New Daily Writing Guides from The Write Practice

10 Easy Steps to Building an Author Website (2025)

by Joe Bunting | 62 Comments

If you’re like most writers I know, you probably dream of getting published. But as I’ve worked with writers for the last six years, I’ve found that most are woefully unprepared for what publishing actually takes, and this means that either they never figure out what it takes to get published or when they finally DO get published, they find themselves disappointed with the process and with how many books they sell.

How do you prepare for getting published though? There are several steps, but the first step is building an author website. In this article, I’m going to share a step-by-step guide to building a simple author website yourself that will support all of your publishing efforts.

How to Shape a Story: The 6 Types of Story Arcs for Powerful Narratives

by Joe Bunting | 2 Comments

In stories, we get to see the cause-and-effect connections between otherwise random events. We get to experience the deeper meaning in life. We get to see through the chaos of real life and see the underlying pattern.

The literary term for this pattern is story arc, and humans love story arcs.

In this article, we’re going to talk about the definition of story arcs, look at the six most commonly found story arcs in literature, talk about how to use them in your writing, and, finally, study which story arcs are the most successful.

The Write Practice Needs Your Help

by Joe Bunting | 5 Comments

A plea for help from the founder of The Write Practice.

The 9 Types of Stories and How to Master Them

by Joe Bunting | 2 Comments

How do you write a best-selling novel or an award-winning screenplay? You might say, great writing or unique characters or thrilling conflict. But so much of writing a great story is knowing and mastering the type of story you’re trying to tell.

What are the types of stories? And how do you use them to tell a great story?

In this article, we’re going to cover the nine types of stories, share which tend to become best-sellers, and share the hidden values that help you master each type.

But first, what do I mean by “types of stories”?

Atmosphere Literary Definition: Genre Examples That Evoke Emotion

by Joslyn Chase | 0 Comments

Atmosphere matters. You might be someone who will pay a premium to eat at a restaurant with a certain ambience or buy a house in a setting that supports a particular feeling. But how do you use atmosphere in your book?

In like manner, your reader won’t remember every word you wrote, but if you infuse the story with atmosphere, they will remember the way it made them feel.

But how can you weave atmosphere into your story without making it feel forced? How can your story’s atmosphere evoke an emotional response and leave a lasting impression on your readers? How can you leverage this literary technique to enhance that feeling?

A strong sense of atmosphere figures into the works of William Shakespeare. Edgar Allan Poe mastered atmosphere in poems like The Raven and his haunting tales of suspense. J.K. Rowling managed it well in the Harry Potter series.

And you can learn it too.

There are many literary devices and elements of fiction a writer uses to impact the atmosphere of a literary work, including figurative language, word choice, similes, and personification. In this post, we’ll examine how point of view and genre considerations help to set the mood and establish atmosphere.

World Building 101

by Ruthanne Reid | 27 Comments

If you write fiction, you need world building. It’s the skeleton of your story: though unseen, those bones determine the shape of the beast.

What Is an Epilogue? And Is It Okay to Use One in YOUR Book?

by Joe Bunting | 0 Comments

You know you’ve seen it at the end of a book, but what does it mean? What is an epilogue actually? Why not just call it, “Last Chapter?” Who thought up this word, “Epilogue,” anyway? And if you’re a writer, should you end you’re book with an epilogue?

20 Crowd-Pleasing Performance Story Ideas

by Elizabeth Nettleton | 0 Comments

There are only two options in a performance story: win or lose. And, usually, only one chance to succeed. Today, we have 20 performance story ideas to put your character through their paces. What is a Performance Story? Performance (or sports) stories are one of the...

How to Write a Performance Story

by Elizabeth Nettleton | 0 Comments

Performance or sports stories are one of the most inspiring story types. Full of passion and determination, the characters in performance stories strive against all odds to achieve their goals and earn the respect of those around them. Today, we’re going to explore how to write a performance story that has your reader cheering.

Maybe vs. May Be: The Simple Trick to Always Keep Them Straight

by Joe Bunting | 41 Comments

Maybe and may be are both used to discuss possibility. However, they are different, with the main difference between these two words being that they are two different parts of speech.

As you may remember from elementary school, there are nine different parts of speech. Let’s look at how to distinguish between maybe and may be.

Here to learn? You’re in the WRITE place!