Today, we’re taking a break from our usual round-up to bring you part one of our Best of the Best link review.  We’ll complete this next week, then catch up on all the articles we missed to bring you a special three-week edition of the best articles for writers. Enjoy!

Character

• A Personal Glimpse into Character Emotional Development [Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers] 10 questions to create a profile for your protag.
• Using Defense Mechanisms for Characters by Laura Diamond [Fiction Groupie] Twelve ways to add tension to your novel.
• 3 Signs Your Story’s Characters Are Too Perfect [www.publetariat.com] Perspective on a common problem that leaves readers disappointed.
• Modeling Protagonists After Real Life Heroes [Let The Words Flow » Modeling Protagonists After Real Life Heroes] What makes a hero in real life? Does your mc have that quality?
• Your characters offstage [The Literary Lab] What do they do and how do you keep track?
• Vulnerable Characters and… Independence Day? [Confessions of a YA Writer] Your character has to crack to be truly likeable.
• How to establish your characters: openings [Show Some Character!] Put them in action and in conflict.
• Connecting With Your Reader [The Sharp Angle] 4 ways to hook your reader to your MC.
• Getting to Know Your Characters: A Roundup of Posts [All about them words] Many links for all things character.
• World-Building Through Character [Anna Staniszewski] Your characters’ problems and relationships intersect with the world of the story.
• Sexy villains (and why you should be scared of them) [YA Highway] Is it twisted to be attracted to evil?
• Virgins in Fairy Tales [Writer Unboxed] Kim Hudson’s female version of The Hero’s Journey.
• Enigmatic Characters [Mystery Writing is Murder] Not every character needs to be an open book.
• Writing — Character Development via Location [Magical Words] Excellent point! But don’t go overboard.
• Revisions Week – Characters [unedited] Beginning a character collage.
• 3 Signs Your Story’s Characters Are Too Perfect [Write It Sideways] Do your characters suffer from good looks, stilted dialogue, and perfect timing?
• Having Multiple Protagonists In Your Novel [Advanced Fiction Writing Blog] 1+1 can equal 1/2 in this case.  
• Basics 101 : Character Creation [Write Anything] Given life, characters pursue experiences you would never dare.
• Letting Action Define Your Characters [The Kill Zone] Five tips for improving your novel.
• Agent Donald Maass On: Your Tools for Character Building [Guide to Literary Agents] Three tips to help you transform your first five pages–and the rest of your ms.
• Tip Tuesday #63 [Literary Rambles] Spicing up your characterization with body language.
• Dealing With Characters In A Series Of Novels [www.publetariat.com] Without character, there is no plot.
• Special Guest Post: “Multiple Points of View” by Juliette Wade [The Sharp Angle] How to write them and make it work.
• Archetypes, not Stereotypes [Let The Words Flow] Excellent post on the difference and why they are worth contemplating.
• Staying True To Your Character’s Voice [YA Highway] Three ways to get deeper into character and stay consistent.
• Is your protagonist a “yes, but” or a “yes,and” person? Which are you? [Time to Write] Using this concept to build tension in scenes.
• Growing With Your Characters (Like Plants! Except Not) [YA Highway] What can you learn from your characters?
• Bringing Pages to Life [GENREALITY] Six questions to ask your character in any situation.
• Countdown to NaNoWriMo Day Four: Characterization [I’ll Name My Typewriter After the Moon] Exploring your characters as you gear up for Nano.
• The secret of creating a good villain [Time to Write] Subtlety in the motivation between protag and antag.
• Finding your Character’s Voice [Ripping Ozzie Reads] ‘‘Finding’ a character’s voice is a cumulative process.’
• I Don’t Like You! – Creating Sympathetic Characters [* Fiction Groupie *] Eight tips for helping readers connect.
• Getting to Know Your Character [Seeing Creative] Have you made a character collage?
• Food, Wine and Drink by Stephen Tremp [Mystery Writing is Murder] Using them to enhance characterization.
• Creating Unique Characters—by Marvin D.Wilson [Mystery Writing is Murder] ‘You can write people that you never have ‘known’.’
• Creating Characters Using the Dialectical Method [Let The Words Flow] ‘Dialectics reveal the dualism and conflict within each of your characters.’
• Writing the Devil into Your Bad Guy [Mystery Writing is Murder] Delve into the psyche of your antag to find out what makes them tick.
• Writing Compelling Characters [Anna Staniszewski] Very good points about making your characters care about something.
• Writing Compelling Characters [Where Fantasy and Love Take Flight] Five things that make your characters stand out.
• The Great Blogging Experiment [Creepy Query Girl] Reminder to write 100 facts about your characters to learn how they’d react.
• How to Write Compelling Characters [Elana Johnson, Author] Exaggerate their humanness, even if they aren’t human. Great advice!
• Writing Compelling Characters [Write About Now] Six tips to flesh out your characters and infuse them with life.
• Give Your Character Someone to Talk To [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] ‘Giving a character someone to talk to allows you to impart important information.’
• The Unity of Opposites [Let The Words Flow] ‘This tool ties the protagonist and the antagonist together.’
• Creating Compelling Characters [The Blood-Red Pencil] Fantastic tips to ensure full character development.
• Character Stereotypes: The Victim [The Character Therapist] What to avoid and how to make it creative.
• Why Hypocrites Make Excellent Bad Guys [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] Why a hypocrite can get under a reader’s skin just as must as a classic bad guy.
• Seven Ways to Develop Compelling Characters [Ingrid’s Notes] Know their role, know their reactions, know them, and then show us.
