5 Steps to Better Writing

Introduction

Introduction

I know there are some writing guides/lessons floating around here on Wattpad. Some of them might be better than this one. Some might be shorter or longer or simpler.

But I can guarantee there are worse ones.

Because that’s something you can always guarantee here on Wattpad.

Someone has always written something more horrible than you.

Sad but true. But just by deciding to read this you have increased your chances of being in the pile of stories worth reading here on Wattpad, instead in the ever growing “this sucks” pile.

Reading this guide and doing everything in it will not guarantee you get on the hot list. But it will guarantee improvement. How much depends on how good your work is now. This is not a guide to write excellent fiction. If it was, I would have written that in the title.  

This is a guide for the basics of writing, the foundation of language, structure, theme, character development and style. Any story you construct while keeping these things in mind will be better than 98% of the other ones on Wattpad.  That’s all I can guarantee.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Some practical information.

 There will be five parts.

 Part I - What makes an idea?

 Part II – What is Plot?

 Part III – Characters, Description and Style

 Part IV – Presentation – Summary, Cover and All the Rest

 Part V – First Chapter – Show it, Don’t Tell It!

 I will be posting link here. I know you can’t copy them, but I suggest very strongly that you take the time to type/copy them by “hand.” These are great pages. You will learn stuff from them. And since we are writers typing a www address shouldn’t be too difficult.

 Also I will be talking about books as well as making references to them. I expect you to know these works. If you are not familiar with them I suggest you get familiar with them. Must read books before starting (movie versions don’t count): Harry Potter (all seven of them), Twilight (at least one in the series) and the Vampire Academy series (all of them preferably.)

I would also suggest; His Dark Materials, Eragon(whole Inheritance series), Romeo and Juliet, Goodkind’s Sword of Truth books (the first one is enough but I suggest reading the whole series), a few of Meg Cabots novels (I’d suggest the Heather Wells Mysteries and 1800-Missing-WHERE-R-U?), Kim Harrison’s Hollows books as well as Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson series. These are some of my personal favorites and I will most likely bring all of them up at some point.

I will also be talking about Tropes – the best way to get acquainted with them is to spend a few hours (or decades) over at tvtropes.org. Hanging out there is one of the best ways to learn about common clichés, characters and plots in TV, movie and literature. It is also a major time sink. You have been warned. 

 Let’s get to it!

__JenniferKArt__