Warriors Fanfics: Specialized Writing Guide

BASE | Live Updates vs. a First Draft

5 June, 2019

This section covers one of the unique situations the internet has brought upon the literary world: whether to write a book in full before publishing it, or to update it little by little on a hosting site like Wattpad. As a Base section, it has little to no examples drawn from canon Warriors.

Let me get my opinion out of the way. I would rather every writer on the internet wait to release their stories until after they have written them from beginning to end. The internet has given amateur writers the ability to publish chapter one without having written chapter two. Wattpad, fanfiction_net, and other writing-focused websites facilitate this method of writing with built-in word processors. In the Warriors fandom specifically, it is the only way to finish a book... or to not finish a book. I see so many stories published, but none updated. Nor do they get rewritten when updates are years apart Nor should updates be years apart! Some stories are just not posted at all, even if a cover and character list has been made for them. Most stories are abandoned halfway through. All this stems from updating your story as it is being written.

But that is just my opinion. Now that I have gotten that out of the way, it is time to discuss why the Warriors fandom (and to an extent other fandoms of younger readers/writers) do when it comes to posting work on Wattpad or other story hosting sites.

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PUBLISHING WHILE WRITING

Updating our Warriors fanfictions is such an easy task. All we have to do is put a cover up (usually a picture of a cat with a script typeface title), add a short, ambiguous description so that you can change the plot later, and post the first thing that comes to our mind. Almost every one of these fanfictions start with a character index like the canon novels, especially if non-canon clans are used. And just like that, the first part of your fanfiction is done. Despite my passive aggressive bashing of this method of writing, I do know and understand why some people write this way. There are definitely benefits.

Time flexibility is one big reason to publish a story as you write it. It takes a long time to write a book, let alone one you like. What if you do not have three to four hours of uninterrupted time to sit there and write a chapter or two of a first draft. So you type it directly into a cloud word processor like the one on this site and get halfway through. You can write for as little as 20 minutes and not finish a chapter, only to come back later to do so and post it for all your followers to see. Not having time to write is an important factor on whether you actually write something or not. If you literally write whenever and wherever you can, little by little, you are more inclined to finish.

Motivation from your following's feedback is another advantage to updating a story while it is being written. Assuming you are not a professional paid writer, time is almost a non-factor when motivating you; there is no deadline. When users respond to what you have written in chapter one, you are more likely to finish chapter two. You will make time to finish chapter two. We want people to read what we write, ideally. If they have something to say about it, more power to you in regards to motivation. Anything that keeps a story from being abandoned.

This may sound like I am endorsing ego stroking, but it is not necessarily a bad thing to write something that you want others to see and discuss. And it is definitely not the only motivation people have had for writing. Some poets have dozens or even hundreds of poems surface decades after their deaths. Aristotle spoke and wrote his philosophy simply to explain why he was right; the fact that people listened and believed him was a bonus. Writing to your fans only becomes a problem when you write to please them. Do not do this. There are enough Jayfeather x [your OC] fanfictions out there, written for nothing more than likes and views. And they generate a lot of likes and views, just as they do in other fandoms.