The Write Practice: The Online Writing Workbook

3 Tips for Writing Brilliant Dialogue

We talk to tell someone we want them to pass the salt. We talk to ask questions, share feelings, and ask for directions when we are lost. We talk to ourselves in our thoughts, and we speak out loud.

In our stories, our characters talk, too. It is not quite as easy to write dialogue for our characters as it is to have conversations in real life. But if you take time to learn how dialogue works and practice writing it, you will be able to write brilliant conversations that sound natural and move your story forward.

How I Write Through Distractions With Freedom

by Sue Weems | 26 Comments

You’ve set your intentions with Kellie and planned and plotted with Monica. Now it’s time to write. Ready, set, . . . get distracted.

As writers, we lament our lack of time, but how often do we let distractions steal the little time we do have? In this post, I’ll show you how I use Freedom, along with a few other tricks, to keep me focused, even when life is crazy.

How to Write a Fight Scene Readers Will Love

by Guest Blogger | 19 Comments

If your story involves one or more fight scenes, you have a great opportunity. You can thrill your audience, change the course of the plot, and reveal new depths to your characters . . . or you can bore your viewers to tears, and make them wish that the battle would please just end already.

I’m going to give you six tips for writing better fight scenes, so you can keep your audience on the edge of their seats while giving a whole new level of depth to your story and cast.

Don’t Stop Writing

by Ruthanne Reid | 65 Comments

Hey, you. Yes, you—the one with the ink-stained dreams and itchy fingers. I have a message for you from the future: don’t stop writing.

The future also wants to talk about a few scary things today. You have been warned.

What I Learned From Losing My Own Writing Contest

by Joe Bunting | 40 Comments

A few months ago, without telling anyone, I entered a short story into a writing contest. Well, not just any writing contest. It was the Winter Writing Contest that The Write Practice hosted in partnership with Short Fiction Break literary magazine. In other words, it was my writing contest.

4 Reasons to Write Short Stories

by Joe Bunting | 162 Comments

For most of my creative writing life, I’ve tried to write novels. Novels are the pinnacle of fiction writing in the same way oil painting is the pinacle of art. I thought that if I were going to be a writer it meant I didn’t have a choice but to write novels.

However, recently, my thoughts have changed. In fact, for a few years I locked my novel away in my desk drawer to focus all my attention on short stories.

Here are four reasons why you should consider writing short stories instead of novels.

Want to Double Your Success as a Writer? Do This

by Kellie McGann | 45 Comments

One of my greatest excuses on days that I don’t write is I just don’t have time. Have you ever said or thought that? Well, in fact, the opposite is true. Here’s the thing about writing: If you don’t write when you don’t have time, you won’t write when you do have time.

No, it’s not easy to write on the days when you feel like you just don’t have time. But it is possible. The secret to finding time and maintaining successful writing habitsis to set an intention.

How to Write a Story 101: Conflict

by Pamela Fernuik | 54 Comments

You desperately want to write a story. You carry a pad of paper with you in case you get an idea. You can’t decide if your main character should have short hair or long hair. But for now, put aside what your character looks like and think about what they want.

In this post, we’re going to look at how to write a story by focusing on one of the most important elements of any story: conflict.

One Essential Writing Tip From Mark Twain

by Sue Weems | 43 Comments

Mark Twain is one of my favorite writers. When I read his essays last year, I came across a bit of revising gold in a 1906 essay titled “William Dean Howells.” Most of the essay praises Howells’s prose in general, but the final paragraphs address what Twain calls “stage directions.”

In a play, stage directions are only visible to the audience through the movement and actor’s inflection during the performance. In a novel, we rely on description to set scenes, give context, and deepen characterization. When done well, stage directions don’t distract from the character or action.

When done poorly, however, Twain has something to say about them.

5 Steps to Get Amazing Feedback From Beta Readers

by Guest Blogger | 24 Comments

When you’ve finished a book, you feel like a hero. The work may have some warts, but it’s yours, and it’s done! The next step is to test it out on some readers and see how well the book works. This is called Beta Testing (or just “beta-ing”) your book.

Reader feedback can teach you a lot, but it can also be hard to filter the signal from the noise. The key is learning how to process that feedback so you can make productive edits. Today I’ll teach you how I learned to do this.

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