1,951

(15 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I've been told more than once by reviewers to lose words like "Just then" when transitioning from one event to another in my story. For example,

Joseph terminated the feed. “They’re insane! They just put the fate of humanity solely in the hands of Emperor Bastardus!”
Just then, an explosion rocked the prison. Everyone ran out of their cells and looked for the source. A siren began to wail.

I'm told a new paragraph is sufficient to serve as the transition, but I disagree. To me, a new paragraph is a continuation of one story event, whereas "Just then" is a more explicit break signalling a new event. Here it is without "Just then":

Joseph terminated the feed. “They’re insane! They just put the fate of humanity solely in the hands of Emperor Bastardus!”
An explosion rocked the prison. Everyone ran out of their cells and looked for the source. A siren began to wail.

How do others handle these transitions?

Thanks
Dirk

1,952

(15 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Sparky, huh? Florida used to have an electric chair called Old Sparky. You could make a miniature version and use Star Wars dolls as the electrocutees. People would pay good money to be able to zap characters, especially Jar Jar Binks. Mesa ass on fire! Include an ejector in the seat to kick the fried doll off the chair.

1,953

(1 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Welcome, Alypius. I had a quick look at your book. Although you're likely to get a few initial reviews, I agree with Temple that you should publish your story in a group that requires/pays points. That way readers will have an incentive to read it and keep coming back for more. You accumulate points by reviewing material from other writers, which you then use to publish your own work (usually in Premium, but you can also cross-post to other groups). It's fairly easy to accumulate points (leave 5 comments using an inline review or 50 words in a regular review). Generally, though, if you want to establish long-term reciprocal relationships with other writers, you'll have to put in more than the minimum effort. Giving detailed reviews has the added advantage that you learn how others write.

Hope that helps.

1,954

(1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I decided to tackle the POV shift. It was easier than I thought. The entire chapter is now from Joseph's POV. He sees everything that's happening on New Bethehem via a video feed on his wisewatch.

It used to work just fine, without extra tags.

I just noticed the book summary has the same problem.

1,957

(1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Last chapter of Act III, Ashes to Ashes, is now up. Minor edits only.

Things I left for v4 are:
1. Eliminating the POV shift between Joseph on Earth and Apollo on trial on New Bethlehem. As a couple of readers noted, Joseph can watch the whole proceedings from his wisewatch while in prison.
2. Leonardo's limo ride to deliver Joseph and Paul to the spaceport needs fleshing out. Maybe have the Praetorian Guard chase him, bring down another building, etc.
3. Seabrass/Kdot, there are a few references to eyes expressing emotions or thoughts in this chapter (gleam in his eyes, eyes danced with excited energy, crazed look in his eyes). If you both agree that you dislike them, you may beat me into submission. Personally, I really like them, so your eyes may have to burn with fury before I yield.

Only five chapters to go. Up next, one of my favorites: Caligula!

Thanks for reading!
Dirk

Sol, is it possible for you to increase the priority on fixing the chapter summary formatting in books? I sometimes write long, well-formatted summaries, save the new chapter, and the site scrambles the formatting. If I go back in to edit the summary, it is littered with html tags. Please see chapter 36 of my v3 book for the latest example. I would think this would be a simple fix and would make the site look more professional to new users.

Thanks
Dirk

1,959

(1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Nova sounds masculine. Naya is feminine.

Thank you, sir.

1,961

(15 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Oddly enough, I just sent away paperwork to combine my IRA accounts. I've also been trying for six months to get the Social Security Administration to stop deducting money from my benefits for Medicare Part B. Only a government bureaucracy could be so inept. Once they get that done (I may just give up), I'm going to have them wire the money into my Canadian bank account, allowing me to close my Chase checking account. Right now, I'm forced to leave $15K in the account to avoid a $25 monthly fee. The wire transfer only costs $15 per month, so a big FU to Chase.

Can someone please tell me why there is a comma in the following sentence: T i a thought they might have more landing areas closer to the centre, but couldn’t make any out. I lifted that sentence from Kdot, so I assume it's correct, but I can't find any online rules about this one.

Thanks
Dirk

1,963

(15 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Sorting data. I'd tear my hair out, but as you saw, I don't have any.

1,964

(14 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

So the following is correct: I might not order dessert, depending on the size of the entre.

Thanks
Dirk

1,965

(1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

This week's episode of Gilligan's Island had everyone sneezing and itching when they came near Gilligan. Pathetically poor fake sneezes by some of the actors. The funny part was the Skipper. His sneezes were so severe he repeatedly blew out candles, blew open the hut's door, and knocked over a palm tree. At one point, he tried to hold it in and his cap went flying straight up from his head. When it seemed like he was about to let loose a titanic sneeze, everyone ran for the jungle, followed by ... nothing.

