Ever wanted to get a look inside the mind of a very disorganized Wattpad writer? Ever wanted to know some writing tips and tricks from your girl Blue? Well...I don't know why you would! But if you do, stay tuned for more!
Hello, Little Jeeps!
So someone in the last part of this rambling book, suggested that I give writing tips.
I honestly don't know if this will be any good because I'm not confident in my writing or even think it's that great, but I will try my best to walk you through my process a little.
Let me start off by saying, I'm not an organized writer. I didn't start making outlines at all until a couple months ago. And the outlines I make now are super super rough.
For the most part, I'm a fly by the seat of my pants writer. A lot of my stories and characters unravel and reveal themselves to me as I write them. The stories I've planned out the most are PB, SK, and BT: I also think those will be my most successful stories when they're finished.
Ok let me start off with how I write a story...
Step One: you have to have an idea.
You can't say "I want to write something, what should I write about?" That will not work. You have to have something you're passionate about and an idea that you constantly keep thinking about.
Maybe some of you don't want to hear that, but that's my honest opinion.
Don't start writing stories because you want to become famous or something, you have to have a passion for stories and want to tell your own.
You just need a basic idea that you really like and then you can go from there.
Step Two: sit with the idea for awhile.
Think about more aspects about the story. Start planning out what you want to happen in the first chapter. Think more about your characters.
I don't have a set time that you have to do this for, just think about it for awhile. Make sure that it's an idea that you think will be successful.
Is it something that you really care about? Are the characters stuck in your head all the time?
I know I'm really passionate about something when I'm listening to music while I'm driving and can't get my characters out of my head. And then when a song comes on that goes well with the story, I freak out and get super excited.
Step Three: start writing.
Now this can be very basic. Sometimes, if there's just a very specific scene that won't get out of my head I'll write some of that. Or I'll write the opening scene.
Just write as much as you want or as little as you want.
Now...do you still like the story?
If so, that's great.
If not, that's okay too.
If you don't like the story anymore, it's not the end of the world. You may just need to think about it more or this might mean that something better is going to come along. Just keep thinking, maybe this original idea can spark something else that you like way better. I definitely have a few of those, SK for instance.
But if you do still like the story, then I have some more advice.
So you've continued writing and now you've got a whole chapter done. That's great. You've made a big first step in getting this story going.
And now you're like, "I can't wait to post it on Wattpad for the world to see!"
And I say, "No."
You: "But—But—Blue? I want to post the story! I'm really proud of this chapter!"
Me: "Nope. Sorry. You can't do that yet."
You: "Why?"
Me: "Well, do you have plans for the next chapter?...Or the chapter after that?"
You: "Well...no. But I finished this first chapter and I really like it! I want to see if other people will like it too!"
Ok, I'm done with this weird convo. Lol.
Let me tell you why you shouldn't post the first chapter when you have no other plans.
I have countless stories (I've had hundreds of story ideas, ya'll) that I wrote a lot of in the beginning, or the first chapter, and then I didn't know how to continue it after that.
See, if you post the first chapter and get a few people to read it, but don't know how to continue it, then what was the point of posting it?
Now you're just going to have this one chapter that stares at you and makes puppy dog eyes and says, "Finish me! Please!"
If you write a first chapter that you're really proud of, that's awesome. I have quite a few that I think are awesome first chapters, but right now I can't post them because I either don't have ideas for the next chapter or I'm just not inspired at the moment.
Now, I'm not saying that you have to plan out the entire story. I rarely do that when I write the first chapter. But let's say you have an idea for the second chapter and the third chapter, so you start writing those and then along the way, you get the idea for the fourth chapter and the fifth chapter. Then when you begin writing those, you get the idea for sixth and seventh. And on and on and on.
So, just as a basic rule, I think you should have ideas for the first three chapters before you decide to post anything.
And I'm sorry, but if I see any of you say in your stories "I don't know what to write next, so let me know if you have any ideas of what you want to happen!" I will personally come and find you and...you don't want to know what will happen after that.
I'm serious.
A story has to be your story. Unless you have a cowriter or something. Or maybe ask some close friends for their opinions on your story.
If you're just asking strangers what to write next, what was the point at all?
This is a personal pet peeve of mine. I'm sorry if I offended you at all.
But all those stories that I've seen people write that on have like one or two chapters. I don't see how that is a sustainable system. Are you just going to ask for advice the entire time?
If I did something like that, I would have no passion for the story whatsoever. Because it wouldn't be mine.
I mean I've had tons of people tell me you should do this or you should do that.
No. I'm sorry. I'm not going to do what you say. This is my story and I want to be passionate about it and proud of it, therefore I'm going to make what I want to happen, happen.
