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1500 questions
24
votes
12 answers
In a series, do the stakes have to be higher than in the book before?
Imagine you have a series of books: Book 1 through Book 6. Do the stakes in book 2 have to be bigger than the stakes in book 1? The same question applies with each book in relation to the one before it.
I know you don't have to, but would it be best…
Wyvern123
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24
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3 answers
Want to publish unpublished work found in an auction storage unit
I started buying storage auctions in the middle of this year. In the third one I bought I ran across an unpublished manuscript for a fiction book U Boat treasure by Charles Hand.
He has no published works besides a boar hunter magazine, he was not…
Rocky Pal
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24
votes
6 answers
How do discovery writers hibernate?
I am 20% outliner and 80% discovery writer, (I know many will object that this is not possible) meaning, I have a very brief outline of what is going to happen in the end and then I go on filling the story in discovery writing way.
At the moment I…
The White Cloud
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24
votes
10 answers
Can a successful book series let the bad guy win?
I have a five book series and I have plotted them all out. The main bad guy wins in the end. My problem with this is my girlfriend keeps telling me that bad guys winning will make readers upset that they invested in the heroes only for them to die…
icefire
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24
votes
14 answers
How do I present a future free of gender stereotypes without being jarring or overpowering the narrative?
My story takes place in a relatively near future setting where gender stereotypes have become a thing of the past. Unlike a recent question on another site, physiological sex-specific traits are still very much present in society, but they no longer…
Robert Columbia
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24
votes
8 answers
How much character growth crosses the line into breaking the character
(not a duplicate of Character Development - How much is too much? because that one is more about "overreaction" to smaller events.)
TL;DR: How much can a character change without becoming unrecognizable? How can you indicate character growth…
April Salutes Monica C.
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24
votes
14 answers
Do I really need to have a scientific explanation for my premise?
So, in my post-apocalyptic novel, the world was caught up in an international war (basically WWIII), and all the world's nuclear superpowers launched their warheads and killed much of the global population. Ambient radiation from the nuclear…
user34214
24
votes
11 answers
Is it bad to have no gender variety?
The majority of stories, movies, shows, comics, and other media I've read or seen have a pretty even split between men and women, and that's fine, I don't have a problem with it.
But if I want to write a story that's centered around two girls…
user34214
24
votes
12 answers
Problems Blending Sci-fi & Traditional Fantasy?
I have been cautioned against blending:
Traditional fantasy elements
Such as magic systems and exotic, less plausible creatures (on a scientific level - magic tends to explain away these beasts)
Traditional sci-fi elements
Such as advanced…
DVNO
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24
votes
15 answers
Should I add racism in my book's world or have my world have no racism?
I've been writing a children's novel inspired by action cartoons, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, paganism/Wicca, mythology and Harry Potter. It's a very dark children's book I'll admit, but Harry Potter was dark for a children's book and it's…
Willfire Z Tiger
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24
votes
7 answers
Character is an expert on something I'm not
My OC Edward, who I thought of quite a while ago but haven't done anything with, is a professional cyber spy and hacker. He's employed by an organization (in the future, of course) that is basically trying to curate all the data in the world,…
user34214
24
votes
6 answers
Explaining made up card game
In my book I've made up a card game where I've already thought out the rules. Now I want some of the characters playing this game.
My questions are:
Should the reader know the rules?
If I want to explain these rules, where is better to do so,…
programmer23
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24
votes
11 answers
How to write a PG13 Succubus character?
I am currently writing a character that represents Lust and is a demonic entity... but to tone it down for a YA audience.
I thought of trying to make them "Love-based" instead, but I always envision Love as a virtue.
This character is not a bad…
user31145
24
votes
18 answers
What should I do when I am stuck on names during freewriting?
If I get hung up choosing a name for a character, should I come back to it later? Or should I try to figure one out? I feel like sometimes I have some momentum going forward and taking too much time to select a name stops said momentum.
Luke Snell
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votes
2 answers
When documenting Python, when should I use docstrings and when should I use comments?
Python programming language provides two mechanisms for documenting a function, a module or a class:
Comments and
Documentation strings (or Docstring).
Both can be accessed by reading the source code, but the latter is also available by calling…
DYZ
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