Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
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3 answers

What sites are available for hosting Choose Your Own Adventure stories?

I'm working on a story that is like a Choose Your Own Adventure, but different. Instead of being "you" and deciding what to do next, the reader must choose which characters participate at what time. By choosing the characters, you then get to follow…
user102021
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10 answers

Writing Unequal Societies (Without Supporting Inequality)

Historically, most occidental cultures (and many other ones) were strongly biased against women. Women were effectively barred from the vast majority of occupations - sometimes actively, and sometimes more insidiously. Women who defied this (eg.…
Watercleave
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5 answers

What should my redraft phase entail?

I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing and he's got quite a lot to say about the redraft phase. He explains his working method. Write with the door closed, just for him and create a 1st draft as quickly as possible Put the book in a drawer and…
Liath
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Case study headings

I'm going to be preparing several case studies for my company and I'm pondering what patterns to use for headings—both the case study title and headings within a case study. I'd like the reader to: be motivated to read on get a picture of what the…
Tin Man
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9 answers

Where do I start?

Let’s say I’ve created an outline, have explored my characters properly, and have properly broken down each scene to an appropriate level of detail. I know the story, I know the pacing, and I know where I’m gonna got add conflict and emotion. I’m…
Liath
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4 answers

Antagonist lacks motivation - where do I find it?

My triller has an Antagonist who is classified as a sociopath and narcissist. He becomes infatuated with my MC who is an Ex-Army sergeant making a living in close protection services. He sees that they have both been treated unfairly by the "system"…
Karma
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5 answers

How do I balance work with my love of writing?

I'm a programmer and an aspiring writer. I love writing. Over the past year, I had been working on my first novel. Making the plot, dimensioning the characters, integrating conflicts etc. And when I started writing the novel, Snap! came a financial…
Amin Mohamed Ajani
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6 answers

Any software for video game non-linear story design?

Is there any software for making non-linear story or dialogues? I tried MS Word/Google Docs but that's not good for dialogues. In one complicated dialogue I wrote in Google Drawings, it looks like this (Ignore those ticks; I think it's not final…
Chilli
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8 answers

An engineering student wants to write fiction, where to start?

I'm a computer engineering student, programmer, avid book lover and have a very vivid (some would say "screwed up") mind. I recently thought up an idea for a very cool short/medium story. It's like a less technological version of the matrix with…
nopcorn
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Is there a standardized size for Books?

I noticed that my softcover/paperback books are all roughly the same size, but have slight differences. Are there standardized sizes (and are they different between US and Europe, just as US Letter and Din A4 are different?) or does each publisher…
Michael Stum
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5 answers

How do you drop a reader in the middle of nowhere at the beginning of a story?

My story begins with a little girl waking up in a creepy and probably very haunted house in the middle of nowhere. She has no memories of how she got there, what happened or what the place even is, but she does remember who she is. The main goal of…
user23083
12
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4 answers

Can "numbers" be good doc performance metrics? Is there a way to meaningfully interpret the quantitative user data we gather?

I work on developer documentation at a tech startup. As of now, we implement the following feedback mechanisms: We have a thumbs-up/down feedback system on each page of the docs site. If a user clicks thumbs-down, we show a pop-up with more…
newcritter
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8 answers

What are standard techniques that indicate to the documentation reader that they are to substitute their own appropriate text (e.g. username, domain)?

When reading manuals or guides, I can easily get confused between what is meant to be example text, and what is actually meant to be used. For example, sometimes the username to login to use a product might be "user". How do I indicate to the new…
MechtEngineer
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3 answers

How to effectively document a product composed of complex microservices?

I have a highly flexible software product consisting of a series of loosely coupled microservices. Each component is effective at a single job, but may be dependent on inputs from other services. It is expected that additional services will be added…
Jason Fox
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How can I ensure that my documentation is understandable both for native and non-native speakers?

In short: When writing documentation that will be read both by Anglophones and non-native speakers of English who have various levels of language proficiency, how do I make sure that both these recipient groups find the text comprehensible and easy…
user23425
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