I'm pretty sure they used up all the matches (for relighting the candle) in one of the first shows, but what the heck. Perhaps the Professor made some. At one point they went through all of the women's makeup and perfume trying to find out what was causing the allergy. I never knew women needed that much perfume for a three hour tour. And let's not forget the Howells. She brought out a large diamond collection to see if it was the cause. She also had four different types of furs (mink, sable, etc.) with her. In Hawaii? In 90 degree heat?

Did you ever notice there was no discussion of building a latrine on that show? They must have been pooping all over the island. At least they had plenty of palm fronds for toilet paper.

1,966

(14 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Can someone please help me with the following sentence:

Teresa thought they might have more landing areas closer to the centre, but couldn’t make any out.

Unless I'm mistaken, the second clause is dependent. So why the comma?

Thanks
Dirk

1,967

(14 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

In 2007, it's under word options/proofing/auto-correct/replace as you type.

1,968

(14 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

My version of Microsoft Word (2007) replaces three periods with an ellipsis symbol. It looks almost the same, but it's one character. I can't recall if I configured the software to do that, but I'm sure they have the same feature in newer versions of Word.

1,969

(5 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Thanks for responding, everyone. I'm going to try two scenes per chapter (one per story thread), which gives me the flexibility to further split those scenes as the need arises. The planning is just as much work as if they were chapters, but it allows me greater flexibility. It also forces me to make the end of each scene compelling enough to keep the reader going. The only minor nuisance is that I'll have to post each major scene as its own TNBW chapter to keep the length of the posted material short enough for most reviewers. Seabrass did the same thing with his Maiden story.

Thanks
Dirk

1,970

(5 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I'm wondering how others decide how many scenes to include in a given chapter. In my first book, I interleaved two related stories, each with a main character (Joseph and Apollo) and alternated back and forth between them on a chapter by chapter basis. For the most part that worked and kept the chapter lengths short enough that someone could review each in one sitting. The main problem with that was one of timing. For example, I had a major battle at the end of act 1 that spanned three chapters (Joseph, Apollo, then Joseph again). There was a lot going on, and it would have been better to have a lot of small scenes back and forth than my chapter-by-chapter telling made possible.

I'm starting to run into the same problem with my new story. There are two main story threads, but it's too early to tell if alternating back and forth at a chapter level is going to cause problems. There may even be other occasional side threads, although I haven't planned far enough out to be sure.

How do other people deal with this? In beginning to think I should include one scene from each of the two stories per chapter. That leaves me the freedom to flip back and forth more often between the two stories at a scene by scene level, rather than at the chapter level. It also allows me to include a third or fourth thread in some chapters, as needed.

Thoughts?

Thanks
Dirk

1,971

(9 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Handy info. Thanks.

1,972

(9 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

An overload of names was my concern too. I have the option of giving them first names when they address each other. Still mulling that.

Just spent the better part of a day researching the Italian police (I need detectives and a CSI team). I spent almost two hours trying to find reliable information about Italy's two national police forces, the state police and the Carabinieri. They have a lot of overlapping duties right down to responding to civil crimes. They are the result of Italy's dysfunctional political system. The best comparison I can make to our police is that the state police are a civil force while the Carabinieri are a military force. The Carabinieri are somewhat like the National Guard. Since they both have command stations in Rome, I needed to know who's in charge when a bishop or cardinal turns up dead. Finally found an article that said the state police are ultimately in charge in large urban centers, but the Carabinieri may be the only police force available in rural areas, so they're in charge in those areas, rather like the RCMP. Both the state police and the Carabinieri are truly national police forces, unlike us where each major city has its own independent police force.

Pretty slim pickings online about Italian law enforcement and even less about their CSI functions. I may have to borrow a few North American concepts. I have yet to figure out how to kill off a large number of clergy in serial killings without making it redundant or overly gruesome. Worse, a serial killer ought to result in a major taskforce, with all kinds of different police functions cooperating.

I also can't figure out what the damn Italian equivalent is of a detective, since they don't seem to use that title. They follow Interpol-like command ranks.

I hope CSI is available on Netflix.

1,974

(9 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Thank you, folks.

Sol, have there been any recent reports or fixes of bugs related to notification emails when a connection posts a new chapter? Don Chambers posted over a dozen chapters on the site in a story of his that I was reading, yet I received no emails. I thought he had left the site. I only realized today that he had written more when he announced that he had published it.