The Write Practice: The Online Writing Workbook

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.

5 Inspiring Tips for How to Start a Story

by The Magic Violinist | 27 Comments

An argument can be made that the beginning of any story is the most important. It is the first part your readers will encounter and it is what potential agents and publishers will read in order to determine if your project is right for them. But do you know how to start a story? What’s the perfect opening?

Rules of Writing: How to Create Your Own Rules

by Ruthanne Reid | 24 Comments

It’s good to study other writers’ rules, but in the end, those rules were not made for you—they were made for other writers. If you’re serious about being a writer, then you need to figure out your rules of writing and stick to them. This post will show you how.

Twitter Story: Tell a Story in 280 Characters

by Monica M. Clark | 63 Comments

You’ve heard of stories in 140 characters. But now that Twitter has increased their character limit, we’re faced with a new challenge: stories in 280 characters.

What concise tales will you tell in this newly expanded space?

Vote for the Winner of the Winter Writing Contest

by Joe Bunting | 8 Comments

This week, nearly three hundred writers submitted their stories to the Winter Writing Contest. Right now, our panel of judges is reading through each story, looking for the ones that will make it to the winners’ circle. And while they’re hard at work, I have an invitation for you, too.

Come vote on your favorite to win the Readers’ Choice Award!

3 Wacky Writing Prompts to Spark Your Silly Stories

by Pamela Hodges | 13 Comments

When your alarm went off today did you hit the snooze button? Did you wake up wishing, “I hope The Write Practice has some silly writing prompts today”? Have you been dreading getting out of bed because you didn’t have a fun writing prompt?

Now you can get out of bed and look forward to today! Run to your writing chair and write for fifteen minutes with these silly writing prompts.

Writer’s Block: What to Do When You Run Out of Gas

by Jeff Elkins | 18 Comments

For every writer, there comes a special kind of writer’s block: a moment when we run out of gas. Maybe we’ve expended our final reserves of energy trying finish a big project. Maybe we’ve pushed too many days in a row to hit our NaNoWriMo word count. Maybe life has just made production difficult and we can’t muster the energy to get the next page out.

This moment, when we feel like we have nothing left, is inevitable. Therefore, it’s important that we have a plan in place for when it comes.

Writing Prompt: Take Your Character Shopping

by Sue Weems | 26 Comments

I stood in a long line last week while a single checker bumbled through multiple orders, finally requiring a manager to come take over. I’m a notorious snoop (I mean, people-researcher), so I began furtively sizing up the purchases of those around me while I waited. And what I found was a fantastic writing prompt.

The Winners of the Fall Writing Contest

by Joe Bunting | 9 Comments

In August, we hosted the Fall Writing Contest in partnership with Short Fiction Break literary magazine. Entering this writing contest was a huge accomplishment for all our writers, and we want to celebrate the winners here on The Write Practice.

3 Brilliant Writing Tips I Learned From a Genius

by Monica M. Clark | 17 Comments

Currently I’m reading a collection of essays by the National Book Award winner and genius grant recipient Ta-Nehisi Coates. Many people view Coates, a writer for The Atlantic, as political, but I’ve heard him speak, and he repeatedly emphasizes that he is a writer above all else. He is an observer and he shares his observations with the world, and we can draw valuable writing tips from his work.

Coates’s book We Were Eight Years in Power consists of articles he wrote during the Obama years, each of which are preceded by Coates’s retrospective reflections on those essays. As a fellow writer, I was enthralled by those reflections. Here was an anointed “genius” expressing his doubts and self-critiques. There’s something fascinating about watching a successful writer still cringe at the very works that gave him that success.

Given all that, I had to share some of my takeaways, writing tips drawn from Coates’s self-reflections.

Here to learn? You’re in the WRITE place!