Fall is in full swing here in the United States. If you are looking for some inspiration to take you through the month, check out our new list of October writing prompts!
Here to learn? You’re in the WRITE place!
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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How to Write Revenge Stories That Thrill and Satisfy Your Readers
A heinous murder. A jilted lover. An angry hero determined to get justice. Revenge stories are a vital part of the human experience. Let’s take a look at how to write one of your own.
60+ Wicked Good Examples of Oxymoron
Do you know any wise fools? Have you ever seen a jumbo shrimp? Experienced a deafening silence? Tasted bittersweet chocolate? Found a picture pretty ugly? Declared something awful good?
If so, you’ve experienced or used an oxymoron. What, then is an oxymoron? Let’s take a look.
How to Shape a Story: The 6 Types of Story Arcs for Powerful Narratives
In stories, we get to see the cause-and-effect connections between otherwise random events. We get to experience the deeper meaning in life. We get to see through the chaos of real life and see the underlying pattern.
The literary term for this pattern is story arc, and humans love story arcs.
In this article, we’re going to talk about the definition of story arcs, look at the six most commonly found story arcs in literature, talk about how to use them in your writing, and, finally, study which story arcs are the most successful.
9 Key Elements of a Short Story: What They Are and How to Apply Them
If you’re new to short story writing, it can be intimidating to think of fitting everything you need in a story into a small word count. Do you need to apply certain elements of a short story in order for it to be great?
Writers like you struggle with this all the time.
You might want to develop deep character backgrounds with a huge cast of characters, amazing settings, and have at least two subplots. And that’s great. But that wouldn’t be writing a short story.
You might try to cut some of these things, and then all the sudden you don’t have a character arc or a climax or an ending.
Every story has basic elements; a short story’s basic elements are just more focused than a novel’s. But all those elements must be there, and yes, they need to fit into a short word count.
In this article, you’ll learn what you need to make sure your short story is a complete story—with three famous short story examples. These story elements are what you should focus on when writing a short piece of fiction.
5 Reasons to Use Pictures as Writing Prompts
If you follow any kind of writing blog or social page, you’ve probably seen picture writing prompts before. People love them and there’s no end to sites that provide them. Not to mention the millions of pictures that are out there that aren’t “official” writing prompts. You’ve probably got a ton on your phone that could spark an idea.
If you haven’t taken the plunge and tried writing from picture writing prompts before, here are five reasons why you should.
How to Get Better at Writing Essays: 10 Steps
Lots of students, young and old, dread essay writing. It’s a daunting assignment, one that takes research, time, and concentration. It’s also a piece of writing that you can break up into simple steps that make writing an essay manageable and, yes, even enjoyable.
These ten essay tips completely changed my writing process—and I hope that they can do the same for you.
10 Ways to Master Pacing in Writing and Keep Your Readers Riveted
If you’ve ever run a marathon, or a 10K, or even a 5K race, you know that pacing is important. If you pour it on at full speed right off the starting line and keep that up without variation, you’ll run out of steam and be unable to finish.
You do the same thing to your reader if you don’t vary the pace. Fast or slow, if you don’t provide some variety for your reader, they won’t finish either. So let’s take a closer look at pacing and how it can help you create a better experience for your readers.
Book Club: The Write Way to Analyze a Book
If you’re a writer, you’ve likely heard advice that one of the best ways to improve your craft is to read. It’s true! But the way you read matters. How can you read and discuss books with a writer’s eye, so you get more out of the experience?
How to Write a Short Story: 5 Major Steps from Start to Finish
Do you want to learn how to write a short story? Maybe you’d like to try writing a short story instead of a novel, or maybe you’re hoping to get more writing practice without the lengthy time commitment that a novel requires.
The reality of writing stories? Not every short story writer wants to write a novel, but every novelist can benefit from writing short stories. However, shorts stories and novels are different—so how you write them has, naturally, their differences, too.
Short stories are often a fiction writer’s first introduction to writing, but they can be frustrating to write and difficult to master. How do you fit everything that makes a great story into something so short?
And then, once you do finish a short story you’re proud of, what do you do with it?
That’s what will cover in this article—and additionally resources which I will link.
