Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

Filler Introduction Chapters

Today, let's talk about the filler introduction chapter. What's a filler introduction? It's the most clichéd chapter anyone could ever write, and I guarantee over half of wattpad's teen stories start out this way. If you want an example, just read the first part of my "Every Fan Fiction Ever Written" and you'll see the perfect example of this.

Someone wakes up. They meet their family. They go to school. They meet their friends. The talk about their classes. We learn a little bit about their life. They go home, they go to sleep. If we're lucky, the story will actually start in chapter two.

I pick the name Filler Introduction because the entire chapter is basically filler. It isn't part of the story. At no part during the chapter does story actually start. Maybe there would be some foreshadowing, but even that is unlikely. No, this entire chapter is 100% certified ground filler. Why? Why to introduce all your characters, of course.

How else will you know what the main character looks like, the dynamics of her family, who her friends are, and how she spends her day? Therefore, like a mirror scene gone out of control, the author takes the entire chapter to describe every aspect of their would-be protagonist's story.

Naturally, you can probably tell that this is frowned upon. However, it's strange how many people do it. The spend an entire chapter just to set up their setting and characters. 

This leads me to a point that I've made a few times, but could probably be stressed a few more. You're telling a story. You're trying to explain an event that occurs, that you hope people will find interesting. Maybe it's an event where stuff blows up, or people change, or the world moves on. Whatever is happening, that is what needs to be described.

You don't need to describe things that aren't relevant to your story. I cannot stress this enough. I don't need a detailed description of the janitor your MC passed that one time. I don't need to know about how sexy your food tastes. Also, let's add this: Those descriptions don't need to exist within events that don't add to your story.

Unless your character's going to school that first day is absolutely instrumental to the plot, and cannot be portrayed in ANY other way, it isn't necessary. And even if it IS necessary, why start at the start of the day? Why not start the story with the main character already at school, moments before the sexy beefcake walks in that initiates your story?

I think, generally, most people start their stories too early. We all seem to think that every story needs a mild period, a point where the story establishes a baseline, before anything cool can start. Even when people do start their story with something climactic, they then go back to the day before and describe how things got to that point.

Now... I'm not saying you should never start a story before things "get interesting"... but keep in mind that your story has to "get interesting" ie... it wasn't interesting before, in other words, you're forcing your reader to slog through 1000-5000 words before anything important actually happens.

So how do you get around the filler introduction chapter? Hopefully, with good writing. You write the story so that your main character gets introduced as the plot starts revving up. You get to know the Mc not because she spent that morning brushing her teeth, but because of how she interacts with Mr. Mcsexypants. As she introduces her friends to him, she introduces her friends to you.

Build it into the story. Use that instead of all that filler. Don't tell me about her parents or how they act. Have her parents show up in the story and have them act that way.

I said in my "how to describe the MC" chapter that the best way to do it is drop subtle tips, only revealing things when they are relevant to the plot. It isn't just the MC that can be described that way, it's every character. It's the setting. It's her entire world.

Don't create scenes to deliver description, create scenes to deliver your story, and fill that story full of descriptions.