“Write what you know.” We hear it all the time as writers, just as often as we hear “kill the adverbs,” “don’t disregard the first draft,” and all of the other common tips about writing. But while writing what you know is definitely useful in one sense, writing what you don’t know can be just as rewarding. Here’s why.
Today we want to hear YOUR advice. What have you learned so far about writing or publishing?
A writer friend I know adores her hero and heroine so much that she’s afraid of hurting them. She realizes her story reads flat, but can’t seem to put any real obstacles in their paths, despite the depth it would add to their journeys and the improved experience for her readers. Another writer recently told me he dislikes dark books, characters, plots, anything. He feels that life has enough suffering and not enough happiness.
I agree there’s too much pain in this world, but I also believe there’s a bigger discussion that needs to take place here at The Write Practice.
In my opinion, your #1 responsibility as a writer is…
Short stories. Marketing. News reporting. Poetry. Business proposals. Literary fiction. Technical writing. Blogs.
There are a ton of different kinds of writing out there, each strikingly different from others, and each different kind requires different writing rules.
How do you make your readers cry?
I promise this post won’t be a downer. What it will be (hopefully) is really useful advice on how to portray the stages grief—and in the process, maybe encourage you to continue creating even during your own personal sorrow.
Have you ever felt desperate? Not desperate to find disposable diapers at midnight when you realized you just used the last one and your baby has diarrhea? And not desperate to find your car keys. I mean desperate to find a way for your hero to escape the wooden box sinking in the middle of the ocean desperate.
As your character sinks to the bottom of the ocean, and as the air supply at the top of the wooden box gets smaller you grab your head in your hands and pace the floor frantic to save your hero’s life before his air supply runs out.
You try jumping jacks to stimulate oxygen to your brain. You do a google search for ideas to break writer’s block and then do you everything they suggest.
