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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Orson Scott Card says action is the strongest form of characterization. We form opinions of people based on what they do. If Fred shoots someone, we’re going to think Fred is violent and may have issues controlling his anger. A character is as a character does.
This made me wonder, if action is the strongest form of characterization, then what’s the weakest?
Last year, to make some extra money, I worked Black Friday as a temp at a shoe store. From ten at night until seven in the morning, I stacked shoe boxes on sale between fifty and sixty percent off. It was the longest night of my life. It was crazy. When I got to the...
Writers can be solitary people. Our work requires long periods of being alone with no one to keep us company but the characters. However, I'm starting to see a community form through the Write Practice. People are commenting on each other's practices. They're chatting...
Last night, my wife and I endured the cold, our own sleepiness, and a gaggle of over-caffeinated teenage girls to watch the midnight premiere of Breaking Dawn, the latest in the Twilight series. I could say my wife dragged me to the movie, that I went to appease her....
Our guest today is Audrey Chin, a published novelist and one of our own readers, who's here to tell us something about how she writes poetry. Audrey lives in Singapore where she has published two novels. To read some of her poetry visit Audrey's blog. I hope you enjoy...
Confession time: I love when famous people who are dating become one word. Brangelina. Bennifer. The entire cast of Glee. In college, my friend Cassie started dating this guy Brent, and Brassie was born.
This phenomenon has a name, and as a student of the French language, I love using it: portmanteau.
"I've always felt you unearth story, like you're on an archaeological dig. Stories tell you what they are—you don't have a say in what bones you're going to get, and when. You just have to have the intestinal fortitude to acknowledge, Oh, my stegosaurus is actually a...
Last week, I read an article about Taylor Swift, whom I knew nothing about except that she apparently wears Converse, sits on the bleachers, and doesn’t wear short skirts.
The article mentioned that Taylor will often write songs about her celebrity ex-boyfriends, like that guy who always takes his shirt off in the Twilight movies, and one of those kids in that Disney channel band—Jonah-something-or-other—and the tool-of-all-tools, John Mayer (he can play a mean guitar, though). Apparently, she puts secret codes into her songs to give hints to her fans about the identity of the celeb she’s singing about, like capitalizing letters in her liner notes that spell out their first name.
Most people want to become writers for themselves. They enjoyed being introduced to a fictional world by J.K. Rowling or Robert Louis Stevenson or whoever, a world full of adventure and plenty of opportunities to distinguish oneself. They thought it would be cool to...
Michael Hyatt, the Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishing, recently wrote an incredibly popular post (360+ comments!) describing the four disciplines of the heart. We live in a busy, stressful world, he premised. How can people have emotionally healthy lives in such a...