Recent content by Banespawn

I don't get enough story from either to suggest that one might be a better option to pursue than the other. The first is clearly a non-human, so there's some intrigue there, though the opening line is a little odd because of it. For some reason I haven't been able to fathom in all the years...

Everything you write is telling the reader something, so from that perspective, everything is a tell. John grabbed the cereal from the top shelf of the pantry and handed it to his sister. If we want to get technical, I'm telling you what John is doing, but it's what I'm not telling you that...

Yeah, abrogate probably wasn't the best word I could have used. And you're right that I don't really need the bit you put in italics. That's what edits are for.

You don't need to use direct thoughts to achieve that. IMO, direct thoughts are a crutch a lot of writers use to convey emotion, and the result is usually less effective than the alternative, which is to convey those emotions indirectly. There is a style of 3rd person called Free Indirect...

Not to me, though 230 scenes and 175k words suggests a lot of short scenes. That's an average of about 761 words per scene. That's maybe 2-3 pages, depending on formatting.

I don't possess the requisite qualifications, but I would think the editor would probably flag those things and ask you to fix them. I mentioned in a prior post that it's common for authors to start a scene in an objective POV. Once you zoom into the character's head, though, I think readers...

Bits of backstory will often help to shape the most important characters, but for the most part, I discover them as I write.

Can you view it in google docs? Can you copy and paste it into word?

The character in that comic is obviously some god-like being. He created all those universes, then accidentally unleashed the destroyer upon them. Put that into the perspective of a normal person. Imagine you were making dinner for the family and burned the roast. You'd be upset, but not that...

I see writing as a search for truth rather than a statement of truth. From that perspective, I will explore different themes without trying to offer judgment or conclusions. We talk about show, don't tell all the time, and this is part of that. Don't tell me what to think. Show me the evidence...

Some of the things I do when the action ramps up: 1) Shorter sentences. You noted this already, but to be clear, I don't use all short sentences. I still want a good rhythm to the words, and I'll throw in longer sentences here and there to break it up. 2) Shorter paragraphs. We generally focus...

I have one for one of by novels. No tongue manglers, but a lot of the names don't stress the syllables that might be expected in English.

Every scene should change the story in some way. Characterization and world building are great, but they can both be done while moving the story forward.

I haven't written one, so take this with a grain of salt, but I'd suggest building out the non-romance parts of the story and then having the romance happen along the way. Think about what goals these characters have outside of the romance and think about how you can structure/pace the story...

I've written 3 short stories for competitions on the .com site that include clones. They have very different personalities, but they are all "from birth" clones, meaning they were created from one set of DNA as babies and grew up not knowing that they were clones.