As you may have noticed, we've made several major changes to The Write Practice's website.
This is the beginning of a new season for The Write Practice, and I'm so excited to tell you about what we're doing to help make your life as a writer easier and more meaningful.
Let me show you what we've been up to.
Why We Changed The Write Practice's Website
For more than a year, I've been wanting to do a better job telling our story. When people asked what I do for work, I had a hard time explaining all the projects I'm involved in.
This new website redesign is the result of many months of hard thinking about who we are as an organization and how we serve the world.
In 2010, I started The Write Practice as a blog to help people get better at writing through deliberate practice. However, five years later, I was still calling The Write Practice a blog, but that didn't fit what we've become.
Because the truth is The Write Practice isn't just a blog anymore. We've become an organization with many different resources to help people at each stage of their writing journey, and since that first post in July 2010, we've helped over six million people in their journeys as writers.
How do we help people?
- The Write Practice Blog. Here on The Write Practice blog, we offer daily articles and exercises, all free, to help people get inspired, learn new techniques, and put them to practice immediately, getting feedback on their writing in the comments section.
- Writing Tutorials. For people who want to go deeper into one area of writing, we've created four free writing tutorials on English grammar, writing short stories, characterization, and interviewing.
- Becoming Writer. In 2015, we created a premium community called Becoming Writer, which gives people accountability to finish their writing projects, invites them into a community of fellow writers to get encouragement and feedback on their writing projects, and then connects them with literary magazines who can publish their best writing. (By the way, we have exciting news coming soon about this community!)
- Story Cartel. When you finish a book, we want to be able to continue to support you. The publishing and marketing process isn't easy, and that's why we created Story Cartel in 2012. Reviews are one of the first things you to do to market your book, and Story Cartel connects you to a community of readers to get those reviews.
No matter what stage you are in your writing journey, we have resources to help. The way the site was designed before, though, didn't reflect the variety of things we've made to help writers.
So What's Different on The Write Practice?
We'll continue to have daily lessons and exercises on The Write Practice. Don't worry, that's not going to change any time soon.
But to show off all the cool things we're doing, we've changed the homepage to better tell our story. Take a look at the new homepage here.
It was important to me to make things as simple as possible, and I did my best to tell our entire story as an organization in just three paragraphs. How did I do?
You can also find four free writing tutorials at the bottom of the homepage to help you go deeper into one area of the writing process. We hope to create more of these soon!
When you want to get to the blog from the homepage, just click the “Read The Write Practice” button. You can also click “Articles” in the top navigation menu bar.
Speaking of the navigation menu at the top of the site, we've made a lot of changes there as well. My number one goal is always simplicity, but in the past I've left out a lot of great resources to serve that aim. In the new navigation menu, we've tried to combine simplicity with a ease-of-navigation, creating dropdowns with our best books and resources so you can easily find all of our resources in one place.
Let Me Know What You Think!
If you're reading this, you're part of our community. I'm really glad you're here! Let us know what you think in the comments (and then get back to writing!).
PRACTICE
Are you doing a good job of telling your story as a writer? In this redesign, I worked hard to tell our story in just three short paragraphs. With that in mind, for today's practice you have two different options:
- Introduce yourself as a writer in just three paragraphs. Tell your story of how you became a writer what kind of writing you do in three paragraphs.
- Summarize your book or story in just three paragraphs. Tell your entire story, novel, or book in just three paragraphs.
What do you think? Can you do it?
Post your three paragraph story in the comments when you're finished. And if you post, be sure to give feedback to your fellow writers.
Have fun and happy writing!
no sidebar! good choice 🙂
Thanks Carl!
There is a five inch link bar across the middle of the page that only gives me about four inches to read your articles and reply. Very disconcerting. I am still trying to figure out how to minimize it.
Hmm interesting. Thanks for letting me know cat. Can you perhaps send me a screenshot at joebunting@thewritepractice.com? Thanks!
Thank you for the speedy reply both here and in my e-mail. I came back today to do the screen shot and the problem is gone. Your new format is beautiful and easy to read for older eyes.
Oh great!
I like the new website so far.
