A variety of resources to help you develop your characters and plot your stories.

Character

• Holly Lisle on how to create a character:  http://hollylisle.com/how-to-create-a-character/
• Publishing Crawl’s excellent explanation of how to create characters with goals, motivations, and conflicts:  http://www.publishingcrawl.com/2012/07/31/emergency-post-goal-motivation-and-conflict/
• Helping Writers Become Authors’ series of posts on creating character growth arcs (or internal arcs):  http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/2014/02/character-arcs-1.html
• Chuck Wendig’s guide to creating kick-ass characters (probably NSFW): http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/10/28/plot-and-character/
• Larry Brooks’ Characterization series:  http://storyfix.com/category/characterization-series
• Jody Hedlund’s character worksheet:  http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/p/character-worksheet.html
• How to create a character profile:  http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jun98/how-to-create-a-character-profile-6986
• Holly Lisle’s Create-a-Character clinic (worth every penny!):  http://howtothinksideways.com/shop/create-a-character-clinic/

Plotting

• Dan Wells’ workshop on story structure (7-point plot outline):  http://lizwritesbooks.com/for-writers/7pp/
• Chuck Wendig’s method of plotting with questions (probably NSFW): http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/02/25/the-question-mark-is-shaped-like-a-hook-question-driven-plotting/
• Chuck Wendig’s MAC method of figuring out what happens next in your story (probably NSFW):  http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/07/07/mac-motivation-action-consequence-when-creating-characters/
• Chuck Wendig’s three most important words in plotting fiction (probably NSFW): http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2010/08/31/three-most-important-words-in-plotting-fiction-escalation-escalation-escalation/
• Chuck Wendig’s ten tips for writing better stories: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2016/10/05/ten-quick-story-tips-to-use-or-discard-at-your-leisure/
• Jami Gold’s plotting worksheets (which cover a number of different plot types):  http://jamigold.com/for-writers/worksheets-for-writers/
• Jami Gold’s explanation of Michael Hauge’s 6-step story structure:  http://jamigold.com/2012/08/michael-hauges-workshop-making-emotional-journeys-and-external-plots-play-together/
• Tim Stout’s summary of the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet:  http://timstout.wordpress.com/story-structure/blake-snyders-beat-sheet/
• Janice Hardy on Creating Plot Twists:  http://blog.janicehardy.com/2010/03/expect-unexpected.html
• An explanation of the hero’s journey:  http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero’s_journey.htm
• Whipchick on 8-point plot structure:  http://whipchick.livejournal.com/47228.html
• Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake plotting method:  http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/
• Heather Dyer on the W plot structure: http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-w-plot-heather-dyer.html
• Gary Provost’s Dramatic Structure (premise template): http://thoughtcatalog.com/peter-rubie/2014/10/the-gary-provost-dramatic-sentence-an-introduction-to-basic-story-structure/
• Holly Lisle’s Create-a-Plot Clinic (one of the best plotting workshops ever):  http://howtothinksideways.com/shop/create-a-plot-clinic/

Setting

• Four ways to bring a setting to life:  http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/settings.shtml
• Writers Digest’s how to make your setting a character:  http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-to-make-your-setting-a-character
• 5 tips for writing better settings:  http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/2011/03/5-tips-for-writing-better-settings.html
• Chuck Wendig’s 10 things you should know about setting (probably NSFW): http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/03/19/ten-things-you-should-know-about-setting/

Theme

• Chuck Wendig’s 25 things writers should know about theme (probably NSFW): http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/09/26/25-things-writers-should-know-about-theme/

Productivity

• Rachel Aaron on how she increased her output from 2,000 words to 10,000 words per day:  http://thisblogisaploy.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-i-went-from-writing-2000-words-day.html
• How the Pomodoro technique can help you meet your word count:  http://getalifephd.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-enhance-your-writing.html
• How to write more and establish a daily writing habit:  http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/02/11/how-to-write-more-daily-writing-habit/
• Two Years’ Worth of NaNoWriMo Advice in One Blog Post:  http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/nanowrimo-writing-tips-in-a-single-post_b60041
• Storyist’s guide to getting ready for NaNoWriMo:  http://storyist.com/support/howto/get-ready-for-nanowrimo/