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Basic Writing questions is not a crit forum. All crits belong in Share Your Work
What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?
- Thread starter Undercover
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Hmmm....just maybe a tad sexist. And I'm a guy. Remember WWII? I would rewrite it, if you are inclined to keep it.
Some say the way to a woman's heart can be bought with Chocolate.
Chocolate can buy some women's hearts, but not all.
Chocolate can be a great opener to a woman's heart.
Agree that I'd need context to be sure, but if it works for the POV character, I'd say you can let it ride.
I'm having such a dilemma while editing my manuscript! POV's are just too confusing.
In my fantasy novel, I have the protagonists POV, then every two chapters or so i switch to a character half the world away and use her POV. This has worked fine so far but now the second character disappears until the next novel. I want to replace her POV with an semi-antagonist that is introduced halfway into the book. Is this a good idea?
In my fantasy novel, I have the protagonists POV, then every two chapters or so i switch to a character half the world away and use her POV. This has worked fine so far but now the second character disappears until the next novel. I want to replace her POV with an semi-antagonist that is introduced halfway into the book. Is this a good idea?
Agree that I'd need context to be sure, but if it works for the POV character, I'd say you can let it ride.
This. It doesn't really matter if the line is sexist to the reader or not so long as it's appropriate to the character those thoughts belong to, or the setting of the book.
I'm having such a dilemma while editing my manuscript! POV's are just too confusing.
In my fantasy novel, I have the protagonists POV, then every two chapters or so i switch to a character half the world away and use her POV. This has worked fine so far but now the second character disappears until the next novel. I want to replace her POV with an semi-antagonist that is introduced halfway into the book. Is this a good idea?
There's not a problem with this at all. Plenty of writers introduce new POV characters, some of whom may only appear once. If it works for the structure of the book, drives the story forward, or as long as it keeps the reader's intention, then I say go for it.
Not sure if working on an 1860's style dress is procrastination or not (I write in that era), but the project definitely seems to be consuming what might otherwise be writing time . . .
On the plus side, I know what it's like to wear a corset and hoop skirt now and have a much better appreciation for the work (and yards of fabric) that went into those dresses ladies wore in the 1860s.
I'm putting it aside for a bit and will get back to editing like a good girl.
On the plus side, I know what it's like to wear a corset and hoop skirt now and have a much better appreciation for the work (and yards of fabric) that went into those dresses ladies wore in the 1860s.
I'm putting it aside for a bit and will get back to editing like a good girl.
Hey, if I get to count drinking martinis as period research, then you can certainly count hands-on experience with period costume.
(I can count drinking martinis, can't I?)
Working out the societal balance of a two-tiered magic system whereby you have wizards, who devote their lives to studying magic to master it, and then you have sorcerers for whom magic is as instinctive as breathing.
Trying to get the interaction between the two down. Current feeling is the sorcerers being shunned and largely feared while the wizards are revered, but that entire dynamic being a result of a long and constant spouting of propaganda by wizards largely to cover up their own hubristic failings which is what led to sorcerers even being a thing to begin with.
Like wizards tampered with some ancient knowledge they didn't understand and tore reality which let magic bleed in from beyond the veil and create people who are naturally infused with it, so wizards just want them hated and sidelined so nobody ever tries to really bother finding out their origins and realising that it was the wizard clases that messed with the fabric of reality and very possibly doomed all of creation.
Trying to get the interaction between the two down. Current feeling is the sorcerers being shunned and largely feared while the wizards are revered, but that entire dynamic being a result of a long and constant spouting of propaganda by wizards largely to cover up their own hubristic failings which is what led to sorcerers even being a thing to begin with.
Like wizards tampered with some ancient knowledge they didn't understand and tore reality which let magic bleed in from beyond the veil and create people who are naturally infused with it, so wizards just want them hated and sidelined so nobody ever tries to really bother finding out their origins and realising that it was the wizard clases that messed with the fabric of reality and very possibly doomed all of creation.
Hey, if I get to count drinking martinis as period research, then you can certainly count hands-on experience with period costume.
(I can count drinking martinis, can't I?)