• Please don’t use “Guardian” as a name for a rank, group or series [Superhero Nation] Avoiding the term like the plague.
• Learning About Characters with Clifford The Big Red Dog [YA Highway] Clear characterization through action–a lesson for writers.
• Character Stereotypes: The Geek [The Character Therapist] More character insight for your novels!
• Creating Your Main Character [QueryTracker.net] Nine tips to make your MC likeable and compelling.
• A Question of Character [iggi & gabi] There are four ways to show character: thought, appearance, dialogue, and action.
• How Well Do You know Your Character? [Rose Cooper] ‘To have the voice, you have to have a strong character.’
• Thirteen Ways to Make Characters Lovable [Dark Angel’s Writing Website] Endearing qualities that make your MC likable.
• Writing About People We Know [Mystery Writing is Murder] Should you base characters on yourself, or someone you know?
• Describing a Character’s Physical Features [The Sharp Angle] Excellent article with examples.
• Building Character: Know More Than Your Reader [Writer Unboxed] How your characters react to conflict is what provides direction and resonance for your story.
• Mulling character appeal– always dangerous [edittorrent] Examples of less-than-likeable characters we come to love. Stop and consider why!
• Character Flaw [Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers] Your character needs a flaw at the beginning that must be eventually overcome to achieve her ultimate story goal.
• Here’s where writing a character arc goes wrong [Time to Write] Does your protag’s arc match the lessons you’ve thrown at her?
• 15 Interesting Motivations for Villains and Heroes [Superhero Nation] Fantastic list of fuel that may drive your characters.
• Make Your Characters Earn Their Keep—Guest Post by Wendy Lyn Watson [Mystery Writing is Murder] The spaghetti bowl trick for assessing your characters and their relationships.
• On Writing Convincing Male Characters [Advanced Fiction Writing Blog] Straight-shooting, ego-driven, lustful, and emotionally unavailable.
• 3 Ways to Get to Know Your Characters [Anna Staniszewski] Writing prompts, visual aides, and free writing can help you explore your characters.
• Protagonist IQ [Mystery Writing is Murder] Equip your MC with a sense of humor, a good vocabulary,and the ability to learn from their mistakes.
• Writing Lessons from a Mannequin [Words from the Woods] Four tips to bring your characters to life.
• Authentic Details Reflect Ultimate Transformation [Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers] Close look at the objects in your character’s life.
• T3 – Stages of Change: Action [The Character Therapist] ‘This stage will require the most emotional, mental, and physical effort of your character.’
• The Inner Journey [Writer Unboxed] A journey can’t matter until the mc matters. 12 q’s your mc should answer differently at 4 points in the novel.
• Coherence in backstory [edittorrent] Show how the past affects the character in the present and therefore changes the story.
• There’s No Place Like Home [YA Highway] Getting inside your character through exploration of their home.
• Write-a-Scene Writing Prompt: Character Motivation [Vivian Lee Mahoney] Inspired by tips from her critique partner, author P.J. Hoover, Vivian suggests you write out what your character needs, desires/motivations and weaknesses then make sure these three things drive every decision and conflict in the scene. 
• Character Description Dumps [Mystery Writing is Murder] Elizabeth Craig explains how to use a mixture of direct and indirect characterization to avoid info dump.
• You Just Don’t Understand Me! [Plot to Punctuation] Is what you understand about your characters obvious enough to your readers?
• Help Readers Keep Your Characters Straight [Wordplay] Video post from K. M. Weiland.
• Crafting Characters.
• Best of the Blogs: Crafting Characters [The Writing Bug via @Kerrie_Flanagan] 18 great links on how to create and make the most of your characters.
• Four Tips for Portraying Young Adult Characters  [Plot to Punctuation via @elizabethscraig] Jason Black discusses attitudes and how to use treat dialogue as dialect.
• Describing a Hero [JustJanga via @elizabethscraig] Janga discusses how much description to include about your characters.
• Crafting a Villain [CBI Clubhouse via @JonBard]  Jim Murdoch discusses why the best villains don’t know they’re bad.
• properly). 
• Seven ways to show character growth
  [Plot to Punctuation] ‘Character arcs are always deep changes that must be reflected
  in the surface levels of a character’s actions. ‘
• Avoiding Plastic Characters
  [Jody Hedlund] Don’t start writing until your characters are already alive.
• Memory Files [The Sharp Angle] Create memory files for your characters to give their story authenticity.
• Foreshadowing a Villain Without Giving It Away [Superhero Nation]
  5 ways to temporarily white-wash a villain and jump start your plotting.
• 5 Steps to Dazzling Minor Characters [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] 5 ways to lift your supporting cast offthe page.
• Writing: How to create deep, vibrant characters within a story? [But Enough About Me!] Show chararacterization and don’t contradict by telling toavoid losing readers. Via @Jolina_Joy.
• She’s Such a Character [The Other Side of the Story] The questions you should ask your characters.
• How To Confuse Your Reader [Advanced Fiction Writing Blog] Skillfully approaching the use of character names.
• The Dark Side to Your Novel’s Hero [C. Patrick Schulze] Take your hero’s finest characteristic and turn.
• Why Your Character’s Motive Matters [Wordplay] Why your character does something matters to your readers, and it’s necessary if you want them to stay engaged and connected.
• Effective Character Description [The Sharp Angle] Make your characters stand out by making them unusual.
• Are your characters falling through gaps in your writing? [Plot to Punctuation] Cliffhanger endings and recaps can alter the readers perception of your character in ways you may not have planned.
• ARM Yourself and Your Characters for Confrontation [Julie Musil] A quick recap of the nuggets from James Scott’s Plot & Structure: Action, Reaction & More Action.
