JSBձոգչ

4,667 reputation

1132

bio	website	jsbangs.com
	location	United States
	age	31
visits	member for	2 years, 6 months
	seen	19 hours ago
stats	profile views	54

I have a degree in Linguistics, but I work as a programmer. Most of my expertise about English is self-taught, plus lots of random trivia I've acquired here and there.

This is my favorite EL&U comment ever:

This isn't really a question about English so much as a question about hugs. Source

	4,667 reputation	bio	website	jsbangs.com	visits	member for	2 years, 6 months
1132 badges		location	United States		seen	19 hours ago

summary answers questions tags badges favorites bounties reputation activity

225 Actions

suggestions reviews revisions comments badges posts accepts all

19h	comment	Is dialogue in a novel necessary, or just padding? Short answer: dialogue is completely necessary, since dialogue reads completely differently from summary.
19h	answered	How best to format a novel written in Markdown
1d	awarded	Enlightened
1d	awarded	Nice Answer
May 15	comment	How many words in 350 pages typed and double spaced? @Jed, there are lots of examples of long first epic fantasy novels, for sure. But I wouldn't want the OP to think that he should try to send in a 300K monster on his first shot.
May 15	answered	Best Grammar checking software
May 14	comment	How many words in 350 pages typed and double spaced? You've correctly identified the wordcount for epic works from established authors. However, I've been told many times that first books should generally shoot for about 100K words, and that anything over 120K is a hard sell.
Apr 25	answered	Why Use Excessively Short Chapters?
Apr 11	comment	Can a self publishing author use a Pen name/Pseudonym? The name an your Amazon account should be your real name. However, you can put anything you want as the "author name". Amazon will show the author name to people on the site, but it'll write the checks to you.
Apr 10	answered	Can a self publishing author use a Pen name/Pseudonym?
Apr 5	answered	The value of labeling book sections
Mar 31	answered	Must one have a book cover designed before to publisher?
Mar 29	comment	Is it acceptable practice to use contractions in a fictional first person narrative for children? @LaurenIpsum, in spoken language children learn to say the contracted don't before they say do not. I was never aware of this convention with early reader books, but I suspect that it's in place more to avoid having to teach the apostrophe at that young age.
Mar 27	comment	Is it acceptable practice to use contractions in a fictional first person narrative for children? I'm curious: what made you think you shouldn't use contractions? The only writing styles which don't use contractions are extremely formal styles such as academic non-fiction. All fiction writing uses contractions extensively.
Feb 28	awarded	Popular Question
Feb 13	comment	Is it true that men (in general) can't write female first-person? I've written first-person stories with female narrators. A pregnant female narrator to boot. It's not that hard.
Jan 31	comment	My Ex husband's wife self published a non fiction book naming my kids in the story IANAL, but unless the work is actually slanderous, there's no legal recourse against somebody else using your children's names.
Jan 20	comment	How to tell a story with the least amount of writing? @Aerovistae, the phrase le mot juste has been borrowed into English. It doesn't necessarily indicate bilingualism. (Though Lauren would have to tell you if she actually is bilingual.)
Jan 20	comment	How to tell a story with the least amount of writing? I hate to be an ass, but if you don't like writing, maybe you shouldn't try to be a writer.
Jan 20	awarded	Nice Answer