New Daily Writing Guides from The Write Practice

How to Surprise Your Reader in a Downton Abbey World

by Joe Bunting | 64 Comments

One of my roommates and I started watching Downton Abbey last week, and within four evenings had finished the first two seasons and are almost all caught up. It’s a really engrossing show, for those of you who haven’t seen it, and Maggie Smith is a treasure (and a Golden Globe winner).

However, between the two of us, we were able to predict a fair number of the plot twists. It’s no fault of Downton’s writers, to be sure. When you consume pop culture, whether it be in the form of books, TV, music, or film, you’re bound to catch on to patterns in the storytelling.

Here’s Your Chance to Rewrite the Past

by Melissa Tydell | 67 Comments

Have you ever had one of those encounters in which someone says something and you are rendered speechless? After the dust settles and you’ve parted ways, you come up with at least half a dozen appropriate (or not so appropriate) responses.

Hindsight is 20/20, they say. But in writing, we all have a chance to relive conversations, confrontations, interactions, and situations—and change the outcome. Through the magic of fiction, we have the opportunity to do what we wish we had done.

Help Build a Story Cartel

by Joe Bunting | 37 Comments

After over a year of thinking and planning, in November my friend Jeff Goins and I launched Story Cartel, a site to help authors share their stories with readers.

Do You Want to Grow?

by Joe Bunting | 104 Comments

Do you want to grow? The only way to get better at your craft is to keep going even when things get hard.

When Metaphors Get Distracted

by Liz Bureman | 39 Comments

We’re all familiar with similes and metaphors, right? These can be great ways to infuse your writing with some punch and visual pizzazz. However, sometimes in the process of getting that metaphor written down, something happens, and the plane that was supposed to quickly and efficiently connect the object of your description and your metaphor ends up going all Oceanic Flight 815 on you and crashes somewhere on a remote island where weird things happen and you’re trying to get rescued, but have also kind of resigned yourself to the fact that you’re way off course and no one will be looking for you.

In other words, the last part of the previous paragraph is something you generally don’t want to do. I’m not aware of a specific literary term for a rambling or forgotten metaphor, but you generally want to avoid them.

10 Steps to Dealing With Mean-Spirited Critics, Comment Trolls, and Other Jerks

by Joe Bunting | 46 Comments

1. Write.

2. Keep writing.

3. Whenever you think about it, write.

5. If you’re angry, write anyway.

6. If you’re feeling insecure, write anyway.

7. If you’re depressed and think no one cares about you or your writing, write anyway.

4. Don’t work for hours on the perfect zinger to respond with. Work on your writing.

8. If they convince you that you’re not a real writer, write anyway.

9. If you need to delete their comment, do it. Then go and write.

10. It doesn’t matter what they said or why they said it or who they are. It only matters that you write. So get to work.

When It’s Okay to Use Clichés

by Joe Bunting | 35 Comments

It’s New Year’s Eve. I was thinking about the end of the movie When Harry Met Sally. You know the scene (well, unless you haven’t seen it, in which case, spoiler alert!)—Harry is racing to meet Sally and tell her how he feels as the clock ticks towards midnight on New Year’s Eve.

The countdown to the new year, the airport chase scene, the race to the altar. All of these so-called clichés don’t have to be avoided entirely. (After all, the urgency in the examples I listed helps to heighten the drama.) You just have to know how to use them in a fresh way. Here’s how:

How to Write a Story Like Les Miserables

by Joe Bunting | 40 Comments

My family and I went to see Les Misérables the day after Christmas. My dad said, “It was probably the best film I’ve ever seen,” and while I may not go that far, it certainly had me (and three-quarters of the theater) dripping with tears more than once.

I want to write a story like Les Misérables. Not a musical, but a story so powerful, so captivating, that it could move people in the same way.

If you’d like to write a story as powerful as Les Misérables, I’ve put together this list of five observations about what made the story so powerful, and how writers can emulate it.

Fact, Fiction or Autofiction?

by Joe Bunting | 52 Comments

Doesn’t the best writing come from the heart; something experienced in real life? The writing that speaks directly to the reader and gets them involved in the event and the circumstances taking place? After all, the most spread advice of ‘Write what you know’ has a firm standing for a good reason. If this is so, what happens with all those writers who feel they don’t have a significant real life story to tell, assured their lives are boring and not worthy enough to show?

Three Things Writers Can Learn from the Beat Generation

by Joe Bunting | 33 Comments

I’ve been in San Francisco with my family this weekend. Needless to say we’re having a great time.

While San Francisco is a relatively young city, it has a storied history regarding the arts. Notably for writers, it was the home of the literary movement known as the Beat Generation in the 1950s.

The Beats included writers like poets William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg and novelists Jack Keruoac and Neal Cassady. Their motto was liberty of expression and their style has influenced writers for the last 60 years.

Here to learn? You’re in the WRITE place!