Writing a Warriors Fanfiction: The Complete Guide

Formatting

One of the biggest turn-offs from a story is bad formatting. No one will ever be able to comfortably read your story if you 'organize' the text into some jumbled mess! A big part of formatting is adding paragraph breaks at the right time. When should we make a new paragraph?

First, let's establish what we're going to do when we need a new paragraph. Will we do a space, or an indentation? The example below will demonstrate space paragraphing.

Spottedwing quietly walked amongst the forest. The air was cold, and it was even colder with the paw-depth fog surrounding the ground. As the tabby she-cat crept through the environment, the mist became thicker and thicker until the fog was up to her belly. The bark on the trees were partially damp and the grass was fairly wet, while small droplets of water lined the surface of leaves. Even though Spottedwing was used to the setting, she still felt chills down her spine on occasions.

Suddenly, Spottedwing heard a tiny noise. She dipped her head under the layer of mist and sniffed around for the cause, knowing that it was probably scampering prey. As she caught a scent and followed it, Spottedwing eventually came across an unsuspecting squirrel sniffing in a tiny clearing. Spottedwing silently got into a hunting position and put energy in her legs. A few moments later, she pounced, and without seeing very clearly, felt her paws in the squirrel's fur, and its body attempting to run away.

In this method, you press return/enter twice, leaving a line of space after each paragraph. This is the most common and popular method. It's easier to read. However, spacing can get out of control and sometimes there are practically miles between each paragraph. It also doesn't really feel like a book, let alone a Warriors one. But indentation does provide this feeling:

Spottedwing quietly walked amongst the forest. The air was cold, and it was even colder with the paw-depth fog surrounding the ground. As the tabby she-cat crept through the environment, the mist became thicker and thicker until the fog was up to her belly. The bark on the trees were partially damp and the grass was fairly wet, while small droplets of water lined the surface of leaves. Even though Spottedwing was used to the setting, she still felt chills down her spine on occasions.
Suddenly, Spottedwing heard a tiny noise. She dipped her head under the layer of mist and sniffed around for the cause, knowing that it was probably scampering prey. As she caught a scent and followed it, Spottedwing eventually came across an unsuspecting squirrel sniffing in a tiny clearing. Spottedwing silently got into a hunting position and put energy in her legs. A few moments later, she pounced, and without seeing very clearly, felt her paws in the squirrel's fur, and its body attempting to run away.

*Note that the first paragraph is not indented. At the beginning of a book (not chapter), the rule is that you don't indent the very first paragraph.

This method works by pressing return/enter once and then pressing the tab button or adding 4 or so spaces. It's a little hard to read, but it really captures the feeling of a Warriors story. Ultimately, the choice is up to you.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's look into when you should make a new paragraph. Some people sort of just know naturally when to change, but I have seen a lot of stories where it was all shoved into one paragraph. Basically, make a new paragraph when you sort of move on to a new subject. This makes your writing clear and more cohesive. The subject change often isn't very large, but enough to have a sort of natural pause between sentences. If you're having trouble knowing when to make paragraph breaks, try and read other stories and study to see when they make new paragraphs.

There is one strict rule for when your do paragraph breaks though: If you've just written some dialogue with nothing after it and another character is about to speak, you have to make a paragraph break. This is a huge rookie mistake, so be sure to keep that in mind.

Another thing you should do is add * * * (or at least a larger line of space) between paragraphs that take place in vastly different times. The three asterisks show that a long time is passing, or that we're switching to a new POV.