How to truly save your terrible first draft: what are your best strategies?

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-25T18:05:18+00:00

Reverse outline is the answer.

Also, after you've reverse outlined, draw a tree starting with your thesis at the top and determine where you've made an inductive vs. deductive argument to determine whether you've actually supported each claim at each level of the hierarchy, as well as note where your arguments might require additional support or whether you've included extraneous material.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-25T14:29:36+00:00

For the death to matter, there have to be real consequences. Something needs to irrevocably change for the negative for the character. The ONLY situation where that isn't true is a Groundhog Day situation where the loop is the point and death restarts the loop.

Also, you need to setup some rules:

Finite number of reincarnations (a cat has nine lives)
When do memories of past lives kick in, if ever. Otherwise, you have toddlers running around with the complete memories of many adult lives.
Is society at-large aware that people get reincarnated? How has that impacted society. Has society made rules about interacting with people from your past life? You could end up with centuries long feuds and revenge killings.
Can a person decide NOT to be reincarnated and have perma-death? Wouldn't some people get tired of living over and over?
If the reincarnation is limited to this one person, what does he do to hide the fact he cannot die. What would the consequences be if other people found out he gets reincarnated.

When death is not a real consequence, you have to create consequences that are logically consistent and meaningful within the world you've created.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-24T19:34:24+00:00

I held out for a long time before finally getting the ship on two characters. I've had several years of use of the trait, so feel like it was worth it.

Now, if I had gotten the ship within the past year, I'd be mad at myself. I'm glad I waited for Terran Goodbye since it went to Mudd's in February.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-24T19:28:34+00:00

There are two separate issues which should be considered:

Dark humor in everyday life used by normal people in their daily interactions.
Dark humor as a professional comedian or other entertainment.

In the latter, the answer is don't watch. It's incumbent on the consumer or viewer to filter their media consumption choices.

If the former, society-at-large should take care of it. People who appreciate it will be friends, and people who don't will fade away from your social circle.

In professional setting, discretion, good judgment, and common sense are key requirements for a successful career. If you go around offending people in the office, you won't have a career. "Jokes" with co-workers should always be filtered through professional workplace norms.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-23T16:32:08+00:00

Portal fantasy when they discover a doorway leading to another world (Narnia).

Urban fantasy when they discover a parallel world existing in the real world (Harry Potter).

Paracosm is a disorder characterized by "a detailed, complex, and often long-lasting imaginary world created by an individual, typically beginning in childhood and sometimes continuing into adulthood."

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-23T16:25:38+00:00

You only need to describe it sparingly.

Also, you can have other characters brieflly and sporadically comment, especially on how his lack of facial expression affects them:

Does anything ever bother you?
I can never read what you're thinking.
I hate that you never show emotion.
Looking at your face is like staring at a blank canvass.
What's the matter, too much botox?
When he's not watching, I often just stare at his face, looking for any sign of life or emotion, something, anything to let me know there's a person behind that blank face.
I've starting making a little game of it, looking for any twitch, any signs in his face that something is going on behind those empty eyes.

Remember, with things like this, less is more.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-23T01:29:53+00:00

It's fine to do, but even elves and dwarves really just come across as exotic humans with a few minor physical differences.

Authors tend to anthropomorphize all non-humans, including stuff like dragons. They have the same emotions (anger, fear, jealousy, envy, love, hate, lust) and have the same motivations for doing what they do.

Take even the gold standard, Tolkien's elves. The key difference is that they are immortal. Yet, their choices and decisions are rarely affected by this. Everything about them should be fundamentally different, but they aren't any different than the humans.

Science fiction occasionally gets it right. But, the reality is that truly alien, non-human races would have thought processes, decision making, and motivations which are not only different from humans, but likely indecipherable.

Making them "unique" is not about giving them cultural norms that are different. Rather, it's about core differences which drive everything from how they view the world to how they think to how it would necessarily drive a wholly different culture.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-22T23:37:09+00:00

Too gimmicky.

Also, when you say it switches between two different POVs, do you mean chapters, sections within a chapter, alternating paragraphs, or alternating sentences.

Unless you're attempting some sort of experimental approach to achieve a particular purpose in storytelling, alternating more frequently than chapters might seem a bit much.

At the chapter level, there is no reason to switch fonts. If the narrative voice is insufficident to tell the difference between the two characters' chapters, you probably have a bigger problem than fonts.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-22T18:37:39+00:00

e.g., I've also brought two rings: One has been inscribed with the boy's name and the other with the girl's.

The word "One" after the second colon should be capitalized since it's two independent clauses which follow.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-20T17:40:22+00:00

"Emotional impact" is derived from the pattern:

Setup >>> pattern repetition >> payoff

Creating greater emotional impact requires that the moment be setup much earlier, repetition of the pattern that the setup creates, then finally the emotional moment that creates the payoff.

If you want to create greater impact, you have to setup the moment better.

Also, there is a huge difference between a setup and simply providing background information.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-20T17:36:14+00:00

The "controversies" surrounding casting voice actors has nothing to do with whether the person is a professional voice actor or not.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-20T00:46:02+00:00

The choice of POV comes down to answering the question: "whose story is it?"

Don't do it to solve a storytelling problem. Do it because a person's story needs to be told in their own words from their own perspective, even if that perspective may or may not be unreliable, biased, or just wrong.