Will write more later after I finish editing a short children’s book, working on an assignment for my online revision class, and add my motivational notes about my main character for the next contest. Just kidding. But I do all these projects and read constantly on my Kindle and in my library books for inspiration!
Thanks Beth!
FYI, the navigation menu isn’t displaying properly in either of the two browsers I loaded it in. Probably easily fixable… Congrats on the website update! 🙂
Thanks for letting me know, Ryan! Can you tell me more (maybe even send a screenshot to me: joebunting@thewritepractice.com)? Which browser are you using? Thanks!
In case you didn’t see my previous response, the website looks back to its beautiful, functional self now. 🙂
Great news!
Everything looks great now (at least on my end). Love the new, cleaner look! The home page is organized well and presents your mission and your services in a simple and concise way. Very efficient!
Congrats on the new site!
There seems to be a problem with the navigation menu. It’s messy, and leaves a large white bar across the page, making it extremely difficult to read the post.
Is that fixed, Marcy? I think we were having a temporary caching issue but it should be fixed. Let me know if it’s still not working for you. Thanks Marcy!
Looks great now!
Not on Safari. I still have the navigation bar splashed across live text.
Are you reading on your iPad Gary? Any chance you can email me a screenshot? I know one other person is having problems reading on an iPad. We’ve tested on iPad but can’t seem to replicate, but if you’re experiencing this too perhaps we can figure it out. Thanks!
Joe,
I get it on either iPad Pro or on my MacBook Pro. It might be an issue with the beta software I am running on both. If it is, than that is my problem and I shall live with it. I did attempt to send a screen shot from the MacBook yesterday. If you did not get it I will try it again.
Good news, Marcy. Thanks!
Like it, Joe! You really planning to do your main text in 3 columns, though? Like (excuse me) PDFs? Otherwise, it’s great…I especially like the ease of access to all your stuff.
Yes! 🙂
Nice and clean, I like it. It would be handy to have the menu bar appear on each of the main tabbed pages. It shows on “articles” and “Books” but not “products, “Contests” etc. using Chrome on Win 10. Not seeing the bar other commenters mentioned.
Thanks for the feedback, and for being part of the community, Donna!
I love it and I also love the blogs from everyone
Thanks James!
Joe,
Congratulations of 350K visitors last month. That is a significant achievement. Glad you are still seeking ways to improve.
Unfortunately, not seeing the “upgrade” so much. Suggestions: Your fixed menu/social media icons etc. – is far too big – blocks far too much of the page (almost half) and does not get out of the way (on Mac FireFox) of reading content. Amateur, but serious design mistake – that you might want to consider the implications of as you expand. Perhaps a matter of personal taste, but I find the orange-red font somehow irritating and more importantly far less visually clear than either blue, dark grey, or black and or other distinctive colors (also demonstrated in numerous visual acuity studies of which your page designer should be aware. However, don’t become too fixated on the fluff of site design novelty and miss serious content upgrading.
Still being frank: More professional related content than just basic writing mechanics (though needed) would be appreciated. Especially, articles from authors with proven success. I also think you need more attention to “how to” of marketing the good writing your site helps produce. Over a million books were published last year and who knows how many others tried and failed. That means extremely serous competition for acquiring readers. The best writing is not necessarily what becomes published and even published is not guaranteed the monetary success it might well deserve. Two equally well written books of the same genre will always demonstrate which had the best marketing strategy by their respective financial successes.
Not dealing with the highly competitive reality of today’s writing/publishing market, expected rewards/time spent, how to improve writing/publishing efficiency – is using less than your professional resources are capable, and not responsible to your readers/wanna-be writers. Publishers like Amazon and others put their on self-serving slant on their own publishing “how-to” information. Most writers have to painfully learn by experience the pitfalls of publishing, marketing and sales. As a non-publisher you don’t have to serve that publisher bias and bringing a variety of traditional and successful independent book marketing expertise to your site will attract more than ingenue readers. Best wishes for your continued success.
Thanks for all the feedback! We don’t focus on the publishing/marketing side here at The Write Practice, but I highly recommend Jane Friedman for publishing information (especially this resource for self publishing: https://janefriedman.com/self-publish-your-book/ and this for trad. publishing: https://janefriedman.com/start-here-how-to-get-your-book-published/). Thanks again!
