Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
19
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7 answers

Taking notes while reading

I read books for fun and to help my writing. I want to remember the cool things I read, but I don't want to distract from the enjoyment of reading. Any suggestions on how to take notes or better recall plots/characters/interesting facts/random ideas…
snitzr
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6 answers

How to deal with a story that 95% of it takes place in a different language country and the protagonist speaks in it?

The protagonist is from a certain country, and in some point of the story he moves to another one that speaks another language. The protagonist learns their language and talks with them in it. Movies (usually North American ones) set in another…
Yuuza
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7 answers

How rough should a rough draft be

For a long time I would edit chapters as I wrote them, to make them as complete as possible. Unfortunately this often resulted in me running out of steam and never actually finishing them. I've recently started trying to allow myself to write…
Michael B
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9 answers

Resources on plotting mystery stories

I'm looking for books, essays and articles on plotting mystery/detective/investigation stories (and novels). The type of story I'm aiming for is in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, or Asimov's Robots/Elijah Baley novels. It seems to me…
Standback
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3 answers

When do I explain my created world scenario in a prologue vs. letting it unfold in the story?

Let's say I'm creating a unique world for my book. New planet, maybe new species, complex society with complex rules, history, government, and so on. Some of these details are absolutely necessary to understand the plot of the story. There are two…
Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
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7 answers

Problem: Scenes that are unavoidable, but boring

More specifically: Two of my book series' main characters are (temporarily) diplomats. It's unavoidable to the progress of the plot. But diplomacy is inherently slow and boring. So, the general question is: How does one handle boring but…
dmm
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7 answers

Can I self-publish on a reputable publishing platform, and how much would it cost?

With the barrier to having a publisher sign a new author seemingly high, especially without prior success or experience, are there any good author-funded alternatives out there to the repeated mailing of manuscripts out to additional publishing…
QuickerSnarkerBacker
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18
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5 answers

What does active voice mean?

I was reading on here about passive voice but didn't really know what active voice was. I read some examples but was hoping for more insight. What does it mean to write with the active voice?
johnny
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18
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9 answers

How can I learn to write straight on blank paper?

My handwriting is very bad on unruled paper. How can I learn to write straight and nice on blank paper?
user707264
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6 answers

What is "head popping" and why is it bad?

Most of my writing experience has been with first person, nonfiction stories. Now I want to try some fiction. I'm working in third person, but I'm a little bit confused about how to pull something off. Okay, say I'm telling the story from character…
Tim Elhajj
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6 answers

Grammarly editing my effects, should I keep them or listen to Grammarly?

I am a non-native English speaker. Grammarly is an online writing assistant. This is a line in my draft I liked the office, and I liked the environment-- the minimalist furniture, the Macs and Xerox machines, the coffee room, and the lounge. I…
The White Cloud
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3 answers

Do I need copyright permission to rewrite an old classic?

I'm planning to rewrite some old classics such as "Oliver Twist", "David Copperfield", "Jane Eyre", etc. in simple English. They will be abridged adaptations (with due credit given to the original author of course) of the originals. I'm aiming to…
srini
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11 answers

How do I write about hacking and hackers?

Now, I don't want to learn hacking (but if I learn some I learn some), but I am writing a cyberpunk story so I need to have some idea what's going on. And, maybe how I can use VR to make it more interesting to the readers. I don't mind complex…
Clair
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What techniques are used to plot long (multi-novel) story arcs?

As a very visual person, I have always considered plotting a story to be somewhat like knitting or macrame. How do series authors handle multi novel story arcs? Do they just keep throwing out lines and pick them up when they feel the need to pull…
Larry Smithmier
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4 answers

How do you map out your storyline?

There are various ways for mapping out the storyline that you will use for a story. One of them is to create a bullet-point outline, which would theoretically be useful because of the hierarchy system that you can make, but as it goes along you…
JFW
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