All Questions
2
votes
3answers
103 views
What work better for the following piece of writing? Past or present tense?
I'm writing a short story but I'm not sure whether to write it in the past or the present tense.
This is the opening paragraph:
Sophia was awakened by the rattling sound of her washing machine. ...
2
votes
4answers
253 views
What software do you use for writing and then structuring a book?
I'm looking for good software for overseeing and rearranging the structure of a book. I have used Scrivener before, but found its exporting functionality frustrating and the software itself somewhat ...
0
votes
0answers
48 views
What structure should I use for each article in a technical travel guide?
I am writing a technical guide for travelling and I'd like advice on what kind of structure I should use for each article. I have the articles written, but when I wrote them I didn't use a particular ...
5
votes
1answer
89 views
How to quote from a foreign journal that has not been translated?
I need to quote from a journal written in Arabic. What should I do? Write it first in Arabic then followed by translation and indicating that it is my own translation (translated by author)? Can I ...
1
vote
2answers
52 views
Workflow for writing and poetry contests
I'm new to this thing. I've developed an awesome talent for essaywriting and poetics, but I have never entered a contest, gotten paid for it, etc.
So this question is simply: What is a typical ...
4
votes
1answer
60 views
How are citations formatted in serious non-fiction (proposals)?
Just to be clear, I'm not talking about scholarly work of the sort that might be published by a university press. I'm talking about work by people like Goodwin, McCullough, or Larson. These kinds of ...
4
votes
6answers
225 views
Software for collaborative writing for a small team
I'm working on a writing project with a friend, and we're looking for some kind of (preferably cloud-based) project management and version control software so each of us can see how far the other has ...
1
vote
1answer
64 views
What are my headlines lacking?
I'm writing headlines for a print ad where instead of a 4X4 waiting for a train at a crossing, the train is waiting for it with a boom in front of the train instead of the car. This is to show the ...
0
votes
3answers
178 views
Suggest any good text editor for mac
I have been using iBook author, for a time and the simple Mac TextEdit along with openOffice TextDocument. And I recently downloaded Evernote in expectation of more (but that's something else and not ...
3
votes
2answers
135 views
Do the characters in the following dialogue sound the same?
The following unedited dialogue is from a novel I'm writing (which is based on a short story I wrote a while ago):
"I hope it's not an inappropriate question," Icaro said, after
hesitating for a ...
-1
votes
2answers
124 views
How do greetings vary with time of day?
A character in a story meets another and the author is keeping time of day, as in "the clock was indicating 12 noon". How do the characters greet each other? Kindly include salutations for each time ...
5
votes
5answers
219 views
How do authors gain strong familiarity with archaic and extremely rare words?
I keep thinking about this because I've lately been reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, and it's just ridiculous. I have to look up 1-2 words per sentence sometimes, something I'm only used to ...
4
votes
5answers
180 views
How to tell a story with the least amount of writing?
I love to invent stories and come up with ideas, but I don't have the patience to fill out all the details that is usually a part of a novel. (For those of you familiar with Myers-Briggs or Jungian ...
1
vote
5answers
97 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 ...
2
votes
2answers
69 views
Writing exercises to practice the art of giving unique voice to characters?
I've read many blogs where they teach you how to give an unique voice to your characters. I feel I understand how to do it, but I think I'm a little stuck the the voice that I've been using since I ...
4
votes
2answers
125 views
What is the difference between “creative writing” and “fiction writing”?
My college offers many writing courses. I notice, one course is called "Creative Writing" and another is called "Fiction Writing". What is the difference between creative writing and fiction writing?
2
votes
2answers
78 views
Is it worth reading book to learn more about topic of my story
The story I am writing involves the 10 steps of turning a democracy into a police state. And to make it more real, I thught the people who are doing it should explain it to the main character ...
3
votes
2answers
50 views
Parts, books, volumes, etc
Is there any standard (or at least common) heirarchical arrangement for major divisions of a fiction book? For instance, I occassionally see some large novels divided into "parts", and sometimes I see ...
4
votes
5answers
198 views
What is the proper way to use the pronoun “I” without too much repetition?
I found a new job in London and while emailing with my soon-to-be boss, I noticed something that drove me off: the constant repetition of the pronoun I. This is very different from my native language ...
0
votes
3answers
51 views
How to number the equations in an academic paper?
I know that the figures and tables are numbered consecutively throughout the
while paper. What about the equation numbering? Suppose I have four equations in the paper, but I want to number only two ...
2
votes
3answers
127 views
Gadgets that make the world/story broken
Every so often I see a nice piece of fiction where its author adds something (to save the plot, or to make it interesting, whatever) that makes the story broken (usually it makes the world, setting or ...
1
vote
1answer
66 views
Find Information For Describing A Nuclear Power Plant
I want to start my story connecting the government flaws to the main characters life before he was even born. I thought since the settings a somewhat Communist United Soviet United government, A ...
3
votes
4answers
205 views
Should I embrace or avoid memes(pictures) when blogging?
I write on a fairly low traffic blog. One thing I've been seeing some of around the internet are blog posts which use meme pictures(example picture. It seems like an interesting approach to me. I'm a ...
3
votes
2answers
80 views
Are TOC and appendix part of total word count for books?
Do table of contents, appendix, and chapter titles count toward the total word count for a book?
For example, if a book is 50,000 words, what is not included in the count? This is for a nonfiction ...
2
votes
2answers
129 views
Resource for generic plot hooks?
I'm in a long and painful recovery from many years of writer's block. Coming up with even quite simple story ideas costs me unreasonable amount of effort. Sometimes inspiration is generous and I'm ...
11
votes
3answers
203 views
Should I remove scenes that I myself find “boring”?
