New Daily Writing Guides from The Write Practice

What is the Emotional Investment in Your Stories?

by Joe Bunting | 63 Comments

When you’re only just starting out as a writer, there are so many questions to be considered before you even begin: what to write about, the genre, the style, how often you should practice, and many technical ones that keep piling up the more you actually involve in the craft of writing.

Those are things that inevitably hit everyone sooner or later, so the proliferation of writing tips and advice shouldn’t be surprising at all. Most of the literary masters have offered invaluable counsel on the matters. This wide range of writing tips is good because it means there’s a bigger chance that somebody will find another person to relate to.

How Twitter Can Help Your Writing

by Katie Axelson | 56 Comments

Are you on Twitter? If you’re a writer and you’re not using the social media source, you should probably change that.

How to Avoid the MacGuffin Trap and Create a Unique Plot

by Joe Bunting | 25 Comments

Many of our favorite stories have an item that our heroes are attempting to retrieve. Sometimes that item has significance to the plot, like in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the titular lost ark ends up getting Indiana Jones out of a precarious situation. And sometimes the item is just an item that the heroes need to find because, well, something needs to run the plot of this thing.

In that case, the item is called a MacGuffin.

What Poetry Teaches Us about Writing Prose

by Melissa Tydell | 71 Comments

I took a poetry class to fulfill one of my workshop requirements for my master’s in Writing and Publishing. Although I didn’t have much prior experience with poetry beyond some teenage scribbles, I discovered a new way of playing with language.

And in the process, I also realized writing poetry helped me to write better, stronger prose. Here are four things I learned about poetry that apply to writing prose:

4 Techniques To Mix Fantasy With Realism

by Joe Bunting | 38 Comments

Can contemporary, realistic fiction mix with fantasy?

The quick answer is: Of course! But the more difficult question may be: How?

How does one create a balance between realistic cities and settings verses making up a new and interesting world? Between believable and likeable characters verses amazing, heroic personas?

Are these elements mutually exclusive?

How to Get In Touch With Your Characters (Especially When You Have Writer’s Block)

by The Magic Violinist | 37 Comments

Are you staring at a computer screen with no idea what do or what to write? This is often called Writer’s Block, but I think it should be called “Feeling Stuck Because Your Character’s Won’t Talk to You.” Your characters do, after all, run the show.

Here are two tricks to get back in touch with your characters.

The Danger of Beige Prose, Purple Prose’s Less Colorful Twin

by Liz Bureman | 44 Comments

We discussed purple prose a few weeks ago, and as Newton’s Third Law of Motion states, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Or something like that; my college Practical Physics class involved making ice cream with liquid nitrogen. And the equal and opposite reaction to purple prose is beige prose.

Do You Have a Purpose? The Absurd in Literature

by Joe Bunting | 70 Comments

Have you ever felt purposeless? Most people do at some point in life (e.g. teenage years, teenage wandering, mid-life crisis), and as a rule, it is generally considered to be a down point. But what if there’s good to be drawn out of purposelessness?

Why You Should Never Delete Your Writing

by Katie Axelson | 48 Comments

A fellow writer tweeted that she deleted 16 pages because she didn’t like the direction her novel was headed. You could hear the sense of accomplishment in her words. My heart stopped (ok, not literally).

How to Write a Love Letter

by Joe Bunting | 50 Comments

In the age of Twitter and text messages what does it feel like to receive an old-fashioned love letter?
I imagine a curly headed man in his thirties, opening Elizabeth Barrett’s ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ and catching his breath as he reads the first lines of Sonnet #33….

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