Helpful Story Tips and Tags

Story Tips!

A lot of people have started asking me for helpful tips for writing so I decided to make a book! For all of my tips I will have a basic story to show the difference between the mistake and correct.

The story:

I skip into a room with a bright smile and over to my purple haired boyfriend. I smile brightly at him, "Hi!"

"What do you want Denki?" he asks without looking up from his book.

I pout and look off to the side as I shift in my spot, "Nothing. Sorry for bothering you."

He pauses from where he was flipping the page and looks up at me with a frown. He quickly folds the corner of his book and sets it down on the couch. "You aren't bothering me Denki. What did you want to say?" he asks concerned.

"It's embarrassing," I mumble while looking down at my hands and fidgeting.

"Tell me," he demands but with a kind tone.

I look up and let a nervous giggle slip, "A kiss?"

He smiles at me and waves me closer. I bend down and wrap my arms around his neck. He pecks my lips and I pull away with a bright smile.

"Better?" he asks.

I nod my head.

1. Paragraphs
This one is really important!!!! A lot of people don't space paragraphs properly. I have opened up a story to read but once I saw that it was all one big paragraph I left the story.

So here is when you should start a new paragraph:
a- when the location is changed
b- when time changes
*c- when someone new starts speaking (*this is one I see a lot of people not do and it drives me nuts!)
d- when a new idea is introduced

What not to do:

I skip into a room with a bright smile and over to my purple haired boyfriend. I smile brightly at him, "Hi!" "What do you want Denki?" he asks without looking up from his book. I pout and look off to the side as I shift in my spot, "Nothing. Sorry for bothering you." He pauses from where he was flipping the page and looks up at me with a frown. He quickly folds the corner of his book and sets it down on the couch. "You aren't bothering me Denki. What did you want to say?" he asks concerned. "It's embarrassing," I mumble while looking down at my hands and fidgeting. "Tell me," he demands but with a kind tone. I look up and let a nervous giggle slip, "A kiss?" He smiles at me and waves me closer. I bend down and wrap my arms around his neck. He pecks my lips and I pull away with a bright smile. "Better?" he asks. I nod my head.

2. Characters Speaking
I don't know how to describe this type of writing so I will just show the mistake.

What not to do:

Denki: hi!

Shinsou: what do you want denki?

Denki: nothing. sorry for bothering you.

Shinsou: you aren't bothering me denki. what did you want to say?

Denki: it's embarrassing

Shinsou: tell me

Denki: a kiss?

*they kiss*

Shinsou: better?

Denki: *nods his head*

PLEASE DON'T DO THIS! As I am sure you all can tell, you miss a lot of detail when you write like this. It doesn't really make sense for Denki to apologize in this scenario since we couldn't tell he was nervous to ask Shinsou for a kiss.