Nathan Bransford - The Forums

It sounds interesting. If the manuscript has as much humour as the query I would buy it! I made a few small points below which might, or might not, help! I liked version 2 better so my comments are on that. Newbie journalist Elizabeth Mitchell wants to change the world – not wrap a veil around it. B...

"I dived" is also indicative in UK simple form as a preterite expressing actions that took place in the past. "I dove" is mainly used in the U.S. as expressing past tense. As a dive instructor I hear this a lot. E.g. Americans tell me they have 'dove Egypt' and British speakers ...

I was trying to see if my current WIP was adult or YA (adult it turned out) and Ajcattapan gave me the following advice: for YA the MC is a teenager, the story is usually coming of age/identity and often there is a self reflective point of view. When I apply her thoughts to the YA I have read it doe...

Yes, put the guide in. At worst people won't read and will use their own pronunciation. I like 'extras' at the beginning of books (maps being a particular fave) and I like to learn something new when I read a book. So if it had a pronunciation guide I would read it and no doubt sit there saying the ...

Haha, I love it when people get irate for silly reasons. My co-worker (I'm not saying a co-worker of mine, because there really are only two of us--if you disclude the VP) recently took a stress test, and apparently they base your stress level on your road rage. If you honk your horn at everything-...

Hi Nick Well I actually found a very good beta reader on here who gave me some great advice on YA writing and the sort of vague rules it follows and my story just doesn't fit: wrong themes, wrong age of character etc. So it appears that what I have written is a paranormal mystery adventure for grown...

What if before the woman jumped she left her purse there. That would have her keys and presumably her address. My MC takes the purse and hides it, not telling the police about it. He then goes and uses the key to get it and as he searches a detective shows up to investigate. This detective can also...

If she says 'start with me' then surely she expects/wants him to poke about in her life. If she's going to kill herself anyway, why make it so hard for him? Could she not put the key down in front of him before jumping? Or leave a bag behind? Or a key turns up by post the next day? Just an idea. I g...

Drop and give me twenty setting, plot, idea, character, event, and discourse warm-up crunches. SPICED. Take your laps next, description, introspection, action, narration, emotion, sensation, summarization, exposition, conversation, recollection, explanation, transition aerobic writing exercise. DIA...

There's a smattering of adult fantasy in my reads as well. (By adult I don't mean racy.) I was just telling a friend about a adult paranormal mystery I was working on and automatically assumed by adult I meant erotic (there isn't anything in it that remotely gets close to a sex scene). I read crime...

Not necessarily the award but if it made the list then I might be more likely to read. This is just good bookstore marketing; if they have a nice display of books shortlisted for the ...award then often I'll have a browse and maybe pick up a title by an author I had not previously heard of and might...

I don't have my fave to hand (Hitchiker, Douglas Adams) so I googled it and found this: http://www.alternativereel.com/includes/top-ten/display_review.php?id=00117 and remembered that I loved the Trainspotting and Fear and Loathing openers to. But here is Adams: Far out in the uncharted backwaters o...

DougM hired a editor and it worked out well for him. I'm not sure if he's in these forums much anymore but you could contact him via his blog

http://devinbriar.blogspot.com/

Throughout our history, ships were have been designed and built, commissioned and sailed. ... --- ... / ... --- ... / ... --- ... Many desperately called for help; waited to be rescued, waited to be saved. ... --- ... / ... --- ... / ... --- ... Some of their voices faded in time; to live in our le...

I like visual sprinkles. The only problem is I tend to throw them everywhere. I try and sprinkle too. There is a bit of physical description but a whole person may be dotted through the book. The only part in my current WIP where I've really spent a lot of time on description is when a third party ...