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Apr 25 |
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The value of labeling book sections Sorry for lagging in my response--been wicked busy--but I wanted to clarify something. What do you think about naming parts and chapters? Is that taking it too far? Are too many threads getting crossed? |
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Apr 25 |
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The value of labeling book sections I agree about the damaging effect chapter titles can have. It surprises me that Twain would go so far as to list key words to each chapter in the TOC of Huck Finn. I do, however, enjoy single word chapter titles that are based on a salient image from the chapter. |
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Apr 5 |
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The value of labeling book sections Made some adjustments. Thank you for the input. |
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Jan 4 |
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Possible interactions of punctuation marks with the word “however” in a novel Please add the entirety of the clause before the semicolon. A semicolon does a few things. See this excellent and humorous explanation of semicolon use. |
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Dec 31 |
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How many commas is too many? This question is a tangle. Can you give an example of something you've overwrought with commas so we can offer some concrete feedback. |
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Dec 31 |
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How can I keep my characters' identities a mystery successfully? There is a difference between outsmarting your readers and tricking them. You don't want to trick them. |
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Dec 31 |
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Is it a bad practice to occasionally add first-person narrative to third-person narrative? Strong analysis. I would disagree, though, about your edits to sentence one. The important thing isn't that Ruth disappears between the cars, but that Erin sees her disappear. This is an example of showing, showing that Erin is watching someone disappear from her, which is a lonely image. |
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Dec 26 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 22 |
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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 19 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Should you use two spaces after a period, or just a single one? Can you elucidate the reasons publishers may or may not care about this rule that modern writers are taught is a relic of a bygone age. |
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Dec 19 |
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Characters with no names @Tannalein: That's been my thinking, or rationalizing, so far. I am thinking of my characters as stand-ins for anybody. |
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Dec 19 |
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Characters with no names +1 Jay: This helps me rationalize a lot of it. I think I would certainly avoid naming peripheral characters, as you mentioned in cases like the manager. So far, I haven't run into any cases of pronoun confusion, like, "He gave the bag to him". That, though, might be the breaking point. I don't want to sacrifice clarity and concision just to keep my characters nameless stand-ins for humanity, which, btw, has been my reasoning for keeping them nameless. |