• 9 Questions to Ask Your Main Character [Writer’s Digest] Get inside your MC using these questions.
• Why Smart Characters Make Dumb Mistakes [Plot to Punctuation via @AngelaAckerman] Describes the bandwagon effect, the isolation effect, and the confirmation effect to help you get a handle on why your characters may screw up–and how to make those screw-ups logical to the reader.
• Do Your Characters Have What It Takes? [Ziggy Kinsella via @ElizabethCraig] Discovering your characters as you write has its pros and cons, but making them strong and rounded results in a better book.
• 14 Tips For Effective Characterization [C. Patrick Schulze] Excellent character-crafting tips.
• Inherent Contradictions in Character [Talk to You Universe via @ElizabethCraig] Juliette Wade explains an important ingredient in creating compelling characters for your novel.
• Change Is Key to Powerful Character Arcs [WORDplay] K.M. Weilland helps us make sure our character is changing throughout our story.
• How to Give Your Characters the Perfect Name [Writer’s Digest] What you call your characters could influence your readers’ perceptions of them. Here are some factors to consider in finding the perfect match.
• Thinking Outside the Character Sheet [Bookshelf Muse] Angela does it again. Discover who your characters are in unconventional ways.
• She’s a B*tch, She’s a Lover: Writing a Kickass Heroine [*Fiction Groupie*] How to write an awesome heroine, while staying realistic.
• There and Not [Writer Unboxed] How to give the impression of a character without their actual presence.
• Character Development [The Kill Zone] One way to flesh out your characters.
• Using the bystander effect in your novels [Show Some Character!] Interesting ways to use this concept in your writing.
• 10 Tips for Non-Perfection [It’s a Mystery] How to make your characters less than perfect.
• Enemy Mine [Janice Hardy] Run-down of the antagonists your MC can face to keep your story enticing.
• Mental Real Estate [Wordplay] Make use of an iconic character that already exists in people’s heads. Why writing about the familiar is important.
• The Nuclear Family in MG or YA Fiction [Kidlit.com] Mary Kole makes the case for the less-than-perfect family.
• Parentification [The Character Therapist] Jeannie Campbell covers the psychology of a very common element in YA fiction.
• Age-Specific Examples of Domestic Violence Exposure [The Character Therapist] Third in a great series, this article will help you build character or story authenticity.

Conflict, Tension & Pacing

• A Case for Villains [QueryTracker.net] No villain=no conflict=no plot=no point.
• Urgency vs. action in your writing [helluo liborum] A close look at how to introduce urgency to your narrative independent
  of the action.
• Blast from the Past: The Art of Pacing [Sisters in Scribe] 10 GREAT tips from Kelley Armstrong.
• Up, Up, and Away! Raising the Stakes [The Other Side of the Story] Excellent: stakes are the emotional fuel of story, driving protag to act.
• Want High Stakes? Amp up the Stress! [The Bookshelf Muse] ‘The higher the stress, the more elevated the stakes are.’
• Creating a Book Readers Can’t Put Down [Author, Jody Hedlund] 4 fabulous strategies for creating a page-turner.
• Conflict, Keep It Up Front, WAY Up Front [tracy edward wymer] The first sentence matters.
• Manipulating Pacing Via a Manuscript’s Structure [Writer Musings] Explanation of Freytag’s Pyramid.
• Extra! Extra! Learn All About It! [Chatterbox Chitchat] Not understanding GMC is a deal breaker.
• Something on Every Page? [Left and Write Brained] Yes, and make sure it’s important.
• QOTW: Character Chemistry [Let The Words Flow] Chemistry comes from conflict, ‘Push/pull. Desire/obstacle.’
• Find Your Plot Fridays: Forcing the Issue: Adding Conflict to Your Scenes [The Other Side of the Story] Five ways to up the conflict and tension.
• Keep Your Story Moving With a Cohesive Narrative [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] Avoid throwing an unnecessary roadblock in your reader’s way.
• Force the conflict! [edittorrent] Putting the conflict on the page.
• Know Your Why (Intent). [GENREALITY] ‘Clear intent helps you stay consistently motivated.’ @Bob_Mayer
• How High Are the Stakes? Building Better Conflict and Dilemma into Your Book [How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book] The greater goal, the more likely it will drive the person to do something risky.
• NaNoWriMo Boot Camp: Goals and Obstacles [Nathan Bransford – Literary Agent] Three steps to stronger tension.
• Use Pacing to Create Shape [The Literary Lab] Mad lib analogy to story structure. Love it!
• Dramatic Tension [GENREALITY] Your goals as the author aren’t your reader’s goals.
• Never Give Your Characters What They Want [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] ‘Refuse to give your characters what they want, right up until the end.’
• 5 Ways to Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive [A. Victoria Mixon, Editor] Keep them turning the pages.
• Antagonists in Contemporary Fiction [Kidlit.com] The antag’s role in external conflict and the need for internal/external balance.
• Creating the Page-Turner: Tricks to Great Pacing in Your Books [How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book] ‘Leave the reader in a state of wondering right up to the end of the book.’
• Withholding for suspense [Edit Torrent] The prize isn’t that revelation of what the secret is, rather the ever-deepening mystery.
• Conflict: Basic Principles of Writing [Socialpolitan via @WritingCraft] Lajos Egrii explains the four types of conflict and the importance of visible character transformation from pole to pole. Excellent!
• Finding the Formula for Tension [YA Highway] Michelle Schusterman reminds us that it’s “not akin to “sh*t blowing up.”
