UF?
977 2021-02-14 17:44:17
Re: Queen of Diamonds (18 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Congratulations, Jack.
978 2021-02-11 05:53:54
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Happily, the location of Pontius Pilate's residence while in Jerusalem remains unresolved. That's important because it determines the route that Jesus walked on the way to be crucified. Christians commemorate an east-to-west route, starting at the Antonia Fortress (next to the Temple Mount) and ending at what is now the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. However, many scholars believe it was a west-to-east route, starting at Herod's palace (the opposite side of town) and ending at the church. My money is on the scholars. I don't think Pilate would have stayed in a small barracks when there was a palace nearby. Nevertheless, Connor will set them straight. :-)
979 2021-02-11 02:54:18
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I rediscovered a virtual version of Jerusalem's Old City as it existed in Jesus's time. It includes many of the locations I researched, including the Temple Mount & the Temple complex (you can go right into the Holy of Holies), the Antonio Fortress used by the Romans to guard the city, Herod the Great's palace (from a distance), various ritual pools mentioned in the Gospels, the massive walls that surrounded the city, and the surrounding hills, all in surprisingly good detail. The Temple complex is fully walkable, although the money changers are missing. :-) The rest is viewable from strategic locations. There are even Roman guards on top of the fortress. I don't remember it being this detailed the last time I saw several years ago, so they must still be working on it.
Available at https://virtualscriptures.org
980 2021-02-10 00:06:22
Re: semicolon; a period, a comma, and focus (1 replies, posted in Writing Tips & Site Help)
Thanks, Max.
981 2021-02-07 13:14:19
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Cool find. I'm reading a book called Infiltration about the overthrow of the Catholic Church from within. The plot, cooked up by Freemasons, seeks to lead young clergy astray by placing sympathizers in seminaries. Once they've infiltrated those seminaries, they'll produce errant priests, bishops, cardinals, and, finally, an ultraliberal Pope. This plot has been in the works since the early nineteenth century. The book claims Freemasonry is actually Satanism in sheep's clothing. The similarity to my book is surprising. Fortunately, it's not fiction. If I had found this book a couple of years ago, I might have made Freemasonry a key part of my book's conspiracy. It's too complicated to change it now, though.
982 2021-02-03 04:19:24
Re: Welcome (264 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Welcome, kl. There are a lot of very competent writers on the site who will gladly help you improve your writing. The site works largely based on reciprocal reviews. If you want to have your work reviewed, you simply do the same for others and most will respond in kind if your story matches their interests. Also, reviewing earns you points with which to post more of your writing. The site's regular reviews are great for high-level feedback, and the inline reviews are excellent for detailed feedback about individual paragraphs, sentences, words, and punctuation. Although I don't write about werewolves and vampires, my story is a Catholic tale of the end times, so there are a few demonic beings lurking about. Check out my book's content summary to see if it might interest you.
See you around the site.
Dirk
983 2021-02-03 03:58:59
Re: Welcome (264 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Welcome to the site, SwingLifeAway. The best part of the site is the ability to get reviews from a diverse group of authors of all skill levels. Naturally, this requires giving reviews in return. That's what makes the site tick. In addition to learning from how others write, giving reviews is how you earn points in order to post your own work. One downside of essay writing on this site is that new essays don't appear on the home screen of all members as happens for the default works: books, short stories, and poems. People have to click an extra button to see them so it may be difficult to get noticed. My suggestion (which may get me in trouble) would be to publish them as short stories and select whatever genre best suits your work. You can put the word Essay in the title to further clarify what it is you're posting. Hope that helps.
984 2021-01-27 01:01:31
Re: Search control for Reviews is broken (3 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
I tried searching against received inline reviews and posted inline reviews. The search against received inlines works; the search against posted inlines does not. Haven't tried searching against regular reviews.
985 2021-01-26 02:04:50
Topic: Search control for Reviews is broken (3 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Sol, I tried searching among my posted inline reviews and the control doesn't work. I tried searching by title, chapter number, and based on whether someone had replied. None of those have any affect on the result set.
Also, if possible, can we get a way to quickly find draft posted inline reviews? That was what led me to try searches in the first place. I discovered I had started a review a long time ago and was trying to go back to it. It was flagged as draft in red in the chapter view; it would be great if we could click on the "draft" and resume the review from there.
Thanks
Dirk
986 2021-01-25 04:16:56
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Easy peasy. He already knows it's stigmata brought on by exposure to evil deeds. He's been living with it for a long time. His colleagues, including Campana, know too. Needs a few minor tweaks to chapter four (where we first meet him). From then on, it flares whenever he confronts murders, including that of Alessandro. This fits perfectly into the overall story. Much better than a medical condition that doesn't really exist. I still need a reason to show the reader the cross around his neck, though, which plays a role later. Burning or bleeding at the neck would give me the excuse I need for him to open his shirt.
