How To Write A Good Story On Wattpad

Sarah Perlmutter Interview

So I recently contacted the real writer of the Watty Award Winner "The BLAST" and her other award winning trilogy, "The Deathless Trilogy" (Which I absolutely love and you should go and read) and I asked her a few questions about how she was able to successfully write her books.

Me: "What's the best way to start a book?"

Sarah: "Oh man, that's a tough one. A lot of people will tell you different things about this, but I think the best way to start a book is by providing your readers a small, telling moment from your main character to introduce you to them and give your readers some curiosity too. Start small and zoom out from there.

For example, the first sentence of THE BLAST is "I was ten years old when the world ended." A small memory from the main character, but it also makes the reader wonder about the world's end and what happened."

Me: Interesting... So a while ago I remember reading a blog on your website explaining a lot of how you write and, if I remember correctly, you said "you have to sit down and write everyday for at least an hour." My question is, "how do you not get the dreaded Writers Block?"

Sarah: Writer's block used to plague me more than it does now. I think I've been able to get rid of it for the most part because of two realizations:

(1) All first drafts will be horrible, so you should just let your writing be horrible. And (2) when you feel writer's block, sometimes it helps to think about what's really keeping you from writing.Let me explain. For the first realization, I think that a lot of us feel the pressure to write well all the time, and it keeps us from writing at all. I truly believe that the real skill in writing is in editing. But you can't work any magic if you don't have anything to mold into a novel in the first place. So get stuff down on the page first--whether it's "good" or not--and fix it later. Having that freedom helps me get past a lot of road blocks I run into when writing.For my second realization, this became really apparent to me this past November during NaNoWriMo. I had writer's block, but I realized that I just didn't want to write the next scenes. I thought about why and realized that I wasn't including enough conflict, or that the characters weren't clear enough. So, even though you're not supposed to go back during NaNoWriMo, I went backwards and edited before continuing forward. After changing a few things here and there, I opened up the channels for my mind to keep writing happily.

Me: "do you have a special way of outlining your chapters?"

Sarah: I really should. I see the outlines that JK Rowling created for Harry Potter, and I wish that I could be that organized. For me, it's more like a crazy list in my notebook. I've kept one notebook for the entire Deathless Trilogy, and for each of the books, I outline the steps in the typical hero's journey (based on the work of Joseph Campbell), and I write down what will happen for each of the steps in the journey. Then once I am further into the book, my outlining tends to look like a to do list of scenes that need to happen. It's all a mess.

Me: "How do you come up with backstories for your other characters?"

Sarah: I try to do this before I even write the characters, because it helps me understand *how* to write them. Before I write, I will think about what kind of person this character needs to be for the novel to work. Then I think about what would have needed to happen in their life to form them into that type of person. Once I know their backstory, I start writing.

Me: "Do you ever read books and find characters that you their personalities so much that you take them and recreate them?"

Sarah: I'm sure I do this subconsciously, but I don't do it consciously. I try my best to make my characters unique, but I think everything we read influences what we write. I'm sure people read The Deathless Trilogy and are reminded of certain characters they've read before in other books. But because I use the hero's journey template as my outline, a lot of the experiences my characters go through reflect the experiences other characters have gone through too.

Me: What is your reaction when someone 'hates' onwhat you,ve written?

Sarah: When this happens to you at first, it can be really hard not to take it personally. Now, I just try to remember that my writing is not going to appeal to everyone, just like there are some books I've read and disliked that millions of others have loved. It doesn't mean I don't respect those authors any less, it just means I didn't particularly care for those stories or characters. Everyone has different taste, and I try to remember that. It is still really hard not to take it personally, but my fans and readers always lift me up.

If the person who is "hating" on what I've written is on Wattpad, I always thank them for reading and try to get at the heart of why they disliked it. If they let me know why they didn't like it, and I feel like it's a valid comment and not just someone being a troll, then I will use that feedback to revise. I try to always find the positive, even when I'm faced with negativity.

And there we are! Words of wisdom from the great Sarah Perlmutter! Thank you Sarah!

You should all go read her books, they're super good! Hurry before she takes them down and they go up on bookshelves where you have to do the dreadful and pay for them!

Alright, peace out and happy Wattpading!