Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
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4 answers

How to vary writing style?

I just had to edit a 40 page paper and I'm not kidding, there were paragraphs where every sentence started with "This." How do good writers learn to vary their sentence length and wording to flow? I don't feel I have this problem when I'm writing…
Phil Salesses
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4 answers

Is discovery or outline writing connected to personality type (e.g. MBTI)?

I'm on a bit of a Myers-Briggs spree at the moment (which is dangerous, because it is so easy to read way more into it than you are supposed to). For those of you who are not familiar with it, it is a personality test based on theories by Carl Jung,…
erikric
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3 answers

Is Scrivener involved in the editorial process, or is it strictly a writer's development tool?

Is there any reason that an editor should know how to use Scrivener? I generally see manuscripts after they're out of draft but before proofreading. (I'm an editor.) However, I see a lot of talk about Scrivener on this site, and I'd like to know…
Goodbye Stack Exchange
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18
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5 answers

How do I write romance if I've never been in love?

I've been trying to write a good romance but it's falling a little flat. I think it might be because I've never been in love before. My favorite genre is romance (for reading and writing), but I'm kind of bad at writing it. I think it might be…
Diana Zhou
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18
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10 answers

Is it possible to write a short story in 500 words?

There is a short story contest where the limit is five hundred (500) words and I want to know if that is a possible limit for a short story?
Felisha
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18
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4 answers

Writing about real people - not giving offence

The Spy is a Netflix series about Israeli spy and hero Eli Cohen. In a recent interview, Eli's widow Nadia expresses great dissatisfaction with the series: a lot of changes were made, ostensibly to "add drama", that in her opinion diminish him. She…
Galastel supports GoFundMonica
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18
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5 answers

Spicing up a moment of peace

In the ever swinging tone of a novel, one may wish to show a moment of peace amidst all the chaos. In my novel it happens a few times, most notably when characters are travelling across vast natural landscapes, or when they gaze at the stars at…
NofP
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18
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8 answers

How to describe POV characters?

I want to describe my first person perspective character who's narrating without doing the Wattpad "mirror scene." How would I go about this?
thelonelywriter
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6 answers

Is it bad to describe a character long after their introduction?

I have a tendency to forget to describe character's appearance. But I always describe them, though often a little while after their introduction. So, how long after someone's introduction is "acceptable" to describe them? In my case, (the case that…
A. Kvåle
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18
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4 answers

Would it be a copyright violation if I made a character’s full name refer to a song?

I want to write a realistic fiction book similar to Thomas Hardy’s works, where he used techniques and Biblical references (they were also called allusions) to make his writing more meaningful, and to prove points about Victorian society. I am…
Edmund Frost
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18
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8 answers

Can I bring back Planetary Romance as a genre?

This question is about genre and reader expectations. I'm not trying to change my story to fit a mainstream genre. I have already taken steps to broaden it's appeal, but it's too late to create an entirely different type of story. I'm writing and…
wetcircuit
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18
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6 answers

In a series of books, what happens after the coming of age?

I'm writing a novel focusing on a single character POV. For many aspects, it can be considered a coming of age story; along with the usual tropes of the hero's journey, my protagonist gradually learn something of the world she lives in, acquires…
Liquid
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18
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11 answers

How can I make names more distinctive without making them longer?

In the point-of-view culture in my story, all of the women in priestly families have two-syllable names beginning with vowels. (There are reasons for this, but they're completely unrelated to my question.) I've gotten feedback from a beta reader…
Monica Cellio
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18
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7 answers

Indicating multiple different modes of speech (fantasy language or telepathy)

All the viewpoint characters in my story are orcs and speak Orcish as their native tongue, but some are bilingual: they use English to talk to humans. Additionally, the main character has a magic power: she speaks with djinns telepathically, and it…
Robyn
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18
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9 answers

When should a starting writer get his own webpage?

I've heard and read from many vlogger and blogger authors that an aspiring writer should have his own webpage as early as possible. Being published or not doesn't come to it. Now, if I created a webpage for myself, I assume I need to post my…
iamtowrite
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