Story Ideas

Writing Tips

So my first ever tip! This is exciting and one that I think really helps.

Being an English major and wanting to become a playwright/author, I have found it extremely helpful to get a pen and notebook and write out each significant event I want to occur within the novel, rather than just winging it. I wrote a book once and totally winged it and it was the definition of cringe-worthy! Nothing connected. Nothing made sense. I got so bored just writing, that I ended up killing off a character to make it a little more bearable for me. Now having taken multiple AP English classes and have expanded my range of books outside of the Twilight Saga, I am in the process of writing a book and a couple scripts with the story pre-planned and it is super helpful to have it all jotted down before actually writing it.

So especially on a website like Wattpad where each chapter is published at a time, it can be super obvious to the reader if the author is just making up the story as they go, or if they have it planned. Having it already planned helps especially with foreshadowing and character development. You want to be able to let the readers have at least a slight chance at being able to guess what is going to happen and you should know where your characters to be before you start your book: whether they are going to be a round or flat character. Now time for an English lesson! A round character is a character that evolves over the course of the book; a flat character is a character that does not evolve and is basically the exact same as they were at the beginning of the book. An example of round character is Ginny Weasley. She starts off SUPER shy and nervous, especially around Harry and that's all we ever see from her. Then over the course of the series she becomes much more brave and takes risks that I would be scared out of my wits to take and by the end of the series she wins the heart of her 6+ year crush, fights in war, gets cursed, and almost gets expelled. A flat character is someone like Mr. Flich, also from Harry Potter, who literally just complains and cleans and at one point has an unrealistic crush on a character who is basically Satan in pink. Over the course of seven years he does not change at all. He has a bit of complex parts about him but if you think he's anything but flat, you are sadly mistaken. Don't @ me.

So before you just click on the "Create new story" button. Write down what you want your character's names to be, what their names mean, what you want their personalities to be like, who their antagonist is and what they're like, etc. Also give them each a background story, especially the main character and antagonist. Don't just make the antagonist a bitch for no reason. Give them a story because everyone has a story. Even if you don't include any of their story in your book it helps. Maybe they came from an abusive home and so maybe they are the most horrible person at school because it makes them feel powerful and they cling to that because at home they feel powerless. You don't have to explain their story, personally I love it when authors do, but even giving the antagonist a background will show more complexity in your writing regardless if you actually explain what it is. You can only understand someone once you know their story. Also write down the exposition, rising action, CLIMAX, falling action, and resolution. The rising action is going to be the majority of the story, so it is super important to write that down and make sure it builds up to the climax. They're is also going to be a bunch of events within the rising action that will seem like the climax of the story, but it just builds to the actual climax that leaves the audience shook, so make sure you include those events without making the story plateau right after that event.

Honestly it may seem like a hassle, but I think I actually enjoy writing the idea for the story more than actually writing the story. Once you start, it's hard to stop. The first time I did this, I was doing it for a science fiction book, and I got so into it I got carried away and lost track of time that I was actually taking notes for five hours and that was only the first day of taking notes. I ended up writing notes for that book to become a trilogy. Plus doing this just makes you super pumped to start writing it and it's the first step to falling in love with the characters. Because you don't want to write a story with characters that annoy the hell out of you.

Lastly, have fun. Writing is just telling someones story whether it's yours or not. Someone is going to relate to the characters you develop so do them justice and you can't do that if you hate what your writing. Write your story and get carried away with it. Lose track of time. Fall in love with it. Be proud of the work you did.