Questions tagged [style]
This tag should be used for questions that deal with a consistent style in your writing, such as when asking about typical ways to introduce a certain aspect to your reader by showing-telling or if you are concerned that your readers might feel that a change in the point of view might be perceived as inconcsistency.
1,351
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Is it okay to have just two chapters of split time switchover alternating with the present?
Is it okay to have just two chapters of split time switchover alternating with the present (chapters)?. I.e. the second and fourth chapters portray the story of the protagonist's ancestors, which has ...
6
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149
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How to write in a way that makes it easier for an ESL reader to parse and understand?
This question recently began percolating in my mind after some conversations at work, and hopefully it's not been asked here before and is applicable to this site. After searching I wasn't able to ...
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Strong verbs for energy and clarity, or artistic use of all parts of speech for voice/style?
In not a few books I've read on style, the author pushes the use of strong verbs, as opposed to nominalizations, and certain kinds of adverbs and adjectives, to energize every sentence a writer writes....
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3
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409
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Why does Faulkner get a pass for purple prose?
I've been accused of purple prose for single words. People will go through my work with a fine-tooth comb and interrogate me. "Why this big word?"
It feels like, if everyone doesn't ...
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3
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Ways to show someone is whispering without using "he whispered"
I've seen a lot of advice that says you should scrap all non-'said' dialogue tags. I can see the value of this, but I'm not sure how to make it work in every instance.
It's pretty easy to show things ...
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3
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137
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Least confusing way to structure 2 plot lines merging when one starts several years before the other
My story has two POV characters, Delilah and Jack, who start separate and meet ~ 1/4 of the way though. Delilah's story starts several years before the Jack's and is the entire reason he even has a ...
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3
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158
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How "subjective" is "good-readability"?
How "subjective" is "good-readability"?
Are there quality studies that can explain this?
I'm confused about that I perceive that different people seem to have different preferences ...
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4
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912
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How do you make superpowers interesting in a written medium?
Superhuman powers, with the exception of psionic abilities like telepathy, are primarily an element of visual spectacle. This is primarily why fiction with people with some form of superhuman ...
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2
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153
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Does Simple Writing Lead to Passive Reading? [closed]
a quick question here about non-fiction writing styles:
It is said that the German philosopher Immanuel Kant intentionally wrote in a difficult and opaque style so as to force his readers to pay ...
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440
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How to write scenes of negotiation? [closed]
I'm looking for general tips on writing a negotiation scene, and would be interested in some example novels/short stories in which there are scenes of negotiation (preferably light-hearted but any ...
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5
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215
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How to avoid "character said" when there is a group of people talking?
I am at a certain part in my book where a group of six people travel and talk with each other. I would like to make them all talk, as that would be what would happen in real life but I can't really ...
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Can section headings be questions for APA format?
I would want my first heading to be "What is Lyme disease '.' '?'" , Im not sure if it would be considered a question or a sentence . I want this paragraph to inform the reader what the ...
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2
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343
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Does Blake Snyder's Save the Cat only apply to a story as a whole?
I'm curious to know if it can apply to an episode, volume, season, or an individual book of a trilogy. If it does apply, how do you apply those individual episodes into a whole story whilst following ...
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Indianisation of "Thank You, M'am" written by Langston Hughes
Thank You, M'am
To Indianise the story, along with the name of the character & place, the story has to be adapted in an Indian context and style. Both style and context are critical here.
Langston ...
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Punctuating consecutive usage of "and"
What should a transcriptionist do if the speakers utters,
"You need to accept the consequences and deal with the problem and focus more on growth."
Be informed that transcription ...
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2
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Can rhetorical final drafts come only from rhetorical rough drafts?
In order to end up with a finished work, in which there are parallelism and all kinds of other rhetorical devices, do you need to do anything to prepare for it in your rough draft, or can you add this ...
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2
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Referring to one of the coauthors--should I simply use his or her name?
For example, Wang and Zimmermann are writing a research paper together. In their paper, they want to refer to Zimmermann's previous work (possibly with other coauthors).
Should they write "In the ...
2
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1
answer
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Can I mix different writing styles within a single work?
My editor uses the Chicago Manual Of Style and has told me that even with names ending 's' to show possession, it is still necessary to use 's. I really hate that. Is it acceptable to pick and choose ...
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3
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372
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How to communicate characters' inner states?
This is a huge question, parts of which have been answered on this site. However, this is one of the biggest challenges writers face, and so I think the question's relevancy matches the amount of work ...
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3
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How best to write an anxious character?
A character is shy, anxious, anti-social, nervous, etc. So, when speaking, she often pauses or makes noises like “uhm”, err”, “uhh”, etc. I’m asking a couple questions:
What would be the best way to ...
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0
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What is a format for writing Introduction part for a economics/finance paper?
I read a couple of papers in economics and finance areas. I saw that in the different papers they used different styles. Is there any outline for writing an introduction with easy-to-follow ...
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2
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What are the possible driving factors of betrayal scenes?
I've been having a hard time thinking about a good way to create a betrayal scene without forcing it.
Even if I somehow wrote the scene, I just can't feel the emotions behind the betrayal; the sadness,...
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6
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How to avoid overdoing deconstructive tendencies in writing?
The Issue
I'm a person who likes to take things apart to see how they work, and someone who likes to poke holes in ideas. As a result, it's not surprising that I've always been drawn to a writing ...
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0
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How do you format a song when it's part of a larger spoken piece?
I'm editing a children's book which includes songs. I usually format the songs as a block quote in a slightly smaller type size and centred on the longest line. However, I've just come to a song that ...
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2
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Is there any such thing as a Thriller/Action Stream-of-Consciousness writing style?
