Tip #111: Don't give the reader that cookie

the last read-through... you’re looking for any passage, sentence or word that causes you to stumble, even in your head voice. It could be an awkward sentence or an unfamiliar word or one that paints a dissonant word picture. Be dispassionate. Be ruthless. If something causes your reader to stop and consider, they may decide to put the book down and make tea. And making tea, they may realize they are hungry and get out a box of macaroni and cheese. And when they look for milk, they realize the carton has passed its expiration date and decide to make a grocery list... If you give a mouse a cookie… Don’t give the reader that cookie, or, er, whatever.

http://novelmatters.blogspot.com/2011/04/5-things-to-consider-before-you-spend.html

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 #109: Why antagonists need to be strong

One quarter of the story is about watching the protagonist win. Three quarters of the story is about watching the protagonist trying not to lose.

Tip #108: Reader assumptions

a good writer will use an audience’s innate desire to fill gaps in knowledge to trick them with their own assumptions.

http://writeanything.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/subtext-the-most-critical-tool-in-the-story-teller%E2%80%99s-box/

Tip #107: Knowlege & suspense

suspense comes, not from knowing almost nothing, but from knowing almost everything and caring very much about the small part still unknown.

Orson Scott Card's The Lost Gate, Afterword.

Tip #106: The advantage of restrictions

One unanticipated result of having restrictions in some areas (such as the elements involved in the story) is that it opens your mind in other areas. You’re forced to become more creative in some ways because certain avenues have been closed to you.

 http://johndbrown.com/2011/04/interview-with-author-bradley-beaulieu/

Tip #105: By the ending...

when it comes to the ending... {you should} have been brought to understand what's at risk, who's at risk, why the characters are risking it

http://www.dragonmount.com/index.php/News/fantasyreview/StevenErikson

Tip #104: What's in a middle?

The protag can’t immediately know what to do to resolve the problems and bring about the ending... they need to figure things out piece by piece. Each clue or discovery or action brings them closer to the major event at the end of act two that sends them hurtling toward the climax.
Odds are you’ll have three to five big plot things that happen in the middle.

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2011/03/stuck-in-middle-what-makes-good-middle.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+janicehardy%2FPUtE+%28The+Other+Side+of+the+Story%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Tip #103: Why today?

Why this day out of your character’s life rather than all the other days? And the answer, it’s always Because this is the day that’s breaking the rhythm, the day that’s an aberrance, the day everything can change, if the character can just walk that tightrope to the last page.

http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/7+Things+Ive+Learned+So+Far+By+Stephen+Graham+Jones.aspx

Tip #102: Parts of the narrative arc

In a successful narrative arc, the hero or heroine is confronted with dangerous threats, seductive choices, major decisions, necessary feats of physical bravery, or emotionally powerful assaults from family or social pressure... brainstorm specific scenes to insert that target the character’s weakness or dramatize the symbolic threats from rivals, challenges from mentors, dangerous social stressors within the political or cultural context of the situation, opportunities to succeed or fail.

http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2008/07/07/ask-the-editor-constructing-the-narrative-arc/

Tip #101: Logical Progression

Everything in a story must be caused by {an} action or event that precedes it.

This applies to prose too. If you write:

With trembling fingers she locked the door. She knew the killer was on the other side.

revers{e} the order so that you render rather than explain the action.

The killer was on the other side of the door. She reached out with a trembling hand to lock it.

Cause: The killer is on the other side of the door.
Effect: She locks it.

http://writersdigest.com/article/3-secrets-to-great-storytelling

Tip #100: Flaws and heroes

Character flaws are often used to create an Unlikely Hero; someone who has little or no chance of succeeding in their mission. And that creates suspense. 

H. R. Filmore's Reminders to Self, March 2011.

Tip #99: Gold

Gold comes out of the ground dirty and ugly. It is by going through the fire that it is purified and made beautiful.

http://www.epic-fantasy.com/

The metaphor can be applied to characters and story.

Tip #98: Beginning words

Anything you introduce in the Beginning (1/4), the savvy reader knows on some level is important to the overall story.
Therefore, be careful about every word you use. If you use dark and ominous words in the Beginning, the reader expects the story overall will be dark and ominous. If you introduce a gun, the reader knows violence is coming, likely even death by gunshot. If you introduce sweetness and light, the reader expects the story to reflect the same.

http://plotwhisperer.blogspot.com/2010/03/opposite-of-foreshadowing.html

Tip #97: Memorable villains

want to make a villain memorable, even likable? Give him traits traditionally viewed as good. Love, compassion, forgiveness, humor, kindness, self-sacrifice: the boring villains wouldn’t know what these even are.

