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Dec 31 |
answered | What does a typical creative writing course look like? |
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Dec 26 |
comment |
Is it frustrating not to know the narrator's gender? Consider Prodigy's video for "Smack My Bitch Up". What effect does it have on you? |
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Dec 26 |
comment |
Switching from past to present tense? @Nick: This structure does not require that you begin in the heat of the climax, but just that you not begin at the beginning in order to establish conflict and character. Dostoyevsky's The Gambler is a good example of a 1st p. narrative that begins in medias res, at a moment near the climax, and provides a nice cliffhanger wherein the reader is wondering who the main character is and what mess he has gotten himself into. The denouement is withheld until the appropriate time, and the in medias res beginning makes us hunger for that moment. |
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Dec 25 |
comment |
Switching from past to present tense? i'm offering a counter-perspective to OPs conflict. i don't know what the story is, but i think the in medias res structure is valid and has precedent, regardless of how television butchers it. |
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Dec 25 |
comment |
Switching from past to present tense? sure, there are countless bad examples of a story that begins with someone dangling from a cliff edge and a narrator saying something like, "before we go any further, let me back up to last week, when this precarious position..." that's contrite, that's been done, but that's an issue of personal style and not a criticism of the form. the same could be said of dateline tags leading us through flashback sequences. i'm not going to go any further. i agree that it could be contrite, but so could anything done poorly... |
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Dec 25 |
comment |
Switching from past to present tense? this technique is as old as storytelling. homer employed it, so did virgil, so did the norse epic singers. if it has been used contritely that is no fault of the technique. for that matter, comparing the tropes of television writing to novel writing is dangerous for precisely this reason. television is laden with contrived storytelling elements due to time constraints. an in medias res narrative structure doesn't have to begin just before the climax. the purpose, as i see it, is in creating early conflict. thus, homer begins the odyssey with odysseus on the brink of death. to be cont... |
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Dec 25 |
answered | Switching from past to present tense? |
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Dec 24 |
revised |
Peeking through character's mask added 1 characters in body |
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Dec 24 |
answered | Peeking through character's mask |
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Dec 22 |
comment |
Peeking through character's mask Can you elucidate a little about who this narrator is? I am interested in why you haven't made your protagonist your narrator or at least allowed your narrator into your protagonist's head. I feel like I can't give a fair answer without knowing something of the relationship between narrator and protagonist. |
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Dec 22 |
accepted | Characters with no names |
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Dec 19 |
comment |
Characters with no names Don't give similar characters names that begin similarly to avoid confusion. I like that real well. I'm not sure what exactly you mean by "episodic" characters, though. Does this refer to characters who appear and then reappear after a lot of time has passed? |
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Dec 19 |
reviewed | No Action Needed How long should it take to write 100k words? |
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Dec 19 |
reviewed | Reviewed Do You Use Any Version Controlling Software/Methods As Writers? |
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Dec 19 |
comment |
Do You Use Any Version Controlling Software/Methods As Writers? Can you add a link here, so people can get to this software quickly. |
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Dec 19 |
reviewed | Reviewed For Fantasy Stories, Should You Include a Map At the Beginning of the Book? |
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Dec 19 |
comment |
For Fantasy Stories, Should You Include a Map At the Beginning of the Book? What constitutes vast? Square mileage? Population density? Intricacy of the interstellar roadways? Please give some context to the statement. |
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Dec 19 |
reviewed | Reviewed How to switch pov characters mid-scene without jarring the reader? |
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Dec 19 |
comment |
How to switch pov characters mid-scene without jarring the reader? Can you add some details about what types of positive and negative feedback you received about this technique. I would like to know why editors oppose the idea. |
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Dec 19 |
awarded | Custodian |
