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

I’m beginning a long season of travel. Yesterday, I got home from California, where I had a few meetings and spent time with family. In July, I’ll be in Portland for World Domination Summit (if you’ll be there, let me know!). In August, there’s Plywood Presents in Atlanta, and the Tribe Writers conference in Nashville, where I’ll be speaking (you should come!).

What this means for me is that I have to explain what I do for a living a lot. It’s not easy, at least for me. I am a writer, yes, but what does that really mean?

Within the last week, I’ve completed the final round of revisions on my fantasy novel and started querying agents. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Woo! Huzzah! Happy dances all around.

Earlier this month, sixty writers submitted stories to the Wordhaus Writing contest, which we co-hosted with Wordhaus Literary Magazine. Today, I’m honored to present the winning story, “The Change” by Tom Farr. Wordhaus has published the finalists, and so make sure to subscribe to their magazine here. If you’d like to participate in future contests like this, make sure to sign up for the Becoming Writer waiting list. We will be re-opening the community on Monday. Enjoy the story!

“Write what you know.” We hear it all the time as writers, just as often as we hear “kill the adverbs,” “don’t disregard the first draft,” and all of the other common tips about writing. But while writing what you know is definitely useful in one sense, writing what you don’t know can be just as rewarding. Here’s why.

Today we want to hear YOUR advice. What have you learned so far about writing or publishing?

A writer friend I know adores her hero and heroine so much that she’s afraid of hurting them. She realizes her story reads flat, but can’t seem to put any real obstacles in their paths, despite the depth it would add to their journeys and the improved experience for her readers. Another writer recently told me he dislikes dark books, characters, plots, anything. He feels that life has enough suffering and not enough happiness.

I agree there’s too much pain in this world, but I also believe there’s a bigger discussion that needs to take place here at The Write Practice.

In my opinion, your #1 responsibility as a writer is…

Short stories. Marketing. News reporting. Poetry. Business proposals. Literary fiction. Technical writing. Blogs.

There are a ton of different kinds of writing out there, each strikingly different from others, and each different kind requires different writing rules.