General Writing Discussion Thread | Current Topic: NaNoWriMo

RE: Writer's Lounge

Here is another way of explaining it. I'll use Zyflair's same sentences.
Active Sentence: "Someone gave the ball to me."
Passive Sentence: "The ball was given to me."
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Look at the simple subject and simple predicate of each sentence. In the first sentence it's 'someone' and 'gave'; in the second sentence it's 'ball' and '(was) given'.

Is the subject doing the action?
If the answer is yes, it's active. (Someone is giving something.)
If the answer is no, it's passive. (The ball did not give anything.)
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

Yes, thank you, DNA.

So is no one going to answer the question? XD
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

A dramatic announcement was made by the Secretary of State last week.
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The Secretary of State announced something dramatic last week.

Oh, and since I rarely ever read, I have never heard of Slice of Life.
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

Yay~
An alternate solution is "The Secretary of State dramatically announced something last week".

Slice of Life is simply taking experiences and events from real life. To be a Mocking Bird is one exmaple.
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

I normally pass on Slice of Life books...and I wasn't a fan of To Kill A Mockingbird myself...
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

The Fallen One said:
I like TKAM. Probably the one assigned reading I like.
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I never liked any assigned readings in school, except maybe In The Heat of The Night. Just saying, assigned reads were never the pick of the litter.
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

Yeah, most of the books they assign to read are ones that I don't like reading lol. But a lot of the works of fiction I love are those that will probably never be considered "classic" literature.
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

I have never picked up a non-"classic" book for high school classes, so I guess I got some sort of acquired taste, lol.
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

I just don't like reading much of stuff that isn't set either near the present day or within a few decades of it (specifically, the 1990s, the 1980s, or even the 1970s; though if I recall, In The Heat of the Night was set in like the '60s or '50s). I guess it's just a weird preference of my own, though.
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

I like some assigned reading, but I read a lot of classics so a lot of them I've already read.
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

I have a question for you guys. What's your opinion on naming chapters? I've noticed that some books do it, and others don't. Similarly, some books will be sectioned off into 2 or 3 parts as well. What are your thoughts on these?
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

/me jumps into this thread randomly after approx. 9 months

I think naming chapters is mostly up to the author and is determined by the style of writing, but they necessarily shouldn't be something like "Henry goes to the woods" or something along those lines. "Chapter 7" or just "7" satisfies most needs. But again, it really depends on the tone of the story.
Anyways, I would love to be posting more in this thread, and with an influx of English analysis homework, I'll definitely need some help. I'd like to give some friendly advice every now and again as well.
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

@ShadowLugia: I check this thread most days when I have time, so if you have any English questions, ask away. If I don't get back to you, Zy or someone else will.

Anyways, when it comes to titling chapters, it's become a habit for me to, though I still write out either the chapter's number or use Roman numerals alongside the title.
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

It's really a case by case and preference thing concerning chapters. Brief example: I know a series that has each book split in three main parts, each of those parts split in standard chapters. The author usually marks the end of each main part whenever a turning point is close by and the plot thickens. Obviously, the mark of the third part is the area where the story hits climax.

In my opinion, simple chapters generally work unless you have a really big overall picture to focus into 2/3 chunks.

Now, on the topic of naming chapters, if you want to do so to help keep the reader on track of where's where, go ahead. I don't bother bookmarking for them.
 
RE: Writer's Lounge

Zyflair said:
It's really a case by case and preference thing concerning chapters. Brief example: I know a series that has each book split in three main parts, each of those parts split in standard chapters. The author usually marks the end of each main part whenever a turning point is close by and the plot thickens. Obviously, the mark of the third part is the area where the story hits climax.

In my opinion, simple chapters generally work unless you have a really big overall picture to focus into 2/3 chunks.

Now, on the topic of naming chapters, if you want to do so to help keep the reader on track of where's where, go ahead. I don't bother bookmarking for them.
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Sectioned off books are usually pretty good, but the few I've read usually never had real chapters in the sense of them being episodes as opposed to continuous chunks of texts. If I recalll correctly, either Fahrenheit 451 or Flowers for Algernon (sp?) are ones that made that exact mistake in terms of formatting (it's been years since I last read either, and I hated the first with a serious passion because it was also a social commentary aside from being science fiction).
 
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