The Do's and Don'ts of Writin...

By xxdelinquentxx

70.6K 2.7K 404

For all you amateur writers on Wattpad that want to write a smashing book. Here are the top tips. There are f... More

A/N
PLOT: Opening scene.
PLOT: How to plot
PLOT: Main characters
PLOT: Creating characters
PLOT: Build a Protagonist
PLOT: Antagonist
PLOT: Why is a good guy an antagonist
PLOT: The villain
PLOT: Chekov's friend rule
PLOT: Naming chapters
PLOT: Potential non-romantic/non-sexual B-plots
PLOT: Set the scene
PLOT: Introducing backstory
PLOT: Scenes
PLOT: If you're stuck in the middle of the scene
PLOT: How to switch things up
PLOT: Increasing tension
PLOT: Give scenes momentum
PLOT: Plot twist ideas
PLOT: Leaving holes
PLOT: 10 ways to punch your reader in the gut.
PLOT: How to end your story
PLOT: Story endings
LANGUAGE: Instant turn offs when reading
LANGUAGE: Paragraphs
LANGUAGE: Punctuation Pt. 1
LANGUAGE: Punctuation Pt. 2
LANGUAGE: Dashes
LANGUAGE: Show don't tell
LANGUAGE: Keep an eye on 'was'
LANGUAGE: Don't overuse the word "very"
LANGUAGE: That
LANGUAGE: Words instead of "whispered"
LANGUAGE: Words instead of...
LANGUAGE: Swearing
LANGUAGE: Stutter Pt. 1
LANGUAGE: Stutter Pt. 2
LANGUAGE: How children speak
LANGUAGE: Specifics
LANGUAGE: Re-write
HOW TO: Top 10 tips for actually writing
HOW TO: Writing exercises
HOW TO: World-building
HOW TO: Girls names
HOW TO: Boys names
HOW TO: Surnames
HOW TO: Character description
HOW TO: Character cliché's
HOW TO: Character personalities
HOW TO: Physical personality
HOW TO: Tropes I love and hate
HOW TO: Making representation obvious
HOW TO: Break the black girl stereotype
HOW TO: Writing blind characters
HOW TO: Writing deaf characters Pt. 1
HOW TO: Writing deaf characters Pt. 2
HOW TO: Coming-out scenes
HOW TO: Anxiety disorders
HOW TO: Social anxiety
HOW TO: Panic attacks
HOW TO: PTSD
HOW TO: ADHD characters
HOW TO: Bad mental illness tropes
HOW TO: Not romanticising heavy topics
HOW TO: Glasses
HOW TO: How to describe eyes
HOW TO: Use of eyes
HOW TO: How to spot a liar
HOW TO: Body language that conveys embarrassment
HOW TO: Body language cheat sheet
HOW TO: Over-repetitive character actions
HOW TO: Helpful things for action writers to remember
HOW TO: Writing techniques for action writers
HOW TO: Interesting villains
HOW TO: Villain motive prompts
HOW TO: Anti-villain motivations
HOW TO: Lovable Villain
HOW TO: Heroes
HOW TO: Fun ways for characters to be wrong
HOW TO: How to blur the lines between good and evil
HOW TO: Character's that slowly descend into madness.
HOW TO: Light and dark
HOW TO: Stealth characters
HOW TO: Types of fight scenes
HOW TO: Guns
HOW TO: Gun terms
HOW TO: Injury
HOW TO: Where to hit in a fight
HOW TO: Writing pain
HOW TO: Writing blood loss
HOW TO: Malnourishment and dehydration
HOW TO: Drowning
HOW TO: Character collapsing
HOW TO: Modes of death
HOW TO: Killing characters
HOW TO: Sad character deaths
HOW TO: Mourning
HOW TO: Trauma leaves an impression
HOW TO: Murder terminology in layman's terms
HOW TO: Murder tips master post
HOW TO: Calming sentences
HOW TO: Creating romantic chemistry
HOW TO: Stages of attraction
HOW TO: Small, intimate moments
HOW TO: Tiny turn-ons
HOW TO: Non-sexual forms of intimacy
HOW TO: Important OTP things to consider
HOW TO: Imagine your OTP Pt. 1
HOW TO: Imagine your OTP Pt. 2
HOW TO: Types of kiss prompt's Pt. 1
HOW TO: Types of kiss prompt's Pt. 2
HOW TO: Best romantic cliché's
HOW TO: Reasons not to kiss them
HOW TO: Childhood best friends/friends to lovers trope
HOW TO: Relationships your readers will ship
HOW TO: Cool ways for men to be gender non-conforming
HOW TO: A list of attractive things to see/read a man doing
HOW TO: Under-represented gender character types
HOW TO: Bad boy vs. abuser
HOW TO: Possessiveness 101
HOW TO: Male characters
HOW TO: Female characters
HOW TO: Female character traits.
HOW TO: Women in History
HOW TO: Historical time periods
HOW TO: Medieval fact file
HOW TO: Historical marrying age
HOW TO: Royalty
HOW TO: Royal titles
HOW TO: Female court positions
HOW TO: Fantasy sub-genres
HOW TO: Fantasy world-building
HOW TO: Top 10 fantasy tropes
HOW TO: 12 things to ask about your magic system
HOW TO: Build a fantasy religion
HOW TO: Poisons
HOW TO: Pills and potions
HOW TO: Potential curse/hex ingredients
HOW TO: Magical tools/objects masterpost
HOW TO: Alchemical Substances
HOW TO: All purpose tools of witchcraft
HOW TO: Candle magic omens
HOW TO: Curses
HOW TO: Magic terminology
HOW TO: Latin phrases to use as incantations Pt. 1
HOW TO: Latin phrases to use as incantations Pt. 2
HOW TO: Hag Stones
HOW TO: Necrobotany
HOW TO: Magical universities
HOW TO: Urban city witch
HOW TO: Mages, healers and druids
HOW TO: Emotions through magic
HOW TO: The faerie star
HOW TO: Locations in Norse mythology
HOW TO: Kill a God
HOW TO: Dragons Pt.1
HOW TO: Dragons Pt.2
HOW TO: Wolves
HOW TO: Vampire's Pt. 1
HOW TO: Vampire's Pt. 2
HOW TO: Vampire's Pt. 3
HOW TO: Zombie ability
HOW TO: Supernatural concepts
HOW TO: A list of great comebacks
HOW TO: Iconic meme dialogue
HOW TO: Movie tropes I love
AU: Instead of coffeeshop AU
AU: Fam Jam AU's
AU: Being forced to share a bed AU
AU: Bed-sharing
AU: Obligatory AU's I really want
AU: AU's I really want to see written
AU: Meet ugly
AU: Arranged marriage AU prompts
AU: Soulmate AU prompts
AU: Fantasy AU prompt
AU: Time travel costume department
AU: Angels
AU: Domestic monsters
AU: Storm magic
AU: New England gothic
AU: Florida gothic
AU: Southern California gothic
AU: Texas gothic
AU: American public school gothic
AU: Mysterious little towns
AU: Random
WRITING PROMPT: Hurt/comfort dialogue prompts
WRITING PROMPT: 119 sarcastic prompts
WRITING PROMPT: 1 (PREVIEW)