• Tension on Every Page (and all that crap…) [The Literary Lab] Michelle Davidson Argyle provides excellent discussion about including tension in your scenes, not necessarily suspense.
• Stimulus First, Then Reaction [kidlit.com] Literary agent Mary Kole notes that an error she commonly sees in the manuscripts submitted to her is one in which writers try to build suspense by placing a reaction to an event or trigger before revealing the event to the reader.
• Keep Your Middle From Sagging [The Literary Lab] Scott G. F. Bailey strikes gold here. Trust me and just read it.
• Invisible Tension [Writer Unboxed via @notjustanyboggs] Donald Maass describes how to make your novel compelling line by line. Must read! Use Foreshadowing to Keep Your Readers Reading [Wordplay] Video post from K. M. Weiland.
• Sentence-level Tension and Reversals [Edittorrent] The same way reversals of fortune or condition can drive a plot, they can up the tension in an individual sentence to jump start a novel and engage readers quickly. 
• What’s Driving Your Novel? [C. Patrick Schulze] Author defines character-driven versus plot-driven writing.
• Pace-It’s Not a Race [Nicola Morgan] Help! I Need a Publisher! gives advice on pacing.
• Fight! Fight! Fight! [Jason Black via @inkyelbows] Plot to Punctuation discusses crafting conflict and portraying your characters.
• A Little Advice from Rick Riordan [Anna Staniszewski] Advice from Rick Riordan on putting action first when writing your story.
• TEN TIPS on Pace & Structure of a Thriller [The Kill Zone] Advice any writer can use to up the ante.
• Fiction Friday: What Makes Great Fiction? [The Daily Harrell] What makes YOU turn pages, and is that what you are writing?
• Do you know how to Linger? [Shannon Whitney Messenger] Places in your ms where you should slooooow down.
• Up the Stakes to Grab Readers [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] Everything that could go wrong pretty much should.
• Is Your Story Mysterious Enough? [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] ‘When your readers want something, do not give it to them.’
• Step Off the Gas [The Blood-Red Pencil] Slowing down your pay-out scene.
• Overarching Tension [Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers] Release as much of the overarching tension in your personal story as you can while you systematically build up the story tension.
• The Tao of Novel Pacing [Heather’s Odyssey] Not too slow, and not so fast that your reader gets whiplash.
• Tension = Conflicting Emotions [Anna Staniszewski] More advice from Donald Maass, with examples from The Hunger games and The Chosen One.
• Telegraphing (and other pace killers) [Writer Unboxed] ‘Don’t do these things. Trust me.’
• On cliff-hanger chapter endings [Writer Unboxed] Good reminder that tension is critical on every page if you want your ms to sell.
• 4 Ways to Improve Narrative Drive in Your Story [There Are No Rules] ‘The most important thing about your manuscript is that a reader has to want to read it.
• Conflict [GENREALITY] Defining it, crafting it, and ensuring it’s in every scene.
• Skip the Boring Parts [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] How to cut the blah from your WIP.
• TOP TIP 2: PAGE-TURNABILITY [Help! I Need a Publisher!] Apply the machete, apply filler, and then stand back and admire.
• Busted! Stephanie Meyer Caught Doing Something Right [The Blood Red Pencil] It wasn’t just an accident. Tension on every page and pole-to-pole character reversals make the Twilight saga compelling.
• Creating Prejudice in Fantasy [Mens with Pens] Adding prejudice into your fantasy world adds built-in conflict.
• That Sneaky Backstory [* Fiction Groupie *] Tips from Donald Maass on where to unveil backstory to unleash tension in your novel.
• Stretching the Tension [Book Dreaming] Four great strategies.

Dialogue

• Writing advice [Buffy’s write zone] The seven most important tips for dialogue.
• Subtext again [edittorrent] The best dialogue has subtext.
• Writing Dialogue: Shannon Style [Shannon Whitney Messenger] Shannon shares her methods for crafting dialogue.
• List of dialogue tags [Dark Angel Fiction Writing] Sherry lists all the tags you shouldn’t use.
• Writing Interesting Dialogue that Indicates Who is Speaking [Writers in the Sky E-zine] Extensive example.
• Strong Dialogue [Write Anything] 5 quick tips to strengthen your dialogue.
• DIALOGUE TECHNIQUES [Help! I Need a Publisher!] ‘It’s about not writing as we would not speak.’
• Tips For Writing Effective Dialogue [The Blood-Red Pencil] ‘Some concrete ways to make your dialogue more compelling.’
• Don’t Overuse Names in Dialogue [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] ‘A common and annoying dialogue pitfall and how to avoid it.’
• Technical Tips for Writing Dialogue [iggi & gabi] Crash course in writing dialogue.
• Writing Dialogue [Writers in the Sky E-zine] Dialogue should move the story forward while bringing your characters to life. If it doesn’t, cut it out altogether.
• Dialogue – It’s More Than Simply Talking [Babbles from Scott Eagan] Your characters have to act and behave like humans for us to believe your story.
• Seven Keys to Writing Good Dialogue [Nathan Bransford – Literary Agent] ‘Great dialogue can make a novel sing. Bad dialogue can sink it like a stone.’
• Resource Roundup Part 3 – Crafting Dialogue [The Bluestocking Blog] Astounding collection of links on dialogue.
• THE EVILS OF NON-“SAID” DIALOGUE TAGS AAAHHH!!! [Constant Revision] The dos and dont’s of dialogue tags.
• He Said, She Said [Pimp My Novel] Dialog tags are generally distracting, especially when used incorrectly.