Is there any such thing as a Thriller/Action Stream-of-Consciousness writing style?
Would that be considered to be essentially a normal writing style.
If not, how will this be done? (Structurally ...
3
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3
answers
221
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Does an omniscient narrator have to be objective?
When writing a story narrated in the third person, I often find passages in my text where the narrator's opinions seem to conflate with the opinions of the character the narration is following:
...
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2
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128
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How do I write in a sophisticated manner (though not convoluted)?
I would like my writing to be sophisticated, but find it difficult. I think this is since I have trouble understanding sophisticated passages. So no matter how well I know grammar, I can never arrange ...
3
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1
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298
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Do I use a comma before "and" in a list? (Canada)
I was wondering if I should use a comma before "and" in a list.
Example:
I like Science, Math and Writing.
or
I like Science, Math, and Writing.
I heard that the first one is more ...
2
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1
answer
111
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Is "small-c conservative" or "capital-T Truth" redundant?
In English speech, it's perfectly normal to refer to the capitalization of a term to clarify if it's a proper noun or not—"The party's new approach is small-c conservative", because the ...
2
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1
answer
268
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How do you avoid "rushing to the good stuff" with poor pacing as an inexperienced writer?
I was recently watching a writing review talking about the pacing in the recent Invincible adaptation. One thing that the author of this video pointed out is that when authors are very inexperienced ...
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2
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When a character is mentally recalling prior dialog verbatim, how should it be quoted?
When a character is mentally recalling prior dialog verbatim, should the dialog be surrounded by double-quotes or single-quotes, be italicized, or get no special treatment at all?
For example:
O'...
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What kind of prose style do most people like? [closed]
What kind of prose style draws in and delights the most people?
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91
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What to focus on while writing haiku?
I started writing haiku as a hobby. What techniques can help with writing this particular form? What should I focus on?
A few examples of my haiku:
"Mountain"
Mountains under snow
Cold air ...
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1
answer
104
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Do modern readers like to read rhetorically saturated prose? [closed]
I’m on the path to beginning a short story, of which I will form the plot, the setting, the characters, the conflict, and every element of story according to a plan. But even though I've moved past ...
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3
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What is the typical mood and style of light novels?
My friend has asked me to give feedback on a light novel that he's writing, and I've been clueless on how to proceed. I'm an avid reader of non-fiction, and although I don't read much fiction anymore, ...
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1
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105
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What type of rhetorical figure is this?
What type of figure of speech/rhetorical figure are the following:
“You are dearer to me than myself, as you yourself can see.” (Bob Dylan)
“Them I will forget, but you I’ll remember always.” (Bob ...
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2
answers
303
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Humanoid vs Bipedaloid Word Diction
I'm doing an extensive write-up project, and I'm stumped for how an alien species similar to the human analogue morphology (Two Arms, Two Legs, and Plantigrade-Bipedal standing/maneuvering) should be ...
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Where do prose rhythms come from?
Do you think that the rhythms of poetic prose compositions are produced by their author with a sense of rhythm in mind, or by tinkering with their wording until they arrive at a rhythm they like?
I am ...
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1
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371
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How do you realistically create a breakup/betrayal scene?
This happens in a war setting.
I have a female protagonist who, in her childhood, met a prince who was banished and felt betrayed. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the female lead decided to help the ...
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1
answer
60
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Does perfect brevity always flow?
Most of the style guides say to make every sentence as concise as possible. But does this kind of writing always flow? Don't you sometimes need to add to a sentence an extra word or two in order to ...
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5
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How do I save my novel from myself?
It should be clearly understood that I am not an avid reader and I accept I may be missing a lot of things about writing. I want to write a thought-provoking and a deep story with interesting ...
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4
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Overuse of commas?
I've noticed I have a thing for commas, but I don't know if it's a big enough deal. I do try to sparse my longer sentences, but it leaves these lingering ones with probably an overuse of commas? I ...
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4
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551
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How should I go about writing a character that is a goth?
I have a character in my story who openly identifies as part of the goth subculture. I've taken pains to make sure they have a three-dimensional personality and aspects to their character beyond just ...
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2
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Formatting new line options with actions and dialogue in fiction
I am getting confused about whether rules determine new paragraph positions or if it's sometimes arbitrary. Some choices seem clear cut, but in the sentence: 'I regarded...' it reads fine to me in ...
5
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4
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896
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Usage of comma vs dash
Which sentence works best in regards to ',' or '-'?
If you don't, the track record will become diluted
or
If you don't - the track record will become diluted
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1
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What Note / Bib citation style uses parenthesis around the publisher?
What citation style is this?
C. van Hoeten, The Alien in Israelite Law (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991).
D. A. Hubbard, Beyond Futility (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1976), pp. 20-21.
J. N. Sevenster, ...
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1
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Is there a tradition/style of novel writing that is closer to screenwriting?
What I really like about screenplays is that a lot of them have minimal descriptions of objects or the environment. By contrast, novels usually have detailed descriptions that I have difficulty ...
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2
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What are some strategies to integrate historical facts to a storyline?
What are several different ways to incorporate true facts into historical fiction without just giving a massive info dump?
Whether big or little details, I want to inform the reader of facts without ...
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1
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123
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How to remove filter words from dialogue actions in first POV
While editing my story's first draft, I read a blog about filtering words. When it came to editing, I realised it's not that easy to remove those words when you are editing an action after a dialogue, ...
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2
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146
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Is it okay to write short adjacent story of a second lead in the main story?
I am writing a story of a slice of life of a teenager girl who seeks her forgotten past and run away from her forced marriage to follow her dreams. I want to add another story of her cousin and her ...