The Wonderful World Of Wattpad: Writing Tips and Writing Rants

Formating

And that was an excerpt from my new Haylor fic.

Just kidding. Just kidding.  See how much better that sounded? See how much emotion was conveyed in that? You can't do that by writing in script form.

I honesty don't know why people still continue to write in script format. Maybe they have a lot of ideas flowing in their head and they want to get them down fast. Or maybe they're just to lazy to properly wrote a story. I  can bet my bottom dollar it's the latter one. This is about as lazy as you can possibly get when it comes to writing and I definitely DO NOT read fanfiction or any story that is written in script format.

Unless you're writing a play, please refrain from writing in script format.

3: Writing in text format/lingo

This is perhaps even worse than writing in script format. In fact I take back what I said. Writing in text format and lingo is THE laziest you can possibly get  when it comes to writing.

I know that we all spend a lot of time on our phones but that should not affect the way we write and speak. If it does, I strongly suggest you pick up a book on the near future.

Example:

"Omg! Lol!! UR so fnny, Luke. Ttyl, bb" Sarah told Luke as she exited his apartment.

"Ttyl 2 bb. Ily." Luke replied.

This is an abomination in the writing world! Do you talk to your friends and family like that? Hopefully the answer is no. If you don't talk that way please don't write that way. It will only annoy your readers and definitely not attract any.

The only time text lingo is appropriate in a story  Is if the characters are communicating through text. Otherwise this is juvenile, inappropriate and just lazy.

Also, the use of emoticons or emojis is inappropriate in a story too unless the characters are communicating through text or email. Not to mention it's rather annoying . If you can't insert a smiley face or wink in a spoken conversation, you shouldn't put it in the dialogue between your characters.  Plus, depending on what devices your readers are using, they may not be able to see your emojis any way.

4: Dialogue and identifying speakers

It is very important that you make sure you put quotation marks around your dialogue. Your readers will have no idea who is taking or if anyone is talking at all if you don't. It's completely  ruins the effect of the important dialogue between characters.

Example:

I just can't imagine living my life without you. Michael said whilst grabbing hold of my hands. Me neither." I replied with a smile. Will you do me the honors of marrying me? Michael asked. Yes! I shouted.

So, I included verbs like said and exclaimed but just by glancing at the paragraph you would have no clue who was saying what. From first glance this would look like a regular paragraph with no dialogue and it made me cringe just write it that way. Here's how it should be written.

Example:

"I just can't imagine living my life without you." Michael said whilst grabbing hold of  my hands. 

"Me neither." I replied with a smile. 

"Will you do me the honors of marrying me?" Michael asked. 

"Yes!" I exclaimed.

All better, yeah?

I know that when you're a first time writer the concept of quotation marks can be forigen. You have all the ideas rushing through your mind and the dialogues are in your head so you just write it down the way it is in your head.