My Guide To Writing

I automatically leave a story when it starts out, “i wuz 10 wen i fell in LOVEEE.” It literally burns my eyes to read something like that, so one time I asked a person why they would write like that and their answer was, “I’d rather get my story out there quickly and keep my fans interested than waste my time proofreading.”

You know what that tells me? That if you don’t have the time to simply spell out the whole word “when,” you probably don’t have the time to write a decent story with an intriguing plot and developed characters; if you don’t have those, you’ll lose your fans anyway.

Now, I know a lot of people really don’t know how to write, so I’ve made this guide to help out. I’ll be posting chapters on character and plot development, emotion/tone, setting, clichés, and whatever the heck else I can think of, but right now I’ll start with grammar and spelling.

1. Do not use “Text talk.” It just looks trashy, and there is not one person out there who will publish your works if you do. This is terrible to use period, but even worse if your story is based in a time where cell phones don’t exist. Now, if your character is a text addict (as in their brain thinks in “text talk”) or texting, then it’s appropriate to use a small amount of text talk but only commonly used terms such as: BFF, BTW, ASAP, and LOL; always capitalize them.

2. Capitalization. You see that button down there that’s right under the one that says “Enter”, yeah? That right there is your best friend. Not only is it incorrect grammar, it’s also very unappealing to the eye when you don’t capitalize properly.

I didn’t think that I would have to be this basic but, a capital letter is put at the beginning of a sentence. They are used when you say “I”, and also for all places, names, days of the week, and months. It’s really not that hard, heck, Microsoft Word does it for you!

 This brings me to another topic: don’t use Wattpad to write. The spell check is lousy, there’s no grammar check, and the spacing is strange. I suggest you use a program like Microsoft Word (yes, it is capitalized because it is a name) while writing and then copy and paste it to the “New Story” page.

 3. Dialogue. I know it grade school all of your teachers said, “Five to six sentences per paragraph!” This, my friends, is not always true. When setting a scene five to six sentence paragraphs are appropriate but, any time someone new talks, there is a paragraph break.

 Incorrect: 

“I eat bunnies,” Mary Sue said. “Wow that’s gross!” Gray Stu exclaimed.

Correct: 

“I eat bunnies,” Mary Sue said.

 “Wow that’s gross!” Gary Stu exclaimed.

 I’m starting high school this fall and I’ve never been taught this in school, but if you read through any book you’ll see this is true. Another thing people seem to have trouble with is whether to use a comma or a period.

Incorrect:

I eat bunnies.” Mary Sue said.  (I mean, come on people “Mary Sue said,” is not a sentence!)

Correct:

“I eat bunnies,” Mary Sue said.

Also, when you use other punctuation, such as a question or exclamation mark and it’s followed by a word that isn’t a name or I (or anything else I previously mentioned,) it is not capitalized. I know this sounds weird, but it’s right.