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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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.
Two of the most vital skills you should focus on as a writer are how to tell a story that satisfies readers and how to develop compelling characters. But once you’ve got that figured out, aren’t there other writing techniques, more subtle perhaps, that draw readers in and make stories shine?
There are. And one of those writing techniques is called euphonics.
Rayne Hall, author of the Writer’s Craft series, defines euphonics as “the use of sound devices for prose writing.” The dictionary definition of euphonic expands on that to include “a harmonious succession of words having a pleasing sound.”
Understanding this writing technique and applying it to your sentences will make your readers fall in love with your writing!
Have you heard the story of the orphan boy living in the cupboard under the stairs?
Or perhaps the story of the girl in District 12 (the crappiest District) who would not only survive an unwinnable deathmatch, but become a symbol of liberty?
Maybe you’ve heard of the baby boy who was going to die in a mass genocide, but whose mother put him in a basket and sent him down the Nile River . . .
If you didn’t catch those, here they are in order: Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games), and . . . Moses.
And all these stories follow the same classic story structure.
I published my new book, The Write Structure, last week, and it’s been amazing to see the response.
People are getting so much out of the book. It’s always an honor to get the chance to help people with their writing, but it’s even more rewarding when the help is making a huge difference.
But does it work? And will it actually help you with your writing?
What do Lewis Carrol, Mark Twain, and Dr. Seuss have in common? They all wrote under a pen name.
Those are some pretty big names, so it really makes a writer wonder: Should I use a pen name?
They say opposites attract. That holds true, even in a Hero’s Journey story.
And while you may craft opposing characters who find themselves attracted to one another, you would be wise to study these universal relationships—also known as themes—that great stories have utilized for generations to the benefit of their readers.
Here are the five essential Hero’s Journey themes that will thrill your readers!
You might be thinking, “National Novel Writing Month is two months away. Why should I think about how to prepare for NaNoWriMo now?”
Completing the NaNoWriMo challenge is no small feat—it can take years to complete a novel, and yet those who step up for NaNoWriMo each year complete an entire first draft in just a month. This averages out to 1,667 words each day (you can download and print the official NaNoWriMo calendar here).
The official rules for NaNoWriMo state that writers are not permitted to start writing until November 1. But that doesn’t mean you have to just sit and wait. You can prepare for it!
Before the month of November, take advantage of the free time you have for some NaNoWriMo prep work.
By following these four ways, you can succeed (and have fun writing) when the time of year to meet your NaNoWriMo goals comes.
You’ve finally carved out a spare moment to write, you open up a blank document, and set your fingers on the keys. But then nothing comes. You check Facebook thinking maybe something there will be inspiring. No luck. You wonder if your muse is hiding under the stack of dirty dishes so you clean every bit of grime you can find and still come up empty. You’re at a loss for ideas and your writing time is dwindling quickly.
