The 30 Best Tools for Writers

The 30 Best Tools for Writers

If you want to write a book, you need the right tools for the job. But what are the best tools for writers? We get asked that all the time.

Whether you’re ready to write, publish, or market your book, there are hundreds of resources you could use. They’re not all equal, though. Some will help you make your book better than you’d ever dreamed, and others, well, won’t.

I want to help you find the best tools for your writing, too. I’ve put together a roundup of the thirty best tools for writers at every stage of the writing and publishing process.

The Best Writing Practice: Why You Need to Practice Differently

The Best Writing Practice: Why You Need to Practice Differently

Daily writing produces a kind of experience and writing practice that is irreplaceable. But what if I’m writing every day, but my writing is still falling short of where I want it to be? (I’m asking for a friend.)

Do I push away from my writing desk to get better? Do I need a university course? Should I pay an editor? Sacrifice my first born child or a kidney?

Write more! I tell myself. But writing more is not enough. (Insert exasperated sigh.) Isn’t it hard enough just to write? What else do I have to do?

Practice differently. This is the secret to becoming the writer you want to be as quickly as possible.

7 Writing Lessons I Learned From The Write Practice

7 Writing Lessons I Learned From The Write Practice

It’s with a bittersweet tone that I write this post, because it will be the last one I write for The Write Practice for a long time as I get ready for my first year of college. I’ll call this a “soft goodbye” since this is technically my last post, but it definitely will not be the last time I “hang around” The Write Practice. I’ve learned so much in the seven years I’ve contributed to this fabulous website and I still have so much to learn. I thought I’d share seven of those writing lessons with you now.

Why It’s Okay to Hate Your Writing

Why It’s Okay to Hate Your Writing

I'm in the middle of writing my latest novel and I hate my writing. Loathe it, in fact. I don't want to come back to it on a daily basis. At this point, I'd rather just abandon the project or start over from scratch. Have you ever felt this way? I'm betting you have....

Henry Miller on How to Finish Your Novel

“One: Work on one thing at a time until finished,” Henry Miller commanded himself. “Two: Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’ Six: Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers. Ten: Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.”

I was never very good at finishing. I used to get a good start on an idea for a novel or short story. I would get five or ten or twenty-thousand words into it. And then I would get another new idea for a more interesting project and take off doing that. I have five or six unfinished novels on my computer hard drive. I call them my skeletons, and I ask, occasionally, if they will ever be covered in flesh.