All Questions
12,503
questions
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18
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How long does it take to publish in a magazine?
How long does it take to publish in a magazine? I have had a piece under consideration—with a fair number of emails and discussions with the editor—for five months with the editor still on the fence ...
0
votes
1
answer
19
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How Exactly Are You Supposed To Write A Paragraph That Maintains A Consistent Theme Throughout?
I have noticed as a writer that one of my greatest weaknesses is writing paragraphs. I never really learned exactly how a paragraph is supposed to support one single theme. For instance, this is a ...
- 373
9
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Is there a way to make text feel like an unhinged rant while still being readable?
I want to write a passage of text that makes the reader feel like the person writing it is deranged or otherwise not in the right state of mind.
It seems relatively easy to write incoherent, ...
- 91
1
vote
3
answers
54
views
Language of other countries
I write the little girl calls her grandmother Bunica Rose. The father calls her Bunica Rose also. In the narrative, I use the words, Grandmother Rose. Is this appropriate to do?Will my reading get ...
- 11
0
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3
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130
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Adult Fantasy with a protagonist like Arya Stark
I'm pitching an adult fantasy book with a young protagonist much like Arya Stark in temperament and capabilities, and I'm having difficulty setting that expectation with my comps. There are plenty of ...
- 692
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0
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55
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Are there any websites that hire people to type up written documents?
I would like to find work typing out manuscripts and books. I don't want to edit them. If I see a typo, I may correct it, but I am not an editor. I can turn a written document into a typed one. Does ...
- 1
1
vote
2
answers
104
views
Past progressive in a novel
I have been reading a lot of different options on how to write a novel.
Many people suggest that the past progressive tense is most often used in fiction to describe interrupted actions (in relation ...
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0
votes
1
answer
59
views
What does it mean when people say your dialogue should have its own line? [duplicate]
So, I've been trying to write a novel and some people have read it and said it was great and I've also received some criticism saying I needed to give each line of dialogue it's own line. Does it mean ...
0
votes
1
answer
61
views
Am I legally allowed to expand someone else's short story into a novel?
For years I told a short story in my kindergarten classroom. It was written and freely shared by the writer. I rewrote the short story (2-3 pages) into a middle grade chapter book, expanding the plot, ...
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0
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3
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94
views
+50
Which Is Clearer: 'Being pressed' or 'Pressed'?
Consider these two sentences:
[1] Being pressed against the wall, he struggled to break free.
[2] Pressed against the wall, he struggled to break free.
I've recently spent some time reading grammar ...
- 103
1
vote
2
answers
68
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Does it come off as weird/offensive to describe someone as 'brown' in partial reference to their skin color, but in absence of a specific descriptor?
I'm not talking about describing someone as 'brown-skinned' or 'having brown skin' or even specific phrases like 'brown people', I should expect the former two to be acceptable and the I know the last ...
- 11
0
votes
3
answers
57
views
Can I switch the POV of a main character? [duplicate]
So I'm momentarily writing a fictional story for a class I'm taking, and I've run into a problem. I have one main character, but there is a scene where that character passes out. Is it possible to ...
- 3
0
votes
0
answers
29
views
meaning of a poem [closed]
This poem is from Christian Wiman and is called All My Friends Are Finding New Beliefs (the full poem is included in the link). Can you please help me understand the meaning of the lines in bold?
All ...
- 1
2
votes
3
answers
52
views
Describing exclaimations from a group
My character, an old woman, has been knocked down, injured and can't get up. There is a crowd of people, spread across a park, who all witnessed the accident. From her view, at ground level, she is ...
- 23
4
votes
2
answers
543
views
How can I recognize and take constructive criticism?
Personally, for me, I have ADHD and mild autism, so at times I don't have the same views as the majority. For example, I like the ending/plot of this one book/show/movie, only for me to find out that ...
- 308
1
vote
1
answer
41
views
Tagging dialogue lines with character names using hotkeys
Is there a program/tool that can use to deal with boilerplate such as indicating who is speaking in my text on the go with hotkeys? What I'm imagining is, for example, when writing a back-and-forth ...
- 111
1
vote
5
answers
96
views
Is there a smooth way to indicate that third person pronouns don't matter so much in my worldbuilding in English?
