Requested by AuroraPotter14
Rora, when you requested this, I didn't understand what you meant: Losing interest in the story you're writing OR people losing interest in the stories you're writing. So, I'll just cover both!
1. Losing Interest In The Stories You Write
Honestly, I'm not sure if I speak for everyone, but I find myself losing interest in the stories I write a lot. Sometimes, it's because I'm not writing for myself. I'm not writing what I want to write, but I'm writing what people want me to write.
"Changing who I am for who you wanted me to be"
( Tell me you got that ref, please )
So, my first tip to you would be:
1. Write for yourself. Don't write because someone wants you to write on a particular topic. Taking writing suggestions is okay, but don't let it change what you're writing completely on the basis of some suggestion.
2. Don't change your style because it isn't popular. Your writing style is unique, and don't suffocate it. Write the way you generally write, because changing your writing style will, you guessed it, result in terrible work.
3. If you're slowly losing interest, re-read the whole book, from beginning to end. Every single detail, you've got to read. Now, as you read, PLAN. Write deeper in between the lines, make connections and depths you can't make as you're writing.
Now, integrate those depths into your plotline, and voila! It becomes more interesting for you to write since you're technically keeping a little secret that nobody can guess. And I bet at least some of you all know the giddy excitement that comes with keeping a surprise a secret.
4. REVAMP. I cannot stress this point enough. In case you ever find yourself falling into the deep, dark pits that many people call, 'losing inspiration for writing', then just take some time to revamp. Change the plot a bit, and COMPLETELY change the writing. Add some depth, maybe, and give it some novelty. That'll make it much more interesting for you to write and for your readers to read.
For instance, I write a paragraph, "Cold concrete pressed across my back as warm tears ran down my rounded cheeks. The memory of her eyes still haunted me, fluttered in front of my eyes in their hazel green shade, filled with warmth.
But the words that escaped those lips that had often been on my skin were chilly. 'You were the reason I died.' "
Now, when I tell you to revamp and rewrite it, I mean making a few little changes.
"I leaned against the windowsill, the cold breeze of the night made goosebumps rise on my skin. Cigarette ash lay scattered across the floor, and I held one in my long and nimble fingers. The smell of tobacco floated into my nose, my mechanism to stop the tears from falling. To stop the dam inside me from breaking beyond repair, and to prevent it from leaving me a shattered woman.
But I was not the one to blame for this broken condition of mine, for it was all the fault of those hazel eyes with specks of green that I would never see again because of my own mistake. A mistake for which neither I nor she could forgive me for."
See what I meant? Not exactly changing the plot, but changing the scene and the way of writing said scene. Lengthening it somewhat, since that makes it much more descriptive.
That was all I had to give you, I hope this helped you!
Now, let's move on to the next part.
1. How to stop readers from losing interest in your stories.
As a writer, I feel that frequently, I see a plunge in the number of reads my books are getting and that always frustrates me so much. Here, I'm going to be giving you tips that I, as a reader, have found wrong in books or things I hear others complaining about.
1. Keep the chapter length to medium. Now, as you must know, mobile readers face ads when they move between chapters ( thanks a ton, Wattpad ) which makes it frustrating for them to read chapters that are too short, go to the next one only to see an ad in between.
Now, I'm not saying that you write chapters that are too long because not all people have the patience to scroll through twenty fucking Word/Docs pages. Either way, you'll lose readers.
I advise typing on Google Docs or Microsoft Word, and not in Wattpad ( You can't keep track of the number of pages you've written here ), and keep the length somewhere in between just over three pages to just over four pages. Don't exceed five pages or go under two and a half pages.
2. Don't make your story annoying and hard to read to match up to the standards of *aestheticism*. I won't go into much detail on it here, since that's going to take up a whole chapter and no less, but what you do want to know is-
a. Don't use too many fonts.
b. Don't use any emojis.
c. Don't use small text, the Caps Lock button exists.
d. Don't use all capitals.
e. Don't add too many graphics, unless it's a graphic shop or theme shop or any other type of shop.
f. Under no condition must you misuse the enter key.
g. Do not change the POV in every single paragraph.
h. PNG borders aren't visible half the time, because not everyone has top-class internet connections.
