Advice to My Fellow Wattpaders
Recently I have decided to branch out from explaining what’s wrong to how to fix it so I decided to write an advice section. I’ve chosen to do this because my friend has recently joined wattpad and even though she doesn’t want to admit it she knows I’m right. So here we go, a new list:
1. Create a Cover: I usually don’t like to read things without covers on them because I think it’s lazy not to put one on which shows me that their writing will probably be lazy to. Plus, a cover gives you more insight when picking what to read next. And I like to see what people come up with.
2. Have a catchy title: The thing with creating a good title is to make it mysterious, but not one worded (And not ten worded either). Don’t let the title give everything away but give a hint to a big story factor.
3. Describe the story in the description box: When I pick a story I look in the description box to see if it will be worth my time.
4. Don’t rush into things: The worse thing to me is knowing what the plot is right away, give at least three chapters to give background information. When you rush right into things people can guess the ending and give up on the story, so draw it out.
5. Be Detailed: Think of your readers as detectives and your story as a crime scene. We want to know everything, we’re nosey little things so don’t leave anything out. Give background information; tell us about the characters whole world.
6. Give your characters depth: This goes along with background information the more we know about the character the more we can feel their emotions and think of how they react to certain situations. It’s part of the visualization process. Tell us about their family, their past, their hobbies, are they good at anything, do they have any secrets?
7. Make your work flow: There are a lot of great ideas for stories but when I start reading one and the sentences are choppy or things don’t click I’ll give up ad read something else because I don’t want to have to force the visualization process I want it to come to me.
8. If you’re writing a comedy be funny: I hate reading things classified as humor and the story doesn’t make me laugh. If you’re writing something that’s supposed to be funny be funny theirs almost no restrictions on wattpad so don’t think about it do it. I’m gonna go off point real quick to give you a situation: one day a boy said he liked me but this boy never really talked to me before (besides small talk and stuff because I talk a lot and I’m near him a lot so he’s victim to my blabber) and he’s a nice guy and he’s cute so I was like thanks but instead of telling me you like me why don’t you show me how much you like me and he did of course he started talking to me first and hanging out with me and he impressed me ;). So don’t write a comedy if it’s not funny (even though a Shakespearean comedy was classified as a comedy just because nobody died in it).
9. Have good grammar and writing skills: I will not read something that sounds like a two year old wrote it and I’m not the only one who thinks like that. It’s annoying and I lose brain cells.
10. Have a story within a story: It’s like inception kind of. Once you’ve introduced your main storyline create a back story with a corresponding storyline just different character with different character information. This provides an easy slide into a sequel.
11. Have more than one problem: Keep one huge problem but then have problems around it. This gives more insight and keeps people wanting to read.
12. Give subtle detail: This leans more towards setting and how everything should look. When you describe how a character or place looks but don’t be blunt about it.
That’s all for right now I’m tired. I hope writers’ new or old find this advice helpful and give them better ratings on wattpad.
This advice won’t do much for a short story because it’ll make it a bit longer than a short story.
Have a good night. This is Nikki signing off. Buh bye.
