New Daily Writing Guides from The Write Practice

Setting Writing Goals: How to Set Goals and Finish Your Book

Have you ever had a great book idea, or started a story but failed to finish it? Did you try setting writing goals to finish your story, but couldn’t keep up with your giant ambitions?

Did failing to meet your writing goals end in your giving up?

Goal setting is not as straightforward as it seems. Bad goals reinforce bad habits. If you want to become a writer and finish your writing projects, you need to set goals that you can meet—while also pushing you to complete your writing projects.

In this article, you will learn the two types of goals every writer can set and accomplish. You’ll also learn four major reasons every writer needs to actually finish their writing projects—along with tips on how to do this.

What Is a Comma Splice? And Why Do Editors Hate Them?

by Liz Bureman | 147 Comments

We’re venturing into a realm where writers bend the rules of grammar in the name of creativity, but to the great frustration of editors. A comma splice is one of the most easily avoidable grammatical travesties.

4 Engaging Ways James Baldwin Captures Emotion

by Monica M. Clark | 17 Comments

Recently my publisher recommended I read the novel “If Beale Street Could Talk” by James Baldwin.

Baldwin is known by many for being a political writer during the Civil Rights movement, but what struck me about Beale Street was how he conveyed this emotion. He does such a great job making me feel Tish’s love, desperation, etc. throughout the book such that I found myself thinking, “how did he do that?”

How did Baldwin so successfully evoke emotion in Beale Street? Here are some of the answers I came up with.

Writing Discipline: Why Talent Isn’t Enough (And What You Need Instead)

by David Safford | 16 Comments

We think that we need talent in order to be successful writers—or musicians, or golfers. But the truth is, writing, like any other skill, is learned and improved through daily discipline. Are you maintaining the disciplines you need to become a successful writer?

When It’s Time to Start Over

by Ruthanne Reid | 60 Comments

How many of you have been writing for a while? This article is for you—though if you’re brand-new, this will eventually apply to you, too. Ahem. There will come a day when it’s time to start that story over from scratch.

Discover Who Your Character Is With This Quirky Writing Prompt

by Pamela Fernuik | 40 Comments

There are several ways to reveal who your character is in a story: through how they dress, their posture, and through what they value. But the best way to determine who your character is is through their action.

Not sure what your character might do? Put them through the Starbucks Character Test.

How to Use Three-Act Structure to Write a Story Readers Can’t Put Down

by David Safford | 0 Comments

Ideas always feel fully formed in our minds. But when we sit down to put them into words, the struggle begins. Ideas don’t just morph into narrative form. They resist our efforts, and soon the process of storytelling becomes torture.

Thankfully there are strategies you can use to overcome the stubborn nature of an idea and successfully rise to the challenge of writing a great story.

And one of the best strategies you can use is the Three-Act Structure.

Situational Irony: 3 Steps to Surprise Your Readers With Ironic Twists

by Joslyn Chase | 0 Comments

So, you’ve figured out how to write a story that works. You know you need a character, in a setting, with a problem. You know you need a series of try/fail cycles, followed by a climactic scene and the resolution. The structure is simple, but it’s not always easy.

In particular, it can be challenging to sustain and escalate the story’s momentum through those try/fail cycles. And it would be nice to have something that could give your story a delicious ribbon of flavor, instilling brilliance and meaning.

Here’s the good news—there is such a technique. It’s called situational irony, and in this article, we’re going to take a look at what it’s made of and how to construct it in your own work.

AI Story Generators: Top Tools and Ethics for AI Assisted Fiction

by Guest Blogger | 3 Comments

The use of AI has prompted a discussion about how we develop writing from story ideas to various types of content—even research papers.

But can AI help writers craft compelling stories?

Character Description: 6 Tips from Stephen King’s Memoir

by David Safford | 11 Comments

When we read books, books with characters we love, we can learn how to write our own characters by studying what details the writers included. There are so many details about your characters you could include in a character description, but which ones do you need?

Let’s look at the advice Stephen King gives in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft about good description and see if applies to Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

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