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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Have you ever thought of writing the same story in a hundred different ways? Sounds crazy?
This is exactly what Raymond Queneau did in his Exercises in Style, back in 1947. He tells a simple, unremarkable story (more like flash fiction) 99 times, trying out different styles, from ode to mathematical depictions.
I recently heard Horatio Spaford’s great song, “It is Well With My Soul”. I was moved, as I have been many times before. How is it that a song, a really old song, hasn’t gotten musty and useless over the years? Why do the words of others have the ability to touch our hearts so deeply?
Have you ever wondered how an author seems to be inside your head?
I looked up the story behind the song hoping to find some answers. And it turns out Spaford’s writing didn’t come out of a vacuum, but out of his own suffering. His experience can teach you how to powerfully connect your own suffering to the larger, human experience.
There is no book-writing formula.
I love Stephen King’s On Writing—it’s half brilliant portrayal of an accomplished writer’s origin story, half writer’s tool kit. But one thing with which I’ve always taken exception is his suggestion that there’s only one proper way to complete a novel.
King compares writing to an archaeological dig: he sees stories as found objects, excavated from the literary ‘earth’, and he believes the writer’s job is to extricate the object—without breaking off any bits in the process, or leaving any parts behind.
And so King doesn’t outline—he starts off with an unusual combination of ideas, and lets his writer’s instincts carry him from there.
Good stories and strong writing can transport us to another world. We see the characters and setting, visualizing every detail as if the words on the page have become a picture in our minds.
On the other hand, as writers, we encounter the challenge of putting words together—the right words in the right way—so our story can come alive in our readers’ imaginations.
How do you create something that goes beyond simply telling a story? How do you write something that has the power to show in such a way that readers can visualize the story just as you are imagining it?
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.