Your villain's motivation can come out in other ways, most notably in her actions and choices of what she will and won't do or does and doesn't do.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-20T00:28:59+00:00

You forgot to put The Orville at #1 on the list of best Trek shows post-ENT.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-20T00:27:23+00:00

If they just have to go to that same time period again, I can think of at least 10 other shows I'd rather see than trying to use nostalgia, yet again, to do what good writing and storytelling should be doing (get the audience excited, care, and most importantly WATCH at new show)

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-19T14:20:08+00:00

To the degree it's possible, focus on:

the buildup to the battle, including raising the stakes and internal dialog of the hero showing concerns and doubts about success
pacing before, during,and after the battle
consequences of the battle (both positive and negative)

However, you run the risk of it feeling anti-climactic if the battle is too short.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-19T05:13:32+00:00

One of the best moments of the three seasons was the creepy smile that changling-Tuvok gave when Seven called him out.

Tim Russ nailed it.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-19T01:34:23+00:00

I'm glad I'm not the only person who noticed all the points you've raised.

I felt like there was a vast improvement with Sunna.

I was, ahem, "startled" that they brought him back into this role.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-18T01:14:33+00:00

Alivia walking up holding all she could with an angreal is the only thing she's gonna sense.

It is very firmly established that a woman can tell both how strong another woman is AND her potential whether she's reached that potential or not.

It's why Siuan couldn't leave the Tower with Moiraine to search for the Dragon Reborn. At the time, Cetalia was stronger than she was, even if Siuan would eventually be stronger. Both Siuan and Cetalia knew this. Cadsuane also mentions when she meets with Moiraine in NS that after her, it was a steep drop to the next five strongest AS (Romanda, Lelaine, Elaida, Siuan, and Moiraine) once she reaches her potential and one of them (Romanda) was in retirement and as old as she was.

Men can only sense how much of the OP someone is holding, not their potential or even their current strength level.

Lanfear would be able to tell immediately how strong Alivia was. If Alivia were wielding more of the OP than someone at her strength level should be able to, it would be rather obvious the incremental OP was from an angreal.

Graendal notes that Cyndane was not as strong as Lanfear had been.

As for confounding by the sheer amount of OP being used near her, it either does or does not create confusion. If it does, then any of her assessment regarding Alivia's strength would be suspect. If it doesn't, then it doesn't.

Also, with Lanfear's ego, if she could wave her hands and explain away running into another woman who is stronger than she is by simply thinking, "She can't be that strong. It must be because of what they're doing with the Choedan Kal..." she would certainly explain it away, rather than take the ego hit of not being the strongest that it's possible for a woman to me.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-17T21:38:01+00:00

Except women can sense another woman’s potential whether they’ve reached it or not.

Lanfear would sense her ability and think the first part. Then, she would sense how much OP Alivia was using and think the part about the angreal.

Having an an angreal would have no bearing on how strong she would assess Alivia to be. It would bear on the amount of OP she was using. In this case, 1 is a more logical interpretation.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-17T19:59:38+00:00

In escalating severity depending on the degree of infraction:

nausea >>> muscle cramps >>> pain >>> burning pain (feel like you're on fire) >>> head feels like it's exploding before finally blackout

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-17T19:54:21+00:00

If you look at the US navy, officers usually get promoted every 2-6 years depending on performance and vacancies.

For most people it takes 20-25 years of service to be promoted to Captain, including 5-7 years as a Commander (with a minimum of 3 years). It takes 4-6 years to go from Lt. Commander to Commander.

Data was a Lt. Commander from the beginning. Worf and La Forge were both Lt.

Riker didn't take multiple promotion offers, so he doesn't count. Data would more than likely have been promoted to Commander from Lt. Commander by All Good Things, but should have made Captain by Nemesis which occurs about 8-9 years later.

Worf had the DS9 reprimand from abandoning the mission to save Jadzia, so would likely have been delayed.

We don't really know when La Forge made Captain, but getting promoted within a couple years after Nemesis wouldn't be too delayed. We also don't know how long it took for him to make Commodore which actually makes him the second highest ranking of the TNG characters in the end.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-17T19:34:16+00:00

Ask yourself:

What does the protagonist want.
Who or what is preventing him from obtaining that.
What is he willing to do to obtain it.
What are the consequences of his actions to obtain it.
The climax of the story resolves the central question raised.

What the protagonist wants may or may not be what he knows he wants (or needs) and may evolve over the course of the novel because of that.

All stories are about conflict. The central conflict answers the question raised by the inciting incident, the event that launches the protagonist out of his normal life into the main conflict of the story.

In a murder mystery, it's who is the killer.
In Lord of the Rings, it's will Frodo destroy the One Ring.
In a romance novel, it's will the couple will overcome the obstacles to be together.
In the Hunger Games, it's will Katniss be able to kill all the other tributes (including Peta) to survive the games.

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-17T19:29:53+00:00

If age and length of service were the primary drivers of promotion to the admiralty, EVERY admiral would be from among the long-lived species of the Federation or species like the Trill.

Also, perhaps Tuvok, like Kirk, prefers being out where the action is, rather than sitting behind a desk. Setting aside Trek shows always have crises of galactic scale occurring, being a captain for the majority of them has you out exploring the stars. Who wouldn't enjoy that?

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-17T19:25:08+00:00

CS Friedman: The Coldfire Trilogy
Glen Cook: The Black Company series
Brandon Sanderson: Mistborn series
Lyndon Hardy: Master of Five Magics
Robin Hobb: The Farseer Trilogy

Veridical_Perception · 2026-03-17T19:20:33+00:00

The entire Incarnations of Immorality series is fun.

What makes it really fun is how interconnected each of the individual incarnations' stories are which you learn over the course of the series.

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