WRITING PROMPT: 100 Prompts that will make you cry

489 9 6
By xxdelinquentxx


1 - You're a ghost haunting your own funeral. You see that nobody showed up.

2 - What are these strangers doing in your house? You're confused and angry, it's been a week and it seems like they're not leaving, they're not even paying attention to you. You're a ghost haunting your house without knowing it.

3 - A single man and dog run the Iditarod only to show up with the medicine for his daughter too late. This is his story. 

4 - You fight a noble cause. You complete all the necessary steps. You reach the top of the world doing good deeds to improve other people's lives. Its your first day of retirement and you watch your hard work come undone before your eyes. 

5 - "You can't understand how it is to feel this worthless. I just want it all to go away! I want it all to STOP!"

6 - Despite everything they did, everything they went through. it was made clear that their attempts were pointless, as they were too late to save them.

7 - The only thing left for you to do was to leave forever.

8 - You didn't visit your parent figure in hospital the day before they passed away because you wanted to finish your homework. Less than 24 hours later you get a message from your sibling. "They passed away this morning."

9 - No matter how hard you try, they just laugh at you. You are a joke, a game, you don't matter. You've had enough.

10 - "Robert, you can't just leave! There are fifty kids waiting for you! You promised you'd get us out alive. Us, being me and my 500 grand. Thanks for your help, by the way. Sorry about the boiled alive thing. Chao!"

