another person who writes poems to vent out emotions. I discovered that the amount of emotions that I feel my poem has during the time of writing, slowly evaporates away. When I re-read it ...
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How do you avoid "rushing to the good stuff" with poor pacing as an inexperienced writer?
I was recently watching a writing review talking about the pacing in the recent Invincible adaptation. One thing that the author of this video pointed out is that when authors are very inexperienced ...
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What are some ways to do recurring dreams effectively/better?
I am using a series of recurring dreams to illustrate a character's mental state and to also throw in a change of pace in amongst the regular non-dream action. The dream format really allows me to do ...
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How can I compensate for lack of decision-making due to a non-sentient protagonist?
I intend to write an adventure novel where the protagonist is a (divine) plant. Though it cannot move or speak, it's necessary for the plant to be the main protagonist (there will not be any subplots)....
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What are non-obvious ways to make the reader sympathize with the protagonist?
I was thinking of ways to make my audience like my characters.
I always try to figure out my target audience and make the main hero as relatable as possible.
Quite often do I embrace their integrity. ...
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What should phrases like “um” or “erm” be replaced with?
It is generally considered bad practice to include these in your writing, so what should be used instead? How would you show that your character is pondering something, or unsure about something, ...
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What type of rhetorical figure is this?
What type of figure of speech/rhetorical figure are the following:
“You are dearer to me than myself, as you yourself can see.” (Bob Dylan)
“Them I will forget, but you I’ll remember always.” (Bob ...
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How can I raise the stakes for my villain protagonist?
I'm currently writing a story about a psychopathic serial killer that meets a detective (the murderer owns a restaurant and the detective and his wife meet him there) that is investigating the victims ...
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I'm writing blindly and I need help dealing with it
Writing isn't like drawing, and I can't take a step back and look at it and search for flaws in the story, because it's in my head already, and I know it, and I can't forget it. So when I write I ...
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What can I do with a part that I feel is necessary to a story but it's an absolute drudgery?
I've just written such a paragraph:
He turned around and started walking to the nearby store. He bought a
bread and a yoghurt. Then he came back and gave the groceries to the
homeless guy.
There are ...
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3
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Often, weasel word, and absolutes
I'm writing about large subjects such as human society, human culture, and human behavior.
I need to identify and discuss various phenomena, and make specific arguments, but I also want to avoid the ...
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How to keep all my sentences from having the same structure?
Been reading through my writing and I noticed that 90% of my sentences follow the same basic structure of
[phraseA], [phraseB].
The few exceptions I could find were very short sentences I put there ...