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1500 questions
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6 answers

Why is young adult romance now being written primarily in the first person?

My recollection is that when I started reading romance novels in the 1980s, the majority (perhaps 60%) were written in the third person. This included some "young adult" romances with characters in their early 20s. I stopped reading them until…
Tom Au
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Can religions like Islam or Hinduism be represented respectfully in a fictionalized/fantastical Earth?

I asked this question in World-Building but it seems better fit for Writing. I ask for a few reasons. Despite the specific arguments against speculative fiction within Quranic tradition and protests by other Abrahamic traditions and Hindus against…
Mirzka
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Citing parts of a thesis or dissertation using IEEE referencing

I've found myself extensively referencing parts of theses and dissertations for my own research paper. The IEEE editorial style manual suggests that they should be referenced in the following form: [1] J. K. Author, “Title of thesis,” M.S. thesis,…
Filip Dupanović
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18
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9 answers

How do I get my readers through the early, "hardship" part of my fiction?

A reader of one of my works told me, "It was very interesting, the last two thirds of it anyway." Her fear was that I might lose my readers in the first one-third of the work. The above work was a three act play, with a crisis and hardship in the…
Tom Au
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18
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11 answers

Does my protagonist *have* to succeed?

I'm thinking about a YA dystopian novel and have planned it quite thoroughly. However, when I look back, the antagonists tend to always be a few steps ahead of my protagonist, and my protagonist is always just too late to stop the antagonist. This…
Adi219
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18
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9 answers

How to balance respecting diversity and avoiding tokenism at the same time

My project has an environmental theme. My characters eat meals, and because of the setting, this includes meat and eggs. Some environmentally - friendly friends find those scenes very distasteful and opposed to the environmental intent of the…
SFWriter
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4 answers

Where should I put my tl;dr?

By definition TL;DR, short for "too long; didn't read", is Internet slang to say that some text being replied to has been ignored because of its length. In slang it can also stand for "Too lazy; didn't read". It is also used as a signifier for a…
Vylix
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18
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9 answers

At what point does a POV character noting their surroundings go from showing/telling to an infodump?

In a story I'm working on, at one point one of the main characters (also the POV character in this case) arrives at a new location which he has never been in before. This is the first mention of this location within this story, so the reader can…
user
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6 answers

How to express martial arts action in fiction?

In the context of an actual as opposed to training fight scene in a fictional narrative, how would one express martial arts action? Generally, martial arts has a distinctive disciplined but powerful visual style as it uses specific moves and poses…
Fabjaja
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6 answers

How can I make a story bigger?

I have written a first draft of what I want to be a novel -- aiming for 50-70K words. When the ending arrived I was at about 30K. So I essentially have to double the length. My list of notes scattered throughout the ms adds some scenes, but that's…
bstpierre
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8 answers

Classic fantasy races lazy or boring?

In my fantasy world there are other other sentient races besides humans. Some of them are "original", or at least not as common in mainstream stories. On the other hand, I have also included more traditional races like elves. I'm going to continue…
Mikailo
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6 answers

Two protagonists where one is dark - a mistake?

I'm currently writing a tale with two protagonists. One of them is a dark protagonist - that is, technically evil. The other protagonist is not evil. I'm wondering if this will cause the reader to gravitate toward the good protagonist. I have a way…
Thomas Reinstate Monica Myron
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Should I be concerned with my fiction writing containing accidental prophecies of real world events?

I'm writing a book (only a hobby, but I hope I can publish it one day). I've started writing a while ago and setting was somewhat of a near-future of an alternative reality. In my book, political situation in several countries changed dramatically.…
Alissa
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18
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10 answers

Is there a method to estimating the length of a work before writing it?

I am writing my first novel, which I think likely will end up being several volumes. Although I have a lot of experience in poetry and short stories, this is a very different challenge! My question is about estimating the length of a work prior to…
DoctorWhom
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What is the requirement for a book to be a NYT Bestseller?

I've seen "New York Times Bestseller" written across the top of more books than I can count. It seems every other book I look at has this advertisement, so much so that I discount it as a meaningful accomplishment. But what does it really mean? Is…
StrixVaria
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