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.
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Some of you may be participating in our 100 Day Book program, writing your first novel on your own, or kicking around the idea of starting that manuscript.
Writing your first novel is hard. It’s a struggle. It’s a learning process.
And it’s often autobiographical, even if you don’t mean it to be. And that’s okay.
Have you ever heard that there are no original stories? As a writer, did this turn your stomach or make you angry?
Although the idea that there are no original stories sounds upsetting, especially for writers, the truth is that every story follows the rule (most likely) of “same, but different.”
That’s a good thing!
If stories were completely original, it would be hard to know if there was a readership interested in them. We want stories that are unique, but that also follow the same conventions and tropes of certain types of stories that we’ve read or seen before.
Doing this means that your story will impact your ideal readers, and here’s why.
Do you crave solid feedback on your writing but rarely get it? Our maybe you’ve received feedback but you’re having trouble what to embrace and reject, or how to apply writing feedback in general.
Learning how to apply writing feedback is tricky, but knowing how and when to accept and reject suggestions can drastically change your story’s ability to touch readers. It will also teach you how to give better feedback to others, which is crucial for building your writing community.
Are you looking for a writing challenge that really tests your writing skills? Something that pushes your writing process beyond national novel writing month (although trying out NaNoWriMo is a good challenge to face)?
As a writer, you’ve probably heard this question: “What’s your genre?” Or maybe you’ve been asked, “What is your book about?”
As writers, we tend to find a creative “happy place” and stay inside three boxes: medium, form, and genre. This allows us to find a consistent voice and target our work towards ideal readers.
But staying inside these boxes without any deviation can have major drawbacks that threaten the quality of your writing, and the joy of writing itself.
In order to stay sharp, writers need challenges to keep their creative juices alive and well.
And whether or not these challenges are daily writing challenges or something you find on social media without even looking for them, it’s important that, as a writing habit, we tackle them head on every once in a while.
We only become better writers when we step out of our comfort zones.
These three writing challenges will test and strengthen your writing skills.
How many articles, blogs, or books have you failed to write? Or have you ever started one of these projects and then hit a hard halt? Are you stumped at why you stopped writing?
Eighty percent of the time writers stop writing is because of three lies they tell themselves.
Knowing what these lies are will help you notice them creeping into your writing process, which is the first step to preventing them from convincing you to quit writing.
When you put your writing out there for others to read, what do you hope will happen? If you’re like most writers, you want readers to get pulled into your story and keep turning pages to the end. You want your story to be un-put-downable.
It’s no secret that the time-tested method of using cliffhangers at the end of your chapters or scenes is a sure-fire way to make that happen. But what a lot of writers don’t realize is that the cliffhanger ending is only half the equation.
The cliffhanger is the hook that makes the reader turn the page, but if you don’t have a solid line supporting them across the gap and a sinker that pulls them deep into the next scene or chapter, your fish is likely to wriggle off and swim away.
Do you like writing fanfiction, but struggle to get going? Do you like to use fanfiction prompts to practice writing? Or, do you question if writing fanfiction will even benefit your writing?
Fanfiction can actually make your writing much stronger. And understanding what fanfiction is and using fanfiction prompts to give it a try (before you bash it) might be well worth your time.
Have you ever wondered how the elements of story impact your book’s genre? Do some elements of story have greater importance in a book because of the book’s genre?
I can think of several times when I’ve gone to a restaurant and taking the time to slowly chew my food, so I can experience how each of my senses is impacted by the food: from taste to smell to sight.
The level of importance the elements of story have on genre isn’t so different. We all have certain tastes—factors that appeal to us in different ways on our taste buds—and it’s the same with our reading preferences. I came to understand this in a profound way when I worked for our local library system, which I’d like to share with you today.
Readers crave certain “flavors” and genre helps them define what they like and discover more of it.
How the five elements of story vary in level of importance because of the genre may impact your perspective—and in a good way, for writers trying to satisfy their target readers!
Sometimes getting your writing into readers’ hands can seem like a long, arduous process. You might feel lost. You might feel like the “gatekeepers” in the publishing industry are out to get you, hate your work, or are just plain mean.
In this interview, we’re talking with Iseult Murphy about her writing journey, her decision to self-publish, and the power of connecting with other writers.
When you started your novel, how long did you think it would take to finish? Have those initial estimated writing deadlines come and gone? More importantly, did you finish your novel in that time frame?
If the answer is no, don’t fret. You’re not alone. Like me, you might fear you’ll never complete your story in a timely manner.
Maybe one day you lack inspiration. The next you don’t know where your story needs to go. Perhaps you procrastinate or feel low energy.
You know, the struggles all writers go through.
I suffered those afflictions and more during the 100 Day Book program at The Write Practice. And for a time, I thought I wouldn’t finish my novel by the deadline.
Let’s skip to the ending: I completed the second draft of my book on time.
Barely.
But I learned four valuable lessons in the struggle. Lessons that will help you in meeting deadlines and enduring the writing process.
I’d like to share them with you now, so you can write your completed novel far faster than you believe possible.
