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/

Great articles: The basics of beats

Too much good stuff in David Farland's Daily Kick in the Pants today to distill: Putting Emotional Twists in Your Tales (explaining emotional and genre beats).

Added link to the great articles webpage.

Tip #278: Self-interested readers

Consumers buy books according to the principle of self-interest. They need to know what’s in it for them... {whether} pure entertainment, personal inspiration, or fascinating information.

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/discoverability-without-spreadability-is-a-marketing-disability/

romances, fantasy, westerns, and so on – sell so well precisely because the audience does know within certain parameters how the story will end {and the emotions that will be evoked}.

http://davidfarland.net/writing_tips/?a=37

It's important to be clear about the things you're promising with your title, back cover copy/query and first pages & chapters. A reader who's looking for a cosy mystery and ends up reading a blood-splattered thriller by accident is unlikely to leave a 5 star review.

Tip #216: Historical language

Glamour in Glass is set in 1815 and I wanted to have the language fairly clean of anachronisms. The challenge came in trying to figure out what words didn’t exist yet. So I decided to create a Jane Austen word list, from the complete works of Jane Austen, and use that as my spellcheck dictionary.

http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/words-i-couldnt-use-in-glamour-in-glass/

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 #117: Glimpses of other stories

One of the things that made {Tolkein's} world seem so real is that you catch glimpses of other stories that aren't explained in the book. I learned that lesson from him.

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/05/mind-meld-lessons-learned-from-master-world-builders/

Tip #110: Fantastic religions

Every religion we make up in any fantasyland is, by definition, going to be based on some kind of belief we currently have or know about, whether it’s an existing one or one we cobbled together from other sources. I think where most stuff goes wrong is when it tries to fully mirror modern-day religions in some other time and place. It feels hackneyed, tacked-on. And that makes it feel like you’re being talking down to, or preached at.
We interpret {religious} books based on who we are, not who the people who wrote them were.
When slavery was no longer seen as a moral and humane thing to do, people stopped quoting the Bible passages that supported slavery.

http://feministallies.blogspot.com/2011/04/nyx-sold-her-womb-somewhere-between.html

Tip #80: Description in horror

what we’re trying to do in modern horror, is not describe the creatures or the events, but the emotional events that follow those, whether it’s their immediate insanity or fleeing in terror.  The best writers, I think, are the ones who can best match the reactions of their characters to the reactions of their readers.

http://storytellingdream-thief.blogspot.com/2010/09/worldcon-2010-unthinkable-indescribable.html

Tip #78: List & Twist

All you do is list up all the things you normally associate with {your starting ideas/genre, etc}... and then you start saying "Well, how could I twist it?... What could be different? What could be something that's not there?... Something that's {the} opposite or just doesn't fit.

http://johndbrown.com/2011/02/how-to-get-and-develop-killer-story-ideas-recording/

Tip #59: Realism

"Realism" is often not very realistic. The grimmest of realities often kick up moments of acute wonder and beauty. Any one-note depiction is not realistic and it's bad art.

http://thesilverkey.blogspot.com/2011/02/realism-does-not-equal-adult-followup.html
"Annonymous" comment by Jim Cornelius.

Tip #57: Something to bear in mind...

The Chosen One (in its most common iteration) removes a crucial part of a conflict: the hero.  If he’s been Chosen by Whatever, he can safely assume that he is right and everyone else is wrong, that he does deserve to rule and get the girl and exterminate the orcs and whatever.

http://samsykes.com/2011/01/the-chosen-jerk-jam-session-with-n-k-jemisin/

Sykes adds that something often lost is "the conflict of {the protagonist's} own morality", something which has some interesting possibilities in tense situations.

Tip #12: Clichés

learn to recognize when you are using a cliché. If you do it, do it consciously, only after careful deliberation. Ask yourself, “What do I gain here? What do I lose?”

David Farland's Daily Kick in the Pants: Those So-called Clichés, 4th May 2010

Tip #8: Remember your audience

if you’re writing comedy, dedicate an entire rewrite to adding more jokes. If you’re writing horror, up the levels of dread in every scene, etc. Make the genre obvious on every single page.

http://screenwritingtips.tumblr.com/