I mean this is just a small example, but I have had countless people tell me to stop using "pussy" in a boyxboy story.
These are my stories. I want to be happy with them. I write something that I want to read. Pussy isn't a very common thing in books, but it is my absolute favorite kink. So you better believe I'm putting it in the majority of my stories.
Plus, I don't know if any of you watch porn, but when everyone was acting shocked about Elijah calling Danny's hole a pussy, I was like....you guys are watching the wrong kind of porn *shakes head*
The Tainted Love series is mainly about feminization. So therefore, the word pussy is a big thing.
Anyways, back to my original point. I didn't want to rant about this forever.
SO...you've written the first chapter AND you have ideas for the next two. (Your own ideas.)
Now onto the fourth step...
Step Four: time to post!
So I'm going to cover a lot of things under this step.
I don't think I have to walk you through every individual thing about posting on Wattpad, I'm sure you've got that covered.
But there are a few things I want to discuss.
I've had many people ask me "How do you get your stories noticed?"
This is very hard for me to talk about because I feel like people expect me to give them this big scheme on how to beat the system and get your stories noticed.
And that is not true at all.
How did I get my stories noticed?...I did fucking nothing.
And I know that you're probably going to hate me for that.
I didn't do anything special. I didn't go advertising it anywhere. I didn't ask people to read them. I did nothing.
So you may ask, "Well then how did it work for you?"
And I have a theory about this...
So the whole reason I have any followers at all is mainly BD.
What does BD have?
Well there's three things, but there's two that are most important of all.
1. Appealing title
2. Appealing cover
I'm sorry, but if you don't have a good cover, people are not going to click on your story. Ever heard of "Never judge a book by it's cover"? Well, hate to break it to you but 99% of the population judges books by the cover.
The cover and titles are the first impressions everyone is going to have with your story.
Baby Doll = Extremely clickable title
Most of the Tainted Love series have incredibly clickable titles.
And as an extension of that, The Prince and His Slave and In Love with a Porn Star also have very interesting titles.
Mainly because people may see the title and already want to read it. They already give you a glimpse of what the story is about. No, they're not pretty and poetic. But they may catch someone's eye and make them want to read it without even knowing what the story is actually about.
But back to the BD combo.
I really struck gold with BD.
I found that picture and no, it doesn't look like how I describe Danny. But it's clearly a man wearing lingerie and that's a big factor of BD. Mix that with the simple, appealing title of Baby Doll and bam! It makes people want to click on it.
And I know that any of you can do this.
I'm not a genius. I know that you can find a good picture and a good title.
Appealing title and appealing cover and you're setting yourself up for success.
Okay, so you say you have those now.
You've gotten people to click on the story. Now there's just one last thing you need.
A good description.
Some people may read it without reading the description at all. I think that is especially true if you have a decent amount of views. But if you're starting out, you need a good description to draw the readers in to give that last click and actually read the story.
And if I see any of you put "Read to find out!" I will come to your house and...you don't want to know what I'll do.
Look, if you're doing these things or you've done them before, I'm not trying to be mean. I'm trying to help you.
I have never seen a story with a description that said "Read to find out!" that had over twenty or so views.
It turns people off.
And maybe that's not true for everyone, but I'm guessing it's true for the majority of people.
Now you're probably saying, "Blue, you're so mean!"
I'm not trying to be mean! I. Am. Trying. To. Help.
You have the appealing cover and title, those are the first big steps. You don't want to turn people off from the description.
In my descriptions, I like to tease people and give them a hint about what the story is about while also leaving a hook.
For example, the last couple sentences of SD's description says: "There was only one problem. He's my brother's new stepson."
That makes people want to click.
I already have views on SD because of BD, but I'm willing to bet that readers that found SD first, back when it didn't have as many views as it does now, saw that last sentence and instantly wanted to click on it.
Just a simple hook like that will get people to click. You can even have a hook like that on the actual cover of your story!
So, that is my theory on why I've had the success that I've had.
It also helps if you have an appealing story though lol.
You can't get by on just the cover, title, and description. You draw people in based on that, but you have to keep them entertained with the story.
And don't expect it to happen overnight.
If you only have a few views within the first couple days, don't get discouraged.
I wasn't an instant success. I don't think anyone is.
I struggled on Wattpad for months before posting BD. After I posted BD, I think I expected instant success again but it didn't happen.
It was actually when I stopped caring about Wattpad when BD began to get noticed.
It happened out of nowhere and I don't know why it began getting views all of a sudden for no reason at all.
But like I said, I think the cover, title, and description is what won people over. Let's call that the trifecta. lol.
There is another question I get a lot as well: How do you make your covers/What do you use to make your covers?
Here's a picture!
