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I like a mix of dialog tags and action tags. You should definitely break up paragraphs of speech with stage business and action tags. Dean Wesley Smith had an advice piece for writers which I ran...
Every human being strives to establish a place in the world, to be seen and accepted in a certain way. Their voice, the way they react to each situation, is developed in an attempt to establish an...
It is perhaps worth pointing out that in the 6.5 years since the question was originally asked, Microsoft had made Word available on Android. Whatever you think of Word as a writing app, there is a...
I'm just posting a second answer rather than try to force this into 500 characters: I kept your first sentence, although I punctuated it to sound like actual speech. I can certainly hear the inton...
I have not read it but Soon I Will Be Invincible is the closest I can think of to what you're proposing, other than the excellent short story collection If I Were an Evil Overlord, inspired by the ...
I know this answer is very late to the party, but I do not ever take a trait unique to a single friend. Ever! It seems like a shortcut to me, that would be harmful for the exact reason the OP put ...
I would use a (very) few invented vocabulary words to indicate specific items which are unique to your created race, but put them in context so that the reader can quickly divine the meaning, or ex...
Because you can't see your own mistakes. You know, in your head, what you want your story to accomplish. You know who you want to end up with whom. You know who you want to punish, and who you wan...
If you're easy distracted by shiny things (or Twitter, your RSS feed, Facebook page, chat window, weather updates, email, or desktop photo) then having a program which blocks them all out may help ...
The last line or lines should have some reason for being there. They can: be suspenseful ("What are you doing here?") be funny ("Tinkerty-tonk," I said, and I meant it to sting.) close a scene (S...
Find a good editor, and when you hand over the manuscript, let the editor know that this is a particular issue for you, and ask the editor to keep an eye out for it. If you know that you read a lot...
Am I allowed to beat the drum for Scrivener again? :) Scrivener is a tremendously flexible writing program which allows you to rearrange your items easily, by dragging around icons, by putting up...
Read P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories, particularly Aunt Agatha.
Well, that's a complex question :P There's lots of different kinds of complexity, requiring different tools - a complex character is different than a complex setting; a complicated plot is differe...
A few strategies: Until you have a great plot, try writing "good-enough" plots. Better to be writing something with a cliche plot, than not to be writing at all. (Edited to add: Also, sometimes o...
I highly recommend The Writer's Journey, a writing manual which shows you how to create a Hero's Journey story structure. Seriously, you get about two chapters in and you have to stop yourself from...
There's a saying I heard in a writing workshop: If you don't know what you want to say or how you want to say it, write a novel. If you know what you want to say, but not how you want to say it, ...
Formal definitions vary. Here are some resources explaining various versions of the distinctions: An editorial services guide. An editor's blog. Another editor's blog.
"Turn exposition into ammunition" is shorthand for a writing technique. A quick Google turns up this article: http://michellelipton.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/mckee-on-exposition/ Money quote: “...
Close the intro. Promise yourself that you will write it last. Start a blank Scrivener page. Start writing down everything that comes into your head about the topic. Follow your thoughts whereve...
Writing a full translation will approximately double the time you spend creating each post, so as other answers have said, you'll need to consider the cost versus benefit. However, thee's another ...
It's extremely, extremely difficult. Not too many people making movies. Lots of people writing screenplays. Gargantuan investment to get a movie made. Not an easy sell. Now, it depends to a larg...
Let me ask a question right back: Why does an author need/want to show some friends or workshop members the work he's done? It's not required, sure. But somehow everybody does it anyway. And they ...
I mostly agree with Malvolio's first paragraph. I think color-coding might be useful in early drafts as you're settling pieces on the chessboard, but you should have each character's distinct voice...
