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’m reading Nobel Prize winning Daniel Kahneman‘s groundbreaking book Thinking Fast and Slow.
What does a celebrated psychologist turned economist have to say about creative writing (besides the fact that his step-daughter is the fiction editor at the New Yorker)? A lot. The lessons I’m learning from Thinking Fast and Slow are transforming the way I write, and I think they will help you, too.
There are all kinds of words that seem to pop up in your story while you’re writing the first draft. They can make your writing sloppy, cause confusion, and take up space, sometimes all at once. Some call them “filler words,” others “weasel words,” or any other variation of the term. I think we can all agree, though, that these words are tricky and must be destroyed. But how do you identify these words?
Knowing your end game is the best strategy for directing your steps right now. Sometimes we get so focused on current projects and the steady acceptance of others, we fail to ask, ”Is what I’m doing in line with my goals?” Three questions to ask yourself when looking at the writing road ahead.
![Paris [writing prompt]](https://thewritepractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Paris-rush-hour.jpg)
Paris is the City of Light, the city where the great modernists writers lived and met each other, like James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald and more. It’s the city where Ben Franklin did diplomacy and wrote for more than a decade. It’s the city of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities.
Write about Paris. Write for fifteen minutes. When you’re finished, post your practice in the comments section. And if you do post, be sure to give feedback to your fellow writers.
Happy writing!
Conflict is critical to plot development. Conflict is where your characters gain traction on the plot so things can move forward. But … well, sometimes a plot just doesn’t seem to want to move. If you find your plot is stuck in a rut, it may be that your plot doesn’t have enough dimensions in it.
Have you ever worried about other writers stealing your readers? What about sneaky snatchers stealing your ideas?
What if I told you not to worry? Would you believe me?
I have a soft spot for British humor. I believe this stems from my first viewing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in high school. One of the first scenes after the knights receive their commission from God involves King Arthur and his knights trying to get into a French-controlled castle where they believe the Grail is being held. They attempt to talk their way in, but are met with strong verbal rebuffs from the sentry. Insults are hurled from the top of the gate, and the Knights of the Round Table make a hasty retreat after their egos have been sufficiently bruised.
The Frenchman’s barrage of creative insults is an example of what is known as invective.
Improve your metaphors and similes with this simple tip.
I used to volunteer for an organization that sent thousands of people around the world a year, most of whom kept blogs about their travel experiences. Working with these fledgling writers, I found out most people had no clue how to write about travel.
We’re here in Paris, and in honor of our trip, I’ve been reading A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway’s memoir about living and writing in the city. In the book, he reveals what I think is one of the hardest parts about being a serious writer, a writer who cares deeply about the quality of his or her prose.