Yes, drinking martinis counts. I say so; therefore, it is so.
Carry on.
Been thinking about some of my long-term goals. They seem so distant I wonder if I’ll ever get there.
Cheers!
To the thread topic: I don’t think I’m going to be able to cut that story down to 5000 words, so I’ll be shopping it elsewhere than that particular contest. It’s been a good exercise, and really forced me to think about what is essential to the story and what can go, and what can be said in fewer words.
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Throwing the production notes I'd written for this year's NaNo out the window. Since Saturday 11/10, I've determined that my MC has been through rehab as an adult, contemplated suicide during that time, and attempted it about a year before the story begins, when he was 16.
Do not blame flu shots because you caught a cold at the same time. Placebo controlled studies show it's not the flu shot making you ill. Epidemiological studies show a lot of viral pathogens circulate during the same months we give flu shots. [/sidetrack]
I'm annoyed my writing looks dorky until it's on the page and edited half a dozen times.
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I know - that was an attempt at humor. Needless to say, I suck at writing comedy.
Sorry, my apologies for jerking my knee.
I'm one of those medical providers that deals with vaccine myths, especially this time of year.
Thank you for the work you put in fighting on the front linesI'm one of those medical providers that deals with vaccine myths, especially this time of year.
Yeah, seconding that. Can still work if the writing's stellar, or if the expectation is played with in some way (I still fondly remember a short story where a guy was sending out chocolates on Valentine's Day to get women to come to him, and it became apparent that he was a morgue attendant sending out *poisoned* chocolates), or if the narrator is clearly working in the context where he says "women" but just means "uncommitted straight women".
But if it's played straight, then--as a married woman who buys dozens of books a year and gets reeeeaaaallly bored by guys who act like Godiva or jewelry would make me dump my husband--I'd eyeroll hard and move on.
So I've got a work (of unpublishable length--currently 16,400, so well below the 20K people are beginning to consider for novellas, but set that aside for the moment), and it's spec fic, but the spec fic elements really only become explicit 3/4ths of the way through the story.
Thoughts on the logistics of telling it backwards? Of starting with the dénouement, going to the climax that reveals the spec fic elements, and then moving back through the first encounter with the weird element?
Thoughts on the logistics of telling it backwards? Of starting with the dénouement, going to the climax that reveals the spec fic elements, and then moving back through the first encounter with the weird element?
I need to pay someone to not only make me actually do writing but also to stop me when my imagination runs away into bombastic fantasy lands of what could be in the future of a massive series I have stretching out hypothetically before me, rather than focusing on what I need to be writing right now to actually get anything done in a more realistic framing.
Basically I'm trying to write Infinity War while I don't have the details of Iron Man 1 nailed down yet, and it's massively distracting.
Basically I'm trying to write Infinity War while I don't have the details of Iron Man 1 nailed down yet, and it's massively distracting.
Entered a thriller contest for the heck of it. Actually, it was for mystery/thriller novels. Mine was espionage, so I figured I qualified. I'm totally bored. Announcing a new release is not creative at all, which makes me escape in all kinds of directions.
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Trying to shorten a long draft - I have already killed all the obvious darlings and now am having to really hunt for them, which is probably why I'm so easily distracted right now. I've spent far too much time online trying to find credible people saying, "Don't worry about word count for your first novel. Agents and editors totally love having more of your brilliant work to read and obviously bigger books sell better." Just because something's NOT on the internet doesn't make it NOT true, does it?
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I am on chapter 12 of my NaNoWriMo novel, and I'm supposed to be on chapter 18. I am going to try to write 3 chapters today, as each chapter is 2,000 words, and try to write three more chapters tomorrow. I need to get caught up. Otherwise, I am not going to win NaNoWriMo.
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Update: I did it. I wrote 3 chapters yesterday. Now, to get caught up, I'm gonna write 3 more chapters, and tomorrow I will write 3 more chapters, and hopefully, by tomorrow, I'm going to be on chapter 20, where I'm supposed to be. I hope it wasn't too late to introduce the villain of the story. She didn't show up until chapter 14.