Writers' Hotline

Advice for a Beginner ~ @tangledinthetruth

@tangledinthethruth Was one of the most prolific Islamic Romance writers on Wattpad back in 2014 era. Unfortunately, she is no longer on Wattpad (or maybe she is and has changed her username...?)

❣

I love writing, obviously. I can help you in some ways but those ways would not include a promo or reading your book. Not because I'm a jerk or being arrogant (I hope not!) but because I hardly have time to write my own stories and reading/helping you would be very hard at the moment. I guess I can just reference people to this post from now on.

* DISCLAIMER: These are mostly based off of how I analyse stories and are in no way right or wrong. They're my opinion. Don't take any of these personally because I know how much it can hurt when someone criticizes your work. If you are proud of it, then forget what anyone else says (including me!). *

✒ Huge titles for a book are never a good idea. Four words maximum should be good. Also, don't make the title meaningless (example: My Kidnapper Kidnapped Me and I'm In Love With Him). That is really unnecessarily long and no matter how good the story is, readers are thrown off by the title.

✒ Speaking of titles, keep your chapter titles short and sweet. Again, the four word rule is a good base for this. Oh, and capitalizing each first letter usually works out nicely.

✒ Grammar is key. Now I don't mean typos because if we look at it that way, I shouldn't even be typing this post right now (DANG AUTOCORRECT!)! Haha, no. Personally, I find it really hard to read a book with grammatical errors. It gets irritating and distracts the reader from the story line.

✒ Format. Basic things like a new paragraph when a different character speaks, correctly using quotation marks, having a set way to transition (example: I use ~ for a little bit of time passing and ** or — for a lot of time), and switching POV's effectively.

✒ Looking up the cliches. I messed up badly on this one for my first story! I had no idea that Zahra was such a common name among Muslim authors on Wattpad. 

And oh my God do not create a Mary Sue. Learn from my mistakes! My best suggestion to avoid cliches is to read a little bit before starting a book. Just so you can collect a little bit of information as to what is common in stories and how you can make it different.

Google a Mary Sue so you know what to avoid when creating characters.

✒ Research the topics you're going to incorporate into your stories. I've learned so much from writing on Wattpad, so it's beneficial to you and your readers. You might even teach them something new! Also, researching is important so haters don't get all up in your (beautiful) face.

✒ Haters bring me to my next point . . . DO NOT LET THEM GET YOU DOWN! 

For me, I'm always afraid that the "Haram Police" will come get me if I make a slight mistake. If you are writing about a Muslim, I feel you, okay? There will always be that one person pointing out one little thing you got wrong. 

That isn't always a bad thing! I've learned a lot from my readers, actually! They've cleared up some confusion for me too!

But no one is a perfect Muslim in real life so why write about one in a "real world". It isn't a real world then, is it? Don't let them get to you, sister (no pun intended)! Together, we can defeat the haram police!

✒ Oh, another tip for haters! Just delete a hate comment if you get one. Don't reply. Recently, I've decided to just hit the delete button and continue on as if it never happened. Trust me, you'll feel a lot better knowing you handled it maturely!

✒ I am not sponsored by Wattpad when I say this but get the app if you have a smartphone or iPad. It's so much easier. If you suddenly feel inspired to write but aren't near a computer, just type it on your phone. It seems weird at first but it's really helpful. You can always edit it out on a laptop before releasing it. I used to do that but then life got in the way.

✒ When you start off, the fans won't pour in right away. I honestly didn't think I would even get any readers. I just read some books and started talking to authors slowly. From there, I formed some connections which led to bonds. Those two or three friends read my stories and then went on to vote. Their followers saw it so they added it to their libraries. One thing led to another and I was getting readers. 

(This was when Newsfeed was a thing, so it might not necessarily work now. The equivalent nowadays would be to interact with your readers in comments/author's notes, and leave comments in other people's works ~Amu)

✒ If I can give you one last tip, it's this:

-I never started out with the intent of getting readers. Sure, I wanted a few but never did I imagine this many. I had only ever imagined like fifteen people who read my stories, commented and became friends with me but no. 

It's amazing. I'm not even as popular as most on here but I really feel at home when I log on. Yes, it's good to set your goals high and dream big but if you're so busy dreaming and trying hard to get people to follow you, you're missing the whole point! 

The point is to write and have fun. 

I literally wrote seven or eight chapters within my first five days on Wattpad (later deleted because I wanted to change the story and I'm glad I did, haha).

And if you ever need inspiration, I used to be an unnoticed reader to one of my favorite authors on Wattpad and now she's my closest friend on there. There are a lot others that I'm close to now too. If you can't find anyone or are afraid your favorite authors won't be as inviting (which they probably will be because you are an awesome human being!), just come to me. I may not even be your favorite but I'm willing to listen. :)

I hope this was helpful enough.