The (Unofficial) Wattpad Writer's Manual

SECTION 1: Organization

SECTION 1: Organization

Ok, so you want to write a story on Wattpad?! The first thing I do to get organized is very, very simple.

1. Create a folder for my story (if I don't have a title yet, then I name it something like "story 1")

2. Create two text documents in the folder. One is for scrap text and the other one will be my chapter 1 text.

I don't like writing directly on Wattpad and saving things as drafts. Why? For one, I'm always afraid that I won't save properly and lose everything I worked so hard for. Two, I'm afraid I'll actually publish an underdeveloped chapter because I accidentally hit the wrong button. And three, I always like to have a hard copy on my laptop, especially if I want to edit something and I have no internet access.

You can alternatively create all the chapters in one text file, but I personally use an app titled "PlainText 2" on my iPad Mini (link below) which allows me to create a main folder with one text document per each chapter. This way, I can just copy all and paste without having to select a specific area, etc. I also have my "scrap page" within that folder to collect ideas and other blocks of text I want to use but haven't found a place for yet. I sometimes even add a rough outline of my story in there as well.

My preferred iOS apps list:

I currently just use PlainText 2 on iOS (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plaintext-2-dropbox-text-editing/id769101727?mt=8) and link it to Dropbox (https://db.tt/ubCqvIkF) as a form of a backup. I think you can save items via iCloud as a backup but I prefer Dropbox because I can view (& edit) my story on my iPhone, iPad or laptop and they all auto-update across devices simultaneously without any added effort!

There's also an app called Matcha (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/matcha/id576774808?mt=8) that specifically lets you create chapters and is setup as a book file you can add content pages, link to chapters, plot, characters, foreword, etc. It's great if you want that extra structure and the fancy gadgetry, but I personally find it a little cumbersome because I'm such a perfectionist that I spend more time making it all "look pretty" than actually writing! Go figure... I'll let you decide though :)