• The Trouble with Dialogue – Part 4 [Write Anything] Read it aloud, show don’t tell, edit out the dull stuff, use actionbeats, limit slang and accent, and let your characters speak for themselves. Goodtips!
• Six Tips for Writing Dialogue [It’s a Mystery] Pauses, rhythm, starting in the middle. Great tips!
• How to Write Good Dialogue–It’s Not Simply About What People Say [Nail Your Novel via @LynSouth] Roz Morris provides three questions to ask yourself when setting up dialogue. She also points out that any “revelation worth its salt will disappoint, or cheer, or explain irrational behaviour or clear up a mystery. And the reaction will be complicated by the history between the speakers.”
• Dialogue Quick Tips [Robert Gregory Browne via @thecreativepenn] Eight great tips for crafting dialogue.
• My Dialogue Sucks [Publetariat via @IndieAuthor] Great links to everything dialogue.
• Making or Breaking Your Characters with Dialogue
  [Plot to Punctuation] Use your own experience to ensure what your characters say
  conveys what you want it to.
• A wee bittie dialect [Writer Unboxed] Interesting discussion about the use of a dialect.
• Bending the Rules of Dialect [Writer’s Alley] How to write accents without making your reader have to work too hard.
• Is Your Dialogue Pulling Its Weight? [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] What your dialogue should be achieving.
• Un-Clone your characters with distinctive dialogue [Plot to Punctuation] Three strategies to keep your characters from sounding alike.

• Desperately needed: Distance [Writer Unboxed] Important reminder about critiquing, editing, and putting your work in a drawer. 
• Rewriting: Pay Attention To Sequences! [Alexandra Sokoloff] Movement within a sequence and into the next sequence. And is there a big set change between the two?
• Manuscript Problems—Which to Jump on Right Away [Mystery Writing is Murder] Elements of your story to actively consider as you write.
• The wrinkle shield [White Platonic Dreams] An easy system for keeping track of novel revisions.
• 10 Top Novel Writing Mistakes [C. Patrick Schulze – Author of Born to be Brothers] From weak characterizationto POV errors, are you avoiding these mistakes?
• Trimming sentences [edittorrent] Alicia makes the dashed lines so we know where to cut.
• Creating a First Draft and Revising [Mystery Writing is Murder] Elizabeth Spann Craig shares her process.
• Prime Real Estate [Kidlit.com] Are your buyers getting what you’re actually selling?
• Shooting Glances [Kidlit.com] Enough with glances already!
• Career Killers: Speed Writing [Books and Such Literary Agency via @InkyElbows] Excellent advice about why it pays to slow down.
• Career Killers: Sloppiness [Books and Such Literary Agency] You may hear that grammar and spelling are the  province of copyeditors, but the truth is that the more a publisher has to do on your manuscript, the less likely you are to get a second book deal.
• Nail Your Novel: A Beat Sheet [Fuel Your Writing] Troubleshoot your novel in one pass.
• The Rule of Twenty [Upstart Crowe Literary Agency] Michael Sterns shares a rule he first heard from Bruce Coville that can help you weed out unoriginal plot lines, characters or names from your manuscript until you dig down to the shining, unique ideas you’re capable of reaching.

Emotion

• Stocking Stuffers for Writers: Emotion [The Bookshelf Muse] Five GREAT tips to help you master emotion and make it move your story.
• The Pathway to Showing Emotion [Seeing Creative] Use all the tools, action, dialogue, physical reaction, imagery, thought, and yes, even telling.
• How To Write Character Emotions [www.publetariat.com] Bring out the emotions your characters feel.
• Arthur A. Levine Workshop: Strong Emotions on the Page [The Official SCBWI Conference Blog] Memorable scenes are vivid and direct, carry emotional weight, painted with memorable words to convey emotional complexity, and they contain sensory images. The presentation contains practical exercises to help you capture real emotion.
• Emotional Truth–What You’re After in Your Book, After…[How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book] “The art of emotional truth is a bit less predictable.  It comes out when the writer is willing to face the edge of her own life.”
• Character Emotion Makes the Plot [Socialpolitan] Martha Alderson reminds writers of the importance of showing emotion and growth through character action.
• Plot Trick: Showing Character Emotion, Not Telling  [Plot Whisperer] Sometimes deep emotion is barely discernable, but it is always there. Martha Alderson recommends “writers keep a notepad and pen with them at all times in coffee shops, at the beach, waiting at bus stops to jot down not only the traditional snippets of overhead dialogue but to note the behaviors that indicate emotion in the passer-bys.”

Plot and Structure

• How Writers Can Use Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs
  [Plot to Punctuation] Your characters can’t pursue higher-level goals until their
  lower-level goals are met.
• Dolly Parton Without Cleavage [Book Dreaming] A plot without action is like…
• Find Your Plot Fridays: Developing Your Story [The Other Side of the Story] Ask how does it serve the character arcs?
• Don’t Ask “Why?” Dig Deep, Find the Answer to “Why Now?” [Craft“Why?” Dig Deep, Find the Answer to “Why Now?”][Writer Unboxed] What created the crossroads?
• YA, MG, or Adult? [Supernatural Underground] Which is it and what makes it?
• The Promise of Your Premise [The Sharp Angle] Getting that core nugget just right.
• The Backstory [The League of Extraordinary Writers] Three fantastic tips.
• More on backstory [edittorrent] Three things to ask yourself before you add that info.
• Flashbacks and Back-Story [Writer Musings] Nice rules of thumb.
• Day Four–International Plot Writing Month [Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers] Plot recipe: list your scenes, add your themes.
• Checking for Plot Holes: Does Your Story Add Up? [Write It Sideways] Four last questions to ponder in revision.
• The Difference Between the Inciting Incident and the Catalyst [The Sharp Angle] Superb explanation, guidelines, and reasoning.
• 5 Tips for Writing By Scenes [Author, Jody Hedlund] Building your book from one scene to the next.
• Strong Foundations [Julie Musil] The elements you need to have in place. 5 Tips for Writing By Scenes [Author, Jody Hedlund] Building your book from one scene to the next.
• Writing the Story Premise [Katie Ganshert] The five elements you must have.
• 7 Deadly Sins of Prologues[Kristen Lamb] Seven sins, two virtues, and a fantastic collection of links about prologues.
• Can a First Chapter Be Too Exciting? [The Literary Lab] Good question. What do you think?
• Story Rulez: Things Every Story Needs to do [The Other Side of the Story] 3 ways to hook ’em, 3 ways to keep ’em reading.
• Word Counts and Words That Count. [GENREALITY] Tips for crafting dynamic scenes.
• How to Keep Your Story’s Superpowers and/or Magic Extraordinary [Superhero Nation] Excellent post on maintaing the magic.
• Secrets to Fix Your Novel’s Plot [C. Patrick Schulze] Conflict, motivation, twists…. Lots of good tips!
• 10 Most Common Writing Mistakes – and 10 Writing Tips [Quips and Tips for Successful Writers] Errors we all make and how to avoid them.
• Word Count to the Wise: Handling Your Word Count [The Other Side of the Story] Word counts are your friend.
• What Makes a Book Series GREAT? [Write-Brained] Four ingredients in the recipe for success.
• Find Your Plot Fridays: At the Core: The Premise and How it Ties it all Together [The Other Side of the Story] Interesting way to tie subplots to core premise.
• Here’s what’s wrong with writing ‘simple’ stories [Time to Write] A word in favor of 3D – adding meaning and drama for a new dimension.
• Concept Defined [See Scott Write » Concept Defined] Love, love, love the six core competencies!
• Middles are like macrame [Not Enough Words] Winding through the hard stuff.
• A Higher Concept [Write About Now] Can you learn to write high concept?
• Why Backstory is The Bomb [Denise Jaden] Don’t hate it. It can bring the story to life.
• How To Set Up Your Story Without Boring Your Audience [The Sharp Angle] One of the toughest things to master.
• Writing the Story Premise [Katie Ganshert] The five elements you must have.
• Symbolism – How to Make it Work in Your Writing [Let The Words Flow] Layer in depth and meaning.
• Use Motion to Spice up Your Scenes [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] Don’t let your characters just stand around.
• Ask Daphne! About Formatting [kt literary] How to include text messages in your WIP.
• Notes on Opening Chapters with Agent Natalie Fischer ~ Segment II [Writers’ Ally aka ➔ sa larsenッ] Ten tips for a brilliant opening.
• NaNoWriMo Workshop – Find, and Flush Out, an Idea [Write Anything] Generating a great idea and putting it into a synopsis.
• Them’s the breaks: where to put paragraph, scene and chapter breaks in your work | Not Enough Words [notenoughwords.wordpress.com]
• Firsts. Perhaps a Re-examining is in Order [The Literary Lab] The 1st line leads the reader to the next. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
• Using Law & Order to Write [Elana Johnson, Author] Introduce the world, the character, and to the “dead body” all in the first five minutes.
• Why do those opening pages fail? [Babbles from Scott Eagan] Three reasons your manuscript might not be cutting it.
• Not Starting with the Action [Let The Words Flow] Action doesn’t have to be HUGE Make things happen and give readers a reason to care.
• Tip Thursday: 3 reasons to Ditch your Novel’s Prologue. [Angels and Demons and Portals. Oh My!] How do you know to dive right into chapter one?
• Writing Devices : If the Glove Doesn’t Fit, Introduce a Rooster. And Raison d’etre [Magical Words] Bring a scene alive with something that doesn’t seem to belong.
• Learning From Hollywood – High Concept In Women’s Fiction [The Sharp Angle] Read this no matter what you’re writing!
• In which an ADD reader invites you to jump inside her brain [YA Highway] Funny (and true?) analysis of novel openings.
• Adventure Genre No-No’s [The WriteRunner] Great. Especially the part about sparkly vampires.
• Plotting Tips We Could All Use [Chatterbox Chitchat] Nine quick tips for a tighter more active story.
• Time And Place For Backstory [Heather’s Odyssey] Inciting incident up front, backstory later.
• English Class with Ms. Moskowitz–Part 2: Motif [Invincible Summer] Weaving motif into your novel.
• Vistual Storytelling, Part 1 [Alexandra Sokoloff] Establishing shots, master shots, and setpieces–use them all to improve your manuscripts.
• Expansion and Contraction: The Art of Working with Scene and Summary in Your Writing [How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book] Control your pacing by planning your scene and narrative techniques.
• This is Your Book with Guns [Jennifer Represents…] Guns = mature YA and limited readership. Do you really need them?
• Quit Wordsmithing The Opening – It will NEVER be right [Babbles from Scott Eagan] Hook the reader with tension throughout the novel, instead of worrying about single lines.
• Find Your Plot Fridays: All That Glimmers Could Be Plot [The Other Side of the Story] Great ways to wring plot from a setting, a character, a journey, or a premise.
• Guest Blogger S. Kyle Davis: J.K. Rowling and Plot Planning [Literary Rambles] Seven steps to a better novel.
