A few additional options: Introduce a named person (perhaps fictional), and use that person's name. "Terry wants to create an account. She chooses a password and types it into the text box. No, wait, ...

Two additional techniques... Character Reaction. A character might react in a way that reveals some of the information: "Mother! What the heck are you doing here?" Now we know that the person who ...

You have several advantages over your characters: You get all the time you need to conduct research. You have time to think about each thing they will do or say. You get to think through the ...

Use your best ideas. Write them as well as you can. Yes, your writing will improve with experience. And your ideas will also improve with experience. If you reserve your "best ideas" until you're a ...

Feedback is an enormously complex topic, for everyone, everywhere, in every role in life. Some people understand that it's complex. Others do not. Avoid feedback from people who think feedback is ...

Even though you notice the problem in the first words (in the subjects of the sentences), I think the problem is elsewhere: Each of the first five sentences has a verb that reminds that we're in ...

My advice: Try it and see if it works out. Things to watch out for: Reasons for switching projects. What leads you to switch from one project to another? Are you stuck? Bored? Something else? If ...

There are two concepts in git that can help: branches and tags. Tags. Think of a tag as a name for a specific revision. Any time you want to remember a version, create a tag for it. For example, ...

If the publisher does not want to publish your story, then at least one of these is true: The goodness isn't in the text. The text is good, and the publisher doesn't recognize it. The publisher's ...

Writing is mostly a long-term profession. For most professional writers, writing is a long-term prospect. You are unlikely to make much money from one book, or five. Of course, unlikely is not the ...

Write. Let the emotion flow. If the emotion clutters the writing, or takes it in a direction you don't want, you can fix it later, when you can look at it with a cooler view. But even if you choose ...

There is no way to track who buys your books on Amazon. In your books, give readers a way to connect with you. Links to your book/author/publisher web site. Link to a mailing list. Links to your ...

Don't explain, demonstrate. You can show the meaning of a rank by what people of that rank typically do, and by the way characters of different ranks react to each other. If an Oberst berates a ...

I think posting a work in progress online for feedback is enormously dangerous. Not because people will steal it. They almost certainly won't. Not because those readers will refrain from buying the ...

Custom Meta-Data in Scrivener. You can do some custom fields in Scrivener. See the "Custom Meta-Data" button at the bottom of the inspector (it looks like a little tag). Here's a photo where I added ...

Focus on the character's reactions in that moment, given his intention and state of mind as he enters that environment. Different characters would likely attend to different details, and would react ...

In some paragraphs, have the speaker do things in addition to speaking. Readers will understand that it's the same person acting as speaking. Bob knocked on door. "I found an important clue." ...

Here's a technique that can help: Identify each instance of he saw or he heard or he thought. If you're writing a close third person POV, you can often eliminate those by simply saying what he saw or ...

You cite a source because it gives additional information that a curious reader may want to follow up on. So: If your prior paper gives additional information (data, methods, background, conclusions, ...

USB drives are notoriously unreliable. To use only USB drives for backups is enormously risky. Dropbox is great... for synchronizing files. I use Dropbox to synchronize files between my two computers,...

Most of the time, it's important that the outcome — good or bad — follow from the main character's actions. If the outcome is determined by chance or randomness or ...

CreateSpace ISBNs are real, legitimate ISBNs. You can use them to distribute your book anywhere in the world. The key limitation is this: If your book has a CreateSpace ISBN, you must buy your copies ...

In addition to Lauren's list, here are a few things I do: Give each character a distinct background. Some possible elements to vary are geography, culture, ethnicity, education, age, friends, family....

Some possibilities: Start to write before you've told the story in your head a million times, and perhaps even before you've told it once. Begin writing the story before you know what happens. Begin ...

Mystery readers strongly expect the mystery to be resolved. If the mystery isn't the focus of the story, you can avoid rousing (and dashing) mystery readers' expectations of resolution by marketing ...

I have sent eight books through CreateSpace this year, including one that I'm proofing right now. The only upfront cost is the printed proof copy, and you can forego that (though it is highly ...

It depends who will use the word. If it's one character talking or thinking about another, it's a great word, and will help to characterize both characters in one swell foop. It will also trigger many ...

I do it by interviewing my characters. The main idea is to probe and challenge the character, then follow the character's energy. Ask a question that invites the character to tell me something new ...

Spend 100 percent of your time learning the craft. Spend at least half of that learning by writing. (If this sounds overly pithy to you, please understand that my pithiness is an attempt to break ...

I use git for fiction. Sometimes I'll save versions at various milestones, such as when I finish a chapter). But more often I forget, and save a version only when I finish a draft. Some other times ...