When writing a book, is it okay to mention/make references to famous celebrities, movies, other writers, songs, copyrighted stuff and related things?
When you are writing a book, during the actual writing process itself, yes all of these are allowed.It is publishing the book that can triggering copyright infringement, libel, and other legal issues.This is why publishers have lawyers that go over the entire book and clear all of the content. This is a very important legal service that publishers offer, and something that self-publishers often fail to be aware of.In general, yes, you can actually use real names in passing. Names of movies, writers, songs, books, celebrities, etc. What you cannot do is use actual copyrighted material: an excerpt from a book, lyrics from a song, dialog from a movie. But names do not enjoy copyright protection. In fact, it would be silly if they did since you could refer to anything in writing if they did. Nominative use is when you just refer to something by name and that is totall allowed.But you cannot go beyond that and use someone’s character. Sure, you can say “His hair looked like Harry Potter’s hair.” (By that way, don’t. That’s horrible writing.) But you can’t actually have the character Harry Potter in your book. That would be copyright infringement.And you run into all sorts of potential for libel if you include real people doing things they did not do in real life. Sure, mentioning them is okay. But turning them into a character in your book is a touchy subject. Disclaimers can help, but are undercut by using a real name of a real celebrity that is obviously a representation of that person.And, if your book is non-fiction then you must have a lawyer go over the book to look for libelous statements. There really isn’t anyway to make that risk safe otherwise.But again, this is the publisher’s headache, not yours. Unless you center your book on a fictional representation of a celebrity, making it essentially nonpunishable, you really aren’t negatively impacting your chances of finding a publisher by having a song quote or referencing Google or having a character carry around an iPad.Meanwhile, be aware that there are books like this out there:Shatnerquake“After a reality bomb goes off at the first ever ShatnerCon, all of the characters ever played by William Shatner are suddenly sucked into our world. Their mission: hunt down and destroy the real William Shatner. Featuring: Captain Kirk, TJ Hooker, Denny Crane, Priceline Shatner, Cartoon Kirk, Rescue 9-1-1 Shatner, singer Shatner, and many more.”
What are the reference books to prepare for GATE chemical engineering? What are some tips?
Everyone has their own choice of books. The two books that I used the most were1.) Chemical Engineering for GATE -Ram Prassad 2.) Arihant's Chapter-wise Previous Solved Paper: Chemical EnggOne more book I followed for objective type questions was the book by O P Gupta (Although not as much as the previous two).For text books I used1.) Mass- BK Dutta2.) Heat-BK Dutta3.) Fluid- NPTEL video lectures by Dr V. Shankar4.) Thermo- Smith Vennes5.) Process Control- Stephanopoulos 6.) Chemical Rxn Engg- LevenspielFor Minor topics Like Mechanical Operation, Economics, Process design etc I used theory segment of Ram Prassad. I will suggest follow the text book that you are most comfortable in, it hardly matters.As far as tips are concerned - I can tell you three mantras that worked perfectly for me1.) Make a Formulae Book- I started preparing by the mid of November while I was working with an MNC. So first 30-35 days I studied the major topics ( The six topics listed above) 3-4 hours daily and made a formula book out of it. Mostly I solved examples from the text books I have listed. I would suggest the same for you too-Don't spend much time reading as it wastes a lot of time and energy, instead try solving text book examples and exercises, that will clear your doubts.2.) Practice Problems- Do as many problems as you can do. During the first 30-35 days of my preparation- I would complete studying a topic within 3-4 days and then devote 1-2 days for practicing problems. By mid of December, I was mostly solving problems from ( Ram Prassad, Previous Years Papers, OP Gupta). If I got stuck in some problem, I would refer to my formulae book. If I couldn't get it in my formulae book, I would go to text books and/or NPTEL.3.) Keep Refreshing and updating your concepts- Read your formulae book over and over again. Besides, whenever you find some important concept or trick while solving problems, note it down in your formulae book.One more point, which may not be that important yet I would suggest, is to join some online test series. The online test series that are available for chemical engineering are not very useful yet they give you an insight of the exam web interface and also of the online calculator. Follow my answer to a different question which highlight similar concernsPritam Sharma's answer to What is the ideal plan and study route to get AIR into top 100 in Gate 2016 in chemical engineering?
Advice for an Aspiring Writer?
There isn't One True Way to write a novel. Anyone who says there is is either a fool or is selling something - probably a book or a course or a computer program that shows you how to write in their One True Way. If you've been planning for a year, I'd just get on and start writing the damn thing. Inevitably, you'll run into problems you hadn't anticipated. More planning at this stage won't necessarily let you avoid any more problems. The only thing you can be sure of is that it'll chew up more time. You'll also find that you planned a lot of stuff that you ended up not using. Consider it a learning exercise for your second novel. What helped me to finish a novel after years of procrastination was to tell myself I would write something every day, even if it was only a sentence. (And there were quite a few days when it was only a sentence.) The other important decision I made was to stop trying to edit as I went along. If you do, you end up with half a story that's beautifully polished, which is a lot less useful than a finished story that's still rough around the edges. Characters are important, because their actions drive the plot, and the reader has to believe that they really would take whatever actions they take because they believe that's what's best. (How many stories have you read or watched where a character does something incredibly stupid or against his best interests, simply because the plot requires it?) But the plot also constraints what the characters can do, and how they react to events can allow for character development. So the two are interdependent. Science fiction can be more plot-driven than most other genres, because it deals with things that nobody has any experience of. If you can come up with cool ideas and present them in a credible manner, you can get away with the characters being less well-developed than you might otherwise require. A good science fiction story is one that doesn't work if you take out the science fictional elements, so that's the first thing I look for when I read science fiction... but a few memorable and believable characters wouldn't go amiss either.
Why aren't you allowed to check out reference books at the library?
Okay, so I was at the library with my friends brother. I don't like him, I think he's a dick, but she asked me to help him with his summer reading. We have to write an essay on the book we read. So again, we were at the library, and he wanted to check out a reference book. I told him "no, we're not allowed to check out reference books." and he asked why, and I just told him we weren't, and continued working. I'm curious now, why aren't you allowed to check out reference books? I've never questioned it before, I just listened when I was told I wasn't. So does anyone know why?
What is a good method for writing a book?
first, get your ideas on a paper (e.g problems, characters, goals..) second, start doing ur first draft, remember to skip lines third, have a friend read it ALOUD so like if there's mistakes u hear change it and also let them give u advices and stuff fourth, mark all the corrections on ur first draft, then start to do ur second draft, do the tag conference with someone else ( T:tell something u like A: ask questions G: give advice . at the end,do " writers plan" . fifth, Make sure ur story starts in the middle of the action do correctionss to ur 2nd draft sixth, do ur 3rd draft...and let some1 else read it and mark corrections or w/e well some good writers do up to 30 drafts! ( u dont have to do tht much but...the more the better) anyways....thats the basic Good luck!