Three different people have asked me in the last month about how to balance their writing, work, family, and life. Step 1: ask someone who actually knows. I’m too busy coordinating home repairs while my spouse travels for work. New water heater this week. Broken window replaced last week.
But I realized dealing with a broken water heater is actually a perfect example of how to manage multiple areas of your life while you keep writing. Hint: it has nothing to do with balance.
Have you ever known someone who just made you feel crazy? Like the normal rules of conversation—and especially conflict—don’t apply? Or have the characters in your stories ever felt that way, surrounded by drama they don’t know how to navigate?
Statistically speaking, 16% of people have a personality disorder. But what is a personality disorder? And how can you improve your character development by learning about them?
Have you ever been told by some well-meaning soul that writing can’t be taught? Have you heard that the ability to create beautiful sentences and convey a heart-wrenching story is inborn, and you either have it or you don’t?
The Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges said, “Art is fire plus algebra.” That flame blazes in all of us, and can be fanned by passion and dedication. What’s more, we can apply the algebra through deliberate study and practice.
I believe writing can absolutely be taught and learned. Here’s how.
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?
The Return With the Elixir is the final stage of the Hero’s Journey. The hero returns to their community as a force of change, bringing healing and wholeness to society at large. That healing (the “elixir”) can be physical, spiritual, or both.
I woke up this morning to a deluge of emails about Black Friday offers, which I inevitably greet first with suspicion and cynicism, then vague interest, then a growing realization that, hey, some of these are actually really good deals!
At The Write Practice, we have long been tracking the best tools for writers and writing software. The cool thing is that today a lot of those tools are steeply discounted. Here are some of the deals I spotted today.
How do you write beautiful, award-worthy books and short stories?
One of the best ways is to join an online writing workshop, a collection of other writers who can give your writing feedback so that you can make your chapters, stories, and ultimately books better.
And the best online writing workshop, in my opinion, is The Write Practice Pro. What is The Write Practice Pro, and how can it help you finish your books, get published, and become an award winning, bestselling author? In this post, I’ll be sharing my Write Practice Pro review. I’ll also talk about how I personally use it the writing tool.
Are you making the most of your writing, sharing it in all possible formats and getting it in the hands of readers? Your writing is more expansive than you might imagine. Here’s how to make the most of it.
How do you write beautiful, award-winning novels, memoirs, and short stories? One tried-and-true way is through a writing workshop, a program with other writers who can give encouragement, feedback, and support as you write, edit, and publish your writing.
In this post, I’m going to share what a creative writing workshop is and how you can use it to improve your writing habits, get feedback on your creative writing, and go on to publish award-winning writing. Then we’ll talk about how to find a writing workshop, whether online or locally, and how to get the most out of it.
Ultimately, heroes confront death. They rise against the most powerful villains and the worst sources of evil imaginable. On their journeys, they often suffer the consequences of tangling with these bad guys.
And they can’t emerge without being changed. That’s where Resurrection comes in.
Want to write a memoir but not sure how to get started? I’ve got you covered. In this post, I’m sharing my ten best creative writing prompts for memoir writers.
How do you become a better creative writer? That was the question I was facing in my own life more than ten years ago. I wanted to be a writer, was even writing part-time for a local magazine, but I didn’t know how to make my dreams of becoming a professional writer happen.
Five years later, I had finally made it, and now, five years after that, I’m earning over $100k from my writing.
How did I do it? It took so many things, but one of the first, and most important, was travel.
In fact, I believe every writer should travel. In this post, I’ll explain why. But I don’t want you to just take my word for it. No, I actually want to send you on a trip to Paris, one of my favorite writing destinations, on me.
My new book, a real life adventure story set in Paris called Crowdsourcing Paris, launches in just a few days. And in honor of the launch, I want to fly you to Paris. For real. I’m hosting a giveaway in which one reader can win a ticket to Paris paid by me. Call...
Thrillers are hot right now and have been for some time. They can be intimidating to write, however. If you’re looking to dive into the thriller game, this month’s interviewee has some tips to get you started and keep your readers on their toes.
One of the beautiful things about creative work is that in many ways, there’s no formal training required. You can write the first pages, even the first chapters, of a book without ever getting an English degree or spending years training with great writers.
But what about when that doesn’t work anymore? When you find yourself in over your head with absolutely no idea what you’re doing or where to go next—what then?
So you wrote a novel. Now what do you do with it? The life of an indie writer is rife with challenges. When it comes to publishing and marketing a book you’ve written, there are countless decisions to be made and lots of work to be done.
What does it take to become a travel writer and build the creative life of your dreams? How do you go from hoping for a big break to creating that big break yourself?
In this episode of Character Test, I talk with an outdoor adventurer and television host about what it takes to make it in competitive creative fields.
Every story has that moment when everything seems okay. The dust has settled. The hero has his or her object of desire in hand. And for a moment, there’s peace.
But then all hell breaks loose.
It’s the fake-out ending: that classic neck-breaking part of the story that thrills readers and audience members practically every time.
