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.
And make sure to subscribe to get a weekly digest of our latest posts, along with our free guide, 10 Steps to Become a Writer.
If you want your readers to not just pick up your book, but keep turning the pages, you need to learn how to write a hook that will draw them through the story so they never want to put it down. Try baiting your hooks with the thrill of danger to keep your readers on the line.
Yes, we’d all like more traffic, more comments, more readers on our blogs. But if you’re writing a blog, there’s one thing you want even more than readers. You might not admit that you want this. You might not even realize it! But it’s that emptiness you feel every time you’re disappointed after checking your blog stats. What is it?
Many writers struggle with time management, but I’ve taken this dilemma to a whole, new level. In this post I want to talk about how I’ve learned to accomplish twice the writing in half the time.
Some writers have a set schedule. They work the same time every day.
Lucky them.
Others, do not. They sneak in their pages through tiny chunks of time — five minutes here, another 15 minutes there.
Nothing wrong with that, either. Just try to be consistent.
Here’s an interesting fact I’ve recently discovered about myself. In talking to others, they’ve admitted they do this, too…
It’s Christmas Eve! The Write Practice will be taking a brief break from the blog for the next week, but in the meantime we’d love to inspire your writing this holiday season with some Christmas writing prompts.
Maybe you’re looking for some creative writing activities for the last day of school before winter break. Or you’re craving a handful of creative writing prompts that will also get you into the festive mood. Either way, these holiday-themed writing prompts are for you!
Write alone, or grab lots of people in your writing community. Pick a writing prompt for this article. When you’re chosen a favorite, take on a fifteen minute writing sprint.
It never hurts to get some special writing practice in before your holiday celebrations.
If you want to succeed as a writer, you need a stress-free time to work and think. Writing sessions during the holidays can be hard for us. With all the added parties and present buying and family events, it can be easy to feel stuck and unable to work on your latest writing project.
But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to find time for writing.
In this article, you can learn three tricks to keeping your holiday spirit, and also working on your writing skills.
Let this holiday season be one you enjoy, while also working in those meaningful writing sessions.
Looking for a boost in your creative writing? We all need something to rekindle our love of story. These TED Talks for writers might be just the inspiration you need.
In your work as a writer, have you ever succumbed to the pity party? Why am I laboring away at something only a handful of people will ever read? Why am I spending all my time on something no one else cares about?
If you’ve been doing it long enough, you’ll have had those moments of doubt. My intention with this article is to provide help and inspiration to push through those barriers and restoke the fires of determined storytelling.
What I found in my forays for fuel to ignite that flame met—and exceeded—my expectations, reaffirming one of the fundamental truths I hold most dear: there is extraordinary power in story.
Have you tried writing a book but failed to finish it? Do you wish you could have some writing success, but each time you set out on an idea, something stops you?
Do you have a writing system?
If you want to be a successful writer, it helps to establish a solid, reliable writing system that evaluates your writing process. To do this, you need to experiment with three key steps to designing the best system for you.
I love the Christmas season. I love decorating the tree and baking cookies with my daughter. I love wrapping presents and hiding them from prying eyes.
But with every passing holiday season, I find myself loving something less and less each year: Rampant consumerism, and the impossible expectations that come with it.
What if this year, you give something different? What if you gift writing instead of things?
You invest a lot of yourself in your writing, and putting your creative work in front of others is scary. Your mind floods with questions like, What if they don’t like it? What if they think I’m dumb? What if I’m no good at this? And what if someone doesn’t like it? Do you know how to handle negative criticism?
How do you plan a story? If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard about different creative writing methods to finish a first draft. Is there a right or wrong to these? Have you tried different method, but still don’t feel like it’s a perfect fit?
At some point in your process, it’s likely that you will with primarily pants or plot a novel. Maybe you even do both at different times in your writing process.
In this article, you’ll learn when the best times are for planning your novel. You’ll also learn different stages of that planning process when you might prefer to pants, plot, or some hybrid method of the two.