For context, I am nonbinary, and also East Asian.
My language of fluency is English, but I know other languages and also have an anthropology degree. (Japanese, Korean, a tiny, tiny bit of Mandarin, ...
0
votes
1
answer
66
views
How to create dialogue in a book?
This question may sound strange to you, but I am starting to write my book for the first time, so I hope that everyone will understand me. My question is that I do not know how to write the dialogue ...
- 19
1
vote
1
answer
91
views
Should Greek or Norse mythology be used?
When writing, what of these two mythologies should be used, in terms of quality and preservation of the original sources? (I am not listing other mythologies like Aztec, Mesopotamian, Caribbean, ...
- 115
1
vote
1
answer
68
views
How do I make a situation that looks like a planet will be destroyed, but without actually destroying it? [closed]
Here are some details for context:
There are two civilisations, A and B. B is significantly smaller, around a few hundred people.
B is visiting A's home world via a magic item that can teleport a ...
- 11
0
votes
1
answer
62
views
Using the stages of grief to fall in love
I would love to utilize the stages of grief in a way to show the progression of a character's resistance to fall in love. I have some ideas for each. What are some other ideas?
I have a vigilante ...
2
votes
1
answer
53
views
Citations while writing a summary
My professor has me doing a paper that will be a summary of five different sources covering a specific mental disorder. Will I need to use citations from the information I am summarizing or will I ...
- 21
3
votes
1
answer
446
views
Blending First and Third Person: A Wording Question
I'm writing a book with a blending of first and third person, and it switches whenever I need it to and not across chapters. The third person follows every character until the perspective changes to ...
- 33
0
votes
1
answer
29
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Approach to handle editorial oversights to new annotated edition of older work
Long preparing a new annotated edition of a well-known 20th-century architect's most significant publication, originally published in the mid-1950s, for republication in collaboration with the ...
- 87
5
votes
3
answers
704
views
What is this called? Using one word that has a one meaning but then is given new meaning in a subsequent clause or sentence
This is done in songs and I'm sure it's done in poetry too.
For example, in the song Gray and Blue by Jaymay, she sings, "I'm with another boy (he's asleep, I'm wide awake) / And he tried to win ...
- 153
0
votes
4
answers
108
views
How does one write a paper "in character?" I don't know how to begin
For the course project, you will write about a historical event between 1865 and the present day from the perspective of a historical figure who participated in the event.
You will need to research ...
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5
votes
2
answers
626
views
Should I use 1st-person or 3rd-person perspective for an alien character alone in a post-apocalyptic world?
This has been a difficulty for me for a bit. I'm writing a story about an alien character alone in a post-apocalyptic world. Them being alone makes me think it'd be easier and better to chose 1st ...
1
vote
1
answer
45
views
Thoughts on using "looking to" in marketing content
I've been writing content for years, and over the last 6 or so, in marketing for software companies. Very often, I'll see sentences include "looking to" as a way to explain that the reader ...
- 21
0
votes
1
answer
52
views
How and where can I submit a finished novel?
I wrote a novel. It took me 15 years to write it.
How do I submit it to a publishing agent? How do I choose one? Will they be good? Will they take care of everything? When will I see the book in print ...
1
vote
2
answers
136
views
How to come up with a good scenario of events between the characters of my book?
I can't figure out the middle of my book! I've figured out the beginning and the end, but I don't know what should happen between my characters so that everything ends well and happily? Could someone ...
- 19
2
votes
3
answers
74
views
Can my narrator's thoughts be in the same paragraph as another character's dialogue?
I'm writing a scene where my narrator (character A) is listening and reacting internally to character B, who is giving a long-winded explanation of something. Though is is a problem I run into ...
- 23
0
votes
1
answer
40
views
Article was not published within agreed time, how do you avoid/handle this situation?
Recently I ran into a situation where an accepted article (by an online publication) was not published the month it was agreed on.
The article had time-sensitive paragraphs for events that would ...
- 103
4
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Should I change my character's name if it's a variation of mine?
I'm trying to name a character, and I found one that fits him perfectly. It makes sense for the setting, it supports the theme and his character arc, and it supports his parents' characters (mainly ...
