New Daily Writing Guides from The Write Practice

3 Brilliant Writing Tips I Learned From a Genius

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.

Middle of the Story: 5 Gripping Ways to Revive Your Story’s Messy Middle

by David Safford | 9 Comments

I’m not gonna lie: I hate writing the Middle.

If you’re anything like me, the Beginning is easy. It’s fun to come up with a cool premise for a story. The conflict is there. The goals are plain as day. And getting your protagonist into trouble shouldn’t be too difficult.

The End can seem easy, too. The End of a story is like the candy center of the lollipop — you can’t wait to get to it! Of course you can’t write it yet because you haven’t gotten there, but with each moment of drafting, your heart is dead-set on reaching the end so you can reveal a great twist, kill off a beloved character, or teach a remarkable life lesson.

But for some reason, there’s something about a story’s Middle that’s a pain in the neck.

6 Simple Tips to Create Daily Writing Habits

by Pamela Fernuik | 16 Comments

Writers write. If you want to write a book or a story, but you only write once a week, or on every second Sunday when the temperature is between 72 and 82 degrees, you will never finish your book or your story.

The goal is to have daily writing habits so you can finish your book, or the story you keep thinking and talking about. And when that book is finished, you can write another one and one after that.

You probably already have the habit of brushing your teeth, flushing the toilet, and closing the front door when you come home so the cat doesn’t get out. Here are tips to help you write daily so writing becomes a habit. A habit you don’t have to think about anymore: you just do it. Every day.

3 Tricks to Overcome Your Fear of Writing

by Jeff Elkins | 16 Comments

I’ve found that the greatest threat to us writers is not the well of creativity running dry or time running out before we can finish our latest work or some other writer stealing our million dollar idea. The greatest threat to us lives within us. It is our own fear.

We need not bow to fear. If we can survive its initial surge, it will pass and we can get back to work unhindered. Here are three ways I survive the surge of fear.

7 Sneaky Ways to Steal Time for Writing During NaNoWriMo

by The Magic Violinist | 8 Comments

It’s that time of year again! Time for endless cups of coffee, ink-stained fingers, and scattered pages of manic notes. While NaNoWriMo is a fun, exhilarating time for thousands of writers, it’s also daunting. Some of us still have school or full-time jobs. Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. How in the world are you supposed to find the time to squeeze in your writing?

Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing

by Ruthanne Reid | 35 Comments

Some of you may have noticed that the esteemed Mr. Gaiman is my favorite living author. Even if he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, it’s hard not to notice him: books, graphic novels, award after award—the man is prolific and very good at what he does. So when I realized he had eight rules of writing, you better believe I beelined to read them. And guess what? They’re fantastic … with a few explanations. Read on for more.

5 Writing Tips from Colson Whitehead

by Monica M. Clark | 25 Comments

A couple weeks ago, I attended an author talk with Colson Whitehead at Politics & Prose in D.C.

The author has been writing novels for 18 years, but recently he’s been getting a lot of attention because his new book, The Underground Railroad, was inducted into Oprah’s coveted Book Club. The book is about the escape from slavery to freedom in the antebellum south, but it also has fantastical elements—a literal underground railroad that exposes the protagonist to different worlds at each station.

Here are five tips I gleaned from his talk.

Writing Feedback: Why You Should Stop Asking If Your Story Is Good

by David Safford | 24 Comments

We all know that feeling. You’ve been slaving over a story. You’re twitchy with caffeine. Your family hasn’t heard from you for hours, or even days.

But then you finish!

If you’re like most writers, you’re thrilled. You’ve just poured your heart and soul into this and you want some sweet affirmation after all your hard work.

So as you share your work, you ask a seemingly innocent question: “Is it good?”

This question may seem harmless enough. But this is a dangerous question, and if you want to become a better storyteller and write stories that actually ARE good, you need to stop asking if your work is “good” and pursue a much different route.

How to Analyze a Story Like a Master Writer

by Sue Weems | 10 Comments

As writers, there is no replacement for reading as a practice to become a better writer, but studying film or television can be just as instructive.

Ultimately we’re building models for our own work by asking one critical question. What if that one question could make you a stronger reader, viewer, and ultimately writer?