At The Write Practice, we publish a new article each day designed to help writers tackle one part of their writing journey, from generating ideas to grammar to writing and publishing your first book. Each article has a short practice exercise at the end to help you immediately put your learning to use.
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Maleficent. Elphaba. Regina. There’s a reason these new spins on classic stories are so popular. These stories make for an intriguing new look at something old and familiar—one that forces us to reconsider the villain. We can all take a lesson from this villain-as-hero trend.
How do you create rich, compelling villainous character? The answer is easy: Empathy.
Sentence structure matters, no matter who you are.
You might be a student trying to get a passing grade on an essay, a guy trying to write a text to a smart girl without humiliating yourself, an employee writing a company-wide memo, or a writer working on your next book. When sentence structure gets out of whack, there can be consequences (no passing grade, no first date, no raise, no publishing contract).
A little over a year ago my writing changed. Before then I maintained a personal blog where I would occasionally rant about some wild idea or share a story about my kids. I didn’t think of myself as a “writer.” My blog was simply where I shared thoughts too long for Facebook.
Adaptations of classic stories are everywhere. Beyond the usual adaptations of Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, some versions give more modern adaptations of the text. For example, everyone’s favorite teen movie of 1999, 10 Things I Hate About You, is based on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.
Why write a modern adaptation of a classic story?
Last week the writing community lost one of its greatest gifts: Maya Angelou.
She was prolific. Lyrical. Compassionate. But above all, she was inspiring.
Write every day. Set a word count and don’t get up until you reach it. Butt in chair, hands on keyboard.
Writers get a lot of advice about the importance of pushing ourselves to get the words on the page. It’s a principle I try to live by, and I know I’m not alone. But there are times when the best thing you can do for your writing is just step away.
Remember when you were a kid and wishing away the days was considered normal? I remember wishing an hour would pass so I could get out of class, or wishing the minutes would hurry so my cross-country race was over, or wishing the years would fly by so I could buy a beer.
Guess what? Most of us aren’t kids anymore. We have a finite amount of time left on earth.
The other day I was reading online reviews of a novel and one caught my attention. It complained that the book had too many “named characters.” It made me wonder, does it really matter whether you decide to name a person in a manuscript?
It does.
Through the Story Cartel Course, I’ve always wanted to create a community combining my passion for the writing craft with everything I’ve learned about publishing through Story Cartel.
I wasn’t sure it would work, and while it’s too early to tell if the course is a success yet, after working with over 200 writers, the signs are promising.
I have a book in mind to start writing. For three years now. I read advice that tells me “just start writing.” And still I don’t start. Because this advice isn’t working for me, I’ve had to come up with some other techniques to power through my paralysis. See if one of these might help you get started on a new work.