987 2021-01-25 03:01:00
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
There won't be a miracle healing. It's not an illness. God works in mysterious ways. :-)
988 2021-01-25 01:36:02
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I'm trying to improve on Inspector De Rosa's idiopathic acute systemic inflammation. Originally, he was coughing all the time, which was too annoying. Now he almost never has a flareup, which is too little. It's actually important later in the story, so I'm thinking of making it psychologically/supernaturally induced, with flareups/stigmata whenever he's confronted with grave sin, including the crucifixions of the cardinals. I could have another flareup when Connor and Alessandro are struck by lightning. If I go with stigmata, he'd have to wrap his wrists a lot to hide it/keep from bleeding over everything. The neck wound could be in the shape of the cross to match the one he always wears. The bloody cough would remain unchanged, and I'd add a raw throat. He's going to need a lot of handkerchiefs and uniform shirts. :-)
In real life, a condition called hematohidrosis is thought to be a possible cause of stigmata. Basically, people sweat blood in response to intense emotions. The Bible mentions that Jesus's sweat was like blood while praying in Gethsemane before his arrest. Another possible cause is malignant malaria, which causes bleeding from the hands and feet. St. Francis of Assisi is thought to have suffered from that.
EDIT: Another alternative is to go with full stigmata (hands/wrists, feet, side, and forehead) and get rid of the bleeding neck. I'd keep the bloody cough, though, as I want him to suffer, not just bleed externally.
989 2021-01-21 03:04:31
Re: that vs which - weird case? (4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Why would a dicey opportunity stab the man? :-)
Point taken.
Thanks
990 2021-01-21 02:26:12
Re: that vs which - weird case? (4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Yes, those rules are discussed on most grammar sites. However, in the examples I gave, I can't tell if the two examples are equivalent of not. As I noted above, example two is correct and what I intend as the meaning. What then is example one saying, if not the same thing?
991 2021-01-20 23:50:37
Topic: that vs which - weird case? (4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
I came across an interesting case of that vs. which, and I can't tell which is best to use.
He didn’t dare wait for an opportunity that might never come to stab the man.
He didn’t dare wait for an opportunity, which might never come, to stab the man.
I know the second example is correct, but I'm not sure if the first one is. Or are both correct?
Thanks
Dirk
992 2021-01-17 14:31:16
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
It's doable but a royal pain. Probably a day of research, and I won't really know if I got the layout right since I usually have just photos to work with. Also, I took advantage of the outside of Saint Lawrence's Basilica during the shootout with the first demon (eg there really is a small grove of trees for Campana to hide behind).
993 2021-01-17 06:04:15
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Nuts. My first murder victim's titular church (next to the cemetery) isn't actually a titular church. I didn't think until yesterday to research if there was a specific list of such churches vs my previous assumption that any church could be one if it was assigned a cardinal. Somewhat surprising that the church I chose isn't one given how big it is. I doubt I'm going to fix it, though. It's too difficult to accurately determine interior and exterior layouts of big churches based solely on internet photos.
994 2021-01-16 17:21:59
Re: Editing and feedback (2 replies, posted in Writing Tips & Site Help)
Hi Maureen. Welcome to the site. I try to perform minor edits as they come in. That way, reviewers see an increasingly polished chapter or short story and don't all give me the same feedback. It allows them to focus on other things besides the most obvious errors. Also, if everyone gave me the same feedback, I would later have to wade through them all, identifying the important suggestions from the duplicates. Admittedly, sometimes the reviews come at me so fast, I don't have time to keep up, although that's rare.
Some suggestions require more substantial reworking of a story, so those I may leave until a future draft. Admittedly, I spend more time than many trying to keep up, which slows down my writing pace, which is glacial at best.
I'm case you're not aware, you can "edit" chapters that you've already posted, which doesn't cost extra points, or you can "publish" newer versions of the same chapter/story by incrementing the version number and posting it using points. I use editing when I just want to update an existing chapter with minor changes, and I republish when the changes are substantial and I want my regular reviewers to rereview it. By republishing, it appears on everyone's home page once more, and they receive points for looking at it again. Simply editing it doesn't put it back on the home page and doesn't pay points if someone were to review it more than once.
Clear as mud? Hope that helps. FYI, this forum is largely unused, so feel free to post all your questions to Premium, where you'll get the most replies.
Dirk
995 2021-01-14 23:23:28
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
There are people on YouTube who filmed themselves watching that episode. It was funny. First a buzz when they see the X-Wing. Then excitement builds as they see the hooded figure with a lightsaber on a black & white screen. "Don't toy with me...," one says. Then joy when they see it's green (Luke's lightsaber in ROTJ). Finally ecstasy when he wades into the corridor full of killer droids. What's silly is that I took time out of my life to watch their reactions. I don't actually have Disney+. No interest.
996 2021-01-14 06:27:47
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
This is too cool not to share. It's from the latest season finale of The Mandalorian. Someone recut the final battle and set it to an epic version of The Force theme. Too bad The Rise of Skywalker didn't end with this kind of a bang.
https://youtu.be/5NmKRVTP-3E
997 2021-01-12 04:27:38
Re: Project R (23 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Sara Selg is the name of one of my reviewers.
998 2021-01-11 01:42:58
Re: Responding to reviews (1 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Open the review, click on the x-line tab near the top, click on each inline comment (on the highlighted text) that you want to reply to individually, then scroll to the bottom and leave an overall reply, then submit. You don't need to reply to inline comments, but it can help the reviewer understand your rationale for something they highlighted.
999 2021-01-06 04:28:20
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Changed 370 years to 220 years. I would have gone for less, but the AC needs time to secretly recruit and place 10,000 followers in the Church globally, including allowing for turnover in the ranks. I hope I'm done with this s--t now. I'm sick of act one. Time to screw up act two.
1,000 2021-01-06 02:15:17
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,472 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Down under.