Do you dream of writing a novel, but not sure where to start? Have you been working on a book for ages but feel stuck? Despite all your best efforts, do you feel overwhelmed? Here's a clutter-free guide for planning and writing your novel right the first time. This guide is broken into three 30-minute parts, with every chapter being a super-fast read so you can fit in reading whenever you can find a free sixty seconds. In Part One, you'll learn how to: • Plan and organize your story ideas by breaking them out into easy, digestible bites • Use the simple yet mighty Little Ups approach to confidently write your first draft and subsequent drafts Part Two gives you a no-nonsense approach to revising and polishing your book. You'll learn: • Self-edit your novel with a calm, motivated mindset • Polish your story so that it outshines the competition And, Part Three answers your publishing questions and gives you the tools and confidence you need to have your story published. In this part, you'll learn: • Prepare your novel for the publishing process, whether that's pitching to agents, selling to editors, or self-publishing • Query agents who can sell your story to the right publishing house • Self-publish your story as a professional-grade novel The Tidy Guide to Writing a Novel is a quick read that's jam-packed with information essential for writers at any stage in their careers. ***NOTE: THIS IS A WORK-IN-PROGRESS. ALL FEEDBACK WELCOME!***

Highest Ranking: #1 in Non-Fiction [27.9.16] How many Kylies are there on this site? Do all of them have to have messy buns? Why does everyone love Starbucks so much? Why does every heroine have to have some sad back story? Why does everyone have to look like a model? Is there some really small gene pool that I don't know about which means everyone looks the same? Where's the fun in having a boring character?! Here's how to make a character that will surprise everyone.

'Books are uniquely portable magic.' -Stephen King. So you want to write a book, huh? Looks like you've come to right place.

This is written to help you after you have come up with a basic plot.The dates that are given are simply intended as an outline; if you couldn’t care less about quality or get steps done in fewer days, your novel-length story can be ready in as little as two months. An hour or two a day may seem like a lot for the planning stages, but they’re important and as it needs to be done eventually and seeing as how some people's stories are pieces of poor craftsmanship, pulling it together in as little time as possible is essential—otherwise you might realize it and choose not to post the story.

Love writing but find it hard to finish projects? Looking for a new approach to telling stories? Embracing serialisation can help you be more productive and get more readers. In this guide I share what I've learned while writing A Day of Faces, my serial which hit #7 in the science fiction chart here on Wattpad, won a 2016 Watty Award and has had over 146,000 reads. My current Wattpad serial is The Mechanical Crown - come join the adventure! You can find out more about my projects at simonkjones.com and support my writing on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/simonkjones

These are NOT your typical writing prompts. I find most writing prompts too general or specific to be helpful. The ones in this book are just generic enough to spark your imagination and everyone's response will be completely different. Depending on your story idea, plot, characters and writing style, the response to the following prompts will look vastly different from another writer's. How does this work? Well, when you hit a roadblock in a particular scene, play with one of the prompts and see how your character responds, what comes out of their mouth. Then, let the other characters respond to that line. Here's an example. For the following prompt, I can have a character respond one of many ways (and I literally just came up with these as I'm writing this book summary). SAMPLE PROMPT - Ask someone to leave Now, what's the next line out of your character's mouth? Is it: -- You know what, get the hell out! -- Look, I'm tired. Can we talk about this tomorrow? I'll have Peter drive you home. -- Will you please just leave! I can't do this. I can't talk to you anymore! -- Either he goes or I go. Which will it be? See how all these are very different ways for a character to essentially ask (or try to force) another character to leave? The key is to work with the response that works best for your situation. You should have a sense of what the scene is about and your character's goals, but that's all you really need! I love these prompts. You can insert them any time you hit a wall. They always seem to get my creative juices going. Sometimes I find that I've gone on to write an entire scene and I didn't even end up keeping the lines that the prompts generated! It was enough just to get me unstuck and get my characters interacting again. I hope these prompts can help others too. If folks vote and comment to let me know that they've helped, I'll post 10 prompts per chapter for the next 10 weeks. Cheers! We'll start with a chapter and a bonus one too.

Workshop consists of insights, recommendations, and tips to help with your work in progress (WIP). The purpose is to give encouragement and feedback to provide growth. | Open | | Close | •••

How do I get more reads, votes, and comments? If you find yourself asking that question, then I have some answers for you. What can you do to reach out to readers and potential readers? How can you encourage readers to comment and vote? What are all the different ways you can promote your stories? This #1 ranking guide is written by a Wattpad ambassador and especially geared for new Wattpad authors. Lots of tips, advice, and personal opinions await you - including everything thing I've done to promote my own Watty's finalist and winning stories - but only if you turn the page. Reader testimonial by @AyushiPandey-- 'I read your guide for Wattpad success when I first started writing my story last year in August, and now it has been an entire year when I stumbled upon it again. I just have to say, I loved reading it again, it has the best tips one can find (take it from me, I have read many, many guides here). Thank you so much for taking out your time to compile such an amazing book!' Reader testimonial by @suspishfishy-- 'I have to thank you again! As soon as I wrote a book that focused on what I wanted to write, instantly people started to read my books and give me feedback!' **THIS IS NOT A PLACE TO ADVERTISE YOUR STORY. This is where you'll find detailed instructions for the proper places to advertise and find readers. If you ask people to read your story here, your comment will be removed.** Thanks to @EnjxiiBlxck for the cover.

A guide full of tips and tricks that hopefully doesn't recount the same old stuff in every other writing book under the sun, Wattpad and published alike. Covering everything from helpful resources like Susanna's Pacemaker to treating setting like character. Here's the link for all my shareable resources: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iUDlQIY8NjF3T4_7oBEp_Aw6ftar65p9S4YQGHIr738/edit?usp=sharing

If you're a writer struggling to improve your craft, this book can help. It breaks down the basics of a good story and good writing. It'll also provide a few tips on how to stay motivated. There's no magical formula for instantly likable stories, but you can lay a strong foundation for a future full of writing that fulfills you. Success starts in your head. A blend of helpful tips and "chicken soup" for your writer soul.