http://dun-scaith.blogspot.com/2010/10/guest-post-david-dalglish-likable.html

Tip #96: Resolving conflicts

I tended to resolve... conflicts too early and too easily. Because my characters lived in the imaginary world inside my head, the conflict they experienced made me uncomfortable, and I wanted to relieve them of this discomfort. Tension and {character} frustration, however, keeps readers turning pages.

http://writerunboxed.com/2011/03/14/tough-lessons-from-a-debut-novelist-part-1/

Tip #95: Quiet themes

write your theme quietly... so that it's not rising up at the end of the novel and overpowering the story (stiletto in the ribs vrs a mallet)

http://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com/2010/12/aisfp-106-guy-gavriel-kay/


Note: This quote was taken from a podcast and isn't word perfect, although it's close  : )

Tip #94: Show, don't tell

When I find myself writing things like "The city was cluttered and cosmopolitan." I know I'm doing it wrong. When I write "A pair of grey dogs dodged between the crushing wagon wheels and the hooves of uneasy horses, navigating the close-packed, dust-aired street with the ease of fish in a river. When the priestess's wailing call to prayer cut through the clatter of cobblestones and the shouting of carters, the men in the street nodded to the north and touched paired fingers to their throats without apparent thought or even awareness." then I feel better.

http://orullian.com/writing/danielabraham_interview.html

Tip #93: Actions & intentions

I’ve noticed two schools of thought in how people see a character. One goes by their actions. The other decides by the intentions. If both are in sync, it’s fairly easy to make snap judgments. It’s when things don’t match up that it gets interesting.

http://dun-scaith.blogspot.com/2010/10/guest-post-david-dalglish-likable.html

Tip #92: Work ethic

the really successful people seem to be the ones who mix a good measure of work ethic with a good measure of talent or skill or craft or whatever you want to call it.

http://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com/2011/02/aisfp-113-writing-excuses/

The podcast mentioned David Farland's method of keeping himself going:
Think of the people slaving away in third world countries and ask yourself "can I write another page right now?"
Brandon Sanderson imagines a "phantom cubicle" chasing him - if it catches up, he'll have to get a "real" job.

Tip #91: Living with the story

story ideas... lose their punch over time in your own mind. It’s not until you get them in front of fresh eyes, or pitch them to new ears, that you realize, remember, or understand for the first time in a lightning-strike epiphany that, yes, you’ve really got something.

http://davidanaxagoras.com/2011/03/14/the-joke-is-still-funny/

Tip #90: Practicalities of irresistibility

in your query letter, you want to make the reader believe that all hell is about to break loose--and then leave them dangling, with no idea of how it ends. This should effectively make them frantic to read the book itself. (Note that when I say "all hell is about to break loose", that can also mean a quiet, internalized hell. Introspective novels also focus on escalating conflicts, but the conflict can take place inside the protagonist's head or heart.)

http://querygoblin.blogspot.com/2011/02/query-writing-craft-part-1.html

TIp #89: Deepest secrets

What won't your character do?  What would they die before doing?  And what do they say they would die before doing? 

H. R. Filmore's Reminders to Self, March 2011

Tip #88: Food for thought

The idea of closure is this: when you've got one {comic} panel where Superman is winding up to hit Lex Luther, and in the next Luther is flying across the room, your mind supplies the middle panel where Luther's getting punched. You may almost see that punch and not even be aware that you, the reader, are providing the closure.

http://www.adamgidwitz.com/warning-boring/my-ideas/one-crucial-criterion-for-a-good-book

Tip #87: Subtext

write an entire scene that appears to be about one thing but is really about something else entirely.

http://screenwritingtips.tumblr.com/ Tip #552

Tip #86: Character strengths

we create characters who have a weakness, an incompetence; there is a power imbalance somewhere. And often what ends up solving these stories for the protagonists is that they're able to go back to something that is a strength for them.

http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/03/06/writing-excuses-5-27-perseverance/

Tip #85: Excitement

I have a theory that if the author is excited by the scene they are writing, excited by what is coming next... that excitement and anticipation can carry over to the reader.

H.R.Filmore's Reminders To Self, March 2011.

Tip #84: The loss of potential

Writing is the act of collapsing the... potential of the blank paper sheet down to a single narrative... That’s why some people never get the courage to write their story: they can’t deal with that loss of potential.

http://www.garethlpowell.com/collapsing-the-wave-function/

This is one of the things that most frequently blocks me.

Tip #83: Linking storylines

the A, B and C storylines in a TV episode are usually thematically linked... Even if readers don’t consciously notice it, they’ll feel it.

http://screenwritingtips.tumblr.com/ Tip #548

Tip #82: Getting the job done

if you can provide your characters with enough motivation, you can get them to do whatever job you need them to do. You just need to work it in as you go along.

http://vimeo.com/15696007