Step By Step

Step 5: The Writing

Okay, now you're ready to start writing! (But not posting!)

That might sound kind of silly, let me explain myself.

So have you ever come across one of those stories that are on hold or the authors that don't update very often. Well, I have a very workable solution for that so that you don't become one of those on hold no update kind of  authors and it's just two simple words. Are you ready? Here it is.

Write ahead.

Yep, there it is. Don't start posting a story right when you finish writing the first chapter. Write a few chapters on Word and save them in a document but do not post them to Wattpad.

That way, when you do start posting them to Wattpad, you're already at least five chapters ahead so that you can update frequently (maybe 1-2 times a week, I'd start at one time a week) and that gets you more readers. 

Also, STAY ORGANIZED. See the Toolkit story for some tips on how I've stayed organized with my stories. With characters, events, plot, and chapters.

I keep my chapters under control by the chapters table that I mentioned in the previous chapter so that I know which chapters are posted, which ones are only written but not posted, and which chapters aren't written yet. You'll see the example on the side and let me explain it. When you make a table in Word, you can change the cells' colors in the design tab, and that's what I do.

I color a chapter's row when I finish writing it and then I change it to another color when I post it. On the example to the side, I have hypothetically posted chapters one and two, I have finished writing chapter three (but it's not posted), and I haven't written chapter four yet.

Okay, now that I'm done talking about that stuff, let's talk about how to actually start a story. The beginning is always the hardest and I can't really tell you how to start, but I can tell you that it needs to be interesting. Sure, the whole story should be interesting, but the begging is crucial because if the beginning isn't good then readers are going to not... well, read.

I also can't tell you how to write, but here's some simple tips:

1- Do not use too much punctuation because this looks bad!!!!!!

2- Do not use ALL CAPS TO EXPRESS YELLING BECAUSE that is incredibly annoying.

3- Use a program like Word to check your grammar and spelling because grammar Nazis will eat you alive if you have bad grammar and spelling.

4- Use capital letters when it's necessary. The beginning of sentences and proper names and such.