At The Write Practice, we publish a new article each day designed to help writers tackle one part of their writing journey, from generating ideas to grammar to writing and publishing your first book. Each article has a short practice exercise at the end to help you immediately put your learning to use.
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If you’re like many talented writers, your story might not be very interesting. In fact, it might be pretty boring. Too often, writers get caught up trying to express themselves and forget their audience. The best stories aren’t about how the author feels. The best stories are about how the reader feels
Just like with people, it’s important for a book to make a good first impression. Good beginnings are vital because it is your chance to draw your reader into the story. The first few pages, even the first sentence, can be what lead your reader to stay with it until the end. Hooking your reader can be extremely hard to do, so it’s good to keep a few things in mind as you’re writing. Here are three of my tips.
When we read, we change our world, and we write because on some level, we want to do the same for others. Do you want to write something that affects others the way you were affected? Then you have to learn to read like a writer—with your brain turned on.
I was in the third grade when I received my first journal. And, while I couldn’t articulate at the time, that was when I discovered writing as mechanism to self-soothe. Writing helped me, and it still does.
But that doesn’t mean my journals are worth reading. When I’m journaling, I’m an “indulgent writer.”
Storyboarding as it pertains to novels and short stories is the process of mapping out your story, often using index cards, in a high-level way that allows you to see your story visually and rearrange it.
Scrivener’s corkboard view provides the perfect interface to do this digitally, with a method to transition to a physical medium.
We’re now knee-deep in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the ambitious writer’s one-month sprint to 50,000 words.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of writers take on the challenge, and thousands succeed, saying adios to November with a first draft of a shiny new novel in tow.
It’s a truly amazing feat. But it’s not for everyone.
For a year and a half, I studied as a creative writing major at a tight-knit private university. I wrote poetry under the guidance of a published poet, learned how to develop a narrative arc, and attended readings by local authors.
Now, I’m a professional freelance writer and English major at a different school. But as I look back on my creative writing studies, I see many mistakes that I made (and that other students made, too).
I’ve been teaching and coaching writers for four years through the Write Practice. I did the math recently and realized that in the last twelve months, we’ve helped over 2.5 million people become better writers.
As a writer and ghostwriter of four books myself, I’ve learned that there are a few common lies that writers tell themselves.
Here’s the deal: if you don’t like your character, your reader won’t, either. Fortunately, I have three quick tips to help you fix that unlikable character.
If your readers don’t like your character at least a little, then they won’t care what happens to that character in the story. If your readers don’t care about the character, you’ve already lost them.
Fortunately, there’s a way out. Three ways out, in fact.
Happy Day Three of NaNoWriMo 2015! How’s that word count so far? I’m allowed to ask that, because this year I’m actually participating. I’ve written a book in four months before, but one month? Insanity, but here is what I’ve learned and struggled with so far: the beginning and getting started.
