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.
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Writing in Common Styles
How do I make my writing sound like a college textbook, a newspaper article, a scientific journal, a blog post, etc, professionally?
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Sophisticated Prose: Good or Bad? [closed]
Prose that was written in earlier times has more complex sentences than prose that is written today, sentences whose meaning is not so easy for modern readers to grasp, because their complexity ...
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Flow of Today's Recommended Style
I know I've already posted many questions about the rhythm and flow of prose, but now I am asking a sort of specific question about the principles of style in relation to such things.
All the style ...
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Any resources for writing in Anglish?
"Anglish" is a variation on modern English that avoids or replaces all words that have non-Anglo-Saxon roots.
I'm working on a story where I'll need to convert a lot of dialogue (just for a ...
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Could Abridged-Series-Style Comedy Fit a Fantasy Series?
Minus the obvious tropes like 4th-wall-breaking, pop culture references, or lampooning the source material that wouldn’t be usable in a serious novel, would you still be able to take a fantasy novel ...
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Is it acceptable to use hyphens to create a literary effect?
I am writing a personal statement for my college application, and I wanted to use particular words in the beginning of each paragraph that resonate with the main content of the paragraph.
Excerpt:
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Modes of Prose Rhythm
Any good prose is bound to be pervaded by rhythm. But in my opinion, there are different modes of rhythm. There is, to coin a term, quasi-metrical rhythm, a kind of rhythm where similar groups of feet ...
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As a British writer writing a story set in America, should I write the narration in British or American English?
I asked this question on the English Language & Usage site but I thought it useful to ask here, too, since it is a writing issue.
I'm writing a book that's primarily set in America; my protagonist ...
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Consistency related to use of comma before 'and'
I am writing in British English so do not use a comma before 'and' in a list.
E.g The basket had oranges, apples and bananas. (In American English, there would be a comma before 'and')
However, I ...
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Presenting a Character's Thoughts
Is this an acceptable introductory paragraph to a fictional character's memoir? I'm not sure if the first sentence should be in quotations or have its own line and be italicized..
How often do you get ...
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Using non-say dialogue tags
Since I took up writing as a hobby, I've learnt that it's recommended to only use "say" and "ask" as dialogue tags, and to skip even these if the attribution can be supplied in ...
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How can I make the story less predictable?
I'm working on my first novel. As I was going through the initial chapters, I felt that the story is quite simple and predictable (in the initial chapters) and picks up after 14 chapters are over. The ...
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Is it confusing for the reader to encounter in a novel the same language written with two different letters? Tamazight language as an example
I'm writing a fictional novel in English and I have a mythical character who speaks a combo of English-Tamazight (80% English). For those who don't know, it's the native language of all North African ...
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Why's “egalitarian documentation” 'cacophony'?
I know cacophony means "harsh or unpleasant sound", but I don't know what “egalitarian documentation” means. I can see it's poly-syllabic and long Latinate words. But why's it cacophony?
I....
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When to be literal and when to be metaphorical?
I tend to chide myself when I explain things very literally. However, I've noticed some excellent literature uses some very literal explanation of the scene and even the character's emotions while ...
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How to get across to the reader a character’s prophetic abilities
My protagonist is speaking to my interpretation of the three fates from Greek mythology. He doubts their abilities until one of them echoes his every word as, or an instant before, he utters them.
How ...
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Switching Between First and Third Person
So I've started writing a book. It's set in present time, but is going to be interwoven with flashbacks to a few years ago to explain how the character(s) got to this scenario in present time. I was ...
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International English Style Guide?
For writers who are self-publishing to Amazon (especially for a global or US & UK audience) is there a style guide for "international" English? Or must one commit fully to either an ...
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What is the best way to plan a series?
I am a young author writing a fantasy series. When I first started writing, I had nothing more then a sentence of an idea, but I went along with it and just wrote what came into my head. I never ...
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Should I capitalise a lower-case last name at the start of a sentence?
I have a fairly quick question. I am wondering if I should capitalize a last name when it comes at the start of a sentence if it starts with a lower-case letter.
Example: In my essay, I am citing ...
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As an author, can I afford to get emotionally attached to my work?
It's said that to be a good writer you ought to "Write what you feel and feel what you write." While this sounds logical, I sometimes find that being too attached to my work cramps my ...
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Explain the lack of commas in James Joyce's "The Dead" [closed]
I am closely reading/editing (for my own benefit) the text of Dubliners, the collection of short stories written by James Joyce.
In some stories, such as The Dead, there are many instances of what you ...
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Using "now" from a character's POV [duplicate]
The story is written in 3rd person POV, close. But I feel like the very last end feels jarring.
He trailed his hand along the railing as he climbed the stairs so he could catch himself if he fainted ...
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Struggling with using correct tenses, please help! [closed]
I am writing my first book, which I am very passionate about, but there are small details in the art of writing that have me second guessing myself, and then comes the confusion.
I am writing in deep ...
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When writing and formatting a novel, what are the rules for scene breaks? Is it okay to use both asterisks and double spaces?
I have found information on this topic of scene breaks available on the internet to be quite conflicting and I've frustrated myself into a lot of confusion. Some authors use only double spaces to ...