These are the main three apps I use to make my covers. HD Logo is my favorite one and the one I use for 99% of my covers.
I pick a picture I like. I usually find them on pinterest.
Then I bring the picture into HD Logo and put text over it. Bam, simple appealing cover.
The only story I have right now where I used Over was ILWAPS.
My favorite feature of Over is called "Mask." So in the ILWAPS cover I was able to make the shirtless guy appear in front of the text instead of behind.
The ILWAPS cover was a lot more complicated than that, but I'm not going to go into it. Plus you can really make all these covers very easily in photoshop, but I didn't know how to use photoshop before I started posting stories on here so I had to make do.
The third app is an image resizer. I just got a free one and this happened to be the best one I found. I literally use it for two seconds every time I make a cover so it really doesn't need to be fancy.
Ever seen those covers where part of the writing is cut off? That's because the image isn't the right size for a Wattpad cover.
The dimensions are:
Width: 256
Height: 400
Someone could probably tell you a way better way to do this. I certainly don't have the most beautiful covers out there. But this gets the job done.
And I like my covers and they seem to draw people in, so that's what matters.
____
Okay, so I didn't give many writing tips so far. It's mainly been starting a story and posting on Wattpad.
And that's because I don't know how to give actual writing tips.
I don't consciously do anything...I just write.
I think of what I want to happen and then the words pour out through my fingers to the keyboard to the screen.
I really really wish I had some actual writing tips.
But there is one thing I really like to do...
When I'm having a hard time sitting down and writing, I like to set a timer for myself on my phone.
You can do it for any time you want. I usually do an hour but you can do it way less than that.
Then, once the timer is going, I can't do anything but write for that one hour.
It works for me most of the time and I get a lot done.
Another thing that's fun for me is to make the timer shorter, I do it for twenty minutes. Then I write for twenty minutes straight, but after I'm done writing I look at how many words I wrote. Then I do another twenty minutes and see how many words I wrote that time!
Kind of seeing if you can beat your own record. Mine is like 900 something in twenty minutes. Which isn't that impressive, but I just think it's cool to challenge yourself like that.
And let me just tell you, if you're not where you want to be in skill level writing wise, don't give up.
I began with writing fanfiction. I don't know the exact age I started because I started writing fanfiction in a notebook I had before I even knew what fanfiction was.
I wrote fucking Suite Life of Zack and Cody fanfiction okay!? That's where I started!!! Lol.
I have never told anyone that, so you all should feel very special.
I consider my first real experience with writing at the age of fifteen though.
That was when I was obsessed with the show Gossip Girl and I wrote fanfiction on fanfiction.net when I discovered the website and found out there was a thing called fanfiction.
I dabbled with my own stories before that but they never went anywhere. I then began attempting to really write a story when I was like twenty-one, but I ended up not finishing it.
After that, I became obsessed with gay romances so I began writing gay romances probably when I was also twenty-one.
It wasn't until I was twenty-four that I began posting on Wattpad.
And let me tell you, when I reread that first story I began when I was twenty-one...I wanted to die. It was terrible. I even brought it to my therapist back in the day because he wanted to read it! God, that's so awful. The writing is so shitty.
Also, I don't let anyone in real life read my stories now.
Except...I was making a logo for my username in my color theory class and I was talking to the girl next to me about it. So she kept seeing my Wattpad username.
Well, she later admitted that she came on here and read the first chapter of BD...
I died...I literally died. I wish I could have seen my own expression because I'm sure it was priceless. But at the same time, I just want to forget the experience altogether.
Okay, moving on...
So what I'm saying is, you may not be where you want to be but I promise that with practice you'll get better. In a couple years, I may look back on BD and think it's a piece of shit.
You just have to keep practicing and getting better. I promise it will happen.
____
I really think I'm out of tips.
I can't think of anything else.
Maybe if you have a specific question about writing, I can see if I have an answer for you.
I want to help you guys as much as possible.
I don't think I'm anywhere close to being an expert on this sort of thing. I just want to share what worked for me. Because maybe it will work for some of you!
Btw...if you missed my message on my profile, the stolen version of Sweet Kitten got deleted. The person thankfully deleted it.
I must say that I never had an opinion about the Dolan twins. I literally didn't care at all. But now I'm just going to have a bad feeling about them lol. Because my precious Aleksander and Max were all twisted up into a story about twincest. Like, sorry Dolan twins, I don't know you, don't know anything about you, but I'm seriously turned off now. lol.
Okay...
I don't really know how to end these.
Anything else you want me to talk about? I think you guys know that I will talk about anything with you, so let me know if there's anything else about my life you're curious about or...I don't know. Anything! haha!
Love you!
See you soon! I prooooomise there's an ILWAPS chapter coming soon!
—Blue