Tannalein

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	346 reputation	bio	website		visits	member for	7 months
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Dec 21	comment	What's a normal word count for a children's novel or collection? Fantasy books are always thicker and are not the best reference, unless for other fantasy works. Since the first book was meant for children around 13 years of age, I do believe that qualifies as a Children's novel. Since the readership grew together with Harry, the last book or two <i>might</i> pass as young adult, even though it doesn't have all the elements that make it YA - an MC that's in late teens does not automatically mean YA. @Vic Goldfeld - for a not really good story, it sure made the author the richest writer ever.
Dec 20	comment	Peeking through character's mask My point being: don't look for examples in movies for something that is so much easier done in literature ;)
Dec 20	comment	Peeking through character's mask From Orson Scott Cards "Characters and Viewpoints": "The ironic thing is that cinematographers and film directors have struggled for years to try to make up for their inability to do what fiction does so easily: tell us what's going on inside a character's mind. How they struggle with camera angles and shadows! How the actors struggle with words and pauses, with the gentlest changes in expression, the slightest of gestures—all to convey to the audience what the fiction writer can express easily in a sentence or a phrase of deep penetration into the viewpoint character's mind."
Dec 20	comment	Peeking through character's mask If it's so important to you, how about making it from multiple POVs? I don't think you can truly show everything you've said about this character without peering inside his head even a little. Otherwise, you'd have to make a considerable number of scenes where his mask drops, and he doesn't sound like a character that would drop the mask so often.
Dec 20	comment	Can I self-publish, and how much would it cost? I've even read about cases where publishers dropped authors after they found out the author had previously self-published some of his/her works. On the other side, you have Amanda Hocking, who got a traditional publisher after she made millions through self-publishing, but she's more an exception to the rule than anything else.
Dec 20	revised	How little “fantasy” can be in a story and it still be recognizably fantasy? added 168 characters in body
Dec 20	answered	How little “fantasy” can be in a story and it still be recognizably fantasy?
Dec 19	comment	A cross-[What] kind of romance? +1 for such an original question :D Unfortunately, I have no idea how to answer it. Cross-life? Cross-lifeform?
Dec 19	comment	Should I translate my own writings into a second language I also know well? "...you will still need to show it to a professional editor afterwards, or at the very least have it proofread by a few native speakers of the target language (one is never enough)." - Well, you need those when you write in your native language as well, so it's not much of a point. I've just checked some of the translated books I have on my book shelf and they all have a translator, an editor and at least one lector, usually two, so even with a professional translator you'd still need an editor and a lector (or at least a proof reader). Personally I'd rather spend my money on a good editor.
Dec 19	answered	Should I translate my own writings into a second language I also know well?
Dec 19	answered	What is a normal length for a chapter?
Dec 18	comment	Characters with no names One merit that comes to mind is that without a name, a reader might identify more with the character. In "Characters and Viewpoints", Orson Scott Card says that for one of his books, he completely omitted main character's description. When his editor and publisher called him out on that, he asked them to describe how each of them imagined the character, and they both described themselves. I figure omitting a name would take this approach even further :) So the character could be anybody, could even be the reader.
Dec 17	revised	Looking for some tips on how to improve writing added 22 characters in body
Dec 17	revised	Looking for some tips on how to improve writing Adding to the answer
Dec 17	answered	Looking for some tips on how to improve writing
Dec 17	suggested	suggested edit on Looking for some tips on how to improve writing
Dec 17	comment	How Do You Genuinely Improve The Quality of Your Writing? Also, while having a few trusted people to review your work is a good thing, they can become objective fast. They can get too comfortable with your writing style or your characters to notice something a fresh set of eyes would notice. Eventually, you also need to see if your story reaches out to people the way you wanted. Your trusted people might love your protagonist because they know him so well, while nine out of ten people might see him as a douche-bag. And if you didn't want him to be a douche-bag, you have a problem there ;)
Dec 17	comment	How Do You Genuinely Improve The Quality of Your Writing? I agree with some points, but not with the whole answer. This happened to me once - first critic told me I need more descriptions, second one told me my descriptions weren't good and they need to be more tangible, then the third person came and said I have too much description... Needles to say I lost myself while trying to please everybody and ended up writing something that wasn't really me. Still, it was a learning experience. But those very same people pointed out some structural and grammatical flaws that improved my writing ten folds. So it's a matter of learning which critique to take.
Dec 17	comment	How Do You Genuinely Improve The Quality of Your Writing? I think the question here is how to tell a genuine critique from someone's personal pet peeve. For example, I once asked a critique in a chat. The first person said I should use nothing more in a dialogue than "she said, he said". Then the second person came and said that "she said, he said" is boring and superfluous, since it doesn't add anything to the writing and should be shot dead. And then they went into a debate which one of them was right. Some critique will just be based on personal preference, rather than legitimate good writing practice.
Dec 10	comment	combining sentences I think you kind of ruined the point of splitting the sentences when you started the next one with "But". It looks informal and out of place in a piece of technical writing.