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Writers Help Thread!
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Writers Help Thread!
Writers Help Thread!
I saw one of these on a different forum. Sadly, that forum no longer exists. :'( But that is why I am creating this!
This thread is for questions and advice. You can ask for help making your writing better, or how to reword things. You can post samples that you think need work (but no longer than two paragraphs.) You can not just ask for help and then not help anyone. Go!
I will start. What word do you use when there is only one person infiltrating something? My dad told me infiltrate was the wrong word. I can't think of a better one, though.
submitted by Emily L., age 16, WA
(May 11, 2012 - 11:21 pm)
(May 11, 2012 - 11:21 pm)
From the thesaurus, you could use: permeate, penetrate, pervade, invade, or sneak into.
(May 12, 2012 - 8:11 am)
Of those, only "sneak into" has the correct denotation—"permeate" means "to spread through something" (The smell of roses permeated the air); "pervade" means more or less the same as "permeate"; "penetrate" does means "to succeed in forcing a way into or through," but it has a myriad of different conotations that aren't what is needed here so I, personally, would stay away from it; "invade" means "to enter in large numbers, esp. with intrusive effect" and thus runs into the same problems as "infiltrate" does.
Although "infiltrate" actually doesn't specifically mean large numbers—it can be used either way since the definition is "to enter or gain access to (an organization) surreptitiously and gradually, esp. to aquire secret information". Infiltration can be accomplished by a single person or a group of them.
That's the trouble with using a thesaurus to come up with similes, especially if you don't also have a dictionary handy to make sure the new word means the right thing—read something like Eragon, for example, and look up the obviously-substituted words. Oftentimes they really don't mean what Paolini thought they did (and I use him as an example because he does it all the time). The problem arises because "infiltrate" has meanings other than the one I quoted above, since it's used in medicine and to describe the introduction or permeation of liquid to something else—so most of the synonyms you cited were synonyms of those meanings, not the one we're using in this instance.
I, personally, would use infiltrate if the POV character is intelligent and reasonably verbose, and sneak into if the POV character isn't.
Sorry for the teal deer.
(May 12, 2012 - 9:31 pm)
I take all my words from Word Synonyms and a thesaurus. :)
And great idea by the way!
APC says "then". Then what? What do you want to do then, APC?
(May 12, 2012 - 7:49 pm)
Thanks guys!
(May 12, 2012 - 9:14 pm)
Anybody else need help with anything?
(May 13, 2012 - 3:31 pm)
Yes... I never finish anything. I always give up. What do you guys do to keep going?
(May 14, 2012 - 7:27 am)
Figure out something that happens waaaaaaaaaay later in the book. Maybe not the ending, but something that you want to get to. Milestones are important. :D Try to do plotting. Make notes. Something important I learned is, you can never have too many notes.
(May 14, 2012 - 8:47 pm)
I do that a lot. It helps.
(May 15, 2012 - 3:33 pm)
Write down random scenes and you'll find that they'll fit easily into your plot. Most of the time. ;)
(May 15, 2012 - 8:31 pm)
Totally. I love doing that.
(June 6, 2012 - 5:38 pm)
Totally. I love doing that.
(June 6, 2012 - 5:39 pm)
You already said that. But it is fun.
(June 7, 2012 - 5:17 pm)
Totally. I love doing that.
(June 6, 2012 - 5:39 pm)
Does anybody have solutions to increasing chapter length? I struggle to make my chapters more than a page! It's alright for serializing, but not for published books! Look for Elemental Magic in GoodLife magazine, if you live in the Hudson Valley!
(May 14, 2012 - 4:05 pm)
I have the same problem myself. My suggestion would be... use bigger font? haha
or just don't end the chapter, and put what you were going to put in the next chapter in this one.
(May 14, 2012 - 8:44 pm)