BTS Fanfic Work Shoppe

📝How to not turn the reader off - a list of dos and don'ts📝

Did you know that most people decide whether or not they will stick with your book prior to reading the actual story? In the world of Wattpad, covers, titles, and blurbs/synopses are important in catching readers. If they decide to read, the first three chapters are the most important and if you don't grab their attention, they may very well leave. To keep people from leaving, keep these checklists in mind.

Dos:

- Have an engaging cover. Even a terribly written book can become popular if the cover is good. If you cannot make one yourself, commission someone to do one for you. In fact, I have a cover shoppe on my account specifically for Armies, regardless of the ship. Just check it out if you need help.

- Have a concise description. If your description is too long, people may not read it. If it's just one of those "I can't come up with one. Read to find out," you can also turn people away. If you find this part hard, don't worry. I'll be teaching about blurbs in another section.

- Use tags to your advantage. But make sure they are spelled correctly! Also, try and use some more niche (less used, but specific to your story) so that it'll be easier for your story to rank!

- Make it clear who the narrator/speaker is. If you're using multiple points of view, make it clear who it is that the readers are seeing! It shouldn't be confusing unless you aim to confuse them.

- Add keywords to your title. Adding something like the ship name, the member name, or even "BTS fanfic" after the title can trigger buzz words so that more people can view your story and possibly show up in their recommendations.

Don'ts:

- Have typos in your blurb/cover. Someone may see that and go, "they can't write" and turn away. Also, if you decide to do one of those cutesy/quirky books where it's all in lowercase, that can turn readers (like me) off. If that's your style, that's fine. Just understand that you're limiting your audience right away.

- Have super long paragraphs. I'm going to have a section specifically on paragraphs because it's a big issue on Wattpad. If your paragraphs are too long or each chapter is one, long paragraph, you're going to turn readers off right off the bat. The lack of formatting comes across as lazy to some and very elementary. Just don't do it.

- Head hop. Head hopping is when the point of view keeps changing without warning within the same chapter or worse—within the same paragraph. It confuses people and makes the story unclear and messy. You can change POVs (point of views) when there is a clear shift marked and/or a new chapter has started. Just make it obvious whose POV it is!

- Have multiple people speak in one paragraph. When a new person speaks, a new paragraph is started. It is okay to have short paragraphs! Dialogue is often that way. Crack open a published physical book and you will see that. When multiple people talk in one paragraph, it confuses the readers. Also, a lot of Armies are international and that added confusion when they're reading something not in their native language is very stressful.

- Use slurs like it's okay. What I mean by this is that don't use slurs in prose (the writing that isn't dialogue) like it's commonplace and okay. You're just going to offend people. I can't tell you how many stories I've left because the author used the r-slur as a synonym for stupid/dumb. It's rude. Keep in mind, that you shouldn't use them in dialogue either unless it's very clear that what is being said is not okay. It may be best to add content warnings in such cases because words have more power than you think.

- Be a solo stan/anti. BTS is composed of 7 members. Haters won't get good press. Some people may even report your story/account. So just don't do it.✨

More lessons and advice to come.