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Stories stray when what a given story is actually, truly, really about wants to be realized. The tangible action strives for a complete process, meantime, the subconscious wants to be heard. Subtext is a story's subconscious. Without subtext that is congruent to and opposite of a tangible action, a ...

Scrivener's Windows' release is a year old and developed by a second party, the original developed for Mac. Mac and Windows have never played together well. Cross platform and application compatibility issues are inevitable. And Scrivener's more useful proprietary codes and formats are more likely t...

Questions satisfied. What they say about curiosity killed the cat; satisfaction brought it back. Thanks!

Hi, Wolf Moon, Do winners receive, say, 1099s from Author Services or Galaxy Press? If so, do the numbers only reflect prize money and anthology paid publication, or do the numbers include travel and room cash values? Questions not intended to elicit private and monetary data, rather a generic what ...

my protagonist, who is a story-teller, recently re-told a story by the Brothers Grimm. it was largely paraphrased, and also obviously wasn't in the original German. i, the author, clearly stated that it wasn't his story but rather one that he was familiar with, but my protagonist passed it off as h...

4. How to make writing do two things at once... Writing dialogue that tells the character in the story one thing, and the reader who's had the advantage of reading 28 chapters before the conversation, two things The more complex dialogue, etc., matter. SUBTEXT, Subtext, subtext, s------, and dramati...

Your first -- "Ozmandias," Percy Bysshe Shelley, Dame Mary Shelley's spouse.

Your second -- "Hills Like White Elephants," Ernest Hemingway.

  Angry girl on fire, she fumed over the brim out of the O'Rickie's Tavern there to 10th and Live Oak Street.     Crackholes.     Wasn't that drunk.   Next to Susie's Cakes and Sweet Dreams.     Big fat dream sick lies.   The poodlehead taxi driver parked at the curb said he didn't drive drunks. &qu...

2. How to make dialogue read smooth, natural, and to your personal style (> not clunky) 3. How to avoid cliche, and the services that can help identify cliche writing for you Smooth, natural, and personal style dialogue orients around personal idiolects. An idiolect is already a personal dialect its...

The uses of other creators' intellectual property may be limited to brief incidental content, allusive, that is, for other review, education, and criticism purposes otherwise. Uses for parody, lampoon, and social commentary are broad exceptions to intellectual property infringement limitations. &quo...

William Faulkner, Light in August, 1932, and "Pantaloon in Black," Go Down, Moses, 1942, seven interrelated short stories, both Random House.

Read all of Cormac McCarthy's novels. I favor No Country for Old Men, 2005.

1. How to fuse World Building and Characterisation into dialogue 5. Dialogue tips for short stories exclusively, full-length novels exclusively, and everything in between World building's best occasion is when incidental to the action of the moment, extends to larger parts, and overall. Plus, that a...

Eloquence (noun): " 1 : discourse marked by force and persuasiveness; also : the art or power of using such discourse 2 : the quality of forceful or persuasive expressiveness ( Webster's 11th ). By force is meant emphatic expression and emphasis amplitude progression. By persuasiveness, for pro...

This below response to number 6 of the original post, more to come for 1 through 5. Distinguishable dialogue types and melds of several include: Echo: speakers echo each other's diction and syntax, or one or the other, at least congruent expression mode echoes, for alignment and rapport persuasion, ...

From mental composition to raw draft processes suffer from missed-the-page disease and inconsistent craft skills due to raw drafts are little more than outline summary and explanation sketches -- tells. The dramatic craft facet wanted next or in the first instance is show's reality imitation sequenc...

The general science fiction culture consensus only distinguishes by science type, not by fantasy or otherwise real-world or fantastic science and technology "enabling devices", like faster-than-light spaceship drives: " Hard Science Fiction " Wikipedia ; among many others, reader...

In Soft Science Fiction, artificial gravity is produced by gravity plates and repulsor or attractor fields. Sometimes, the author doesn't mention it at all, leaving the reader to wonder what fantastic mechanism keeps characters on the floor. Soft Scifi, or Fantasy in space, doesn't need to adhere t...

A thought about artificial gravity, of whatever type, does life require tidal flux for metabolism triggers, from ebb flushes and flood inflows? Extant real-world ebb and flood cycles, of course, follow lunar and solar tide cycles, lunar more so. Sagan noted some degree of variable tidal force might ...

Consider how many close acquaintances you can manage. What, six, twelve? Magic numbers, by the way, Seven Samurai, thirteen diners at the Last Supper. Seven also happens to be the usual number for an ensemble cast of main characters. Anyway, more than seven or so personal relationships causes shortf...

A central question, also known as dramatic question, as I learned, is what will happen, sort of plot, though other transformations, too. For example, mystery's conventional dramatic question is who done it. Thriller, why who done it. Romance, will they or won't they . . . Western, will the rugged in...

Publisher submission guidelines occasion whether a given publication considers self-published stories posted on a personal website first publication rights expended. Some say yes, some say nothing, a very few say no. Too many publications to sort those and links out from among the fray. Everyday Fic...

Reading and study of writing overall, plus motion picture narratives, and other arts that inform writing growth, editor work, etc., for me, consume a hundred times more time than narrative creation.

Wrestled with myself about whether I'm still eligible, whether to submit, whether I even had anything to submit. Portal is still open and I'm so, so tempted. This contest meant a lot to me. And I really wanted to do 4 in 35. But at this point, sitting on five pro-paying publications with another to...

My way to cope, transcend even, is to ask why did this perform below wanted level and -- and -- the way of dramatic movement incitement, follow-thru, and satisfaction -- plot, that is -- strong motivation to answer why and don't do and do do whatever why. Emotions channeled into growth.

My top hurricane motif chuckle is that weather-news bureaus send out storm-naive correspondents to cover on-scene events. Send those who don't know so their emotions are genuine and high strength, so the public gets the message that hurricanes are not to be taken lightly. Been through dozens of hurr...

. . . I feel drained after writing my Q4 story. I took it easy the middle 2 quarters of this year but Q4 I went all in. Usually I finish a story bored and ready to move onto something more exciting but this time I am not sure what comes next. I need some time. I am in a weird transitional stage whe...

Facets of a story that distinguish an automatic decline due to utter guideline noncompliance (recipe, joke, prank, whim, non-fantastic, non-prose content), to also-ran to honorable mention to finalist, etc., to quarter win, place, or show, to annual grand winner? Relevant, timely, timeless, lively h...

Word's overall issue is appearance and intent for user friendliness and consequent less accessibility and control. WordPerfect's Reveal Codes feature outstrips all others for ease and function access to format codes. WordPerfect is lean and clean for format codes. Word, in terms of format and style,...

I got an email that concerns me. I entered for the 3rd quarter but the email I got was titled: Congrats - Your story received Honorable Mention 2nd Quarter Then it opened up as: Dear Entrant, Your story has been judged and is an Honorable Mention for the 3rd quarter . Congratulations!!! Has there b...

I'm in. Not sure if it is sci fi (Wikipedia's attempt to define "sci fi" wasn't much help), but I'm in. A workable definition for science fiction is most anything not real-world extant of a scientific or technological nature. "Hard" science fiction is especially about probable, ...