Writing Tips and Techniques (Writing Help)

General Tips and Techniques

        Here are some random writing tips and tricks that I've picked up in my writing career for all of the Wattpad authors out there. These are in no particular order. I'll add to this as I think of more. 

-I can't stress this enough. Keep your grammar and spelling as perfect. as. you can. Sorry, but if your story is poorly written, people will give up trying to decipher what you mean and move on (Wattpad has a spellchecker). I know from experience, if I see poor spelling and grammar right away, I won't continue. This isn't good because you might have a great story, and if people turn away at the beginning, they'll never get hooked. Google Chrome has a free extension called Grammarly that will check your spelling and grammar.

-If you're one of those people that can't stand silence and has to have music playing (like me) when you're writing or working, listen to instrumental music. That way, you get the background noise, but the lyrics don't distract. I have a good list on Youtube. I posted the link in my description. 

-Never, never, never ever use text talk in your writing. No "u," no "2" instead of "too," no "idk"s or "gtg"s! As soon as people see this, you will not be taken seriously as a writer. 

-Be descriptive! Others can't see what you do unless you help them to!

-Try to keep things realistic. If your character is in an upsetting situation, they wouldn't be experiencing it without emotion. They also wouldn't do something that is against their personality. Ex: a character that's normally shy won't be making sarcastic comments when battling.

-First person narrators don't have to tell the truth. Sometimes they don't have all of the information, and that might make their relaying of the story not entirely true. The same goes for third person limited.

-I notice a lot of people with high school settings have abnormally mean and angry teachers... Does anyone actually know people like that? From my experience, all of my teachers are nice. Even if they're strict, they're not shouting and ordering people around and giving loads of homework because it makes them happy to see their student's misery. Remember, they have to grade all that. 

-Spoken words don't have to be grammatically correct. Typically, people don't speak in grammatical perfection, so why make your character's do it? Write fragmented sentences! Have your peeps say "somthin' " rather than "something!" It gives your characters personality/individuality. Just know that if you start doing dialect, you have to be consistent throughout the whole story.

-Read your work out loud. Sometimes you can't tell if it sounds weird unless you're hearing it. It's also easier to catch misspelled words.

-Keep things interesting. Think about what other people would find entertaining to read. Don't keep things slow for too long or your readers may get bored. Likewise, try not to go too fast (one of my problems). 

-Read! Learn to emulate the way published authors write. Eventually, you'll develop your own style.

-Don't overuse "and." That's what commas are for!

-Don't be repetitive. Sometimes if you use the same word even twice in the span of a few sentences, it can sound repetitive. Synonyms are your friend. Ps, there's a wonderful synonyms option on Word if you highlight a word and right click. Grammarly will also give you synonym options if you double click a word.

-No run on sentences! If you can't say it out loud without taking a breath, your sentence is too long. You don't have to fit everything into one sentence. There's no limit to how long your story is. Divide lengthy sentences into two.