What is this character doing in the middle of nowhere to allow this chance encounter to take place? camping astronomy foraging for mushrooms the rational for being in the location doesn’t need to be plot related if the only plot requirement is that they be in a certain place. a hobby is a perfectly...

oh my. exan, you are already better than the vast majority of people out there. i say this because i see three excellent qualities in your post... one -- you have proven that you know how to finish a tale. so many people who want to write, never get round to finishing anything. you have at least one...

krastev wrote:Your personal opinion is totally irrelevant.

i,m sure you,re right.
thank you for correcting me.

I am creating a whole universe with several THOUSAND non-standard words please don,t do that. Star Trek's Klingon, Avatar's Na'vi, Lord of the Rings' Quenya, Sindarin... So why not? two of those are tv/movie settings where the created languages are designed to flit by in a few moments and are never...

Nobbo wrote:I am creating a whole universe with several THOUSAND non-standard words

please don,t do that.

pchis1 wrote:A pale shadow falls across my desk. A hot hand squeezes the shoulder of my cotton shirt. ‘Curran, come with me. Now, please.’


First line of Red Skies Over Solapur, my novel set in India, 1946/7.

[waits patiently]

oh my.

[crouches in preparation]
[pupils dilate]

Basically, I think I’m asking for “permission” to keep going. no, i don,t think you are. i,ve seen this before quite a few times. this is you asking for permission to quit. sorry. permission denied. starting stories is easy. finishing them is hard and doing it well takes practice. i don,t care if t...

hahaha
thanks for the share

This is what my life has become - sitting in front of yet another inane television sitcom or overacted docudrama, it’s hard to tell the difference nowadays. I’m drinking an oversized glass of wine - enough to do more than dull the pain. is that the opening of your wip or a cry for help if the latte...

Bridey wrote:PrinceCorwin, write however you want to write: find your own voice and be proud of it.

absolutely. i,d remind pc, though, that some voices are more appealing to different audiences than others. some audiences will contain very sensitive individuals, apparently.

if it,s a direct replacement you,re after, and you,re not happy with the estate-authorised continuations, you can look to some of parker,s own influences. raymond chandler is a good place to start. he only wrote 6/7 novels, but parker himself wrote two additional books with chandler,s philip marlowe...

thanks, hugh.

if possible, format as normal dialogue (including using said as the tagging verb) and have the context highlight the telepathic nature of the communication.

as a general rule... defend creative suggestions that you feel strongly about with your editor, but -- assuming they're a pro and not just someone random you met in starbucks -- simply defer to them on anything to do with formatting, layout, etc. although, i,d definitely listen to them with an open ...