Common, repeatable methods of achieving particular storytelling effects or of avoiding narrative pitfalls.
5
votes
3answers
69 views
Deaf speechmarks? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How does one present spoken dialogue as a secondary language to signed speech?
I want to write a novel and I was thinking of including a deaf character. I want to know ...
4
votes
3answers
124 views
How should I introduce new and complex technologies or tools?
I'm writing a Science Fiction book. While this book doesn't push reality very far, there are some new technologies and tools that I have added. One tool is used more frequently than all the others, ...
4
votes
3answers
639 views
How to create varying, yet realistic, speech patterns
Different characters speak differently. If someone reads me a letter written by an immediate relative, I can tell right away who wrote it. I believe --and correct me if I'm wrong-- that giving each ...
4
votes
4answers
181 views
Are these fictional musings convincing or overwrought?
I've been working for some time on a story about a detective who finds himself alienated, delusional and hopeless while trapped inside a dystopic, postmodern dream. This segment voices some of the ...
4
votes
3answers
137 views
Adding more characters as the story moves forwards
I'm 20 and have been writing a lot of fiction since I was 11, and there is a story that I keep rewriting as I get older and learn more about writing and storytelling. Strangely I haven't done that ...
4
votes
1answer
314 views
When parodying a song, how important is it to replace words with homophones thereof?
I often decide to parody songs to adapt them to different contexts -- mainly for fun, for improving my English and causing an healthy amount of groans into people who read my creations.
However, I ...
4
votes
3answers
398 views
How do I cleanly show the passage of time, with multiple, varying time scales?
Semi-complex idea, more easily seen than explained, but here we go.
I was re-reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone recently (notice I bring those books up a lot...I think they're brilliant) ...
4
votes
4answers
174 views
Does this writing create emotion in the reader?
The thing I hear most often about my writing is, "It's too dry." I'm sure this happens to other people too. I'm working on eliciting emotion through writing, and I'd like a critique on some of my ...
4
votes
2answers
62 views
Where and how to look for a picture for illustration?
Do you think a writing can always benefit from the use of a visual illustration? If so, how to find for free or buy an appropriate picture, photo, drawing etc.? What are practical recommendations?
4
votes
2answers
208 views
How do you write a fiction or non-fiction query letter to an editor?
What do you put in the letter? What if you have no experience or very limited experience. Should you write about yourself in the third or first person when explaining your experience?
4
votes
1answer
95 views
Background speech with foreground dialogue
A few days ago, I stumbled upon an issue of the type; meaning I had two characters talking between themselves and another character talking in the background; actually delivering a speech.
What the ...
4
votes
2answers
235 views
What methods does Rowling use to establish Dumbledore as being wise and trustworthy?
In the Harry Potter series, Dumbledore seems to represent ultimate wisdom and authority. Harry (and the readers with him) hold him in awe; many times throughout the series Harry willingly accepts and ...
4
votes
5answers
744 views
Preventing the symbolic conflict of “Hunger Games” from overshadowing widespread social plight [closed]
SPOILER ALERT: Questions and answers may contain spoilers for all three books in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.
Symbolic Conflict as the Climax of Social Conflict
I noticed an ...
3
votes
3answers
200 views
What techniques do you use to invent snappy turns of phrase?
We all know clichés are bad[1] and that fresh, inventive and "fitting" phrases will delight and entertain our readers.
What techniques can be used to invent such phrases? Sometimes they just ...
3
votes
2answers
613 views
On writing an essay, what are some good techniques to teach to schoolchildren?
I am currently teaching the way to write an essay as this:
Step 1, write the topic sentence of the whole essay. Then, in the following first paragraph, develop the ideas that you are going to ...
3
votes
2answers
255 views
original story climaxes - rules / guidelines for this?
I always get stuck trying to work out what the high-point of the story should be, especially when writing sci-fi/fantasy. There seem to be just a few climaxes that get recycled through this genre - ...
3
votes
0answers
158 views
Are there any techniques to arrange or list ideas from a short text? [closed]
For example I wrote this:
!Paying! for exams, and also books
to pass them is only a small price /
to give poor people the opportunity /
...to contribute for the MANSIONS of the people in ...
2
votes
3answers
317 views
How credible is wikipedia?
I understand that this question relates more to wikipedia than it does writing but...
If I was going to use wikipedia for a source for a research project (for example) would the information be ...
2
votes
4answers
603 views
How to explain a war scene?
In my novel, I have a part where there is a war scene, and I need to explain it precisely from the king's point of view. How can I explain the war graphics vividly?
2
votes
2answers
173 views
Issues with Scene/Sequel model
I'm using the Scene/Sequel model to go from an informal outline of my novel to a list of scenes. In summary, during a Scene the POV Character has a Goal, encounters some Conflict, and it ends in ...
2
votes
1answer
130 views
Style signatures and uncommon formatting patterns
Style signatures are bits of words and phrases used consistently throughout the entirety of a work (but not necessarily among my unrelated works). I would like to try using style signatures in a work ...
1
vote
1answer
93 views
Do I correctly utilize my naming adjective concept in this book?
In my story THE GOSPEL OF THE RETURN OF A CHRIST THAT WANTS ANSWERS I wanted to evoke a sense of the middle ages in a modern book. So I utilized a technique where whenever I referred to a character, I ...
1
vote
3answers
1k views
Quality examples of 'in medias res' starting sequences in SF literature
You can find my initial trials here, and, based on feedback, version two here.
I was trying to create a sort of 'flashforward' opening (please don't cite Sawyer) for a novel. That is: of the 45 ...
1
vote
1answer
134 views
What is the name for the literary technique where the author writes him/herself into a book?
In a number of novels by Clive Cussler, the characters are sometimes offered help by a person whose surname is Cussler, same as the author. I believe this also happens in Sahara and Dragon, and ...
1
vote
5answers
99 views
Are there rules for, or guidelines on, time gaps between a plot's scenes/chapters?
I've been reading a host of old favourites, classics and authors outside of my usual reading pool, in an effort to dissect the writing (from plot, characters and environment to voice, pacing and ...
1
vote
2answers
195 views
What literary techniques are evident in this quote?
What literary techniques are evident in the following quote?
I read each bullet scar in the Quai stonework
With an eerie familiar feeling,
And started at the stricken, sunny exposure of ...
1
vote
0answers
43 views
How to fix writer's thought muddledness? [closed]
Honestly my problem here is that I've been on writing hiatus for like...a year and half. Apart from writing small stories here and there, I haven't really taken on a story to a larger scale in a long ...
0
votes
1answer
92 views
Is there a way of listing the elements that makes a real fact fun?
For instance I wrote this thing that is real
God’s love is like your parents love /
except for the ‘‘burning, crying, and
screaming for eternity in hell" part
/ if you don’t obey them.
and ...
0
votes
1answer
34 views
Maintaining the consistency of voice and spontaneity throughout a piece
So straight to it, I don't write very long pieces. Usually poetry or flash fiction and a smattering of short stories whenever it needs to be longer, though I have aspirations (mostly just dreams) of ...
0
votes
1answer
80 views
What literary tools can be used to make stories more immersive?
That question derived from my previous critique question. That's one of the problems I think is more obvious in my own writing right now and would like to know of ways to address it.
What I know so ...
