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1500 questions
13
votes
3 answers
Shifting tenses in the middle of narration
I am writing a short story where the narrator is recording a message to his daughter about some tragic event and in between the narration, the narrator sometimes tries to address directly his daughter.
Basically, the narrator recounts his story in…
Jerard Dela Victoria
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How to show, not tell, a character has an accent in the narrative?
India has a diverse range of languages and accents. Moreover, people from different parts of the country have different accents of speaking the same language as well. For example, a person from Gujarat state tends to speak English in an altogether…
Karan Desai
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13
votes
5 answers
How to foreshadow to avoid a 'deus ex machina'-construction
The plot in my story revolves around a certain ability of the MC that is normally not available, unless the circumstances are just right. Therefore, it is not mentioned in the story as a solution to the MC's problem, as the ability is considered to…
Century
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13
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7 answers
Should I describe a character deeply before killing it?
So, I have this little story I would like to tell.
It's about a girl and how she's forced to take a journey with the man who has just killed her father.
I'll skip the details. The point is I'm not interested in the figure of her father; for what I…
Andrea Panda Zen
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13
votes
6 answers
How do I write a romance that doesn't look obvious
I'm writing a story, it's not focused on romance, but that's an important part as well. The point is that I have two characters and I ended up ("accidentally") seeing chemistry between them, they have a good dynamic. With that, I really want to know…
Ana Clara Moreira
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13
votes
4 answers
I don't want to be introduced as a "Minority Novelist"
I started writing a novel directly tied to my background in which the protagonist and her surrounding environment have many characteristics in common with mine.
As I wrote the first chapter, I realized that my novel idea is heavily dependent on…
tawsonfield
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13
votes
5 answers
Sense of humor in your sci-fi stories
What kind of humor do you find appropriate for your sci-fi stories?
I realize that the question might seem so broad, but I think the target group for most sci-fi stories has a sense of humor that could be specified to some extent. For example do you…
Javor
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13
votes
4 answers
Does it make sense to (partially) create a conlang that you don't intend to actually use in the story?
The story that I'm currently working on is in a very far future. Clearly, people will speak a different language then.
Now, I wondered if it can make sense to (partially) create a conlang for the story even though I don't plan to write anything in…
celtschk
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13
votes
6 answers
How to write a convincing religious myth?
In my story the protagonist hears, in a temple ceremony, the reading of a religious/mythological text. Now in the actual story, I don't need the text itself (the role of the text in context, and the protagonist's reaction to it are the important…
celtschk
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13
votes
7 answers
Is it okay to have a sequel start immediately after the end of the first book?
The sequel to my first book is supposed to start immediately after the end of the first book. Zero time gap.
Situation: At the end of book one a missing family member has finally joined the family. No interaction from the joining member occurs at…
Igor
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13
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9 answers
My characters sound too eloquent. How can I strike a balance?
Here's a critique I've received more than once: "your character talks like a character from a book. He's too eloquent, nobody really talks like that, unless they grew up in a library."
Now, to some extent, characters not talking like we really do is…
Galastel supports GoFundMonica
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13
votes
7 answers
How do you build a story from a world?
I have some material for a "world" (more fantasy than sci-fi at this point). I've noodled around with this world off-and-on for ages but have never had a story to put in the world. I have some brief character descriptions for the regional…
Terri Simon
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13
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6 answers
Is it ok to put a subplot to a story that is never meant to contribute to the development of the main plot?
Is it ok to put a subplot to a story that is never meant to contribute to the development of the main plot? In Game of Thrones season 8, a lot of the subplots that were explored in previous seasons were completely dismissed or ignored. While this is…
Sayaman
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13
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2 answers
"[x] minutes to read?" How do they calculate that?
I've noticed a lot of platforms (blogs and such) list how long they estimate for a specific essay/post/article to take for the average reader. How is this calculated?
I always read fast, so I can't just time myself -- plus, if adding a…
April Salutes Monica C.
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13
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2 answers
How to avoid introduction cliches
I'm writing a research paper in one of my math classes about the P vs NP problem. I feel the introduction to my paper sounds like a cliche. This is my intro:
In the field of mathematics, there are problems that present an
exceptional level of…
Mettal
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