11 - Why did you leave me? It's been 15 years. Why did you leave? I can't just accept the fact that you showed up on my doorstep expecting an apology. I have a family now. And i can't just let you pull me into your problems. 

12 - Your school, company or organisation has required you to go to therapy for a potentially traumatic incident. This is the session when you decide to tell the story of becoming estranged from your last living relative. 

13 - You can only watch the live news helplessly as thousands of miles away, a tsunami happens in the country your best friend happens to be visiting.

14 - "My head is full of you but my arms are empty."

15 - "Best friends forever," we used to say. But now we aren't even talking anymore. When I see them anywhere, another person is by their side, a new best friends. And I, I am all alone. 

16 - Person A shares something no one knew about them and it's very personal and then they get outcasted by their family and person B is the only one to support them as they cry.

17 - The fire was pretty, swirling shades of blue and green and purple, if you could ignore it was destroying the planet. 

18 - A crying child is the hospital bed looks to you for answers. She wants to know where her mommy is. You have no answer.

19 - " I can't take it anymore, Sam. You don't tell me anything, you've been disappearing for hours, you have phone calls you don't want me to hear, and now you forgot our anniversary. I'm done being patient. I have packed my things, you can keep the car and the house. Goodbye." A small box fell out of his fingers, and a ring with a diamond shining merrily on the band rolled away as the phone stopped playing out the voicemail.

20 - You unlock your iPhone, and, ignoring the shaking of your hand, answer the call. "Hey," you say, not even trying to compress the wound, too far gone you already are, "no I'm fine. I'll be with you in a minute or two..."

21 - I knew it would be there, I saved for this special occasion. It was my deserved reward after a shitty day and it was gone. The cupcake was gone. 

22 - It was finally summer, his favourite season. He sat up in his bed and told you all about what he did last year. He rode his bike everywhere, he played so many games with his friends, he swam in the town park pool... you were the doctor and you had to come in to bring his parents out of the room to talk to them about how the cancer had spread unexpectedly.

23 - You've just had an unpleasant lunch with your family and one of your siblings has just told you you've been horrible during the entire meal. What now?

24 - Your mom starts crying.

25 - You walk down the street and see a familiar face. Your heart starts beating faster and you speed up, because gosh you hadn't seen them in the longest time, but then as you are about to reach them and scream their name, you suddenly stop because remember it can't be them because you're now on the other side of the world and you left the person you love far away...

26 - It's your grandfather's funeral. The place is packed, he was loved by so many. Then a small child puts a cup of coffee by his body. "Have this grandpa it's time to wake up."

27 - The person you love has to be killed in order to save other people. Their death guarantees the other's safety and it's the right thing to do, and they want to do it, but you have to kill them. So you do.

28 - You have the power to bring back the dead. You quickly realise that this comes with draw backs since certain parts of them stay dead. Someone close to you had an accident and this is the most difficult decision of your life. 

29 - The smallest coffins are the heaviest.

30 - Her answer is to gently cup your face with trembling hands. Her smile is gentle and so, so sad. Her breathy whisper reaches your ears, "because love is watching someone die," and shatters your world. 

31 - It had always been her. From the first day you saw her, you knew she was the one, the one you wanted to spend your entire life with. Day by day, that future becomes a little more solid, a little more opaque. Until you watch it shrivel, collapse and die when strangers pulled a frail familiar body out of the wreck. 

32 - You wake up to silence, except for the sound of quiet sobbing and a set of packed suitcases in the hall.

33 - "I'm going to... take a nap... just for a minute. I'll be... right back." He lies down just where he sat. "Could you... hold my hand?", he asks of her. She moves carefully around the table as to not disrupt the game that they will certainly continue. He rests his head on her knees. "Are you there?," he asks. "Yes, I'm here." He hold her hand tighter. "Are you there?", he asks, slowly his voice getting quieter and weaker...

34 - You and your family were in a car crash. You think you'd survived but in the hospital you found you've died and watch your parents, your SO, your children and your friends mourn. You don't leave Earth. You remain there watching over your loved ones, but when they die, they don't join you. You are by yourself forever. 

35 - Driving home, you hit something. Getting out you realise its your pet who went missing a few months ago.

36 - Using the word "almost' is the most melancholic way to describe an upsetting moment. She almost got there in time. He almost caught her. She almost told her. They almost made it. 

