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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According to Merriam-Webster, a colloquialism is “a colloquial expression.” Wasn’t that helpful?
When we look up “colloquial,” we learn that it means, “used in or characteristic of familiar and informal conversation.”
So, a colloquialism is an expression used in or characteristic of casual speech. It can also be a local or regional dialect expression. This is critically important to understand as you write dialogue for characters.
As a writer, you know that a story can’t exist without characters. But have you ever wondered: “Why are characters important in a story?”
Perhaps you’ve questioned an even tougher problem: “When is a character important enough to keep in a story, and when does the narrative work better without them?”
In order for a side character—or any character—to matter in a story, they have to work as an essential character that impacts the protagonist, plot, setting, or another important aspect that shapes or moves a story forward.
In this article, you’ll learn four ways that determine if (1) the character is essential, and (2) how they contribute to a story. You’ll also learn the major types of characters and ways to determine if—for the characters who don’t qualify as essential—you’re better off revising their role, or cutting them from the plot.
Love stories appear everywhere in the films we watch, books we read, and shows we binge. From romance novels and romantic comedies to ninety percent of subplots and even family dramas, love stories are the most common type of story.
Which is all to say, if you want to be a creative writer, you probably need to learn how to write love stories.
In this guide, we’re going to explore love stories of all kinds, from the ones that end “happily ever after” to tragic love stories and even stories that don’t look like love stories but actually are. We’ll talk about the elements of love stories, their structure and arcs, the best love story examples to study, and finally how to actually write a love story of your own.
Learning to write a romance or love story plot is a valuable skill for every writer, and not just on Valentine’s Day! Why? Romance is one of the most common subplots across all genres. Let’s look at how to write a love story and then dive into some prompts!
Recall a time you made an effort to get someone to like you. Did you try to get them to relate to you, or want to spend more time with you? It’s kind of the same way with the main character in your book. Readers finish books when they care about what happens to the protagonist. To accomplish this, you need to craft a sympathetic character.
When you write a book, you’re asking readers to invite your character into their homes, their hangouts, their lives. It’s important to create a protagonist your reader wants to spend time with and that they care about enough to stick around to find out what happens to them.
Without that vital concern, suspense cannot be sustained. And without suspense, the reader will lose interest in your story. I talked about this in depth in my post on suspense.
Today, let’s talk about how to make your readers like—if not love—your characters so that you can sustain suspense in your book.
When I sign up for a writing contest, I turn on “Eye of the Tiger” as I sit down to pound out my first draft. This is it, I tell myself. This will be the story that finally wins. A few finger exercises and I am ready to write the story to end all stories.
But what if nothing comes? Or worse, a story pours out and it’s terrible? What if I don’t win? How can I develop a winning mindset without reading an entire shelf of self-help books and further distracting myself?
Characters are the heart of any story. There are plenty of methods out there to help your character development. But when it’s time to give your characters shape and definition, don’t waste time on extensive questionnaires that get you weighed down in details.
In this story type, the hero and their comrades are attempting to thwart death in the face of an overwhelming physical obstacle, usually in the form of a figure of nature.
This isn’t to say that an adventure story can’t have a villain. However, the primary threats will always come in physical form, forcing the characters to dig deep and find the strength and resolve to endure.
Adventure stories are built around the life versus death value, meaning that the main conflict and most of the scenes turn on survival. The adventure genre can be set in real life or include an exciting adventure in a fantasy world or other far-flung places most readers will never visit.
Today let’s look at more than 20 adventure story idea prompts to get your own story on its way!
Whether you’re a student analyzing a story or a writer intent on crafting a compelling story, there are a few basic story elements that will help you better understand the parts of a story.
