While using names is funny in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, it’s not as funny in your novel.
Here to learn? You’re in the WRITE place!
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.
Check out the latest articles below or find ones that match your interest in the sidebar.
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Why You're Not There Yet, and Why That's Alright
In an effort to win the heart of Zelda Sayre, F. Scott Fitzgerald finished his first novel, This Side of Paradise, at age twenty-three. Truman Capote caught the attention of Random House publishing with his story Miriam, just shy of his twenty-first birthday. When Ernest Hemingway was twenty-six he wrote The Sun Also Rises, and Mary Shelley completed the manuscript for Frankenstein at nineteen. Perhaps it’s just my own insecurities leaving me feeling rather inadequate with this knowledge, but I suspect I’m not alone.
Keeping Up Writing On Holidays
It’s summer. For me, it is an unusual one, full of travels, visiting friends, family, and living on the road. While all this is great and exciting, the question of writing always remains at the back of my mind, awakening my conscience.
How to keep up writing on a summer schedule, outside the normal routine? More importantly, why make the effort of doing it there and then instead of sinking in the adventures and impressions to write about it later on?
7 Writing Lessons from Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I’m finally reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, the Nobel Prize Winning novel and one of the best selling books of all time. Gabriel García Marquez’s novel about a small village in Colombia has become the best known work of magic realism, a literary genre that blends detailed realism with elements that couldn’t possibly exist.
There are things I like and things I don’t like about the novel, but apart from personal taste, it quickly became clear to me García Márquez is a great writer, perhaps among the best writers alive (he’s eighty-six).
In this post, we will explore seven writing lessons we can learn from the Colombian master.
Heroes vs. Anti-Heroes: Which Is Right For Your Story?
Every Wednesday, two of my good Denver girlfriends and I get together for a girls night with food, beer, and an activity. Last week, our activity of choice was watching Disney’s Hercules on my couch. Clearly Disney took some creative liberties (they’re a family company, after all, and Greek mythology is not all that family-friendly), but it sure is entertaining to see Hercules try to prove himself as a “true hero”. And that got me thinking: wouldn’t it be fun to examine all the sides and angles of heroes and villains?
We’re dipping our toes into the waters with a comparison of heroes and anti-heroes.
How to Integrate Travel into a Story
I’m not a big traveler. If I want to take a trip, it’s usually to visit family or friends—or to soak up the sun on a beach. Backpack across Europe? Adventure through nature? Not exactly my idea of a vacation. Taking a road trip? Navigating the airport? I usually find it boring, annoying, or downright awful.
But lately, I’ve been thinking about the idea of a journey. Travel is more than just the destination. The process of getting somewhere is often rich with new and memorable experiences. And it has the power to transform us—or in the case of our stories, it’s an opportunity for our characters to reach a turning point, learn, and grow.
Sandwiches [writing prompt]
Write for ten minutes. There must be a sandwich included in your story.
How to Write With an Accent
Liz here! Greetings from the Lone Star State! I’m taking a week off work and spending it in Houston and Austin visiting some dear friends. In honor of this trip, we’re taking a detour off our regular defined path of grammatical bliss.
We should all know by now how important spelling and grammar and punctuation are for a writer. There is an exception, however: writing with a dialect. Since I’m in Texas, let’s take a trip down the southern-accent highway.
A Guide To Unique Writing
Writers, like all artists, are egotistical. In the good sense of the word, because this characteristic makes you work harder on getting better. However, on the other end of writers’ emotional processes is the feeling of intimidation. There’s always someone far greater than yourself, who’s raising the standards to an impossible level.
So, you’re moving from a territory of being completely intimidated, paralyzed with fear, to Herculean efforts to push through, and you enjoy occasional moments of bliss and satisfaction with your work.This is hard and exhausting, but also necessary.
The 7 Basic Plots: Bonus Plots!
So we went through Christopher Booker’s seven basic plots, and maybe you’re feeling a little sad. What’s left? That surely can’t be all!
You’re in luck. It’s not.
