And now, another punctuation term that you probably have never heard before: the em dash.
Truthfully, I was ignorant of the em dash until Joe first approached me about a punctuation post.
So I did what any educated American would do and went straight to Wikipedia. Here’s what I learned.
Writers groups can be an incredibly rich experience. In fact, you can learn more about the craft of writing from a good writers group or creative writing club than you can learn from a thousand blog posts on writing.
However, at the same time, a bad writers group can be a waste of time, and if particularly dysfunctional, can even be incredibly damaging to your confidence and your writing.
If you’re part of a writers group, how do you take it to the next level? And if you’re looking for a writers group, how do you make sure you choose the right one?
So, you’ve got an intriguing story idea and you’re picturing some of the scenes in your mind, eager to get them down on paper and begin wowing readers. But unless you ground your reader with deep POV, you’ll have a hard time getting them to care or like your book.
There are specific techniques that master writers use to draw readers in and keep them engaged. In this article, I’ll be teaching you about the first and fundamental—absolutely indispensable—technique that pulls readers in and makes them forget they’re reading.
So get out your notebook and prepare to level up your writer’s toolbox. This will be a game changer!
With so many MasterClass courses available, which ones are worth your time? Here at The Write Practice, we’re attending and reviewing each author’s MasterClass to help you decide whether it’s the class for you.
You’ve heard the classic writing rule, “Show. Don’t Tell.” Every writing blog ever has talked about it, and for good reason. Showing, for some reason, is really difficult. Yet, it’s also one of the most important writing techniques you need to master if you want your own writing stand out. This post will teach you how to do this, along with some show and tell examples.
Telling is one of the hardest habits to eradicate from your style. I still struggle with it regularly. However, writing that shows is so much more interesting than writing that tells. Most of the time.
In this article, you’ll find the definition of “show, don’t tell”; see several show don’t tell examples; and learn the one simple trick to stop telling and start showing in your writing.
The hardest part of writing a story might just be figuring out how to end a story. But what makes a good ending? How about a great ending? Is there a difference?
Endings are intimidating. They’re heavy-laden with all the narrative weight of your story.
And they’re so much harder to write than we imagine when they play out in our heads.
This is why so many trilogies end with a whimper, rather than a bang (Star Wars, Alien): Endings are hard.
But how do you write that rare, coveted third act that nails every beat and delivers on the audience’s hopes and dreams? How do you conclude your story, or trilogy, or series with power and poise?
Let’s dive deep into how to write a winning ending by exploring three essential questions that will keep you on track as you wrap up your next story.
Do you get nervous starting a book? Does it take you forever to write that book, and because of this, you eventually end up giving it up? Learning how to write faster will not only boost your writing productivity, but teach you ways to be a better writer that finishes projects in the process.
Writing the first draft for any book is hard work, but it is also manageable.
In fact, it’s even possible to learn how to write faster and complete your book in six weeks!
That’s my goal for my upcoming blog series, to teach you what I’ve learned about writing faster, and not only that, but show you why writer faster will make you a better writer as well.
If you’re reading this, then you want to be a better writer. However, becoming a better writer is elusive, isn’t it? It’s more art than science. There are hundreds of writing rules, thousands of words to know, and millions of possible ways you could write even a simple message.
How do you become a better writer when writing itself is so complicated?
Are you the kind of writer that loves writing a first draft but has no idea what to do once you’re done with it? Do you worry that you don’t know how to edit a novel, and freeze up because of this?
Editing is hard, but luckily there are strategies you can take when editing your first draft (and others), or even if it’s your first time.
In this article, I’ll teach you the process I’ve learned after years of struggling to edit. But first, there’s one thing we have to get out of the way:
