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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I don’t know about you, but I truly believe that whoever said, “The real problem with reality is the lack of background music,” was really onto something.
We all love music, no exceptions (unless you are some sort of alien from a deaf planet, and even then, that’s pushing it). Music enhances everything: movies, showers, pool parties, workouts, spring cleanings, and even relaxation. It cannot be denied. Music stimulates our psyche.
Did you see the thrilling World Cup match between Colombia and Uruguay? Or the one between Argentina and Switzerland yesterday? Are you beside yourself to watch Colombia beat Brazil (my prediction) in the quarterfinals? I can barely breathe just thinking about it.
There are personal reasons why I’m cheering for Colombia, even though they do have THE BEST DANCE MOVES. But while we palpitate about the world’s best sporting event in the entire history of the entire human race, let us explore the uncanny parallels between the World Cup and what we’ll call the Writer’s Cup.
If you’re like me, you probably have way too much on your plate. Kids, school, work, the dreaded pile of laundry gathering in the corner. How do you make time for your writing when you’re so busy? One way to keep writing when you’re too busy to write a book is to write a poem instead.
As I’m writing this, it’s a cloudy morning in Georgia. The sticky heat of summer has finally let off. The crickets are still going away and the trees look marvelous. That’s one thing you don’t get in California, at least the part of California I grew up, huge, green trees everywhere.
And as I’m looking at them, sipping my coffee, I asked myself, when was the last time you noticed those trees? When was the last time you were this grateful just to be alive?
It’s been my experience that all my best writing—and most satisfying writing time—comes out of this place of gratefulness, this rootedness in the moment.
However, I’m in the process of launching a book right now, and I don’t have time to look at trees or even write very much. All I have time to do, it seems, is market. Of course, nearly every author today is struggling with the same thing. We all have to market our books. We all have to hustle if we want our words to spread. Which leads me and others to the question:
Is it possible to write and market your books at the same time? And on a larger scale, is today’s publishing reality keeping us from creating our best art?
We’ve all read work by snarky writers who’ve cast aside the rules and developed their own way. These are the rule-breakers, the free spirits. They don’t take themselves too seriously and even throw in a dash of self-deprecation for effect.
The ones I’m talking about are not bad people, but because of their irreverent behavior they sometimes get lumped in the snob category.
How do you evoke a full sense of the time and setting of a novel? One way to quickly make sure your readers know exactly where they are (and when) is to write about the news.
I’m just going to say it. Stephenie Meyer is not a good writer. Cue the defensive comments below.
I’m not talking about her storytelling. Like I said, I haven’t read the books. I don’t know how Stephenie (good lord, all those e’s) puts together her paragraphs to form a cohesive narrative. I’ve only read excerpts. But you know what? You don’t need to know the storyline to critique poor sentence structure.
Here are my three arguments against Twilight.
You may not know it, but if you’re a writer trying to build a readership, you’re building a brand—and every piece of work you put out there is marketing. I know marketing can make writers cringe, but don’t write me off quite yet. With the right mindset, you can learn to love—and give your reader some love at the same time. Consider these four marketing tips:
How do you become a better writer? Most people choose one of two paths: studying in school or writing whatever they feel like. This leaves out one important step…
Are you intentionally using complex, that is, ‘refined’ vocabulary in your writing? Is it because you feel it sounds better, sophisticated, cultured?
For quite some time now, my observations of the style of proclaimed authors indicate they use simple vocabulary. Yet, even though their choice of words is rather simple, the thoughts they are expressing and the way of expression they use is what makes their writing special.
