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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For a lot of us, this has been a rough year, a tiring year, a painful year.
Some years carry a heavier toll than others, and this is one of them. Yet in spite of that—or maybe because of it—there’s something you need to do: tell your story. I know how tired you are. I know some of you you don’t feel heard. I know some of you might fear you don’t matter.
You do.
Most of the fun of writing is using your words to tell a story. They course across the page, delighting in the joys of Maureen finally finding her Henry, shuddering as Ingrid uncovers her third dead body of the day, or mourning with Carlos for his lost mother. But I’m not here to talk about words. I’m here to sing the praises of punctuation; specifically, the Oxford comma.
Most people I’ve met have no idea what the Oxford comma is, but it’s probably something that you have used in the past. What is it?
There are lots of book lists for teachers and parents looking for fun rhyming books, but today I thought I’d share a few with clever rhymes that you can study as you decide whether or not your book needs to rhyme. One thing to note with all of these is how rhyme works for the story. Notice how rhyme in these books enhances the story. None of these rhymes feel forced.
Writing is hard, and publishing adds another layer of challenge into the mix. You might think that after launching your first book, any subsequent books would be easier. I thought so once too. But from writing to launch, each book presents new challenges. Read on to see what I’m learning as I launch my second book in a series.
In this article about rhyme in children’s books, let’s take a look at when and why children’s books rhyme to see if yours needs it too.
Characterization is a huge part of writing, no matter how long the story. You need to know the ins and outs of your character’s personality. What makes them tick? What do they want? Where to do they come from?
Sometimes it’s a little difficult to come up with new character traits and idiosyncrasies that aren’t cliché or contrived.
Today, we’re going to have a little fun with character development. We’re going to think outside the box of character questionnaires and try a writing prompt to help us discover our characters through a different route: What’s in their junk drawer?
As writers we are especially aware of the five senses. We use the five senses to transport our reader into the scene we are describing. However, I propose, that we are not using the five senses to their full potential. You see, I didn’t used to give the five senses much credit when it came to my writing. But the truth is, the five senses have a power to connect with our readers in a deep way.
The primary rule of thumb when it comes to affect and effect is the following:
Affect is a verb. Effect is a noun.
Knowing this will generally get you through most confusion between these two words.
Today, Americans are celebrating our independence. It’s a day full of cookouts and fireworks and enjoying the sun. It’s also a great day for a writing prompt!
While many novels and stories are set in a vacation location, you can take your character on vacation just to see what they are made of. Vacation can be frightfully stressful and reveals much about us as people. It can do the same for your character. Try it out with this writing prompt.
