Tip #451: It doesn't have to be major, but

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY... Even if you’re writing a Die Hard rip-off, have something to say about Die Hard rip-offs.

http://aerogrammestudio.com/2013/03/13/joss-whedons-top-10-writing-tips/

Tip #445: Why character choice matters

There are very few situations where every human being on the planet will respond the same way, so the cascading series of unique choices they make — each time altering how the story goes — is what makes them — and the story — come alive.

When you’ve done it right, you’ll look at your story and realize that it would have been an altogether different story with any other character in the same situation.

http://www.aisteach.com/blog/?p=1205#more-1205

If you have some situations but no protagonist/antagonist, those situations (and how the characters got into and get out of them) help define your characters.

If you know your characters try asking yourself occasionally what they wouldn't do, and then work out why they'd do it.

Tip #443: Reading the story as a whole

I think one of the most important transitions a writer makes is when they stop relying on the idea to prop up the story and start thinking about how the story reads as {a whole}... In fact, most writers don’t get that far, and you can tell that their fiction is all a lead-up to the reveal of the end, or in support of a strong moment that isn’t actually a whole story.

http://carriecuinn.com/2013/09/20/interview-review-and-links/

Tip #316: Meaning in character arcs

A powerful story motif occurs when the anti-hero, because of the unfolding events, is forced to join the community.

http://www.writersdigest.com/tip-of-the-day/writing-fiction-the-three-types-of-lead-characters

Likewise, if you start with a character who is part of the community and because of the unfolding events chooses or is forced to leave the community, that's also powerful.

Tip #311: Contrast & readers compare

In my story, I want to highlight how exceptional a particular relationship is, so I’m making sure to include horrible relationships in my plot as well.

http://kamimcarthur.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/playing-with-foils.html

Tip #304: Awesome concepts

It’s not enough to realize that you love a certain idea... figure out why you love that idea.

http://screenwritingtips.blcklst.com/2012/09/screenwriting-tip-1116/

Tip #303: Scaling challenges

when you're a first level character in a game a wolf is a really impressive challenge... once you've leveled up... an army of kobolds can't take them out. {The gradual scaling of challenges alongside the scaling of character ability as they grow from their experiences} needs to be built into your rule system right from the start... else the story gets boring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYqx3nwcpQ0&feature=plcp

Tip #302: On settings

Is your setting and milieu historical or exotic? Work until you find one thing we’ll recognize from our own reality. What’s the generation gap like in Victorian England? Does your society of demon slayers have a long-standing fight at their meetings over refreshments?

Is your setting by intention ordinary? Find things in it that are peculiar, local and contradictory. What’s the food found nowhere else? What’s the odd annual festival? What local legend is unquestioned? Who’s at war on a miniature scale? What’s a big irony in this social realm?

http://writerunboxed.com/2012/04/04/the-good-seed/

Tip #300: Problems with endings?

Does the plot build from... inciting incident to an inevitable climax? 

http://annerallen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-biggest-problem-facing-beginning.html

If you're having trouble answering this question, try separating your various story arcs/problems (external, internal, etc) and thinking as abstractedly as possible.  Different arcs may have different inciting incidents (but as many as possible should share a climax).

e.g. Inciting Incident: Boy learns his parents were murdered -> Climax: Boy comes face-to-face with the murderer is only a tiny part of the Harry Potter story and certainly not the main story arc, but the additional arc (and its dictated requirement) gives the climax additional emotional power.

Tip #297: IDEA to CONCEPT to PREMISE

How To Move From IDEA to CONCEPT to PREMISE

1. IDEA asks no questions and presents no action or character

2. CONCEPT asks a question (‘what if’) and the answer to that question is your story *

3. PREMISE is a concept that brings character into the mix; it defines hero’s quest.

* Use as many ‘what if’ sequences as necessary to reach your concept

http://www.bullishink.com/2012/10/19/how-to-find-your-storys-premise/

Tip #295: Is your theme a question?

instead of using the theme “justice,” let the events of the story pose a more engaging question: “What’s more important, telling the truth or protecting the innocent?”

Rather than giving the advice, “You should forgive others,” let your story explore a dilemma: “How do you forgive someone who has done the unthinkable to someone you love?”

Let your story do more than reiterate the cliché, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Instead, challenge that axiom by presenting your characters with situations that raise the question, “When do the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many?”

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/5-story-mistakes-even-good-writers-make

Tip #294: On voice & starting

What I do scratch around for, and sometimes for a long time at the beginning of a book, is the right way to write it: the voice, the syntax, the POV, the balance of description to everything else. Each book so far may have similarities, but they are all sufficiently unique too, in the way that they are written. I used to worry that I still hadn’t found my voice as a writer, and was just trying different things out with each book, but I’ve come to realise that the actual stories demanded a certain style from me in order for the stories to work.

http://torbooks.co.uk/2012/10/22/five-question-interview-with-adam-nevill/

Tip #293: Attention-catching concepts

A good log-line is ironic. Irony gets attention and hooks interest.
 

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/keeping-focused-nailing-the-pitch-understand-your-seed-idea/


Example:

A sparkly vampire falls in love with the one girl in the world whose blood might tempt him to break his vow not to feed on humans.

http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/concept-begins-from-line-one-or-whats.html

Tip #289: Reader empathy

It has to matter to {the protagonist}, or it won’t matter to {the reader}.

http://www.stinalindenblatt.com/2012/10/writerly-quotes-tension.html

Tip #286: Something to ask before you start writing

Does this story problem lend itself to a KNOCKOUT ending?

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/structure-part-4-testing-your-idea-is-it-strong-enough-to-make-an-interesting-novel-2/

Tip #284: The end

For me, the point of a novel is the end. Everything is structured to give emotional weight to that end, to resonate with it.

http://www.challengingdestiny.com/interviews/sagara.htm

Tip #283: Plot is not optional

literary fiction must also have a plot. The only difference between commercial fiction and literary fiction is that the character arc takes precedence and plot is of lesser importance

Given Example:

in The Road by Cormac McCarthy, there is a plot. Man and Boy must make it to the sea. But it is more important HOW they make it than IF they make it. If the Man and Boy resort to cannibalism, that is an epic fail. They must make it to the sea, but without sacrificing their humanity.

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/great-characters-the-beating-heart-of-great-fiction/

Tip #281: Story & plot

Hero, problem, antagonist, respond, change, attack, regroup, grow, DO SOMETHING HEROIC, solve the problem.

A story is about characters DOING things... The sequence and sum of what they DO is the story.

Plot is the stage upon which your characters reveal themselves.

http://storyfix.com/when-your-passion-kills-your-plot

Tip #277: The best POV for a story

you can really mess with the reader by choosing the right point of view... some peoples' perceptions are really off.

http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2012/08/the-story-board-episode-1/

Tip #276: Choosing your protagonist

{With} either a first-person or tight third-person narrative, the protagonist is the reader’s guide to the story. We’re committed to seeing everything from his point of view.

So if that protagonist is too passive to ask relevant questions the reader wants to know, or not sufficiently nuanced in his worldview to be able to observe in useful detail, or too unpleasant to be good company for a few hundred pages, the reader may feel slightly cheated. Yes, even if the plot is very exciting: would you want to go on a tour of a haunted house with a guide that steered you away from the dark corners, did not seem to know much about the house’s history, or declared every fifteen seconds that anyone who believed in ghosts was an idiot?

http://www.annemini.com/?cat=3143