Questions tagged [structure]
For questions about the connections between and ordering of elements within a written work.
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How do I stop using 'the' to start sentences so much?
Something that always bothers me in my writing is how often I start sentences with the word "the".
A terrible nonsensical example:
The dog ran through the rain-swept streets, chasing a ball he ...
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Does anybody know a good book on writing novels that covers complex storyweaving, multiplots, or parallel plotting?
Does anybody know a good book on writing novels that covers complex storyweaving, multiplots, or parallel plotting? I have a large collection of how-to-write manuals for screen and novel writing. ...
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Is there a format to write a good treasure hunt story?
I'm writing a story for an Indian movie that revolves around a bunch of estranged siblings, who come to live in their father's abandoned house a year after his death. They do so because they receive ...
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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 ...
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What do you call semantic text features?
The problem
I've been trying to find a complete list of text features. Things like words, paragraphs, headings, links, bold, italics, lists, tables, quotes, captions, images, indexes, glossaries, ...
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Breaking up long paragraphs with multiple aspects
In scholarly writing, I'm often confronted with having produced a very long paragraph that has the structure with: a single topic sentence, then an internal list of sibling supporting points, with ...
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What is the name for a narrative structure where the story starts with an exposition or summary before recounting the plot in more detail?
I can't find the name for this online and I am an engineer, so don't socialise with people that would know.
Consider the Aeneid, which begins:
Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,
And ...
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Writing multiple main characters, who end up being the same person at the end. Need advice
So what started as an attempt to write a memoir, I found myself struggling to commit to just one underlying theme. I also found writing about myself in different time periods, it felt as though I was ...
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Having multiple epilogues
According to Wikipedia,
An epilogue is the final chapter at the end of a story that often serves to reveal the fates of the characters. Some epilogues may feature scenes only tangentially related to ...
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Forming Conceptual Chiasms Without First Creating an Outline
There are books that contain conceptual chiasms, which are easily seen when the books are outlined. Is outlining before writing the only way to produce these structures, or can you produce them by ...
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How do I balance action and life?
When writing stories, I tend to get really caught up in the small interactions and lives of my characters. I explore their state of mind, their relationships, their habits.
However, because of this; a ...
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Can I combine a character's talking and thoughts in contiguous lines of dialogue?
‘This is harder than I thought.’ Dakota mused, then said; “Shane is smart as a whip,” while watching Melody's face for her reaction. “I’m surprised he let me do this.”
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Why do most online articles get to their point only after 2 or more paragraphs?
Many articles you read online start with random quotes and abstract thoughts or philosophy, not on the actual subject, but on things related to the subject, including a lot of personal opinions.
For ...
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What determines the value or worthiness of an autobiography?
To make an otherwise long winded story short, I have an uncommon tale of survivorship.
Context: From child runaway, to kidnapping victim, to an escape ten years, ten months, and 23 days later.
For the ...
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Looking for the name of a certain way of structuring a story
I’m looking for the name of a certain way of structuring a story. It often takes the form of “prologue – story – epilogue” where the prologue is a conversation which sets up the story and sometimes ...
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Structure for computer science research paper
I'm writing my first undergraduate research paper for computer science and I think my lack of experience is starting to get on my supervisor's nerves. I've written a program that collects video ...
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What M.I.C.E quotient type does equipping a character begin?
In James Bond films or heist stories, there might be a sequence where the character will get gadgets or equipment.
Using the M.I.C.E quotient as a framework, I noticed that receiving the equipment and ...
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What lies between a Part and a Chapter?
This is for fiction literature. I've got this story where the original chapters became so huge that I had to split them into 5 chapters each. But each original chapter is relatively distinct and ...
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How to write a character losing time
Stuff happens
-blackout-
More stuff happens
This is both how the character is supposed to experience time, and how it's written so far. But it has a number of problems. The biggest ones are:
It looks ...
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Which sentence is correct? How is variety created in these sections (of a song)? or How is variety created between these sections (of a song)?
When describing the variety or contrast evident in a song we can compare the song sections. Variety adds interest to the song. We ask how is one section different to the next?
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Why does all scene writing advice insist on the scene lead having a clear goal when this is often not practiced in bestsellers?
I've been reading a lot of books on scene writing. One thing in common--found in every single book--is that the main character in the scene should have a goal. That goal should be made obvious as ...
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Is there a word for when a text is between chapters that enriches the story but is not part of the previous or following chapter?
Is there a word for when a text is between chapters that enriches the story but are not part of the previous or following chapter?
I'm writing fiction and wanted to have in-universe news articles from ...
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Doubt in screenplay definitions
Can someone tell me the difference between scene, plot, story, and structure ?
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Writing better result sections in scientific articles, non-native English writer
I'm currently doing my master thesis in Ecology and now writing my result section. I'm a non-native English writer and I would like to ask for some help structuring my sentences and how to become a ...
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What is good introductory book to learn scientific academic writing and publishing process?
I would like some help to find a good reference or textbook that covers the following points regarding scientific academic writing :
What are the types of different publications and explaining their ...
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Scene & Sequel in exposition or world building
I have been trying to practice the scene and sequel structure, including the use of MRUs and I find it alternately natural and frustrating.
