How many articles, blogs, or books have you failed to write? Or have you ever started one of these projects and then hit a hard halt? Are you stumped at why you stopped writing?
Eighty percent of the time writers stop writing is because of three lies they tell themselves.
Knowing what these lies are will help you notice them creeping into your writing process, which is the first step to preventing them from convincing you to quit writing.
Do you like writing fanfiction, but struggle to get going? Do you like to use fanfiction prompts to practice writing? Or, do you question if writing fanfiction will even benefit your writing?
Fanfiction can actually make your writing much stronger. And understanding what fanfiction is and using fanfiction prompts to give it a try (before you bash it) might be well worth your time.
The Hero’s Journey is easily the most-used and most-loved storytelling structure in the history of humanity. It resonates with readers in ways that are as old as human D.N.A. itself.
If you want to connect with readers and engage them on a deep level, you would be at an advantage to study this storytelling method and use as much of it as possible in your writing.
One of the best ways to study and master the Hero’s Journey is by seeing it at work in another story. And in recent history, there is no clearer use of the Hero’s Journey than George Lucas’s space opera, Star Wars.
I bet you have a great idea for a story right now. In fact, I bet you have several. But can that story idea withstand the length of a novel? If not, have you tried turning your story idea into a premise of a book?
Life is filled with stranger-than-fiction moments. You might be wondering, though, how do you know how to write a book based on a true story? Because in practice, it’s much harder than it sounds, right?
Have you ever seen the New Years Resolution episode from Friends? You know the one where Ross wears leather pants, Joey tries to learn how to play guitar, and Rachel tries to gossip less?
If you’re a Friends fan, I’d be shocked if you didn’t know the episode I’m talking about. Rolling Stone even suggested this episode really should be called “‘The One With Ross’ Leather Pants’ because no one else’s 1999 New Year’s resolution produces results as memorable — or disastrous.”
But even though Ross’s leather pants fiasco is what makes the episode, it’s not the only resolution that wins some laughs. Today, let’s focus on brainstorming some New Year writing prompts to kickstart your writing year with some humor.
One of the greatest challenges of writing better stories is knowing exactly which scenes to write. The best scenes focus on the core elements of conflict — which means before you can write amazing scenes, you have to find the conflict in a story.
Strong scenes come from strong plans. And visualizing the conflict between your characters is a great way to do just that.
Hey writers. Well, it’s been a weird, hard, interesting year, right? The good news is 2020 is almost over (thank goodness), and as we start looking ahead to 2021, I want to hear from you. What are you struggling with as far as your writing goes? How can The Write Practice help you?
In college, I majored in communication, and the first thing I learned is that communication is a two-way street—it needs a sender and a receiver. As writers, we are senders, and our readers are receivers. But what are we communicating?
Stories, at their core, are a medium for communicating many things, but chief among them is emotion. That means one of the best ways to hook your reader is through emotion.
In this post, you will learn how to hook your reader with emotion, how people experience emotion through reading and three tips to cultivate that emotion through your writing. Then, we’ll end with a creative writing exercise you can use to apply these lessons right away.
Writing a novel in a month is a wonderful idea. But it’s hard for a multitude of reasons, and the temptation to give up and just “do it over time” can be really appealing, especially as we approach Day 8 of the journey.
I know it’s hard. But quitting, or choosing to simply abstain, is the worst thing you can do right now if you have a passion for writing.
The falling action is a literary term you hear thrown around in middle school writing classes and on creative writing blogs, but what is it? And will it actually help you understand, and maybe write, a good story?
In this post, I’m going to define falling action, talking briefly about its origin as a literary term and its place in dramatic structure, and then talk about whether you should incorporate it into your story structuring process.
I’m a firm believer in Halloween. But I know all the gore and scary movies aren’t for everyone, especially little kids.
Halloween is for everyone, though! There’s so much more to the celebration than jump scares and fake blood. And I think we all need a little lightheartedness this year.
Have your kids try one of these writing prompts (or try one yourself)!
You want to write, but when you sit down to get started, you realize you don’t have a novel idea. Or perhaps you have so many ideas, you’re having a hard time choosing the best novel idea. Or maybe, you already have an idea, but you just aren’t sure if it’s any good.
That’s what we’re here for. In this article are ten questions to help you get started finding your best novel idea. Use them as writing prompts or as a way to make your current idea better.
Coming up with a story idea isn’t hard. Coming up with a story idea that hits it out of the park, fires on all cylinders, and has never been done before is. In fact, it’s the equivalent of winning the lottery—an unlikely event that can burn up your resources if you’re not careful.
I often hear practicing writers ask, “What if I can’t think of anything to write about?” Sometimes they even have notebooks full of observations, but they feel like none of them are good enough for a story.
I’ve felt the same way, but there are more opportunities or seeds for ideas in our notebooks than we think. It might be an image, a snippet of a conversation we overheard at lunch, or a social issue that grates against us. Once we have the seeds, how do we take those seeds and develop them into stories?
Before we talk about the concept of constrained writing and tell you how it works, let me ask you this: Have you ever opened a new blank document to write, stared at it for far too long, and then realized you have no ideas, that your mind is as blank as the page you’re trying to write on? What if you could double or triple the number of ideas you have, not by doing something extra but by taking something away?
That’s what constrained writing is about: taking away options so that you can actually be more creative.
If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard this question: “What’s your genre?” Or you’ve been asked, “What do you write?”
As writers, we tend to find a creative “happy place” and stay inside of three boxes: medium, form, and genre. This allows us to find a consistent voice and target our work toward a very specific reader.
But staying inside these boxes without any deviation can have major drawbacks that will threaten the quality of your writing, and the joy of writing itself. Here are three ways to challenge yourself beyond your typical writing bounds.
There are so many editing tools out there these days, it’s hard to keep track of the best ones. Two editing software solutions you may have heard of are WhiteSmoke and Grammarly.
In this article, we’ll compare the two options and see which is the best choice for you.
Can you steal ideas from other stories? What if someone steals your ideas? In fact, are your ideas even good enough at all? If you’ve ever asked questions like these, I have good news for you.