Sometimes, I find myself writing a scene that does everything I think it should do: reveal details about the protagonist, drive the plot forward, show other elements related to the story, etc. There's ...
1
vote
2answers
77 views
Can I use a different ISBN when publishing a co-authored book in two different countries?
I have what seems to be a rather complicated situation and need some advice.
I have co-authored a book with an author living in a different country. We began by using a publisher in her country but ...
1
vote
1answer
64 views
Are the web audience who love microblogging and the book audience who love long stories different?
In my experience
readers on-line prefer summarized news and condensed stories
a separate audience for traditional books love long stories.
It seems we now reached the point where we write in ...
2
votes
3answers
113 views
Troubles with unfamiliar locations and settings based in the real world
I have a question: is it hard to write about a foreign country/place?
I know that Dostoevsky was Russian, his themes and settings were inspired or entirely based by Russia/the Russian culture.
But I ...
4
votes
2answers
161 views
How to keep the reader engaged in a novel where “not much happens”?
(Hope I don't get an answer like this).
I'm writing a novel where "not much happens," instead, it focuses on things that could happen. In other words, the protagonist does not directly experience ...
-1
votes
4answers
179 views
What genre appeals to the widest audience?
My writing is focused primarily on love stories, i.e. the romance genre, and I believe this reaches a relatively small audience.
Is there one genre that appeals to a far wider audience than its ...
7
votes
6answers
336 views
Very simple markup language for writing fiction
I'm using a plain text editor (Vim) to write a fiction piece (chapter book), and I'm wondering what markup languages others use for such a task? I'm looking for something exceedingly simple, it does ...
-1
votes
1answer
91 views
What language style should I use for a tech blog?
I am getting ready to launch a tech/personal opinion blog slightly more geared towards technical details. What documentation style is best for a journalistic/technical doc style?
Thanks.
2
votes
4answers
96 views
How about a story as a series of anecdotes?
I have a concept for a story I'd like to do where my purpose for writing the story is simply to explore a hypothetical society by means of anecdotes about the members of the society. But this sounds ...
2
votes
3answers
171 views
Fan-fiction and legalities [copyright etc.]
I contribute to a motoring website, well, one that's got Photoshop of cars, motoring history etc. - it's a small obscure site with only a few users.
Recently I've been learning InDesign and Quark ...
1
vote
2answers
117 views
How much influence does blogging have on learning to write better?
I have 100 blogs and have written for 10 years in my language (Persian), but I'm not focused on increasing my ability to write better.
What exercises should a writer focus on when blogging to be a ...
1
vote
4answers
135 views
Unsure of how to interpret this prompt
I'm practicing some essay writing and I've come across a few prompts that are like this one:
In any field—business, politics, education, government—those in power should be required to step down ...
3
votes
3answers
151 views
How many different words are in the average novel?
I realize there's going to be a bit of variation here from one author to the next and depending on length of the novel, but the range shouldn't really be too large.
The thing is, I really have no ...
0
votes
1answer
78 views
Requesting A Writing Critique, Hopefully More Focused
In light of the questions I've been asking here and the questions I've had about my writing, I thought of a good candidate to try and be more specific about. This is a small paper I had to write for ...
1
vote
2answers
75 views
Possible interactions of punctuation marks with the word “however” in a novel
When using the word however in my story, I feel like using a semicolon before it disrupts the flow of words in the readers head too much.
So, is the usage of a comma or semicolon necessary in front ...
4
votes
3answers
182 views
Very long sentences: personal style or just bad writing?
I'm writing a story targeted towards children in which the protagonist is a young girl. I find that in writing her dialog and the narrative, I'm producing a lot of very long sentences, to the point ...
6
votes
5answers
232 views
Must every piece of speech get its own paragraph?
I've had a few people read pieces of narrative writing I've done, and they seem to take issue with the fact that I sometimes put a piece of speech inline with the rest of a non-dialogue paragraph, ...
5
votes
1answer
103 views
Researching sensitive subjects
How do you research subjects for a novel that might be sensitive? Both cultural and jurisdictional.
Example: I usually try to "research" the setting and characters for my texts from real life. When I ...
10
votes
4answers
351 views
avoiding making all your characters sound the same
We surely all have little quirks to our speech. Like my daughter once criticized my writing for using the word "surely" too much. (See, I used it on this post.)
So how do you keep all your characters ...
2
votes
1answer
79 views
Dealing with lackluster plot failure
So, I wrote the beginning of something about novel-sized.
I drafted totally sweet, lovable protagonists in an interesting, original relationship, I placed them in a solid world, I painted the ...
1
vote
2answers
49 views
Characters time spending: Are there any good limits for time spending on characters of secondary list?
Are there any good limits or rules of proportion between time (or pages) spending on characters of primary list and secondary list?
I mean, that if character of secondary list appears only at the ...
2
votes
1answer
56 views
Is it a bad idea to vary the voice of the narrator in third person (limited omniscient)?
I did some thorough searching for duplicates of this question, but I don't think they really cover the same spirit of the issue I'm having. (here are some examples of similar but different questions)
...
3
votes
5answers
119 views
Combatting Excessive Familiarity Of Writing
Since writing my last question, I've been able to write a handful more items and have tried to nail down some more specific items I can ask about improving my writing. This issue became readily ...
5
votes
4answers
283 views
How many commas is too many?
I find myself often in writing using too many commas, but then going through and editing many of them back out again or restructuring to use full-stops.
Is there a rule of thumb I've forgotten from ...
4
votes
2answers
103 views
What does a typical creative writing course look like?
Many universities offer degrees in creative writing with courses such as “Short Story Writing” or “Fiction Writing”. I would imagine that such courses are quite unlike other subjects, such as math or ...
