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7 answers
How to continually and organically let my readers know what time it is in my story?
My novel takes place in a big world, with MANY POVs. Although I know when things are happening, I am afraid my reader doesn't know, due to the aforementioned fact. I do not want my reader to be confused, and become unfocused on the story because…
A. Kvåle
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Is every story set in the future "science fiction"?
Science Fiction is a "big tent" genre, and we all know it when we see it. Even if we argue about the specific tropes – and what might make something lean heavily towards another classification (science-fantasy, speculative fiction, etc), is every…
wetcircuit
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Identifying and managing weak scenes during planning
I structured my plot, designed the path to the climax, listed my characters and even outlined some scenes. Then halfway through I got stuck: one minor transition scene just did not make sense. The characters in it couldn't possibly behave like I…
NofP
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12 answers
How to explain the main plot with science based concepts, without the non-sci-fi fans getting bored?
Let me explain: I'm writing a game where the Earth gets a massive biological attack from an alien race in the close future, and only a small part of the planet's life survived (few dozens of humans and animals).
The explanations for those events are…
Guilherme
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First quarter friends
As I've mentioned before, I'm working on a military sci-fi novel.
Here's the trouble with the military: you don't spend all of your service, start to finish, with the same people. Not all the people you've done Basic Training with will proceed to…
Galastel supports GoFundMonica
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13 answers
How to present an alien culture with different morals, without it coming across as savage?
For a fiction story of mine (probably fantasy, if I had to categorize it), I've set it in a world that is in some ways similar to Earth, and in other ways very dissimilar from Earth. In place of humans, there's a race of sentient, intelligent…
user
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6 answers
Should we add a character in a story for realistic effect?
In my novel, the protagonist is divorced and moves from London to another city in Britain. The setting is 2013. The protagonist is depressed and stressed out; in real life, such a person would see a psychiatrist. This will be a realistic…
White Cloud
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6 answers
Not projecting myself onto my characters
I have struggled with mental illness for my entire life. Writing has been an extremely helpful and important mode of self-expression for me, since I was little. But recently, I feel like my writing has reached a point where my stories are all…
user34214
20
votes
5 answers
Can I give a lecture about my book without disclosing my real name?
I have a non-fiction book about language learning, entrepreneurship, productivity and personal growth in general. The problem is: I have published this book using a pen name (pseudonym). I would prefer to keep myself anonymous, as the book is filled…
Chaotic
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What is a beat?
I keep hearing the word "beat" in Writers.SE, as in "... break your scene into beats" from this question. What is a beat? How is it different from a scene?
Shantnu Tiwari
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10 answers
How to make a repeating plot "slice" not annoying
In my fantasy novels, I don't want to kill anyone off, I just want to get them injured, like badly. I made up numerous believable excuses for this (low-violence, a genuine will to live on the enemies' part, magnetically levitated trauma plates, long…
Mephistopheles
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5 answers
Brands to use, brands not to use
Inspired by GGx's question Will traditional publishers force you to remove brands?
I would probably not want to mention a brand name of a small brand in my work: a small brand might not want to be associated with a fictional work because of…
Galastel supports GoFundMonica
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3 answers
Pros and Cons of different styles of publishing
I was reading on the meta site that someone thinks we're hostile to self-publishing, and I read over some old questions looking for evidence. I didn't really find signs of hostility, but I certainly did see several people expressing concerns about…
Kate S.
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5 answers
The psychology of finishing a piece of fiction
I have a psychological oddity when it comes to my own writing (particularly fiction, and particularly longer work). Obviously it may just be a personal problem, but perhaps other people have similar issues:
When I am working on my (longer) writing,…
Chris Sunami
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20
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15 answers
What pronoun should a hermaphrodite species use?
In my fantasy novel, I have a species that is fully hermaphroditic: all individuals have both male and female reproductive organs. Like garden snails. Consequently, they have only one gender.
They explicitly state that they don't mind when confused…
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