I am a new writer who has been concentrating on short stories. I tend toward urban fantasy and enjoy creating my characters and the world in which they live. I often create these stories by the seat of my pants, as it were. My inspiration for these stories is real life. A poster in a window, a lyric from a song, the latest nonsensical debate found somewhere, or a TV show dings that bell in my head (while hopefully waking up my muse).
The latest story I have been working on a flash fiction story about the passing of a loved one that gets sucked in a possessed mirrored dresser.
Very cool. As Ruthanne said in today’s post, just remember the two most important words for a writer, “Don’t quit!” Best of luck with your writing.
New home page looks great! But what about a marketing tutorial? I’m always looking for tips and tricks for book and blog marketing.
We need to create one, Christine! We don’t focus on that on The Write Practice (we’re very craft focused here), but we could have one over at storycartel.com. Thanks for the nudge!
I love the new look & focus. The Write Practice is one of the five websites where I read every single post. Thank you for all you do . The integrity you demonstrate inspires me.
That means so much to me, Linda. Thank you!
I love the new look. If I wasn’t a part of the community already, I’d definitely join. I’m on mobile and it still works great. Nice work.
Awesome to hear Sarah! Thanks for being part of the community. 🙂
The new look is great. I was surprised that you didn’t update the scrivener offer since it expired Feb10th. Other than that minor point, Nice job!!!
Ha thanks for the reminder. My absent-minded-inventor side got the best of me again. Fixed!
I love it, Joe! It looks awesome! And, you’ve distilled it down to help first time visitors really understand what you offer. I plan to study everything closer to see if I missed anything previously. Congrats!
Great to hear, Kelly. That was the goal. I’m glad to hear that, in your eyes at least, we achieved it. Thanks!
Nice work, Joe. The new website is crisp, clean and concise. Here’s to great things for you and the TWP.
Coming from you, that means so much, Marcy. Thanks!
I love the new design, it looks very professional and gives the site a business-like feel. I also think it will hold the attention of first-time viewers and pique their interest quite well.
Great to hear that, Lauren. I hope it’s not too stuffy/businessy. 🙂
Hi Joe
The website looks amazing. It’s so much more easier to navigate. The Write Practice has a bright future ahead!
Oh good! Thanks Melony!
This is much clearer, Joe, thank you. I’ve still got that bar though.
Congratulations for the new homepage of TWP. It’s great!
I appreciate evey thing on your site, and I’m proud to be a member.
I especially appreciate your patience for those, like me, who don’t post regularly, or give enough feedback to other writers.
I have profited greatly from all your and member’s posts.
Thank you so much for everything.
I’ve been busy finishing a project and from now I’ll have more time to be active on the TWP.
Hearty Cheers!
Lilian.
(P.S.) i don’t want to post as a guest but can’t see another way out at the moment.
I love hearing that The Write Practice has helped you Lilian. I hope it continues to do that for a long time. Thanks so much!
The new design looks amazing and very elegant! Anyone would join just based on the look of the site!! I would if I weren’t already part if this awesome community!!
Awesome! Thank you so much, Phoebe. Glad to have you in this community. 🙂
Wow! Who knew? (Everyone else here!) I’ve been on your mailing list for some time. Not even sure how I got there. I skim the emails and dump most – its a simple time crunch thing. Today I decided to check out your new website, though in all honesty, I’m not sure I’ve ever visited the old one! If I did, obviously it didn’t invite me in like your new one did. I’m impressed! Will definitely be back and spend some time here. Very nice look, and yes, your three paragraphs seem to say what they need to say.
How cool, Jenifer. Thanks so much for visiting and for giving me your feedback. I appreciate it!
Love the new site Joe!
Thanks so much Margherita!
Love the new design…it’s great looking.
Great to hear, Chris. Thanks for reading!
The new design is wonderfu, very easy to find what I am looking for and gets me excited to write. Thank you!
Awesome. Thanks so much, MJ. Write on! 🙂
Love it.
Thanks MC!
