New Daily Writing Guides from The Write Practice

How to Research a Book

You might think you don’t need to do much research because you’re writing fiction. (Isn’t fiction just making stuff up?!) You’d be wrong.

Your readers expect to be transported to your setting and to understand your characters so fully, they seem like real people. Little things like using the wrong jargon or having your main character wear the wrong type of bodice can jar your reader out of the story and cause them to lose respect for you as a writer. If they can’t trust you to get the facts right, why should they trust you to guide them through a story?

Like it or not, research is a writer’s best friend. (Next to caffeine, anyway.) So let’s talk about how to conduct research for a book.

Story Pacing: 4 Techniques That Help Manage Your Plot’s Timeline

by Joslyn Chase | 0 Comments

As a writer of fiction, you want readers to open your book and become so absorbed they can’t put it down. It helps to be aware that so much of what happens when a reader picks up a book takes place in the subconscious mind. Readers don’t realize that it’s happening,...

Plural of Fish: How to Correctly Write Fish in Your Stories

by Alice Sudlow | 39 Comments

Here’s a question for you: what’s the plural of fish?

English is a pretty convoluted language. Even when things seem straightforward, exceptions pop up to turn regular rules upside down.

Today we’ll look closely at the word fish and verify the correct plural use of it.

Whether or not you’re writing a rhyming children’s book like One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish or a literary novel staged on the sea, understanding the proper use of this word—like all good grammar—can strengthen you’re writing.

Learn good grammar without depending on tools like Grammarly with bite-sized posts on simple grammar rules like this one.

Cliffhanger Meaning 101: What They Are and How Writers Use Them

by Joslyn Chase | 0 Comments

Do you love a good cliffhanger? Most readers do. Whether they entail a twist that hits us like a tidal wave or employ a more subtle revelation, cliffhangers keep readers eagerly turning the pages—even if we’re not all entirely sure of a cliffhanger’s meaning.

But what is the definition of cliffhanger? And how can we, as writers, master the use of cliffhangers to write a book that holds readers all the way to the very end?

In this article, we’ll dig deep into what a real cliffhanger is, what it does, and how you can create consistently potent cliffhangers in your own writing.

Thank You for 10 Years of The Write Practice

by Joe Bunting | 0 Comments

In July 2011, I accomplished what was at the time the third best thing I’d ever done in my life (after marrying my wife and writing my first book): I started a blog to share what I was learning about the writing craft.

It was called The Write Practice. My goal was to create a place where people could become better writers, finish their books, get published, and accomplish their writing goals.

Since then, over twenty-nine million people have visited The Write Practice. It has grown from just me working out of a coffee shop to a team of over twenty employees, contractors, and contributors.

Together we’ve helped over 7,000 people write books, get published, and accomplish their writing goals.

And we’re just getting started.

What Should Be Included in Your First Draft?

by J. D. Edwin | 9 Comments

What should be included in your first draft? Writing the first draft of a book is incredibly difficult. So much so that many writers don’t even finish their first draft. Why is this? And how can we prevent this from stopping us from writing our first drafts?

Every writer who has ever written a book wrote a first draft for that story—and it’s highly unlikely that the first draft was also the final draft.

Of course, it’s hard to remember this when you’re reading a published book. Writers don’t often see the first, or even second (maybe more!) drafts of a book. Just the final product.

However, behind every great story there is a beginning—and in every beginning there are elements we, as writers, need to care about accomplishing. There are also elements that will only hold us back.

In this post, I will cover the three elements you need to include in your first draft, and the three elements that will only slow down or stop your writing process.

How to Stay Popular in a Writers Group

by Joe Bunting | 20 Comments

Writers groups can be an incredibly rich experience. In fact, you can learn more about the craft of writing from a good writers group or creative writing club than you can learn from a thousand blog posts on writing.

However, at the same time, a bad writers group can be a waste of time, and if particularly dysfunctional, can even be incredibly damaging to your confidence and your writing.

If you’re part of a writers group, how do you take it to the next level? And if you’re looking for a writers group, how do you make sure you choose the right one?

How to End a Story: 3 Questions That Will Help You Find the Perfect Ending

by David Safford | 4 Comments

The hardest part of writing a story might just be figuring out how to end a story. But what makes a good ending? How about a great ending? Is there a difference?

Endings are intimidating. They’re heavy-laden with all the narrative weight of your story.

And they’re so much harder to write than we imagine when they play out in our heads.

This is why so many trilogies end with a whimper, rather than a bang (Star Wars, Alien): Endings are hard.

But how do you write that rare, coveted third act that nails every beat and delivers on the audience’s hopes and dreams? How do you conclude your story, or trilogy, or series with power and poise?

Let’s dive deep into how to write a winning ending by exploring three essential questions that will keep you on track as you wrap up your next story.

What is Suspense? Why and How It Makes Better Books

by Joslyn Chase | 0 Comments

Year after year, mysteries, thrillers, and suspense stories dominate at the box office, bookstores, and streaming services. We love suspense. We demand it in our entertainment. But what (exactly) is suspense in a story? And why does suspense matter so much in a good...

How to Write Better Stories by Knowing Your Story Grid Genre

by David Safford | 0 Comments

Why do some books “work,” while others don’t? Why do readers ravenously consume one book, while they put down another and forget about it entirely?

If you want to write books that readers love, you’d be wise to find answers to these questions and apply those answers to your work. Thankfully, there’s a resource available to you that provides an insider’s look at what readers want: The Story Grid!