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How to cut down on using too many pronouns (he, she, his etc.) while writing paragraphs (fiction)
I'm a relatively new writer and decided I would try and write something for fun. For the most part I have been finding it alright, however, I am really having trouble with repetitive sentences with ...
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How do I add technical exposition in my fiction novel?
I have written a fiction novel about an adolescent who commits suicide. The story explores the childhood abuse from her father that pushed her to suicide, what she and her mother have done to try to ...
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How do I write with a rhythm/cadence without losing command of the English language?
I'm sorry. I know I've been posting a lot of questions lately.
Many times in the past, when I tried to write words with cadence and showed them to people, they said that I had poor command of the ...
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Breaking the Rules
There are many style guides that urge writers to use the active voice and to avoid nominalizations. But many good books I've read often violate these rules.
So when should we break the rules that we ...
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What level of diction is best for optimal eloquence? [closed]
Many of the books I've read, being written in modern times, make use of language which is neither highly complex nor very simple, having sentences of fairly short length, making it easy for the reader ...
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What is rhythm, exactly?
I read two books that talk about rhythm, having different views, one saying that rhythm is created by phrase length (verb phrase, prepositional phrase, etc), the other saying that rhythm is created by ...
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Can I internalize style through imitation?
Books I have read and people have said that imitation of a great author is a good way to learn writing style. Well, what I want to know is whether I can actually internalize a writing style by direct ...
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Rules of Harmony
When writing prose, I noticed that certain words flow smoothly when placed next to others, while other words do not, but I can never be too sure exactly how smoothly they flow, or whether my cadence ...
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How do I control my writing style?
In one of the answers to a question of mine here, someone said that cadence does not depend on the sprung rhythm of a text, but on making emphasis fall on the right words. Well, I would like to ask ...
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Comparison of two quantities [closed]
I found the following passage in an NPR article today:
The Biden campaign and supporting groups have spent almost 90% of their money there, while Trump and Republican organizations have spent 78 ...
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Present tense in personal recounts
I'm writing a travel memoir and have come across a dilemma of sorts. Yes, I know that a memoir is usually written in the past tense -- since it happened in the past. But certain facts remain true as I ...
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How do I punctuate a slogan?
I have the following slogan:
I sell, I build
I want to make sure it's clear and concise. I did not add a period, because I know it's not a full sentence. However, I want to make sure it's ...
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How do you format dialogue within a paragraph?
He made his way over to the crimson red telephone box that basked in the afternoon sunlight. Ted knew she was hiding in there. “You can come out now." He swung open the door, with a callous look ...
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Which manual of style suggests using parentheses within parentheses?
When it comes to nested parentheses, there are two options. (The first is to use square brackets for the inner text [like this]. The second is to simply use parentheses (like this).)
I believe that ...
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Use of "set down" in a formal document
I was recently asked to translate a Spanish letter of recommendation into English. Not being an English native speaker, I was bound to make a few mistakes. According to a reviewer, one of these was ...
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Looking For a Simile For Something That Follows You Around [closed]
I'm writing a blog post about the impacts of an autoimmune disease. The sentence I'm trying to construct looks like this:
"The disease importunately follows me around like a god damn..."
I'm ...
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Creating a unique spin on a nuclear apocalypse?
Basically, my story follows a group of 6 people (and 1 mutant human) exploring a barren wasteland of what used to be the USA.
The world they inhabit was created through a nuclear war, that led to a ...
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How do you write a story with someone else overseas?
My friend and I have wanted to write a story together for a while now. But she lives in a different country, so we are just confused on how we can do this over calls. Because I know that we can't call ...
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Is there a name for a poem with rhyme scheme ABABCB?
I have just started writing a new poem, and I am thinking about rhyme schemes. The one that jumps out to me looking at the few lines I have already written is: ABABCB CDCDED... (in dactylic dimeter, ...
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How to write better introductory passages (usually the first paragraph in the chapter that introduces the setting)?
Each chapter of a novel usually has an opening paragraph, or an introductory passage, that lends a flavor to the setting essential for the action that will follow.
How to make the descriptions more ...
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How to improve writing style and vocabulary?
I'm working on my first book. I'm not that great in English and sometimes while writing, I feel that I'm not able to give my 100% in dialogues and overall writing style, overall( like adding more ...
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What are some examples of the "simple but vivid" description that Chekhov talks about in the quote below?
(The quote below is from one of Chekhov's letters to other Russian writer, Maxim Gorky.)
Your nature descriptions are artistic; you are a true landscape
painter. But your frequent personifications (...
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How to properly include credits for the author, location, date and time?
I'm working on an amateur article about various topics and want to include my name (as the author), location of where I'm currently writing the article, and the current date and time.
I've seen many ...
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What is the proper way to insert a subsection into a section / end a subsection within a section?
Not sure if this belongs here, or math.stackexchange but what's the proper way to do a special case subsection in a section? This is mostly in a proof/logical statement context
i.e. To show ...
\...
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Changing Genres in the Middle of a Story
Let's say the story was introduced as a romance, then somewhere in the middle it becomes a horror/thriller, would you immediately think it's bad?
Would you feel like "This is not what I came here ...
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