I like the new layout. It was a bit confusing at first, but once I read your post I got it. I love the floating menu bar, it makes a great eye marker when I’m reading. I’ll add more feedback when I get a chance to explore the new site.
Great! What did you find confusing at first, Cynthia?
I logged in from a different computer. I like to read the blog and when I went to the site, I couldn’t find it. When I clicked on read the blog it said it was content for members only. I tried to go to it another way, and I could only get to a popular articles page. I had to click on one of the articles and page through to get to the new stuff. The computer I was on was a windows based machine. I usually a Mac.
It has worked fine from my Mac and looks great on my iPad.
I didn’t see the site before, but this looks easy to navigate. I’m not clear, though on where to post my three paragraphs. Here?
I didn’t see the previous version of the site, but this looks easy to navigate. I’m not clear, though, on where to post my three paragraphs. Here?
Yep, right here in the comments. Thanks Nan!
I began writing as a young oerson. It grew out of a natural love of reading. Then I went to college and became a single mom. I did a lot of writing in college. The times were more than challenging. Writing, even reading for enjoyment just stopped being a part of my life. I enjoyed raising my daughtet and experiencing life.
My daughter grew up. I had time to tead and to write again, but I was too in love with the TV to make any serious headway and just start writing. Then, I started losing things. Jobs, family members, important relationships, I started writing again. It helped. I quickly realized that I had something to say, but struggled to make connectiins and develop a logical plot.
I decided to change my focus, but promised myself to revisit my story. I began a degree in graphic design. During that time I realized that things I mist love to do are creative in nature. I realized I’d been stifling and suppressing my creativity most of my life. I try to make time every day for my creative self. Now, I make time for my creative self, instead of pushing it off to the side and making it wait for me to be ready for it.
Also, new website is better! I understand your (whole)mission better, and can find the sections I want with great ease. I love the simple, and straightforward look.
Sounds great Kat. We’re having a new contest in April. We’ll mention it on the blog soon!
Hi, Joe, I use a MacPro and I’ve still got the menu bar stuck across the page which I don’t know how to shift. I’ve also got the our social media icons column which covers the word, HOME. I’d send you a screenshot but how do you do that?
Hi, Joe, I’ve still got that menu bar across my MacPro and also the vertical social media icons which cover the word ‘home’. I’d send a screenshot, like you have asked others but how do you do that? Oh, yes, and I also use Safari. Love the new site otherwise so clear.
I’m still having problems with the menu bar and immovable social media icons, Joe. I will try and send a screenshot. I’m using Safari on MacPro
I began writing in high school; my interest began in middle school. In middle school, I was that kid who eats 5 books a week; I kept to myself. Things began to shake up for me when I began watching Nostalgia Critic, a comedy show that uses sketches to get the Critics point across on a movie. I was amazed by the Critic because he was able to explain why I felt a certain way about a movie, before it was just gut feeling. I loved knowing so much I analyzed the next book I read, Michael Vey’s Prisoner of Cell 26, it was a horrible book. My eyes were open and began to look at books with disgust. I thought,” how many laze writers were there?” Now what’s funny is the book I read right after Michael was Great Gatsby. For the record, I had no idea Great Gatsby was a classic, I got lucky to read blindly. I though Great Gatsby was incredible. When I tried to read book after they didn’t feel like Gatsby. I stopped reading rest of middle school.
In Freshman, in Pre-AP English, my teacher had “Sin and Syntax” on her shelf. I read it and was amazed how this person was able to pick apart a book as well. I realized that maybe I could write a Gatsby. So, I began to read all kinds of writing help books. Though I didn’t lay finger on actually writing until Sophomore. I found a nice group of writers in my school, made them enemies. I became pretty high-nosed with my writing knowledge. I calmed down during Sophomore year.
I guess I’m here on thewritepractice now. Cool. The first step to get justification for my writing will probably be to win one of your writing contests. I wish all my opponents good luck.
Love the new homepage, Joe. Sorry I’m only just seeing it, but I’d finished work and started vacation when the notification email arrived
Joe, I absolutely love the new look and style of The Write Practice homepage. It’s very professional and definitely inviting to anyone who visits it for the first time. Congrats on this new accomplishment!