Tip #134: Establishing setting

one of the things most new writers fail to do is establish setting. They never describe the place the characters are in, and {Elizabeth Wolheim at DAW) likened it to sending actors out on stage without any props.

http://critiquecircle.com/forums.asp?action=viewforum&thread=874873&offset=0 2nd reply by Jongoff.

Tip #133: The best short stories

 The best short stories I've read are ones which start in the thick of things, but still keep you guessing and let you get to know the characters before you fully comprehend the trouble they're in.

http://io9.com/366707/8-unstoppable-rules-for-writing-killer-short-stories
I think this is something which can be used in novels too.
NB the writer is speaking from an SF perspective.

TIp #132: Filling in the blanks

If your readers don't get the full details, they'll just full in the blanks with what's relevant to them. And if those details aren't what you had in mind, you can run into trouble with how a reader sees and understands your story.

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2009/07/in-proper-context.html?spref=tw

This is, of course, the dark side of being able to conjure up an image by saying "a terraced house" when you want to describe something relatively unimportant and common.

Tip #131: Give your subconcious a task

{Give} the brain a problem to work on—a question or other unknown. Don’t think about it actively. Just put it out there, write it down, leave it around where the eyes can fall on it occasionally… and see what happens.

http://www.tobyneal.net/2010/07/15/idea-mining/

Tip #130: About your audience

1. Who will read this?

2. What do they already know about my topic?

3. What do I want them to know?

4. What part of my topic would interest them most?

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/planning.pdf

Tip #129: Story structure

The problem in choosing a structure is that you have understand the story you’re telling because structure has meaning... Generally speaking, chronological, linear plotting is the writer’s friend because viewers and readers are used to it. But if your story wants to be something other than the unfolding of events, you need to listen to it.

http://www.arghink.com/2011/06/02/linear-vs-patterned-a-brief-discussion-of-structure/

Tip #128: Possibilities & limitations

detective novels... are novels of potentiality. Quantum narratives. Their power isn’t in their final acts, but in the profusion of superpositions before them, the could-bes, what-ifs and never-knows. Until that final chapter, each of those is as real and true as all the others, jostling realities all dreamed up by the crime... When all those suspects become one certainty, it’s a collapse, and a let-down. How can it not be? We’ve been banished from an Eden of oscillation.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/05/26/china-mieville-on-crime-novels/

Tip #127: A way into a story

I often find my way into a story by trying first to create its unique atmosphere, which takes into account the setting, the character and what has already been: that is, what forces have come together to place this character at this place in time.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/literaryminded/2011/05/16/mystery-strangeness-and-coming-of-age-an-interview-with-christopher-currie-author-of-the-ottoman-motel/

Tip #126: A story is worth writing when...

A story is worth writing when it’s {going to be} worth reading.

http://jamigold.com/2011/01/when-is-a-story-worth-writing-part-three/

Tip #125: Change

Change. Most of us fear it in life, but we crave it in fiction.

http://www.graspingforthewind.com/2011/05/02/guest-post-building-character-by-jon-sprunk/

Tip #124: Quirks & details

When you know someone really well, you think about them in a deeper way, in terms of the “kaleidoscope of tiny details” that make them uniquely themselves... “detail” doesn’t have to be “quirks"... A detail might simply be somebody’s habit of coloring on the heel of her shoe when she is bored, or of making a weird slurping sound while drinking, or of unconsciously biting the back of a pen.

http://inkpop.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/how-to-create-realistic-characters/

Tip #123: What great authors have in common

there’s no formulaic method to writing well. Every great author has a unique style, but they all have one thing common—powerful stories.

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2011/05/18/5ThingsTheGreatBooksTaughtMeAboutWriting.aspx

Tip #122: Write the best book you can

Once your book comes out, it must stand on its own merits.  Take my word for it, you’ll be glad you spent that extra time revising.

http://shrinkingvioletpromotions.blogspot.com/2011/04/guest-blogger-donna-gephart-6-12.html

Tip #121: Greatness

But you don't become great by trying to be great. You become great by wanting to do something, and then by doing it so hard that you become great in the process.

http://xkcd.com/896/

Tip #120: Wounds and misinterpretation

What is your hero’s wound?The hero has a wound or source of pain from his past that he has suppressed but has never really dealt with.

What is your hero’s belief?Out of the hero’s wound comes a (usually mistaken) belief such as: I’m worthless (Will in Goodwill Hunting), I won’t survive without a rich man to take care of me (Rose in Titanic), if I show people my true self, I will be rejected (Shrek in Shrek) or, if I live as my true self, I will die (Ennis in Brokeback Mountain).

What is your hero’s identity?The hero’s identity is the false self that they present to the world in order to protect themselves from re-experiencing the wound.

What is your hero’s essence?The hero’s essence is what’s left if the identity is dropped, the hero’s true self.

http://lenacoakley.com/2011/05/michael-hauge—a-different-way-of-thinking-about-character-development/

The "wound" doesn't have to be a big thing, it's the character's interpretation that is interesting and very very human.

Tip #119: What not to describe

people know more or less what a street, a shop, a beach, a sky, an oak tree look like. Tell them what makes this one different.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2003/04/holly-points-out-that-in-entry-about.asp

Tip #118: Consistency

Why are we so anxious when writers contradict their canon statements?

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/05/mind-meld-make-up-with-china-miville-on-world-building/

And we are anxious, so to make a new meaning by deliberately contradicting yourself could be very powerful.  Or it could wreck a story.