All About the Werewolf

Getting the Basics Right

So here we go, for some reason I feel as if I'm stepping off the edge of a cliff... Ready to drop a thousand feet. Where did this feeling of dread come from? I have no idea, probably the sudden realization that I'm up against a wall trying to convince the murderous mob of aliens that I come in peace?

Meh, here we go!

Let's start at the best place, the beginning!

You can't just one day say, 'I'm going to write a werewolf story!' And think that the plot is just going to fall into your lap... I mean, you can say that, but the plot isn't going to magically fall out of the sky and hit you in the head. 

What you need to do (after proclaiming that) is sit down and brainstorm, write down little bubbles on a piece of paper and fill them with things that you WANT to happen in your story, what you DON'T WANT to happen, what you NEED to happen and what you'd LIKE to happen. Then simply connect the dots, make smaller bubbles and add events that can drive the plot... Create sub-plots if need be.

Once you've got the gist of what you want to happen then write it all out in a list, from start to end. It's during this time that you can rearrange the timeline to suit what you want.

Names/ dates/ places and facts are also important. If you start writing your story without planning it, then at least (for the love of god) write the names down somewhere you'll see and remember! Even write the character list at the start of your word document (or whatever else you use) because one thing that puts me off reading is when you call a main character Hamish at the beginning and Stefan two chapters later.

It's not cool and it REALLY sucks when people start pointing it out.

TITLE

So you've done your planning, right? The next step is a title, I advise you use something that doesn't sum up your plot. Sure, you'll attract a crowd with a title like, 'The Alpha Rejected Me, So I Beat His A$$' will get you loads of attention, but it won't get you as much attention as titles like... 'Skin,' 'The Darkness,' 'My Dark Knight,' 'Wanting Jocelyn,' and all those other popular titles.

Seriously, if you go and look at the What's Hot list, you'll see that the majority of the titles in the first ten pages are either short or only hint at the overall plot. Please understand that long titles are kinda boring and if a reader can't get through your title without cringing or looking away fro the screen then how are they going to get through your book?

SPELLING IS IMPORTANT!

Regected, rouge, alfa.

You would not believe how common these spelling mistakes are, go and search WP for those words and you may or may not be as surprised as I. I am by no means an English expert, but holy shit! 

CHECK YOUR SPELLING.

If your title is also along the lines of, 'The Rouge Mate,' 'Regected By the Alpha,' 'My Alfa,' then you need a dictionary.... Or auto-correct. If you didn't see anything wrong with those three examples just there, you need to go and peruse a dictionary.

COVERS NEED TO LOOK GOOD

Yeah, I can hear what you're all saying. 'Don't judge a book by it's cover,' right?

Well sorry, but I do. A good cover tells readers that the author has taken time out to either get a cover made or make one themselves. The cover doesn't have to be perfect, but the less pixalated and stretched it looks the better. If a cover looks like it has had a lot of work put into it then I'm more likely to read the story, good covers more or less say that the author wasn't in a rush to publish and has put time and effort into not only the cover but also the story plot, grammar and title.

I'm not saying ALL good covers hide good books, but I do think that a lot of them do. There are some great books out there with terrible covers, I've been surprised by that here on Wattpad. It makes me look twice at a book.

*      *      *

When you get all those basics right then you're ready to write a story :D

So please! Instead of rushing a story so that you can get reads/ votes fast, why not take a bit of time, exercise restraint and work a little harder on what you're doing? You'll get more reads/ votes over a longer period of time if you take your time.