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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Let me tell you a secret: Universal characters are boring. Everyday characters are dull. Trying to create universal characters doesn’t work.
Rather, the opposite: the more unique you make your characters and their surroundings, the more universal your story becomes. Janet Burroway calls this the universal paradox.
So how do you make your characters more unique and less generic?
We’ve covered a lot of the minutiae of grammar on the Write Practice, but today we’re taking it back to the basics and running through some of the most fundamental parts of speech.
What is a part of speech? A part of speech is a category of words that serve the same basic function in a sentence, and today, we’re covering the most basic of the basics: subjects and predicates.
In the run up to the launch of Let’s Write a Short Story, I’ve been talking to a lot of writers about writing, publishing, and yes, rejection.
One writer read the following passage from the book:
“Submitting is like sitting naked in the subway,” said one reader. Another said, “I’ve never submitted anything. And after I hit submit, I wanted to hide under my blankets. I still do.”
Submitting is hard.
“That’s exactly how I feel!” the writer told me.
Every writer faces the possibility, nay the probability, of rejection. So what can you do about it? How can you avoid having your short stories rejected by a literary magazine?
Here are four tips…
Many budding writers often can’t find the time to write. Their excuses range from “I’m too busy with work,” to “I have five kids to care for,” or “I have to get caught up from this past week’s vacation.”
The truth is, there’s always time to write. You just have to make the commitment and challenge yourself to write every day, even if you only write for a little bit. The people who really truly want to write will find the time.
Here are five ways to add writing to your busy schedule.
Well, the time has come to once again pick a winner of this month’s writing competition.
Before we announce the winner though, I need to take a moment to recognize the hard work of my fellow judges: Patricia Hunter, Tara Boyce, Debra Atwood, Kristi Boyce, and Bob Vander Lugt, all previous winners of our writing contest.
I say this every time because every time it’s true: If you haven’t read their Show Off winning stories, you’re missing out. They’re wonderful.
Now, to the winner.
Some people write stories where nothing much happens. The main character sits around thinking of things that happened in the past. The hero doesn’t do anything heroic.
The only thing that matters in your story is what the characters do. What they think, feel, or see is just the whipped cream, peanuts, and cherry on top. The ice cream, the core of your story is what they do.
This is a guest post by Emily Wenstrom (@emilywenstrom).
When I completed the first draft of my first-ever novel last December, I promptly did a little victory dance.
And then I sat back down and took the word count, which completely killed my buzz. My manuscript rang in at little over 45,000—half the length of your average novel. Eep! I had a minor freakout. What was I going to do?
But fortunately, rationality eventually returned. This was only a first draft, after all. Surely there was some room for development. Turns out, there was tons.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, here are five of the best ways I’ve discovered to beef up your word count without diluting your story.
The assignment was clear. I knew exactly what I wanted to accomplish. The research was done. Ideas and content were plentiful. I had everything I needed to complete the writing project except the words.
So I did the most logical thing I knew to do…
I recently received my first rejection letter for a short story I submitted at the beginning of July. It read:
Dear JH Bunting,
We regret that your manuscript does not fit our current editorial needs, but we appreciated the opportunity to consider your work. Thanks very much for submitting.
Sincerely,
The Editors of the Magazine that Doesn’t Want to Publish Me
This is the nature of this work we do. On the one hand, we get the joy of creating. We get to make up new worlds, play with our imaginary friends, make something that wasn’t there before. Writing is a joy, isn’t it?
On the other hand, we will face rejection upon rejection upon rejection.
Are you ready for that? Is it worth it for you?
We’ve heard it over and over: write what you know. But we can challenge our imaginations and think differently by writing what we don’t know.
If you want to break out of a writing rut, take a look at your past and present work. Do you typically write about the same type of character? Do you set all of your stories in the same location or time period? Are the plotlines fairly similar?
I often find myself writing about characters like me: 20-something women living in the Midwest in the present time. Most of the plotlines deal with relationships, either romantic or family-focused. There’s nothing wrong with that, but by getting outside my comfort zone, I open myself up to discover something new and fresh and fun.