• Bom Chicka Wah Wah: Types of Love Scenes [* Fiction Groupie *] 4 Types w/ descriptions, plus 3 tips to help you choose when and where to put them.
• 12 Dos and Don’ts for Introducing your Protagonist [Anne R. Allen’s Blog] You probably can’t get away with some of these don’ts.
• Love Scenes 101: Don’t Be Corny or Porn-y* [* Fiction Groupie *] Make readers remember that moment long after putting down the book.
• It’s About Time [edittorrent] Prologue problem- too much time between prologue and chapter one.
• Flirting Fails [The Bookshelf Muse] Ouch! The signs of flirting disinterest.
• Reading in the now [Dystel & Goderich Literary Management] Present tense- annoying?
• SECONDARY CHARACTERS OR PLOT DEVICES [Help! I Need a Publisher!] Avoid introducing someone or something just to get your story from A to B.
• What A Romance Should Really Be… [Babbles from Scott Eagan] Scott Eagan wants to feel more thrilling, total-immersion, first-love style romance in his subs. Remember to raise goosebumps.
• Don’t Rush to the Finish Line [The Literary Lab] Slowing down in the first draft can open you up to opportunities you might miss in revision.
• Plot and Predictability [Ingrid’s Notes] Words of wisdom from Gail Carson Levine.
• Before You Write a Single Word: Develop a Reader Profile [There Are No Rules] Identify what your reader wants.
• Inciting Incidents [Mystery Writing is Murder] What event sends your MC out of their ordinary world?
• The Offer S/he Can’t Refuse [Alexandra Sokoloff] Locked your MCs into the action with high stakes or an “Offer They Can’t Refuse.”
• Plotting from Character [edittorrent] Exaggerate or turn a character trait around to provide the backbone of a scene.
• Moving Right Along: The Ins and Outs of Plot [iggi & gabi] Man goes on a journey, or stranger comes to town.
• Finding Goals [Bekah’s Stories] Your MC’s goal must be clear within the first five pages.
• The Hero’s Journey [Let The Words Flow] Excellent overview of the Campbell/Vogler phases of the journey.
• 5 Ways to Make Your Novel’s Climax Unforgettable [A. Victoria Mixon, Editor] Resonance. Fuses. Cause & effect logic. Surprise. Inevitability. Simple when Victoria explains it.
• In Search of Structure [Write About Now] The Plot Whisperer’s newest project–and how it can help your writing.
• The First Page [The Blood-Red Pencil] Where you decide to start your story has everything to do with success.
• Word Counts for Children’s Books [Literary Rambles] Is your WIP breaking the limits?
• The End [The League of Extraordinary Writers] Is a less than happy ending requisite for a dystopian novel?
• HOW TO PLOT YOUR BOOK [Jill Corcoran Books] Plot Whisperer Martha Alderson offers advice on plot via YouTube.
• T3 – Stages of Change: Maintenance/Relapse [The Character Therapist] ‘This is the feeling of calm after the bad guys are either jailed or killed.’
• Making Sense of Story Structure [Advanced Fiction Writing Blog] Three disasters plus an ending.
• Another Tip to Bolster the Sagging Middle [Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers] Your protag should be learning the skills she needs to achieve her long-term goal.
• The First Three Chapters – What should be there? [Babbles from Scott Eagan] Character development, world building, and conflict. 
• Chapters and Scenes [Kidlit.com] Length, pacing, timing, content are all part of the deliberate decisions you must make.
• Find Your Plot Fridays: Parts is Parts [The Other Side of the Story] Outlining the major moments of your story.
• The Plot That Swam Away [The Blood-Red Pencil] Your protag can’t turn away from their goal. So what can they do?
• How To Title Your Story – Or Not [Magical Words] A crash course on the influence of a title and crafting your own.
• Show and Tell [GENREALITY] ‘There are times when a little telling comes in handy.’
• T3 – Stages of Change: Preparation [The Character Therapist] ‘The reader should be just as invested in the character’s preparation for action as the character is.’
• Flashbacks or Non-linear Story Telling [Ripping Ozzie Reads] Backstory can add powerful dimensions to turning points and characterization–but you have to use it properly. Here’s a handy primer.
• Cause and Effect in Plot [Plot Whisperer] Organically drive your scenes with cause and effect.
• 6 Reasons a Premise Sentence Strengthens Your Story [Wordplay] K.M. Weiland guides us through the importance of strengthening your novel’s premise.
• Plot-The Middle [Bekah’s Stories] Short piece with a gem of a tip. Have you ever considered making your mid-novel plot complications come at the worst possible time for your MC? And on a related note, what about adding the worst possible location to layer on even more problems.
• How to Write Your Novel’s Hook [C. Patrick Schulze] Expansive list of options for getting your story’s opening just right.
• The Basics of Fiction [Jennifer Crusie’s blog: Argh Ink via @elizabethscraig] In a word-wow! Jennifer Cruisie is always a great read.
• The Most Important Sentence: How to Write a Killer Opening [Fuel Your Writing via @CPatrickSchulze] Crafting the biggest bang in your first sentence.
• Do You Know How Your Story Ends? [Lia Keyes] Sometimes it’s better to start with the ending.
• Plot Reversals Shown in Scene [Socialpolitan via @WritingCraft] Plot guru Martha Alderson describes how and when to apply the three major plot reversals and talks about using a scene tracker to help keep track of all your threads by scene.
• Key Elements to Plot Structure [Socialpolitan] Story consultant Michael Hauge provides a different way of looking at plot that can help you expose holes you didn’t even know you had. Excellent!
• Writing Flashbacks [edittorrent] Minimizing the use of “had” in your writing.
