New Daily Writing Guides from The Write Practice

How to Write a Book Proposal

If you’re like most writers I hear from, you’re probably wondering how to sell your book to a publisher. Publishing is a strange and mysterious industry, and it can be very hard to find your way through it so you can achieve your writing goals. You’re in the right place though, because often, the very first step on your journey to publishing your book is writing a book proposal.

How to write a book proposal, though? In this article, we’re going to talk about how to write a book proposal for both nonfiction and fiction writers. We’ll also look at when you need to write one. And at the end, there will be a fun exercise that will help you get started writing your book proposal.

21 Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompts to Inspire True Stories

by Sue Weems | 0 Comments

Creative nonfiction is a literary genre of writing that uses fiction techniques and stylistic choices to express real-life experiences. It depends on story elements especially, so everything you’ve learned about structure will serve you well in creative nonfiction.

How to Write a Book That’s Based on a True Story

by David Safford | 10 Comments

Life is filled with stranger-than-fiction moments. You might be wondering, though, how do you know how to write a book based on a true story? Because in practice, it’s much harder than it sounds, right?

Writers Group: How to Build a Fantastic Writing Community

by Sue Weems | 24 Comments

Writing is a solitary profession for the most part, but sooner or later, we realize we need a network of people, from beta readers to editors and eventually readers. Some writers retreat, discouraged by unkind comments or unsupportive friends or family, believing that someday, somehow their work will reach a wider audience.

But writing alone and hard work aren’t enough by themselves. Very few writers can write and launch a book and career entirely in isolation. (Plus, being a part of a writing or creative community is much more fun.)

Here are a few small steps for finding, joining, or building a writing community.

Book Writing Software (2025): Top 10 for Writers

by Joe Bunting | 35 Comments

Writing a book is hard. I’ve written seven books and at some point during each one I had the thought, “There has to be a tool, a piece of book writing software, that would make this easier.”

Bad news/good news: writing a book will always be hard, and the best piece of writing software in the world won’t write your book for you. But the good news is there is book writing software that can make the process a little easier.

In this post, we will cover the ten best pieces of software for writing a book and look at the pros and cons of each.

Dramatic Irony: A Great Literary Device That Adds Suspense to Your Story

by Joslyn Chase | 0 Comments

Do you remember the first time you read Romeo and Juliet? Did you cringe when Romeo kills himself, knowing that Juliet is still alive? This is a perfect example of how to use dramatic irony in your story—a literary device that will inevitably add suspense into your novel.

Dramatic irony can be used in any story regardless of genre, but it is especially useful when writing stories that you want to increase tension and suspense.

In this article, you’ll learn about dramatic irony, another useful technique that keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

16 Story Ideas to Change The World

by Kellie McGann and Elizabeth Nettleton | 20 Comments

Recently Joe asked me to be the World Impact Director for The Write Practice—a fancy title for making sure we stay involved in helping writers across the globe. Details of our first project will be coming soon, but until then, I wanted to share with you a few other ways I believe our writing can change the world, starting with these sixteen story ideas for world-changing writers.

5 Reasons Why You Should Write Short Stories

by The Magic Violinist | 0 Comments

“Writer” is an extremely broad term; after all, there are dozens of genres in which you might write. Poetry, novels, memoir, historical fiction, picture books, cookbooks, instruction manuals, fan-fiction, all of these barely scratch the surface of what you can do with your talents. No matter what you write, though, there are significant benefits to writing short stories that will help you learn and grow within your craft.

Why Are Characters Important in a Story? 4 Ways to Know You Need a Character

by J. D. Edwin | 1 Comment

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.

How to Write a Short Story: 5 Major Steps from Start to Finish

by Sarah Gribble | 82 Comments

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.

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