Writing Stack Exchange
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1500 questions
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6 answers

How do I avoid legal repercussions for writing a story based on events in my life?

How do I avoid legal repercussions for writing a story based on events in my life? Mainly, I have experienced events that I would like to share with the world. These events are somewhat disturbing and would expose the truly spiteful side of an…
timidlyunafraid
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Avoiding foot¬e disease

In his answer to Our note in footnote of a book, Malvolio writes: I hate numbered foot-notes personally, they're very distracting Which I agree with, but his recommendation, to use endnotes, I find much more more distracting: what havoc is played…
Charles Stewart
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5 answers

Single author scientific paper, 'we' or 'I'?

I am authoring a single author paper. Usually when referring to oneself in a paper, 'we' is used. In single author papers I found both 'we' and 'I' (e.g., 'here we/I report xyz'). Which one is stylistically better? To me 'we' seems odd when I read a…
Dahlai
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1 answer

How do I find an affordable editor?

I wrote a few chapters of a book several years ago. How do I find an affordable editor?
Phil C
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11
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6 answers

How should I "remind" the reader of something that they may have forgotten?

Say there is a small detail in the beginning of the book that has a big effect later on. The reader might've forgotten about that by the time they get to that part. How should I remind the reader about the detail, other than straight-up saying…
clickbait
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11
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10 answers

An alternative to saying 'users' when describing features

I'm creating some copy describing new web-app features for a number of different audiences (users, managers of sections of the site, owners of sub-sites which use our platform etc.). I'm finding myself using 'users' constantly: "Users will now be…
robomc
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11
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4 answers

Using "show not tell" while characters are planning for something that happens

In a narrative I'm writing, the characters have to plan an escape from a facility. The thing is, they'll be doing the actual escape in the chapter following them planning. I know usually the right way to go is to show, not tell. But, if I show the…
RE Lavender
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11
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9 answers

Why not God as our subject?

Certainly there are many Science Fiction writers who touch upon the subject of beings supreme to Man...but always Man is central in writing.
Doctor Zhivago
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11
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2 answers

How to clarify the objects of a sentence's two pronouns?

I am trying to describe a process. There are two players in the scenario. Player A tries to find player B. If player A finds player B, then player A tags player B. Something like that. Here is an example: A fox tries to find a rabbit that is…
feeling_lonely
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11
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7 answers

How to switch pov characters mid-scene without jarring the reader?

I am writing a novel wherein there are many characters whose thoughts are key to telling it properly. In an earlier draft, I attempted to have any given chapter told from the point of view of exactly one character, but that turned out to be…
StrixVaria
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11
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2 answers

Starting a sentence with the name of a program or command-line tool: capitalization?

Say you want to talk about a piece of command-line software, like make or bash or the cp command. These commands are all lower-case, and case-sensitive (i.e. won't work on the computer if you capitalize them), and also often double as the names of…
interfect
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3 answers

How to describe a diverse set of characters without falling into purple prose or exoticism?

In my setting, a city was founded by people from all over the world, and developed in almost complete isolation (long version here). The story in itself starts several generations after the foundation. All inhabitants of the city have mixed origins,…
Babika Babaka
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11
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7 answers

How to demonstrate an evolution of magic without it seeming like it is improvised?

I'm writing a fantasy novel, in which the story progresses over a number of years. Throughout the story, I want to display an evolution of the magic, much like technology evolves in our world. The speed of the magic evolution would begin slowly but…
Mike.C.Ford
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11
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8 answers

How can I keep secret a major detail known to the POV protagonist?

How do you write a story where the point-of-view character knows something, but you want to keep it a secret from the reader until later in the story? How do you effectively suppress a vital detail for effect later, on without adversely impacting…
Kai Maxfield
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2 answers

Waiting for response to full MS

About three months ago, an agent that I had queried responded with a request for the full manuscript of the novel that I had written to her about. It's now been nearly three months, and I haven't heard anything back. What's a reasonable amount of…
JSBձոգչ
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