Star Signs - Writing Help

TIP ONE - Spicing Up Your Plot

Spicing Up Your Plot

Worried your plot is unoriginal? I mean, that's an easy assumption for me to make, because almost everyone on this little orange app worries about this. There's hundreds of thousands of books here and that's only the stories I typically read — OC insert fics. That's not counting things like canon/canon fics, general fanfiction, AUs, or crossovers.

As someone who mostly reads and writes OC insert fics, I can say it's especially bad in those sorts of fics. After all, you're probably following the canon plot. There may be a lot of over used plots in general fanfiction, but at least it's possible to find something you've never seen something before. In OC insert fics the backbone of the story is the canon one. So originality needs active work.

Important note: from this point, and for the rest of this book, I write solely about OC insert fics. Sorry if that doesn't apply to what you write, but also I don't know why you're looking for me to give you advice. I write one kind of fic. I don't know how to write anything else properly.

If you've ever read a cliches book, you'll probably think that there's no point in even writing a fanfiction in the first place. Everything seems cliche. If you don't have a perfect, original, never done before plot, then no one will never read your story.

This is blatantly untrue. Something I've learned is it's very easy to make your plot original. Even with cliche plots. Because what makes cliche plots cliche is the fact that they run over the very exact plot over, and over, and over again. Your plot becomes more original simply by changing one or two things. Make your OC even slightly different from the ones everyone else write, add your own scenes, consider different dynamics, and almost instantly it becomes an original story.

Which is great. Because there's a reason overused plots are overused — they're the most fun to write. They allow for easy access to the story. Keep in mind that not everyone writes to make great epics. Some people just write for fun and wish fulfillment. They're just as valid, but probably more interested in just getting into the story than doing a lot of hard work.

So this is for them, though admittedly it'd advice I use myself all of the time. Some quick and easy ways to spice up your story (even the cliche ones!)

Diversity

Shocking, I know. Adding diversity makes your plot more original.

Though there is a very important point to make — don't take this to say you must write stories plots. Often I see people give this advice blindly without considering how it might manifest. So I'll just say it bluntly for you. If you are not willing to do your research and accept criticism about something you do not know, if you're just going to base everything off of stereotypes, just don't write it. Don't. Yes, we love representation, but when you aren't willing to do even the bare minimum work, no one actually feels represented. They just feel annoyed.

Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled program.

Let's start with the basics. I'll bet you I can describe at least 90% of the OCs on this platform. Female, white, able bodied, blonde or brown hair. Eyes vary based on faceclaims, but if the author doesn't have one they're probably blue or green. If a height is given they're 5'2" (157.48 cm) to 5'3" (160.02 cm.) If no height is given, there is instead a vague "shorter than the rest of the cast." Including, somehow, actual children. Basically, they're the shortest. They're probably bi or pan, but only in the Meet My OCs book, which is basically Wattpad equivalent of the time we gave Just Kidding Rowling way too much praise for making Dumbledore gay but only on Twitter (yes, I understand it's hard to include people's sexuality if they're not dating or the type to talk about it, but she made the choice to chose that kind of character to be her sole representation. She did that to herself, and also she's a bigot, so honestly I couldn't pity her less.)