Recent content by ddevans

I think of some really clever and unique way to phrase something. Then 50,000 words later I forget that I used it, and use it again, discovering it only later on a casual reread. The double edged sword of that is while using a unique phrase (or word) once is clever, using it twice makes you look...

I'm in my mid-30s and never managed to get ahead in life. I also work in a physically demanding job, and in ten years I won't even be able to do it. After the time I put aside for work, for sleep, for maintaining a healthy diet, for exercise, for a bit of socialization, for reading or playing...

The only completely safe time to read a serial work is after it has been completed. There is a status for completed stories: https://www.scribblehub.com/series-finder/?sf=1&cp=completed&sort=pageviews&order=desc

I like a prosocial, proactive, professional protagonist.

Density is the reason the MC doesn't 'just pick one' since it would seem like he was stringing them along if he does realize. What your MC needs is a good reason not to commit. For this you can contrive any reason, but might I recommend my personal Yandere Theory of Harems, an axiom which...

There is a kind of divine tyranny to standard narrative expectations. You might think of such a thing as fate. Being a very clever writer, it's possible to elegantly accept the judgment of the gods, or to pointedly defy it. In the immortal words of Edel from Princess Tutu: "May those who accept...

These are the techniques I'm currently using in my novel with that same general theme. Not that they're Correct. Fighting The basic progression of a scripted fight has imo been perfected by professional wrestling. It is: Shine: Wherein the hero demonstrates his fundamental virtues. Heat: The...

Bisexual Protagonist is a story tag. The MC in my novel is bisexual.

I write by reading books, noticing things I find annoying, and them trying to remove them from what I do whenever I notice that I'm doing exactly what I don't like. Sometimes, if I'm feeling punchy, I try to notice things that I like about books and add them, but that is far, far more difficult...

I'll echo Azrie, writing is a habit. Do it at the same (relative) time every day, for a fixed period of time. Have a separate period of time or phase set aside for editing, lest you get caught up in revisions when you should be producing new lines. But the best advice I got is within the...

Tsundere classic. Icy at first, then becoming dere over time. Literally a tale as old as time.

Authors being able to delete comments seems like a system flaw. As far as authors giving people flak for reviews or comments, it should be a bannable offense. People should always feel safe to give feedback. If people have thin skin they shouldn't be writing.

My assumption is that readers who don't comment are bots. I have no idea what percent of these kinds of non-interactive metrics are bots, so for all I know they all are.

I wrote a scene the other day where two characters decide that the words they are using (like "quixotic") seem to have no real origin. If your baseline assumption is that the characters are speaking a different language 'in-universe', it should also be possible for you to imagine that their use...

Speaking for myself, as a reader: grammar and spelling are just prerequisites. Especially spelling. The less tangible stuff like how evocatively you describe things are less important, as long as you remember to describe things that are important to the scene. I think long passages of...