Do's and Don'ts of Writing On Wattpad

Romance Fictions

1. Do...... develop your character fully. In a lot of romances, the main character has barely any defining traits. They normally fit a common trope. 

For example, the main character might be a struggling teacher who's very meek. Well, why is she meek? Was there an event in her life that has made it that way?  Also, besides being meek, what is she like? Does she push people away because of this? Does she have many friends? 

Ask yourself, why? Readers want compelling characters that have multiple dimensions to them. Have a strong backstory and let that fuel emotions within the scenes.

2. Don't........use these phrases. Like, please, seriously don't use these words unless it's necessary: 

- 'their tongues fought for dominance.' Wow, we get it, they're French kissing, and they have a weird relationship. Enough is enough. 

- 'fireworks exploded.' 

This one has been way way way too overused. 

- 'he looked like an Abercrombie & Fitch model.' 

Does the character wear a lot of Abercrombie & Fitch? If so, this kind of makes sense???? But if not, how would the character even know?

- 'his minty breath fanned my face.' 

Is the character's breath really bad or something? Do they eat breath mints at night? This one is pretty annoying. 

- 'I bumped into a wall. Oh wait, it wasn't a wall, it was a person.' 

Okay, how do you not realize that it's not a wall? Is it because the person is just really muscly? 

- 'kissing in the rain.' 

This happens a lot in movies, but honestly. How do they not get sick??? Does the warmth of their love keep them hot??

3. Do......... be careful when choosing a good subgenre. And by subgenre, I mean the smaller parts. Like the big genre is romance, but is it billionaire romance, paranormal romance, historical romance, or something else?

4. Don't........... stress the cliches, but try to come up with a unique idea. I know it sounds contradictory, but some parts of the cliche aren't easy to avoid. Forbidden Fruit, Love Triangles, Enemies to Lovers, those are just a few. 

Those classic plot points are great starting points. From there, you can make your own unique ideas. 

Some things that I'd like to see more of:

- non cisgender characters finding love

- non white characters finding love

- more homosexual love!

5. Do......let your characters have a character arc that we can all follow and actually happens. I find it SO annoying if the character becomes worse or is the exact same. Let each scene show their change and what causes it and what might make them reset it. Please have one that makes sense though. 

Overused Prompts(yes I know I did overused phrases too, but there are way too many overused things in romance in general):

- Best Friends to Lovers

- Billionaire meets poor girl, and then they live happily today! (after some wonderful blackmail of course)

- Mafia boss, innocent girl, meet and fall in love. But oh no! Enemies are out to get them! So horrible and honestly, so boring. 

- Someone(normally the girl) is forced into an abusive marriage and then falls in love with him? I can't read books like that (not very pg for a 13 year old), but let's just say a classmate kind of reads these weird novels(don't worry they're older than me), and most of the time, they're just super messed up. 

- Employer/teacher/coach falls in love with coworker/student and then they live happily ever after. These are just plain creepy, tbh. 

- A weird text is sent to somebody that wasn't supposed to get it. Blackmail happens, romance happens, happily ever after. 

- Some sort of second chance romance happens. Bitter exes, bitter divorcees, more stuff like that. 

And that's all for today!