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1500 questions
13
votes
10 answers
Thoroughly Despicable Characters
I'm midway through a Masters in Creative Writing. My tutor recently told me (something like): each character deserves a chance to be liked by the reader.
I didn't want people to like the particular character I was working on and so it got me to…
robertcday
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13
votes
3 answers
What liberties can I take with the monarchies in my own world?
Could a writer make up his own rules, for a monarchy he created, in a world of his own making?
My question is whether I can completely disregard the rules and regulations of real-life monarchies, except for the very basest of them? This would…
Jack Rabbit
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13
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4 answers
How can I distance myself from an article published under my name, with edits I disagree with?
I wrote an article for a university newspaper that summarizes incidents involving racism on campus. After edits, the sentence structure became uniformly long instead of varied, straightforward vocabulary was placed with ten-dollar words, and two…
Anonymous Student
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13
votes
9 answers
Source ideas for monsters in a fantasy novel?
Does anyone have any suggestions on where to go to get some ideas on different types of monsters that can be created for a fantasy novel? I'm not talking about different variations of zombies or vampires, but rather something more unique and…
Steven Drennon
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13
votes
4 answers
How to write two seemingly different characters that are actually the same person?
I'm currently working on a book with two protagonists and switching the perspective between them. They have quite different plotlines, but actually they're the same person. English is not my first language, and in my language a subject always has a…
gibihakkasy
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13
votes
4 answers
Are "morning pages" useful?
I've found an interesting private online journaling website: 750words.com
From "About" section of the website:
I've long been inspired by an idea I first learned about in The Artist's Way called morning pages. Morning pages are three pages of…
rem
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13
votes
5 answers
Can I use my legal name as the protagonist if I'm pitching my book to traditional publishers under a pen name?
Can I use my legal name as the protagonist if I'm pitching my book to traditional publishers under a pen name?
Would I be rejected for doing this?
writersam
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13
votes
8 answers
What are standard techniques that indicate to the documentation reader that they are to substitute their own appropriate text (e.g. username, domain)?
When reading manuals or guides, I can easily get confused between what is meant to be example text, and what is actually meant to be used.
For example, sometimes the username to login to use a product might be "user". How do I indicate to the new…
MechtEngineer
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13
votes
6 answers
How to describe an everyday routine?
I have a character who is living through a very regular everyday routine for a longer time, let's say a couple of months. How do I describe this routine and give the impression of time passing by in an interesting way?
Lukas D. Sauer
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votes
4 answers
Where can I find resources about writing "Choose your own adventure"-style books?
I have read/played a couple of "Choose your own adventure"-style book and am interested in the process of creating one.
Where can I find (preferrably free) online resources, such as How-To-Write or styleguide articles and blogs, about writing a…
Secespitus
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13
votes
3 answers
When publishing a Fantasy novel, do I look for a specific Fantasy-only publisher, editor, and/or agent?
When attempting to publish a fantasy book, how will I go about selecting a publisher? Is it possible to find a list of publishers that publish specifically fantasy books?
Similar to publishers being genre-specific, does this apply for agents?…
bdrelling
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13
votes
9 answers
How to expand my vocabulary?
I wanted to write something for a long time. But what I think is, in writing the choice of words plays a very significant role. From where I can learn this thing?
I think I don't have enough words in my active vocabulary to write what I feel or want…
Harshit kyal
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13
votes
5 answers
Do modern readers believe the first person narrator can't die?
Back in highschool in the 90s we had an assignment to write an extra chapter for a book. After some discussion the teacher told us that under no circumstances can we kill the protagonist as the book was being told in first person and therefore the…
Andrey
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13
votes
7 answers
What's gained from NaNoWriMo?
Generally, I understand NaNoWriMo to have the goal of writing a complete novel (at least a first draft) during the month of November. To reach "novel" word count, this requires writing approximately 2000 words per day, on average, for the entire…
Zeiss Ikon
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13
votes
5 answers
Should a conlang be translated?
Diving (OK, dove) into conlanging for a novel I'm working on. The conlang is atmospheric and allows for some subplot intrigue, but it's not absolutely essential to the story. I've got basic grammar, punctuation, and syntax. My question is about…
patrick
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