𝖧𝗈𝗐 𝖳𝗈 𝖶𝗋𝗂𝗍𝖾 𝖺 𝙋.𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙧 𝙁𝙖𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

21| Proper Formatting

Hello guys, yes, today I'll be teaching y'all how to properly format many things: Dialogue, paragraphs, scenes, and yes, even your book.

Let's start small, crawl before we walk if you will. Sentences; they've got many forms. Compound, Complex, run-on. In your writing, you need all of these mixed together. I don't mean in just one scene, I mean in one small and tiny paragraph, no matter how lengthy or minuscule it is.

Think of it like this: a box of regular donuts is boring, but when you add special flavors and sprinkles, it becomes exciting, appetizing. You want that.

You want different paragraphs. You want different sentence lengths. You want some change. I want some coffee. This is getting kind of boring. I know it is. It's getting boring to write. Dear Lord send help.

See how agonizing that was to read? So humdrum, such a bore. That is simply because all those sentences lack punctuation gaps, lacked spicy words, pauses, and they all had somewhere between four and six words in them. Meanwhile, in what you have just read, the sentences have progressed to pauses and better vocabulary. The amount of words per sentence is different. It varies. You want that, your readers want that, your book wants it. It's a way to keep your readers interested in what you're saying, keeping them tuned in. Mix them up. Change the number of syllables and words in each sentence, because, unless you're holding suspense, it gets boring.

So, don't be scared to put breaks into your sentence... but not too many. Read it aloud, if it sounds run-on, fix it. And don't forget those spicy words.

Next, paragraphs!

Whenever a different person speaks, make a new one.

Whenever the 'camera' goes to someone/place different, make a new one.

Whenever a setting changes, for the love of God, make a new one!

You get the point. Here's an example:

Sarah looks at John. "I'm Hungry," She says. "Well, Hungry," John replies, "I'm John."

See what's wrong? Good.

Sarah glances over at Joe as her stomach growls. Longingly, she held her stomach as they walked past a McDonalds. "Joe, I'm Hungry."

With a snicker on Joe's jesting face, he replies, "Hi, Hungry, I'm Joe. Besides, we've got food at home, and I'm broke."

Much, much better.

Anytime you change the setting, character, place, time, etc, you indent. Any time the theoretical writer camera moves, you indent. Any time you think you need to indent, you better indent.

And let's not forget, within those paragraphs, you need commentary.

"Hi Joe." Sarah said.

"Hey Sarah. What's up?"

"The sky," Sarah joked.

See that? That's boring. There's no commentary, no description. It's boringgggg.

"Hi Joe!" Sarah chimes. Her hands fiddled nervously together as she tried to hide her gleaming smile and blushing cheeks. She's always liked, Joe. He's been her crush since freshman year, and nothing anyone said could change that.

Joe picked up on her nerves. He tried to act relaxed too, just to calm Sarah down, settle her nerves. "Hey, Sarah. What's up?"

"The sky," she hesitated.

Joe rolls his eyes playfully. He and Sarah have joked like that for as long as he could remember.

Finally, book and scene placement. Remember a long long time ago? (August, I believe) WELL, during my instant romance I explain that you need to develop things between your characters.

And
I
Say
It
Again.

You need to develop things between your characters.

Slowly.

Because this ain't some kinda 'the first paragraph of the book and Peter Parker is the love of my life who I'll marry and have eleven kids with' because no. Don't make things random like that, like???? What???

Develop          Slowly           Please.

I'm Amelia Banks. My family just moved to New York a month ago because my father died and I met Peter Parker who just found out I have powers and now we're in a fight because he's my best friend and-

Let me cut you off there, Meils.

Ok.

See how that was so fast? She just sprang that on you! GUESS WHAT YOUR PROBABLY IN YOU BED READING THIS HOW DO I KNOW BECAUSE I KNOW...... you didn't like that did you? Do you feel attacked? Yeah. Think of everything like that.

So, first things first, Amelia is actually one of my characters and I have a book about her published right now (go read it and show it some love) called Human Nature. She's actually not like that at all, plus the books written in the third person. But if Amelia did write it, she'd write it like this;

The New York sky always amazes me. At first, I hate how the perfect, fielded golden skyline is replaced by cement towers, but then the sky turns lavender, with those same cement towers turning into a mystical dark silhouette, the cities light gleaming against the purple sky.

My admiration of the sky is broken by Blake's annoying ringtone. I love this girl to death but she's gotta change it..... I don't have permission to even though it's my phone.

Here, it says.

Next thing I know, that girl is busting down my door with a bag of pretzels...........

Blah blah blah you get the point. Plus I don't want to give out any spoilers of the book so you go read it yourself.

See how slow that was, how I took time to get to the point and gave you description and commentary and such, how I didn't mention that Amelia's best friends with Peter? In fact, Amelia's actual book starts off in Texas (because she's Texan). Don't rush things. Everyone will like it better. It keeps them hooked, wanting more.

So, start domestically, give a setting and a small glimpse of the OC's life. Then, give some foreshadowing and a tiny bit of action. Start it. Finish it. Keep it slow. Leave a cliffhanger. Because who doesn't

Love those.

Anyways, that wraps it up. If you have any questions, feel free to PM us and we'll answer any question about writing you have.

And, for the fourth time, don't forget to check out my book, Human Nature!! It's the first actual story I posted so, yeah, I'm pretty proud. Have a great day/night, my friends!