February 11, 2010
by  James Plath (from Writer’s Digest)

Lots of tips that not only help you with agents and publishers but just to help you make your story better.

…when writing a scene, first you must concentrate only on the elements that make that scene work on its own as an isolated mini-story. But eventually you must judge each individual scene’s effectiveness according to how much it contributes to the work as a whole.

Can’t decide whether or not the scene you’ve just written belongs in your story? A scene should do two or more of these four things:

1) advance the plot

2) develop the character(s)

3) illustrate the theme

4) contribute to suspense (which in turn advances the plot).

by suzannah of “Write it Fresh, Write it Bold, Write it Sideways”

The strengths of Rowling’s prose read like a summary of Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style”:

• varied sentences, both in length and structure
• use of the active voice
• limited use of “to be” verbs and related constructs (“there were,” “it was,” “she was”)
• balanced use of rare verbs (slam, snatch, swagger) with more common ones (close, take, walk)
• a preference for concrete nouns that appeal to the five senses
• carefully selected modifiers
• use of more specific transitional words and phrases (because, though, which) rather than relying entirely upon “and,” “but,” and “then”

The Potter prose isn’t afraid to use adverbs (including adverbs in dialogue tags), for which all writers should be grateful.

1) Who is your main character (MC)?
2) What does the MC want?
3) What’s the main conflict that keeps the MC from getting that want?
4) What’s the event/situation that sets the MC in motion to achieve the want?
5) What are the obstacles the MC encounters, keeping him/her from the want? (Obstacles should escalate, building tension)
6) What’s the event/situation that makes the MC go “All-or-Nothing” to win the want? (This is a moment in which there is no turning back)
7) Does the MC win or lose?
8) What’s the effect of the win or loss on the MC?

from moonrat, a recovering editorial assistant, posted Friday, January 02, 2009.

The thing about your overwriting…. It’s just boring. It’s going to be the thing that makes people put your book down and never buy it. I know that in your mind, this language was a good idea. You clearly put a lot of time into stringing together as many adjectives, adverbs, and “replacement” nouns that struck you as interesting. So I’m gonna need you to try to be honest with yourself and flexible with me here.

“techniques to make your  book one readers won’t be able to put down.”

• PLOT FROM THE GUT.
• THE “Heart-Clutching Moments” PLOTTING METHOD:
• What are HCM?
  • Love at first sight…
  • A huge moral lapse…
  • Murder…
  • Death by other means…
  • A refusal of grace…
  • Nature gone wild…
  • Someone standing up to corruption…
  • A change of heart, for good or ill…
  • An act of depraved violence…
  • Betrayal…
  • Forgiveness…
  • A revelation…
  HCMs can be active, whole scenes:
  • A lifesaving attempt
  • A chase
  • A battle
  • A seduction
  • A caper
• Make a list of Heart-Clutching Moments and put them on index cards in rough order. Then you can build an outline

There is a lot more in this article.

by Darcy Pattison in the website/blog: Fiction Notes

Revision Checklist

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

• Does the main plot arc initiate close enough to the beginning that you won’t lose the reader?
• Does your protagonist alternate between up and down moments, with the most intense towards the end?
• Are you able to trace the major plot arcs throughout the book? ….
• Does the reader see both the best and worst characteristics of your main characters?
• Do your characters have backstories and histories? Do these impact the plot?
• Is the pacing correct for your genre? Is it consistent?
• Is your voice consistent? Is it overly chatty or sarcastic?
• Is the tense completely consistent? Is the perspective consistent?
• Is there sufficient description that your reader feels grounded in the characters’ world?
• Is there too much description? (David R. Slayton) ….
• Do the relationships between your characters develop and change and become more complicated as the book goes on?
• What do your characters want? Is it apparent to the reader? Do they have both conscious and unconscious motivations?
• Do you know what your writing tics are? Do you overuse adverbs, metaphors, facial expressions, non-”said” dialogue tags, or interjections? Have you removed them?
• Do you overuse certain words or phrases? Is your word choice perfect throughout? …
• Do your main characters emerge from the book irrevocably changed?
• Are your characters distinguishable? Does it make sense to combine minor characters? (Kiersten) …

More from the above site:

• What Do Your Characters Want?
• Setting the Pace
• On Conflict
• He Said, She Shouted Loudly