37 - You realise animals no longer acknowledge your existence. They can't seem to hear or see you. Your best friend is your dog. 

38 - "I'll never be perfect in my parents eyes, no matter what I do."

39 - When you were 7, you were kidnapped and were held for 15 years. At ages 22, you are finally rescued. Write about your time held in captivity and what it was like when you were saved. 

40 - Time and time again, the prompt guy refuses my Danny DeVito suggestions. 

41 - "You're the worst teacher I ever had, but I don't want you to leave, because you were also the best, in a way."

42 - After always feeling like you were never wanted around, someone decided to tell you how you felt is exactly right and now you have a fire in your heart, you've decided to do something about it. 

43 - He was supposed to protect me. Instead he became the one I needed protection from. 

44 - "We'll finally be able to be together. Just one more year. Then we can finally be happy." That was the last thing you said to your lover before going off to war. Now you find yourself in an empty house, holding one last letter addressed to you and the memories of a lifetime of unfulfilled promises. 

45 - I'm not sure which was worse: keeping it a secret for so many years, or the look on my moms face when I told her.

46 - You moved into a new town a few months ago. One of your friends tells you that he heard your best friend say "there's no point staying in touch, we won't see each other ever again."

47 - "I'm sorry sir, but we're all out of chicken nuggets."

48 - You are a stray dog. Your master lost you 3 years ago. You go on an epic and heart filled journey to find your master, not knowing that they are already dead.

49 - It was the first time your parents said the word proud in relation to you, but you could just feel nothing more than a backhanded compliment. It only made you feel terrible. 

50 - After five years, they were finally back together. But time had torn them apart and as much as they tried, they were unable to love each other again. 

51 - The dark and dreary realisation finally hit you: you're the one in the coffin. This is your funeral. All these people are upset and crying over you.

52 - The war had been ravaging the country for years. You fought for your country, you shed your blood, you did your part. And yet a mistake is going to be your undoing. Write your last letter before your execution to a daughter you will never come back to. 

53 - Your siblings played a game with you, it was called "who can ignore you the most." But it's okay, you knew they love you, because there's still food on the table, and bedtime was still shared in the same room. It's been years, you're in the worst time of your life now, and you feel the need to reach out for help. You hope the game is over by now. 

54 - You've been messaging someone online for years now, chatting with them about this and that every so often. They stopped logging on about a month ago. You have no way of knowing if they're okay, and can only watch and wait for a reply.

55 - You read a late familiars diary from decades ago. Yo knew nothing about them before this moment. Their insight in life is what you need to solve your problems, ad you insight could have helped save their life. 

56 - "I'm so tired." She whispered to him, inches away from jumping off that bridge.

57 - Every time your father leaves for work, you wonder if he's going to die. You make sure to say "I love you" every day before he goes, one day you forget...

58 - You're the last member of your species, your culture, your language. Scientists are around you, waiting for ever bit that you can share, for them to document. They don't care about you. Although you're surrounded by people you're alone.

59 - Your idol, a vegetarian was forcefully fed a hotdog.

60 - Write about the small and big sacrifices mothers make for children. 

61 - You are trapped in a "coma" and can hear everything around you, including friends and family coming in to say goodbye before your life support is taken away due to lack of insurance. They can't prove you aren't brain dead. You can't say goodbye back. 

62 - "The monsters won't come and hurt me will they daddy?" "As long as i'm around," he said giving you a goodnight kiss. "No one will ever hurt you." "You'll come home right? Promise?" "I promise." But he failed to keep his promise. He never came back home and the monsters got you after all.

63 - Tell the story of someone who goes about daily life, well, tries to anyway. It's hard for them because they have severe depression. Tell of their struggles and trials. But also tell of their successes. 

64 - For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn. 

65 - You're the last person in the world and you just lost hope of finding anyone else. 

66 - You went on a great quest with your friends. You've slain monsters together, fended off enemies, and overcame all challenges that came your way. However, your friends perished at the final boss. You've just defeated him, and the reality is sinking in. 

67 - You are the new death. The torch has been passed down to you for reasons you don't know. It is now your job to take the lives of those whose time is up, old or young. Are you prepared to do it? And why were you chosen?

68 - You have become immortal through a game that destroyed your universe. You and your friends recreated you. You remember, they do not. The big bad from the game haunts your dreams. 

69 - You wake up and smell something burning. You think someone is making breakfast. You et u and see your house is one fire and you're the only survivor.

