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1500 questions
39
votes
5 answers
How to write a nice frame challenge?
When answering questions on Stack Exchange, some of us challenge the assumptions of the author. These frame challenges can often be quite popular answers. This popularity, however, can simply be a measure of entertainment value, and not quality.…
Summer
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6 answers
Is it expected that a reader will skip parts of what you write?
I have given multiple things I have written to a friend of mine, who is something of a writer himself, to get feedback on them from him. One of these was a piece of mystery-style fiction, and the other was an article about gaming.
I have noticed…
Phil
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11 answers
How can I portray body horror and still be sensitive to people with disabilities?
Building on my answer in Proven psychological or scientific means of scaring people?, I'm working on a universal horror-theme structure for a branching-narrative series with an occult detective. I won't discuss the whole system, but the idea is that…
wetcircuit
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39
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8 answers
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 thought he'd lost. The ball was just ahead of him,…
linksassin
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39
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6 answers
How do you make characters relatable if they exist in a completely different moral context?
Usually when I read books in ancient-like settings (settings that are either in real ancient civilizations on Earth, or fantasy settings similar to those), there are relatable characters who employ modern humanitarian ethics such as caring about the…
Bridgeburners
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10 answers
Would readers feel cheated if the villain is successful in convincing the protagonist to change sides?
So I'm writing a story where the main character is sent to kill the main villain. I have the basic world set out before me, and now I focus on story. I was planning out the main storyline and I hit a bit of a snag... uh-oh. I was thinking that the…
M.Wallace
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15 answers
Is it acceptable to use words like "heaven" and "god" when the narrator is agnostic?
The main character, and the person whose viewpoint the story is told from, is a scientist and subscribes to agnosticism.
And there are sentences in my story like:
"Trees stretched into the sky forever, like the stilts of heaven."*
Is this…
SealBoi
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38
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12 answers
How can I answer high-school writing prompts without sounding weird and fake?
Being given a prompt makes me freeze up immediately.
Let me clarify. I'm talking about high school writing prompts. You know. Those. The ones that ask you to write an essay about what you would change about something. Or the ones that ask you to…
Carlos Cienfuegos
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38
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13 answers
What are the Pros and Cons of long names?
Background:
I'm developing names for places/characters/races/etc. in my world. One example are a particular political sect. The sect are a group within a different species that are named (the species in general) "Sun's children" (lit. translation.)…
FoxElemental
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38
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16 answers
How do I write LGBT characters without looking like I'm trying to be politically correct?
So I have a few characters now (two possibly three) who identify as LGBT. My problem is I'm worried that I might come across as "trying to be politically correct".
How do I write about characters who are LGBT so as to avoid the "trying to be…
Ajnatorix Zersolar
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38
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12 answers
How does the 10,000 hour rule apply to writing?
The 10,000 hour rule, popularised by Malcolm Gladwell, says that:
the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours
Now, to be a good writer, you need to be a very good…
Shantnu Tiwari
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38
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10 answers
How important is writing for games?
I am trying to create a game that has a small plot (maybe more of a theme). The plot just describes why the characters are fighting each other. Other than that I have not fleshed out the story.
How important would it be to flesh out the…
Bhupen
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38
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11 answers
Self Editing tips/tricks
I write a daily piece and have been doing so for over 8 years. I think my writing has gotten better, but I still find mistakes at times, or more likely, my readers find mistakes.
Does anyone have good tricks for self-editing? Any tools? I spell…
way0utwest
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13 answers
How to represent jealousy in a cute way?
The main character (which is a girl) of the first romance I'm writing would feel jealous sometimes of her love interest, but I want it to be a cute trait or even a setup for funny scenes, not a very obsessive or possessive trait, so they can have a…
KLTKGK
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10 answers
Protagonist's race is hidden - should I reveal it?
I'm currently on the fourth draft of a novel I'm writing, which features two protagonists. One of them, is, in my mind, black. I say, "in my mind" because at no point in the story do I ever explicitly state her race, although there are some hints if…
Hyperion
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