How To: Wattpad

BaSiCs

Basics

So, let's get a couple of the big things straight. You follow these rules, and you'll get quite a couple of fans. After this, I will give you tips that will do a little. But, a little+ a little+ a little more= HUGE. So pay attention.

-GRAMMAR: I could send this message out to every writer on here a million times, and there would still be grammatical errors that a 4 year old wouldn't make. I understand that some people's first language isn't English, but if you're attempting to write a book in English, ya gotta have the basics down. Now like I said if it's not your first language, fine, but some people are flat out lazy. They think they can just write whatever, and it'll be fine because they will just get an editor to fix it (sorry this is being more of a rant right now). Editors are great, so don't take advantage of them. Try as hard as you can to fix any errors BEFORE you send it to an editor on the site. And, at least to me, if your description and/or title has any grammatical mistake, I'm not even going to click on it.

-PLOT: A lot of writers and readers say "don't be cliche, write an original plot". This is true, but sometimes even I like to browse some cliche stories. The only thing that matters to me (and probably most of your readers) is if you're writing a cliche story, please please please add some sort of twist. Maybe the bad boy she fell in love with turns out to be her cousin, or whatever. I also suggest to TRY to make the plot twist bad for the character. Like don't make a twist in the middle of the book that gets the boy and the girl to be step-siblings, unless that's the whole plot of your story or they hate each other.

-CHARACTERS: Character development is pretty big. You can't have your character be perfect from beginning to end. They have to learn a life lesson. If at the beginning they were happy, they could feel sad at the end and vice versa. Here's another thing with characters that I heard from an author. He said something like 'a coincidence that gets your character in a bad situation is great, one that gets them in a good situation is cheating'. Basically this means trying to hurt your character as much as possible, because when they reach their goals in the end, it'll be so much more worth it.

Another biggie with characters is making their personality and looks agree with their life. A shy girl isn't gonna run off with an obnoxious boy in the middle of the night to go to a party. A hot girl with a great personality shouldn't be surprised when her 'lifelong' crush actually likes her back. So try to make it realistic. And always always always have a couple of flaws in your characters, especially the main ones.

-DESCRIPTION: You've probably heard this phrase a couple of times, but I'm saying it again. Show, don't tell. Describe exactly what the character is going through, or their settings, or the event. Don't tell me the building is old and gray. Tell me about the ugly lead paint peeling off the walls. Tell me about the vines wrapped around the windows and the walls of the brick building. This gives a clear picture in the reader's head of exactly what you see. Describing feelings is even bigger. Instead of saying that the boy felt guilty for making fun of his little sister, describe how his heart wrenched as he realized what he had said to his oblivious sister. This lets the reader really know what your main character is going through.

-POINT OF VIEW: So we all know (or maybe not all of us) that there are three main point of views:

1. 1st person: This is basically the reader being in the mind of the narrator/ main character. It usually goes something like "I climbed upon the Wrath of Eden. This is so stupid."

2. 2nd person: Many people don't know what this POV is. It's a POV that talks to the reader directly. It is either giving directions for something or it's informational. This book, for example, is written in 2nd person. If you attempt to write a fiction book in 2nd person, I will rip your head off. Just kidding, but don't because it is really ugly.

3. 3rd person: This POV is like a random person who knows about the story you're trying to tell, and is telling it to somebody else. So this is a narrator who isn't in any part of the story whatsoever. The rules are you can't use 'I', 'We', 'Us', or 'Our' except in dialogue. This POV also has some variations

        a. Third person objective- This is when the narrator only describes what they see and hear, they can't tell the characters' thoughts, only actions and words. Most writers won't be able to use this POV very well, so unless you're an expert at it, try not to use this.

        b. Third person limited- The narrator here can see and hear (obviously), and they can describe a character's thoughts. But here, the narrator can only see into one person's head. The character that the narrator is limited to can change from scene to scene without having to specifically say it's switching. So you can be talking about Susie in one scene, and in the next you're talking about Timmy.

        c. Third person omniscient- The narrator in this can see everybody's thoughts. It is the most used POV in most authors. One disadvantage is that it can reveal too much and cause less suspense. Also, it can be confusing sometimes.

So now that you know about POV's, I have one big tip. If you're using 1st person (and sometimes 3rd person limited), please try limiting the switching between POV's to only one or two characters. And don't switch off every paragraph. It's annoying.I read a story on here once, and in one scene there was a group of girls talking. They started talking about their boyfriends, and every time a different girl started describing her boyfriend, it switched POV's. First of all it was annoying. Secondly, it was really confusing. The author could have just put the descriptions into dialogue.

So yeah, those were the basics. And if you couldn't tell, I accidentally went off into rant-mode (oops). I promise, there will be better tips coming as soon as I have time to write them.