70 - As the crowd around you cheers for your brothers assassin, you hold him in your arms as you watch his life fade. He was the most hated man in the world, a brutal dictator, a tyrant worse than your father ever was. He was the very kind of man who you hated yourself. Yet you're crying, looking down upon his smiling face as he watches the crowd and his killer in his final moments because in the end this was what he promised you. He promised to make a world where no one would have to fight anymore, where there can be peace. And now that the most hated man is dead, there can be. 

71 - After a long fulfilling life, you find yourself in the past, at the lowest point in your life. Your family is gone, your friends don't know who you are and you're left with nothing. What do you do?

72 - There's no pizza in the fridge.

73 - Yo love children and plan to have some one dat, until you find out at a doctors appointment that you are infertile...

74 - It's the effort that counts but its the result that's remembered. Write a story about someone who spent years devoted to their passion but their efforts remained unrecognised, unappreciated, unsuccessful even after their death. 

75 - "... you never really loved me, did you." And the silence said it all.

76 - You are a dog doing into the vet. You have no idea why your owner is crying. You have no idea that it's your last visit. 

77 - Your parents just told you they're getting a divorce.

78 - Your best friend/SO has wronged the gods and has 24 hours to live. You can trade in your life for theirs by putting your essence by the mercy of gods. What do you do?

79 - He spat angrily as he raised what remained of his son "I NEVER LOVED YOU."

80 - Write a story where you build up to one characters death. In the end, that character survives, but another character dies instead. 

81 - You are a time traveller, but you never knew it. The only time you successfully did it was when you were a baby and you've grown up a long time away from your original life. One day, you find a shrine... dedicated to you, by your original family.

82 - You sat across from them at the table, and realised that you both had run out of things to say to each other.

83 - Write a story about an adventurous character who somehow survives all the trouble they get into. These are the memories of an old person, as they remember what they did, with a week or less left before their lat breath. 

84 - Everyone else had moved on further. You have missed your opportunity to move along with them and you are the only one left behind in the grey lands. All because of your most annoying habit.

85 - "But I rescued you from -" "You killed the dragon! You killed my best friend!"

86 - When you were little, you lost your parents in a house fire. Now, you've found out that you have the power to control fire, and are starting to suspect that the fire that killed your parents wasn't a cooking accident after all. 

87 - You spent the past 10 minutes walking back and forth from the lobby to the dance floor in search of them, worrying your ass off. They finally decide to come out and they curse at you for ruining their night.

88 - It was horrible, a pain unbearable to you, the feeling of your soulmate breaking down. The person you once loved, now shattered and scarred from trauma. The worst part of it, you were helpless. All you could do was sit and watch, but you'd get your revenge. On Death himself. 

89 - Your maths teacher gives you a school detention despite the fact that you are 110% innocent of everything you've been accused of. You are forced to stare at a wall for half an hour in silence to think about what you've done. What happens now?

90 - You confess to your parents about your depression and suicidal thoughts, but they shrug it off as you being over dramatic. Months later and the sight of your parents still hurts you deep inside, because they never understood you. 

91 - You're in love with your co worker, who's married and has two kids. He's quitting his job today. He tell's you that he loves you. 

92 - You're in a room full of onions.

93 - You're just about to start your period and you've been craving Chinese food all week. You finally get said Chinese food, get home pull it out of the bag and drop it. You start scream-crying, and your family runs into the room to check on you. What happens next?

94 - Your daughter has been bullied ever since she's started school due to the fact that you aren't the richest of families in a pretty nice neighbourhood. When she begs you to buy a doll every body likes, you know you won't be able to afford it.

95 - You hide in your room and clutch a pillow listening to the abusive language your family members throw at each other. you hear your youngest sibling being physically abused again, and his screams echo throughout the house. 

96 - "We found cancerous tissue. I'm sorry" "What a way to start my first day of college."

97 - And old man is one his death bed, riddled with dementia. Volunteering for the elderly with no family left, you visit, but he mistakes you for son/daughter.

98 - I looked in the mirror and realised who was staring back. it was someone I wasn't content with. 

99 - Write a story with the perspective of an abused cat on their ninth life.

100 - Tell a story about a person who never appears in photographs because they were always behind the camera, looking wistfully at everyones smiling faces. It is only after they're long gone that someone finally notices. Old memories are brought up. 

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