New Daily Writing Guides from The Write Practice

3 Steps to Recycling Your Half-Finished Novels

by Joe Bunting | 24 Comments

In 2009, I was sitting Kenya in my friend’s yard, watching the chickens chase each other and drinking Kenyan chai, a strange, delicious tea that contains nicotine instead of caffeine, when I made a decision:

It was time to write the novel I’d long been avoiding.

I only had a tiny netbook computer, whose screen was about the size of my hand, but fueled by about ten cups of tea a day, I started writing my novel. One-thousand words turned into five, five-thousand words turned into ten.

Then, 15,000 words into the novel I got stuck, and everything fell apart. The novel had major structural flaws, the tea was giving me… digestive problems, and soon, I had to leave Kenya for Uganda, effectively ending my writing. Dozens of hours of work were wasted.

Or were they?

What You Can Learn About Writing By Writing Thrillers

by Nick Thacker | 29 Comments

I recently finished writing my first book—an action-packed thriller that’s a 110,000-word whopper of a tale.

It was the most fun I’d ever had, but I learned a lot during the process (as we tend to do when we write a book for the first time!).

Part of the process for me was in structure, outlining, and building characters that didn’t seem like cardboard cutouts, but what I want to talk about today is the idea of pacing.

In a thriller, like Dan Brown’s or James Rollins’ stuff, pacing is everything. Lose the tempo, and you lose the reader.

Arguably, it’s no different in any kind of fiction, so I thought this might be a helpful topic to other writers. Here’s a breakdown of things to keep in mind as you write:

Why Empathy is the Key to Story

by Joe Bunting | 46 Comments

To write fiction, you must develop your capacity be empathetic. In fact, you could argue that empathy is synonymous with story.

Don’t believe me? Plug the word story for empathy into this list of definitions for empathy that I found on Wikipedia:

[Empathy] is what happens to us when we leave our own bodies…and find ourselves either momentarily or for a longer period of time in the mind of the other. We observe reality through her eyes, feel her emotions, share in her pain. –Khen Lampert

Clichés? Not In My Backyard!

by Liz Bureman | 50 Comments

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have little to no tolerance for modern romantic comedies (unless they feature Paul Rudd). They have so pervaded our culture that we can predict plot points with ease within the first ten minutes of the movie. The person that the protagonist picks fights with will be the love interest. There will be a snarky best friend. There will be a hilarious misunderstanding that causes the love interest to ditch the protagonist, until the protagonist makes a grand romantic gesture that will cause all to be forgiven.

These worn-out tropes are known as clichés.

Show Off Writing Contest: America Is…

by Joe Bunting | 243 Comments

Once a month, we stop practicing and invite you to show off your best work.

Are you interested in being published (in print)? Would you like to get better at the writing craft by working with an editor? Do you enjoy a little friendly competition? And are you a fan of The Write Practice?

Then this writing contest might be for you.

The Ride

by Joe Bunting | 28 Comments

Earlier that morning, the reigns jingled softly in my hands as we rode along a split-rail fence. A velvet breeze rustled the meadow. Prairie grass rose and fell, rose and fell as eight hooves rose and fell, rose and fell. We would talk occasionally, but never for very long. Cowboys don’t talk much, but that wasn’t the reason why. I didn’t know the reason why.

Relax Better, Write Better

by Joe Bunting | 43 Comments

In the spring of 1965, Bob Dylan was finished, says Jonah Lehrer in his incredible book, Imagine: How Creativity Works. He wanted nothing more to do with the music business. He had just finished an exhausting six month tour. He never wanted to play any of the songs he had become famous for again—songs like “Blowing in the Wine” and “The Times They Are a Changing.” He told his manager he was buying a cabin in upstate New York, was quitting the music business, and was “going to become a painter and a novelist.”

He was only there for a few days when he met what he called the “Ghost.” An “uncontrollable urge” to write came over him, and he basically word vomited into his notebook.

Four weeks later, he and his band were in the recording studio, and after four takes they recorded “Like a Rolling Stone,” the song that would change Rock and Roll forever.

All Because of a Cabin

Personally, I can relate to Dylan’s experience. Can’t you?

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been struggling to finish a short story. For weeks, I’ve been wrestling with this story and not getting very far. It didn’t feel as much like writer’s block as life block.

And then Jeff told me this story, and said the secret of creativity is to relax. If you relax better, you’ll write better.

How to Use Subtext in Your Writing

by Joe Bunting | 56 Comments

This is a guest post by Mariane Vest.

I recently read a book by Charles Baxter called The Art of Subtext – Beyond Plot. Subtext is what is not said, not told, but is implied.

Plot is a twisting bridge over a chasm, says Baxter, a chasm that, in my mind, contains the hauntings, the past, the subterranean, the things people either cannot or will not say, things that we are only partially aware of.

5 Elements of Storytelling

by Joe Bunting | 80 Comments

If you want to write a good (and publishable) short story, start by writing a balanced one. There are five elements of storytelling, and if you focus on one element too much your story can get off-kilter and topple.

These five elements are the building blocks of story, and they are:

How to Get Rid of Writer’s Block, Pixar Style

by Joe Bunting | 40 Comments

I’ve been editing a short story for nearly three weeks and I’m stuck. When I was working on it the other day, I got so depressed I said, “I hate this. I never want to write short stories again. I never want to write fiction again. I suck at it too much.”

In other words, normal feelings when you have writer’s block.

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