Comment on Open Thread, October 1-15, 2012

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 21:33:23 GMT

I am musing about writing fiction. I would like get help on the following questions:

1. What forums to ask the following questions can you recommend?

2. What is the general rule on including real living people in fiction? I'm afraid that it's hard and fast "Don't." Where does it become ok to include real people in fiction? (sometime after they die?) Is it ok if fictional character strongly resembles a living person, but some details are left out so that one can write it off as a coincidence?

3. How many threads to the story can I have? The more the merrier? E.g. suppose that I write a story about a scientist that designs an AI to save the world, but instead bringing the doom upon us all (or vice versa). Would it be good if they are pursuing a romantic interest at the same time? What about solving a major philosophical problem, too? Where do we stop?

4. If I would like to make a story split between two interleaving timelines: e.g. the "future" and the "past" timeline. One chapter is in the "future", then the next one in the "past"; what should be the natural way to arrange the passage of time in those timelines: a) parallel (time goes forward in both threads) or b) diverging threads (time goes forward in "future", backwards in the "past"). Here's the illustration:

Book timeline

Discuss