I understand that the goal of this structure is to keep the ...
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What are some examples of an inciting incident that would force a character to go on a quest or adventure?
I've noticed that my novel is missing a really strong inciting incident and I can't think of anything strong enough to suffice. The only inciting incidents I'm familiar with seeing in nearly every ...
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Parts, books, volumes, etc
Is there any standard (or at least common) hierarchical arrangement for major divisions of a fiction book? For instance, I occasionally see some large novels divided into "parts", and sometimes I see ...
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Can a visual novel with branching plotlines be translated into one single book?
For the uninitiated; Visual Novels (abbreviated as VN) are in layman terms a type of game with it's story presented in plain-text accompanied with illustrations of characters and environments, music, ...
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What do I need to keep in mind when writing a "pilot" episode for a series?
I've been working on a series. However, the series is very long and incomplete, so it's difficult to get feedback on it from others.
So I’ve been considering writing a “pilot” episode. A short story ...
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Writing a story that's a reference or tribute to two stories, is that fairly common or rare? Are there examples?
I write stories, not movies, but often movies will inspire my writting. I came across a website that discussed the Big Lebowski and how it's a kind of play on movies like the Big Sleep, even the ...
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Question about present tense writing, and use of the words: have, and think
I am just beginning to get serious about the way I write, furthermore I’m a very cautious writer so I would just like to know if these simple paragraphs are correct. I am trying to clarify both my use ...
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Is it ever possible (or a good idea) to write a story where the "lie" a character believes about the world is true?
One big aspect authors are often advised in storytelling is to think of the "lie" or "wound" (or the "ghost") that drives their character. Specifically, this is often ...
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Killing off main characters in an ensemble cast
I'm trying to plan a very long-form meta-story with multiple shifts in tone and scope, the first part of which consists of a very small-scale character story with an ensemble cast of 4 main characters....
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Antagonist that remains unknown
In genre fiction, the antagonist is usually either known throughout the book or revealed before the end, so that protagonist and antagonist can battle it out during climax.
What I am wondering is, ...
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Is it okay to have wildly varying chapter lengths in a fantasy novel?
I'm currently writing a fantasy novel and it's my first piece of work. My chapters currently range from 500 to 3,350 words. Is this too much of a dramatic change? Should I go back and pad out some of ...
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How do I frame this question?
I'm writing a script and there's a question I want one character to ask another but for nearly a month, I just can't construct the question even though I know what I want to ask.
Basically, I want to ...
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How do I describe a character tripping but regaining their balance?
In the story, my protagonist is walking in a part of town that is not taken care of. My character, at this point in time, is super tired and trips over a clump of grass growing from the sidewalk.
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Does third person deep POV inside an epistolary novel detract from the suspense?
My novel is an epistolary à la Bram Stoker's Dracula and there are some scenes that simply have no one around to record. Modern epistolary stories, such as the trend of “found footage” movies like ...
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How can concurrent/dual dialogue be implemented in short story/fiction writing?
I am currently writing a short story that has two intertwined narratives told in inverse chronological order from each other. The two narratives meet/converge at the moment the protagonists receive ...
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Cautioning against, from, or about?
Is it proper to use any preposition to say "caution against" "caution about" or "caution from" in e.g. the sentence —
The fact that the ... has happened before and could ...
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When do you break a paragraph when transitioning from dialogue back to prose?
Dialogue can get messy, jumping from character to character with beats and prose mixed in here and there. How do you handle all the paragraph breaks? Obviously anytime a new character speaks you have ...
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How can I spot if my story is being stalled or interrupted, and how do I arrange my writing so that it continues to move?
I would like for my story to continue moving, but I find that I interrupt action with details or inner thoughts, mood, emotion, etc. Hence, how can I spot an interruption in my writing that could ...
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How to format quick flash cuts of photos in a screenplay?
I am writing a script where there are quick flash cuts, where the current present action is then 'captured' in a still photo which is representing a 'highlight' on an Instagram post/story shown for ...
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Avoiding two sentences ending with same word?
How can I avoid that these two sentences end up with medical system? I do not want to use a synonym for medical system to avoid ambiguity. I further do not want to change the word order of sentence ...
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How to time "big reveal" and twist moments?
My question is similar to How to best pace information reveals to the reader and in the same general vein as When to finally reveal plot twist to characters?, but I think it's sufficiently different ...
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Example of a fictional story without any characters (the story being 1000+ words)
Guessing that there is no such example, but if there is, I'm very interested in knowing about it.
Just as a short example, just to make it clear it's possible; the example is not intended to be a ...
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How to intermix similar related scenes
I have a scene in which my viewpoint character (effectively a manager) is conducting interviews for a role he must fill. Most of the characters he interviews (12 total) will have some impact on the ...
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Controlling ideas in a topic sentence
From my understanding in a topic sentence the topic is always the subject and cannot be the controlling idea, is that correct ?
Then, if it is the case, it is possible to have 2 controlling ideas in a ...
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How to Role-Play an eldritch god?
I am currently trying to figure out how to write the actions of an eldritch god that I've created in a Role-Play setting that I have with a few friends, this setting is mainly based on the SCP ...
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