- 41
4
votes
2
answers
95
views
What should I do while waiting for alpha readers?
I have finished the first draft of my first novel, a work of LGBT gothic fiction/horror. I have 5-6 people who said they are happy to look at it as alphas, but I have no idea what to do in the ...
- 255
0
votes
1
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65
views
How to refer to different versions of a character?
In my historical spy thriller, there are five different characters named Miku that our protagonist has to fight. So initially, they're refered to as Idol Miku, Vampire Miku, etc. etc. etc. But then ...
1
vote
2
answers
121
views
Does every piece of dialogue need a dialogue tag like "she said"?
If I quote what a person says and use "she said" after the speech, do I have to state that again if I add another part of the speech after "she said"?
For example:
"It's a ...
- 11
5
votes
3
answers
902
views
How do you know if your story is too complicated or just complicated enough?
I've been working on my current story for almost a year. It's a great story but at times it seems really complicated. How complicated is too complicated in a story?
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0
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1
answer
66
views
Is the forbidden love story of an elf and prince overused?
I'm writing a short novel mostly for my own enjoyment, but I want to know if the elf and prince forbidden love has been beaten to death and if it would actually get any attention if it were to be ...
0
votes
2
answers
61
views
Should I flesh out the start of my fictional story?
The plot I’m thinking of goes from very normal, with fleshed out characters, to surreal towards the end. I want to wrap it around to have strange foreshadowing at the very beginning of the book to ...
- 11
0
votes
0
answers
19
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Stuck...Stuck and stuck how do I overcome it? [duplicate]
I've been writing since I was little but despite the idea I've had for over a year I still haven't completed it. I'm feeling stuck but I know I have something to say with my writing. Someone on a ...
1
vote
1
answer
70
views
Series or standalone
I’ve been planning a book for a while and I always planned on it being a series but now I’ve been thinking that maybe I should make it a stand alone. It’s basically this big competition that had three ...
- 103
1
vote
1
answer
53
views
How do I use an image as an epigraph?
There is a "picture that paints a thousand words" that I would like to use in the frontmatter of a book, similar to an epigraph. What is the proper way to lay out the page? Should it have a ...
- 13
-1
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3
answers
126
views
How to make a time-constrained story not feel like a laundry list of events?
I am writing a comic, which upon first glance is a survival story about what a forgotten astronaut does to stay alive upon an inhospitable planet. Its first book spans from cycle 0 to cycle 614 with ...
- 143
0
votes
2
answers
90
views
How can I make my character show his feelings more without being excessive?
I started writing a story sometime ago, and I wrote all I could think of. I did a good job as per my imagination served me. I couldn't complete the story because I planned to go the magic and fantasy ...
1
vote
2
answers
72
views
"Such" vs. "Said" vs. "The"
I'm a transactional attorney, but recently I've received some criticisms for my usage of the word "such" in lieu of "said" or "the" or "aforesaid" or similar ...
0
votes
2
answers
76
views
Should I Make Prose “Flow?” (Can Sounds be Overused?)
By “flow,” I do not mean rhythm or word structure or that stuff. I’m talking about phonemes.
I’ve read and reread the prose of a short story I’m currently writing. Multiple times. Aloud. Even ran it ...
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1
vote
3
answers
92
views
Writing a concluding paragraph
How can I write a favorable conclusion paragraph? I know I could just summarize the main ideas of the essay, but are there any other ways to write a conclusion paragraph?
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2
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Can I use a place from another book in my own?
I am starting to write a book. I have original characters and plot (it should be original). It is about Greek mythology but Camp Half-Blood is not in it. I want my character to go to Olympus. Can I ...
- 21
1
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5
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182
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I need ideas for what to refer to animal characters as. For humans, we have the word "people." I'm looking for a similar one for animals
The main characters in my book are all animals, and I'm writing the first scene that takes place in a large group. Recently I've come across several instances where I need to use a word similar to &...
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0
votes
2
answers
81
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Can I divide the body of my comparative essay into 4-5 paragraphs?
I am writing an essay in which I am looking at how the portaryal of women in Disney movies has changed over time. To answer my research question, I am analyzing and then comparing three different ...
- 3