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.
Many of us are lucky to have people around us who understand or at least support our writing habits and dreams. But even with the best support, sometimes it feels like my writing is silly in the face of so many other pressing world problems. How do you keep writing when it seems inconsequential?
As writers, we are artists. We create through inspiration—a spark brought to fruition through discipline, hard work, and practice. And we draw inspiration from everywhere around us.
That includes the singing competition The Voice. Singing is a different art form from writing, but there are many lessons we writers can draw from it.
Today we are going to write a story. A story has a beginning, a middle and an end. A story starts when something happens. A story starts with an inciting incident. An inciting incident is something that prompts action.
Writing practice is at the heart of everything we do here at The Write Practice. Every week, we share new fifteen-minute writing exercises to help you practice and grow as a writer.
But what if you could build your own practice exercises? What if you could find something you love in a story someone else has written, and then practice how to recreate that yourself? What if you could take the lead in your own growth as a writer and learn from your favorite stories and authors?
You can! Here are three steps to help you analyze any text to learn its secrets and apply its lessons.
Whether leaving for vacation or a job in a new city, departures can be stressful, exciting, and full of conflict. Use this prompt to reimagine a departure today in your writing time.
I think there are two qualities about any departure that make them great for writing. See if you agree and try this prompt with me today!
Ever wonder how to come up with story ideas? Ask any writer and invariably they will tell you “life.”
A writer’s greatest source of ideas comes from their real-life experiences. From going to the grocery store to careening down a snowy mountain, real life is every writer’s inspiration. You just need to look and you’ll find a story.
Adding an animal to your story can reveal a lot about the humans who inhabit your world. Whether a beloved pet or a rogue turkey, adding an animal encounter to a scene is surprisingly humanizing.
The best way to become a better writer is to write and then to publish your writing, whether you publish it on a blog, in a book, or with a close friend. It’s only by practicing writing, and getting feedback on it, that you can improve.
That being said, it never hurts to learn from those who have gone before you, and over the years, we’ve compiled a lot of excellent advice from the best writers on how to become a better writer.
Building a website for your writing is the first step to becoming a professional writer. But how do you choose the right domain name for your writer website? Read on to find out.
Handwritten notes are like sending a hug through the mail. They have personality and character, attributes a computer screen will never have. Let me show you why, when, and how to write a thank-you note.
I woke up this morning to a deluge of emails about Black Friday offers, which I inevitably greet first with suspicion and cynicism, then vague interest, then a growing realization that, hey, some of these are actually really good deals!
At The Write Practice, we have long been tracking the best tools for writers and writing software. The cool thing is that today a lot of those tools are steeply discounted. Here are some of the deals I spotted today.
How do you write beautiful, award-worthy books and short stories?
One of the best ways is to join an online writing workshop, a collection of other writers who can give your writing feedback so that you can make your chapters, stories, and ultimately books better.
And the best online writing workshop, in my opinion, is The Write Practice Pro. What is The Write Practice Pro, and how can it help you finish your books, get published, and become an award winning, bestselling author? In this post, I’ll be sharing my Write Practice Pro review. I’ll also talk about how I personally use it the writing tool.
Want to write a memoir but not sure how to get started? I’ve got you covered. In this post, I’m sharing my ten best creative writing prompts for memoir writers.
How do you become a better creative writer? That was the question I was facing in my own life more than ten years ago. I wanted to be a writer, was even writing part-time for a local magazine, but I didn’t know how to make my dreams of becoming a professional writer happen.
Five years later, I had finally made it, and now, five years after that, I’m earning over $100k from my writing.
How did I do it? It took so many things, but one of the first, and most important, was travel.
In fact, I believe every writer should travel. In this post, I’ll explain why. But I don’t want you to just take my word for it. No, I actually want to send you on a trip to Paris, one of my favorite writing destinations, on me.
My new book, a real life adventure story set in Paris called Crowdsourcing Paris, launches in just a few days. And in honor of the launch, I want to fly you to Paris. For real. I’m hosting a giveaway in which one reader can win a ticket to Paris paid by me. Call...
Do you hear that sound? The furious scratching of pens and the clacking of keyboards has begun around the world as the month of writing abandon is finally here. Whether or not you’re participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), here are a few quick tips to help you enjoy writing this month, no matter what your goals are.
Halloween is a time to bring out your spooky side, to get creative, and to eat tons and tons of candy. In other words, Halloween is a time to be a kid again.
In that spirit (see what I did there?), my prompt for you today is a little on the lighter side: write from a child’s point of view.
What is a part of speech? In this article, I define the grammatical term, part of speech, list the nine parts of speech, and describe each one using examples. Finally, I give a creative writing exercise to help you cement your knowledge of parts of speech immediately.
Perhaps you write because it makes you feel alive. Perhaps you read a book that made you think, “It must feel amazing to write something like this. Maybe I could be a writer.” Perhaps you feel like you can’t not write.
So then, how do you do it? How do you become a writer?