• The Central Action of a Story [Murderati via @ElizabethCraig] Alexandra Sokoloff discusses seeding the “PLAN” to let the reader know that you’re in the driver’s seat.
• The Plan [Alexandra Sokoloff] Learn how to spot and analyze the main character’s plan to assess on whether yours will be strong enough. Contains links to analyses of a number of blockbuster films.
• The Hero’s Journey Part 11: Resurrection [Justus R. Stone] The next part in his very thorough series, this article covers the last threshold before the hero returns to the ordinary word a changed individual.
• The Hero’s Journey – Parts 1 to 10 [Justus R. Stone] A detailed explanation of the classic heroic structure of a novel. Excellent!
• Guiding the Reader’s Eye [Not Enough Words via @Doallas] Using low-contrast and high-contrast scenes to showcase what’s important in a scene. Tip Tuesday #41 [Casey McCormick] Lisa Nowak gives a quick tip for managing subplots.
• How to Develop a Novel’s Plot [C. Patrick Schulze] Walk sequentially through what ought to happen in your book.
• Maximize Your Novel’s Inciting Incident [Wordplay] K.M. Weiland provides great tips and a great quote from James Scott Bell: “The key question to ask yourself is this: Can my lead walk away from the plot right now and go on as he has before? If the answer is yes, you haven’t gone through the first doorway yet.”
• What Makes a Scene Memorable? [Word Love via @Writeitsideways] Randy Susan Meyers discusses why scenes stay with readers. 
• The Power of the First Sentence [Write to Done via @elizabethscraig] Brenda Hineman talks about what makes a first sentence work.
• Oh My Gosh! My Scene is RUINED! [The Secret Archives of the Alliterati] Stephanie Thornton discusses how you can ruin a scene in your story.
• The Importance of the First Line [Scribe Sisters] The power of the hook, with examples.
• Don’t build your story up only to have a blah ending! [JC Hutchins via @inkyelbows] Writer Unboxed gently remind us that we are obligated to deliver the goods.
• Dilemma in Three Acts–Story Arcs and the Big W [How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book] A look at classic 3-act structure and how it can help you keep your novel on track.
• Organizing Your Story With Cause and Effect [Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels, comic books and graphic novels] Create a chain of the most important events to map your story and find the holes.
• Elements of Act Three, part 3: Elevate Your Ending [Alexandra Sokoloff] How to tie up subplots, and make the end satisfying and universal.
• T3 – Stages of Change: Contemplation [The Character Therapist] Understanding this stage is crucial because it takes up most of your novel.
• Guest Post: What Makes a Good First Sentence [Pimp My Novel] Categorizing first lines that work.
• Strengthen Your Story With Proper Framing [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] Use opening scenes that introduce pertinent characters, settings, and themes, and closing scenes that bring the story full circle.
• What is dynamic? [GENREALITY] Your scenes should ‘stimulate development or progress.’
• By Request: A Post About Plotting [Magical Words] Accessing your creative subconscious.
• Find Your Plot Fridays: What to do, What to do? [The Other Side of the Story] 5 strategies to get your scenes moving.
• Act First, Explain Later [The Blood-Red Pencil] 12 dos and don’ts for making the first page of your novelmore compelling.
• Devious Plots part 4: Plot store! [Dancing with Dragons is Hard on Your Shoes] Patterns of plot through the ages.
• Devious Plots part 5: More plot store! [Dancing with Dragons is Hard on Your Shoes.] Possible plot scenarios- part 5 of6.
• Devious Plots part 6: Plot store, final sale! [Dancing with Dragons is Hard on Your Shoes.] 11 more plots with roadmaps. WOW!
• Five Epiphanies in Children’s Literature [An Awfully Big Blog Adventure] An infrequently tackled topic, with five great examples.
• How To Write The Ending Of Your Novel [The Creative Penn] 7 ways to ensure your resolution rocks, plus links, tips, andmore. Via @thecreativepenn.
• Special Guest Post: Chérie l’Ecrivain On Coincidences [The Rejectionist] Coincidences in real life are inevitable. In fiction they areunsatisfying unless you make them believable. Remember your MC must make thingshappen.
• A Guided Imagery Tour of Your Story [Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers] Use guided imagery to envision your scenes unfolding.
• Combining High Concept With Emotional Resonance To… [The Sharp Angle] High concept + emotional resonance = WIN
• Iceberg theory [Dystel & Goderich Literary Management] Are you sinking your own narrative without realizing it?
• How A Scene Is Like A Joke [Julie Bush] Scene in 3 acts: 1)Goal 2)Reversal 3)Redirection The Three-Act Structure: Part 2 [Chatterbox Chitchat] How’s your middle?
• Why You Don’t Need a Prologue [Learn to Write Fiction] List of reasons to include or exclude a prologue for your novel.
• Prologues [Nathan Bransford] What makes a good prologue and will it kill your submission?
• Title Tips [Book Dreaming] Author Bethany Roberts gives tips on title selection.
• When to Use a Flashback [Plot Whisperer For Writers and Readers] Don’t cram too much up front and other great tips.
• Handling the Baggage [The League of Extraordinary Writers] Making your scenes believable for the cynical reader.
• Nanowrimo Prep: Story Structure 101 [Alexandra Sokoloff] Excellent!!!!! Read this whether or not you’re doing NANOWRIMO.
• What is a Big Book?/The High Concept Premise [Alexandra Sokoloff] GREAT examples!
• Today Is The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Book [Hey, There’s A Dead Guy in the Living Room] The 2nd Act as the place where the reader should get the most bang for the buck.