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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.
Check out the latest articles below or find ones that match your interest in the sidebar.
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What Genre Is My Story? Why the Answer Matters
The first time I wrote a novel, I didn’t think about genre until the first draft was done, and I began trying to untangle my mess in revision. After two painful years (mostly comprised of avoidance, procrastination, and general despair), I hired a developmental editor who began our first phone call by asking, “What kind of book is this?” and “Who is your ideal reader?”
“It’s for everyone,” I said. I could hear the rise and fall of my breathing in the silence.
“No, it isn’t,” she said in a kind, but firm voice. Within minutes, I realized I had skipped a clarifying question that would guide every step of the book process from the plot and characters to cover design and marketing.
The 7 Best Skillshare Creative Writing Classes: Can These Courses Help You Become a Better Writer?
Want to take one of Skillshare’s many creative writing classes but not sure where to start? Or maybe your wondering whether these classes actually work, whether they’ll really help you transform for an aspiring writer into a published author.
In this post, I’m going to review the seven best creative writing classes on Skillshare, sharing the ones I would consider taking if I were in your position, and the pros and cons of each, and most of all, whether they will help you accomplish your writing goals and become
Authorial Intrusion: Should a Writer Interrupt the Story?
I love The Princess Bride. I saw the movie before I knew there was a book, but once I found out that a literary form of the story existed, I immediately checked it out from my high school library and devoured it. I found another copy at a clothing swap about two years ago, and it’s been sitting on my bookshelf ever since. I’m due for another reading soon, I think.
Why Writers Should Travel: The Best Cities for Writers to Travel To
How do you become a better creative writer? That was the question I was facing in my own life more than ten years ago. I wanted to be a writer, was even writing part-time for a local magazine, but I didn’t know how to make my dreams of becoming a professional writer happen.
Five years later, I had finally made it, and now, five years after that, I’m earning over $100k from my writing.
How did I do it? It took so many things, but one of the first, and most important, was travel.
In fact, I believe every writer should travel. In this post, I’ll explain why. But I don’t want you to just take my word for it. No, I actually want to send you on a trip to Paris, one of my favorite writing destinations, on me.
Writing Prompt: Give Your Character an Insecurity
Last week, I overheard a conversation at a neighboring table where a woman said, “He’s always trying to prove himself. It makes him look less competent than he is.” I didn’t know the parties involved, but I grabbed a napkin and jotted it down. When I added it to my notebook, I realized characters with something to prove often undermine their own success. And those insecurities make for an amazing writing prompt.
How to Raise the Stakes: The Ultimate Guide to Building Suspense
As a writer, you know building a foundation for your story, like a hook and sympathetic character, will allow you to grab readers right out of the starting gate. But once you’ve done this, do you know how to raise the stakes?
While a high stakes beginning grabs readers, it will only excite you and your reader for a few scenes. Without elevating stakes, your reader’s excitement about the plot will wear off if nothing bigger happens. Any interest in your story as a whole will flatten.
It’s human nature. We become inured. But you can avoid this happening by making the path of your book less like that flatland racetrack, and more like a jagged mountain range. With ups, downs, and an overall rise to the finish.
In this article, the word of the day is “stakes.”
As your story’s conflict progresses, the risks to your main character must intensify, keeping the reader invested in turning pages to find out what happens. Once you’ve laid the foundation for high suspense and captured your reader’s attention, you need to up the ante. Similar to the stakes of a hand of poker.
Finding ways to do this is not always easy, but when you put forth the effort, the results can be spectacular!
And there are practical strategies and tips you can use to do this.
Grammar and Punctuation: What’s the Difference?
What’s the difference between grammar vs punctuation? Why do they matter, or do they matter at all?
And how can you get better at them, even if all the grammar and punctuation rules are a struggle to remember?
How to Write a Good Villain: 6 Scenes Your Story Needs
Without the White Witch, Aslan is just a recluse lion. Without Moriarty, Sherlock is just a know-it-all in a weird hat. Without the Joker, Batman is just a rich dude with anger issues and too much time on his hands.
Our villains make our heroes. Without them, our heroes can’t shine. That’s why it’s important to give our villains scenes where they can wow us with their quirks and scare us with their ferocity.
Should You Write a Book? Why Write a Book NOW
While 2016 was completely crazy, it was also extremely productive for me as I writer. Last year, I was able to finish writing THREE books. THREE. In one year. Sounds kind of crazy in hindsight.
Through writing those three books, I learned a ton. And today I’ve compiled a list of all the reasons you should write a book too.
