New answers tagged fiction
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It's definitely doable, and could result in a very interesting, unusual story! As someone who loves seeing linguistics in fiction I would eat this up. It actually has a significant advantage over having a nonfluent non-POV character, which is that you can immediately escape all implications of that character being unintelligent just by showing how their ...
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Writers have responded to this challenge in many different ways over the years. The current common practice is to provide enough of the language pattern for flavor, and then render largely in standard English, trusting the reader to infer the distinct language pattern themselves.
However, this doesn't work as well if the language is a barrier to the other ...
answered Jul 26 at 20:54
Chris Sunami supports Monica
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Different narratives for the prologue and the story are common. You can definitely try it. In Harry Potter Series, the prologue is from the third person limited perspective of Uncle Vernon, while the whole novel is from Harry's third person limited perspective.
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I looked through many articles in which people talked in detail about copyright protection, and nowhere did I find a ban on the use of references to real people in the text. From an ethical point of view, it is of course best to contact the person whose personality you want to use in the book whenever possible. In case you do not have enough connections or ...
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All those things would fit well into a gazetteer of your fictional world, and may be important to know when constructing your story, but they don't sound all that interesting to readers. If you want them to experience your city through the pages of your story, you're going to need more than statistics.
Imagine you've spent a day in an unfamiliar city (or ...
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When writing about a city, writing should connect your audience with your world. Technical details do not help much in this respect.
Cities were like women, he insisted; each one had its own unique scent. Oldtown was as flowery as a perfumed dowager. Lannisport was a milkmaid, fresh and earthy, with woodsmoke in her hair. King's Landing reeked like some ...
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Don't get Bogged Down in the Technical Stuff:
It is outstanding to have this level of detail in mind when creating a fictional city. Kudos. But these things are best for you to have in the background, so if they become relevant, you can pull on them. But guess what? 90% of the time, these factors won't matter to your readers.
The less technical and more ...
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Use Wikipedia articles
I had the same questions you have. I used the Wikipedia articles on London, Paris, New York City, and Stockholm combined to create a kind of questionnaire for cities. Looking at the headlines alone will give you an idea of how they're structured.
I suggest picking the capital in your country as well to get a "home feeling" or ...
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So this is a mostly American view of cities, and of course with American local government there are exceptions to every rule. For example most cities are a level below county government... but not Baltimore, which is independent from any county (including neighboring Baltimore county to the north) and is functionally a county level government. Cities ...
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The general advice for writing a culture or a viewpoint that isn't your own is to do plenty of research. Ideally, you want to visit or live there. Second choice is to interview people from that place. Third choice is books and other media from there --which you already seem immersed in. Definitely find someone from that culture to read your manuscript and ...
answered Jul 12 at 18:43
Chris Sunami supports Monica
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Straight up man, learn this difference:
A journalist reports on events, an artist invents. There is a difference, then, between a writer and a journalist. A journalist sticks to the facts to his or her best ability; a writer, an artist, uses facts but also twists them to forge truth from both fact and lies.
Do what you want, but don’t feel stupid for wanting ...
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I asked this very question recently to a group of book editors. They disagreed with what was written here. For context, here was my original post:
So, I have a question and it’s a situation I use a lot, but find contradictory information about.
“I hate this refrain,” John said, as he went and sat in the corner of the room by himself.
The question is the rule ...
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The good news is that from a legal standpoint, Pakistan and America aren't too far separate and both use Common Law for their court systems (The big difference is the ~250 year divide when the U.S. broke with British and added a codified constitution to further govern it's laws (the UK is today one of the few countries with out a codified constitution in the ...
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Rethinking Genre:
Although you want to write in a contemporary setting, I'd suggest that to overcome your concerns about realism and getting details right, write in a slightly different genre. There are a wide variety of fantasy, science fiction, and alternative reality stories that would allow you to take all the unique and special elements of your culture, ...
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