Recent content by Mad Swede

Effective research? skip.knox has already mentioned it, you need to be fairly specific in what you are researching. That means you need to have some idea of what it is you need to know more about and how (in the context of this discussion) it fits into what you are writing. These two factors set...

That's not the point. The point is that you need self-discipline to finish anything you do, espcecially if you're not being forced to do whatever it is that needs finishing.

Yes, I am. And if you get a publishing contract, or if you self-publish and promise a book to your readers by a certain date, then you need discipline in your writing. There's no other way to meet a deadline. I'm tempted to be a lot harder than that too. To me, this is also about how serious...

No, I don't go diving down rabbit holes like that. For me, research is like anything else we do connected to our writing. It needs self-discipline, you have to stay focused so that you get the information you need. That's especially true when you're on contract with a publisher (as I am)...

The expression is said to be Australian in origin, the first recorded useage is in the late 1890s (1898 I think). From there it spread to the US and later the UK. It's connected to puberty and the first strong alcoholic drink a young man has.

And now I'm going to add a few thoughts of my own, having been lurking in this thread for a few days. Note that my comments are based on real-life cases I came across during my career. One thing you may want to think about is how your MC ended up in an abusive relationship in the first place...

For me Tim Curry will always be Trymon in the film/TV version of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, but for my daughter he'll always be Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys.

OK, first things first. The only time Google use your private documents to train AI is if you use Gemini to help you in your writing. To stop this you need to change some of your settings, like this: In a Google Doc, click Gemini in the top menu → Bottom bar preferences → Turn off. This removes...

Timing is something you have no control over in written humour, which is why written humour relies on other aspects of emotion to work. In that sense the contrast between tragedy and comedy becomes even more important. The later Discworld novels are very good examples of this, and it's an aspect...

Comedy and humour are very complex. You can illustrate both the funny aspects of life and also the sad side of things, and it is this contrast which, when done properly, often makes for the best comedy. The late Jerry Lewis is perhaps the real master of comedy. His films are very complex, but...

I wonder if this depends on what we mean by an idea? Do we mean the idea for a story arc, a character arc or an inciting event? Sometimes I think we make this more complicated than it needs to be. We talk a lot about characters and conflicts, when perhaps we should just think about how they get...

I'm not sure how to put this Kassandra, but I'll do my best. I'm writing this from my perspective as a published author with a (now) long working relationship with my editor. First, getting an editor/consultant at this stage is a waste of your money. Your world building is relatively...

At this point I'm going to be awkward and point out that both quotes are, in their original form, from Graf Helmuth von Moltke the Elder. He was writing about military planning and its importance in helping officers think through the situation and how they might deal with any eventual problems...

No. If you buy the standalone version of something like Office you don't get the AI capability. Admittedly Microsoft and opther software suppliers would rather you didn't do this, because they make more money from a subscription service like MIcrosoft 365 than they do from standalone licenses...

No, the spelling Tiffany is not modern. The earliest example I know of is French, from a marriage in Tolouse in 1555. The earliest English example I know of is from 1568, from a baptism in Devon. I can find quite a few women with the name Tiffany in the early 1800s in the UK, and not just in the...