Prisimpad: A Guide to Wattpad, Writing, and Whatever

ON WRITING: Attack of the Plot Bunnies

Now it's time to get into the writing portion of the guide. I think I need to remind you that I am not an expert. I'm learning just like many of you. So if you don't agree with something I say, you don't have to. A lot of "rules" in writing are very much open to a writers personal style and thus they can be broken. I'd say the only rules of writing that can't be broken are basic grammar functions. As we grow as people, so do our styles as a writer. What we find as "good" now in our writing, could turn out to be "crap" tomorrow. It takes practice and nobody is perfect their first time out, nobody. Sit back, take a breath, and hopefully this guide will help you.

So you want to write a story? Well, before you do anything in a word processor or notebook you first need a basic plot. It doesn't matter if you're a pantser or a plotter (I'll go into those in a minute) you still need a basic plot. Every story has one; if it doesn't have one . . . well I'm sorry to say it shouldn't exist. Your story has to have a plot. How detailed that plot is at first comes down to what kind of writer you are, but again I'll go into that in a little. Right now I'll just go into the broad basics of a plot.

First, what is a plot? Basically it is the reason for the stories existence. It is the main event of the book and why the reader is going to invest their time in reading said book. If you can find me a fiction book without a plot, I'll be amazed. You might be able to find one with a thin plot or one with many holes, but they still have a plot. If you're having trouble coming up with a plot, then ask yourself some questions.

You have your Female or Male main character (AKA FMC or MMC) then think about that character for a moment. For the sake of this discussion I'll create a FMC and call her Jill. Who is Jill? Where does Jill live? Does she like her family? Is she popular? Ugly? Fat? Skinny? Make up the details of Jill to get you started. You don't have to go deep, just the basics. It could be as basic as name, age, ethnicity, just think about her.

Now you have Jill, so what is she going to do? If it's a fantasy, Jill might go on a journey to find the Eye of Flufftonia. But maybe it's not a fantasy, maybe it's a romance. Okay, in that case, Jill  meets the MMC, Stan. If it's a mystery, maybe Jill is murdered. If it's a drama, maybe Jill has a medical condition which she's battling with such as manic depression. Take your time to figure out Jill's problem. Ask yourself the five w's if you need to. Who? What? When? Where? Why? Then ask yourself the How.

Once you have Jill and you have your chosen setting, in this case I'm going with meeting Stan. You need a villain. In a fantasy the villain could be the creep lusting for power, in the mystery it's Jill's murderer, in whatever your decided fate of Jill is, the villain is the person/thing stopping her. In the case of the romance and meeting Stan, the villain could be Jill herself. Or it could be her family doesn't like Stan and will do everything in their power to stop them from being together.

So we have Jill, she meets Stan, she wants to be with Stan, her family thinks he's a thug and refuses to allow them to be together and they send Jill to a convent. There we go, there's the basic plot. It's Jill trying to escape the convent and get back to Stan. The end game can be they live happily ever after or go Romeo and Juliet style.

For me, that's going to be enough to get me started. Girl meets boy, girl and boy struggle to be together, girl and boy live happily ever after. I'll flesh out the details as I write then adapt and change if/when the drafts come. Sometimes I don't even have the girl meets boy, I just have girl goes after this thing. That is because I am what is called a "pantser" and yes that is an actual term.

There are three types of writers, a plotter, a pantser, and one in between called a plantser.

A plotter is exactly as it sounds, they plot. They plot every last detail. Often they have to have a full synopsis before they can write a single word. A plotter could spend months on their plot, researching it, deciding on every last character trait and name--no stone is unturned when a plotter gets going. These people will follow this synopsis of theirs as if it's gospel. Hours will be spent making outlines, character profiles, building worlds, and possibly even flash cards will be used. They may write little shorts for their characters or make family trees. Honestly, I'm not sure what lengths they will go to. But everything must be plotted before they write a single word.

Then there are people like me, the pantsers. They write from the seat of their pants, hence the term. There are some people who can write without even having the basic plot, I applaud those people, though I am not one. I need my endgame before I start writing, but that's all I need so that I know where the story is headed. Pantsers don't fear plot holes or writers block, they just sit down and write. They don't need a full outline or synopsis; they just need a pen and some paper (or word processor) and let them fly. This could be because they're too lazy to plot or because it just feels the most natural. I'm the latter. I tried plotting once and it just didn't feel right.

Then there is the plantser. They're a little from column A and a little from column B. They both plot and write from the seat of their pants. At times I'm a planters. If I get stuck at some point in the story I'll plot it out. Or sometimes my brain just wants me to focus on one thing, even if I don't need that one thing yet, thus I plan it out.

There are some people who will say pantsers can't writer for crap. That only plotting is the right way to write. To those people, I stick my tongue out and blow raspberries. What kind of writer you are is 100% your choice. There is no right or wrong way on how to get the words out of your head.

If you're unsure what kind of writer you are, try them both. Write a story with a full synopsis and plot. Then write another story without one. See which one feels right to you. Eventually you'll figure out your style. Both types of writers have their merits as well as their downfalls. Plotters might exhaust themselves before they write a word, whereas pantsers are more susceptible to writers block. Only you can define yourself, so go forth and figure yourself out.