The Journey to Writing a Successful Story: a tip book

How to Make Your Writing Stand Out

Besides advertising and following the ways to promote your book, there is trying to find ways on how to make your writing stand out.

Look at the book you have. What makes your book special? What makes it unique, original? How does it stand out from the rest?

Most of you who have teen fictions, let's say, are going to have to think hard about this. Why? Because, let's face it, most books on here are teen fictions. And not just teen fiction, but surrounded by romance - mainly. What are, at least, over half of the books? What types of ideas are they? Mainly cliches such as bad boy stories, teen pregnancies, nerdy girl lives with X-number of hot guys, love triangles where the girl always picks the bad boy, and so on.

And basically, most of these stories end up the same way. Badly written, predictable, happy (with no real conflict - and not like, "He's my mine, so stay your ass away from him.") and they also have a way that makes it non-original, such as using the same types of ideas, like how the bad boy lives in a broken home or the nerdy girl believes she's the most ugliest person alive even though the author makes her out to be some goddess.

So honestly, your writing does not stand out if your book sounds like those. How can you change this? How can you, as a beginning writer or a person making their next book, make your writing stand out?

Here's a few thoughts:

Be unique. You may like the whole cliche theme, and although every story (especially romance) has been done before and are cliche, try to stay clear from the overly cliche (which is things like said above). How can you be unique? Well, change things up. Maybe instead of focusing on the romance between the characters, why not just focus on the relationship as friends between the characters? Maybe instead of focusing on stereotypes (bad boy, good girl, nerds, bitchy cheerleaders, the popular groups, and so on), why not focus on the people as a whole (a guy who likes to take risks and have fun, a girl who is too sheltered from her parents, a person who enjoys fandoms of different things, a group of girls who are flexible yet have their own bad days but are nice in general, a person who is very kind among a group of friends - maybe is wealthy, and so on)? Because I added those definitions, they seem more unique and real, you know?

Be original. Just like I said in the previous paragraph, if you add definitions to the stereotypes, it makes it seem more original which stands out more. Authors on here who write bad boys, portray them as guys who ride motorcycles, wear leather, man-sluts, and don't take crap from anyone. Honestly? That's not being original. You're going with the same thing that everyone else says. Don't do that. Make up your own person. Despite Twilight being cliche, the way how Stephanie Meyer portrayed the vampires were original. The same old vampire that is used are people who bite you and kill you by sucking your blood. Their eyes may turn red. But they may also turn into bats, can't be in sunlight, and so on. In Twilight, they aren't like normal vampires. They drink animal blood (which is like they're vegetarian in vampire terms), their eyes glow gold, some vampires have special powers, they run super fast, and in sunlight, they become glittery people.

Be realistic. If you're basing something off of something you don't know of or don't know a whole lot of, get research so that it's more realistic. I've read stories based in American schools where the character gets a detention right when she walks into class (for getting a tardy) and is sent there during class. This doesn't happen. I won't get into it, but we don't have "during class detention." You get after school, lunch, and Saturday - each type comes with its own ways to get into it. And you don't get a detention if you get one tardy - possibly over three within the last week or so, but it differs. You need to be realistic about the situation. If you live in another country, ask questions. Get answers. Learn how whatever that thing is, works.

Using these three will help people see that your writing is different than most.