I love the Christmas season. I love decorating the tree and baking cookies with my daughter. I love wrapping presents and hiding them from prying eyes.
But with every passing holiday season, I find myself loving something less and less each year: Rampant consumerism, and the impossible expectations that come with it.
What if this year, you give something different? What if you gift writing instead of things?
Have you ever felt your writing is flat, despite how many beautiful words you use? You might be overusing adjectives and adverbs. Luckily, there is an easy fix—use vivid verbs instead.
Although you might instinctively think adjectives will improve your description, strong verbs actually do a better job at electrifying your creative writing.
In this post, you can learn a two-step process to improve your writing skills, and start implementing these tips with a little help from a list of vivid verbs.
It’s Thanksgiving week! During this holiday, are you hoping to find some extra practice time for writing? Or maybe you’re looking for some great Thanksgiving writing prompts that can help you express your gratitude?
Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of the year for you to take a breath and slow down. You have a lot to do, I’m sure! However, sometimes taking a few minutes—even just fifteen minutes—in your day to show your gratitude can rejuvenate your holiday spirit.
In this article, you can have some quick and quiet writing time to reflect on what you’re thankful for—by using one fo these twenty-five Thanksgiving writing prompts and exercises.
You invest a lot of yourself in your writing, and putting your creative work in front of others is scary. Your mind floods with questions like, What if they don’t like it? What if they think I’m dumb? What if I’m no good at this? And what if someone doesn’t like it? Do you know how to handle negative criticism?
Whether you’re writing a book or a blog post, it’s tempting to just dive into your writing project. However, you will likely save yourself time and create a better end product if you settle on a solid premise before you start writing.
In order for your hero to embark on an epic journey, they must first cross a threshold and leave their ordinary world. In fact, the fifth stage of the Hero’s Journey is Crossing the Threshold. Here’s how to master this pivotal scene.
How do you plan a story? If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard about different creative writing methods to finish a first draft. Is there a right or wrong to these? Have you tried different method, but still don’t feel like it’s a perfect fit?
At some point in your process, it’s likely that you will with primarily pants or plot a novel. Maybe you even do both at different times in your writing process.
In this article, you’ll learn when the best times are for planning your novel. You’ll also learn different stages of that planning process when you might prefer to pants, plot, or some hybrid method of the two.
Do you want to learn how to write a short story? Maybe you’d like to try writing a short story instead of a novel, or maybe you’re hoping to get more writing practice without the lengthy time commitment that a novel requires.
The reality of writing stories? Not every short story writer wants to write a novel, but every novelist can benefit from writing short stories. However, shorts stories and novels are different—so how you write them has, naturally, their differences, too.
Short stories are often a fiction writer’s first introduction to writing, but they can be frustrating to write and difficult to master. How do you fit everything that makes a great story into something so short?
And then, once you do finish a short story you’re proud of, what do you do with it?
That’s what will cover in this article—and additionally resources which I will link.
Do you struggle to finish writing your book, or really anything you start? If you said yes, you’re not alone. In a poll we conducted (with real people!), seventy-two percent gave us the same answer.
Finishing writing projects can be tough! That doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
Here’s an important truth: you don’t have to be the next Ernest Hemingway or Stephen King in order to finish writing a book. It’s possible for you to find the writing time you need. But before you tackle your creative project, it’s worth examining why you haven’t been able to finish your story idea in the past.
In this article, I’m going to share three giant reasons most writers don’t finish writing their books—and how you can carve out everything you need to complete your current project.
Do you remember the first time you read Romeo and Juliet? Did you cringe when Romeo kills himself, knowing that Juliet is still alive? This is a perfect example of how to use dramatic irony in your story—a literary device that will inevitably add suspense into your novel.
Dramatic irony can be used in any story regardless of genre, but it is especially useful when writing stories that you want to increase tension and suspense.
In this article, you’ll learn about dramatic irony, another useful technique that keeps readers on the edge of their seats.