3. Make your work interactive. By this, I don't mean that it's ok to put parentheses in the middle of the chapter because you just feel the need to say something about whatever you're writing about and end up going on and on with a long author's note, making your writing look something like this:
Dame and Eli came close together, their lips almost touching ( EEP YES THEY'RE GOING TO KISS I AM SO HAPPY!! BTW, I'VE NEVER KISSED BEFORE, THIS IS JUST ME PUTTING MY DREAMS OF WHAT I IMAGINE MY FIRST KISS TO BE LIKE IN A BOOK AND I FELT, FOR SOME REASON, OBLIGED TO EXPLAIN THAT TO YOU, SO I WROTE THIS AN!! ANYWAY, DON'T MIND LITTLE OLD ME, I'LL JUST GO AHEAD AND STOP NOW! )
But before they could actually come in contact, Dame's older brother came into the room ( HA! DID YOU SERIOUSLY THINK THAT I'D MAKE IT THAT EASY?! I WILL KEEP YOU HANGING AND NEVER MAKE THEM KISS UNTIL THE END OF THE STORY, EVEN THOUGH DAME ISN'T MEANT TO BE WITH ELI BUT I NEEDED SOME DRAMA AND THE EVER-SO-CLICHE LOVE TRIANGLE, SO I'LL MAKE THIS HAPPEN!! )
Dame and Eli jumped apart ( That reminds me of something that happened to me yesterday, I was *proceeds to tell a long and boring story of what happened to them even though no one gives a fuck and just wants to continue reading the goddamned story because they do not have time for this shit* that was all! The chapter ends, I hope you stick around for my end-of-chapter Author's Note because I have something really important to tell! )
Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but I was unable to sleep last night, so my mind is coming up with absolute crack.
What I mean by telling you to be interactive is that you have to reply to comments in your story, make brief but meaningful author's notes, and on the whole not be like that girl who wrote 'My Immortal'.
4. Do not withhold chapters because you're not getting enough reads/votes/comments. It will only frustrate your readers away from your book. It's honestly quite petty, and there are other and better ways to ask people to support you than throw tantrums, like maybe putting in a sentence like, 'I hope you consider Voting/Commenting to show me some support!'
5. Update frequently. If you have a reason not to update, a VALID reason, then put that in an Author's Note on the last chapter you published. Announce it, if you want, but remember that not a lot of your readers follow you. In fact, if they did, then many authors stuck in their hundreds would have a couple of thousand followers.
6. BE DESCRIPTIVE. Honestly, this is the most important point. Instead of using the word, 'aurora' for dawn, why not describe the color of the sky, the golden rays of sunlight decorating the painting of colors across the canvas that was the sky? I suck at analogies, but you get the deal. Don't use long words for things that you can describe, for the following reasons:
a. Describing increases the length of the chapter, so if you struggle with writing longer chapters, just describe the thing for which you're using a long word. Even if you don't struggle with length, description gives you plus points in my book.
b. Even though I, for one, love learning new words and researching them, not many people like opening google every chapter because they don't understand a book. Although this is contrary to what I said earlier, about not changing your style, this is one thing that I feel should be changed.
c. Long words stick out in your writing, and it's really, really, REALLY prominent. However, if you describe the meaning of that word, then your writing seems smooth and flows, like water.
d. Describing things makes it feel more realistic, as though the reader is actually in that scene. It also makes your writing a person's favorite, because you can learn so many things about a person and their personality just from the way they describe a scene and make analogies.
7. If you really do want to use long words, break down their meaning in that chapter itself. Go deep into the meaning and use that depth to let the readers know of a person's past, something prominent about them, something hidden about them, or maybe even their deepest thoughts and feelings. I once tried this, in one of my books, and while it takes a long time to write, it can sometimes actually help you to vent your own feelings.
8. The last tip I can give you is to write realistically. Don't let your imagination run wild when you write, but keep your thoughts grounded to what is actually realistic. Realism is the key to good writing, and most of the points that will be covered in this book will be based on how to keep your book realistic.
That's all I've got for you, I hope I helped!
Next Up: Don't Judge a book by it's cover, but we all do
( AKA a cover tutorial for a basic cover, I'm attaching it underneath )
Boy, this is the longest chapter I've written in this book, 1849 words.