On My Own | A Guide to Writing Warriors Fanfiction

Covers & Styles

So, I know covers are completely unrelated to writing, but they do help when it comes to attracting readers. Since we humans are very visual creatures, it only makes sense that we would judge books by their covers (just to be a little bit cliche here).

When it comes to covers, it makes sense to put your best foot forward - after all, it's the first thing your readers see! If they're not attracted to the cover, they might just skim over your story altogether.

Good book covers are:
- eye-catching
- have a clear title
- relate to Warriors in some way
- set the tone/mood of the story

(As a side note, eye-catching is probably going to be on every list here...)

An eye-catching cover means that it has something notable about it. It could be a bright or distinguishable colour, something that distracts from the other, bland covers surrounding it. It could be an interesting typeface, or the juxtaposition of text to an image. Perhaps the reason your cover catches someone's eye is the simplicity - an image and just a single word.

Whatever the case, one thing is certain: the title should be clear. As a design student, I have learned that picking out typefaces and fonts is of utmost importance when it comes to visual communication, so make sure to spend time looking through multiple options. You might like the look of one title, but another might make the text stand out more nicely against the background or it might convey the tone you are trying to set more efficiently.

There are many 'font families', but the most basic ones are 'serif', 'sans-serif', 'slab serif', and 'script'. Serifs are all fonts that have little 'tails' on their extremities (these are called serifs). Some popular serif fonts are Times New Roman, Garamond and Bodoni. Sans-serifs are fonts that are lacking in serifs; clean-cut, simple geometric forms. Popular fonts in this category are Helvetica, Arial and Verdana. The final category, slab, is one I like to include because of its size and contrast - it's the kind of font you see on propaganda posters. Clarendon and Rockwell belong in this family. Script fonts are exactly that - fonts meant to mimic handwriting or script. Bradley Hand and Monotype Corsiva would be found here.

So, when picking a font, ask yourself what the tone of your story is. Is it traditional, an epic quest to find out the truth or perhaps start a new Clan? Is it both playful and heart-wrenching, following the life of a cat as they grow within their Clan? Is it dangerous, or perhaps from the viewpoint of a villain? Each of these tones can be conveyed with a different font, ranging from the typeface you choose to the size and stroke (regular, bold, italic, etc.).

Another important aspect to consider when creating the cover is the contrast between text and image. If you have a mostly white background it only makes sense to use a darker colour for your text in order to make it stand out. Whites, blacks, and greys are rather easy to figure out in terms of visibility, and primary (red, blue, yellow) and secondary (green, orange, purple) colours can generally be paired with their complimentary colour to create a contrast (or just simply black, grey or white).

Complimentary colours are:
- blue to orange
- green to red
- purple to yellow

These sets of colours provide the ultimate contrast, and are even more effective when the text is outlined in either white or black.

Another way to choose your colour scheme is cool vs. warm colours. The traditional way to classify these colours is blue, green and purple as the cool and red, orange and yellow as the warm. (I don't want to go into how different shades of some colours can be classified as either cool or warm because that would get a little confusing). Juxtaposing text in a cool colour over a rather warm image serves to provide lots of contrast. If that's not what you're going for, though, choosing a shade within the image can work just as well - just make sure to give your text an outline so it doesn't blend in with the background!

Now that my design spiel is over, time to actually get serious about your cover. A popular cover style on Wattpad is similar to that of the Super Editions: a blank background with a single circular image in the centre, the Warriors logo plastered above it and your story title and author name below. With the template given to you, you have lots of room to play with the image you choose for the centre and the colour scheme for your text and background. Pebblemoon's Pebblesplash's Story is a nice, neat example. The background, too, can be replaced with an image that might convey the tone or plot of your story - see Blazestorm's Wake of Fire cover.

While this style is rather effective, as it gives the Wattpad Warriors fandom a communal identity, it's easy to get lost in the sea of covers if your talents in cover design are lacking. But, never fear! There are other ways to get your covers noticed.

Simple covers are sometimes very eye-catching and draw readers in better than traditional ones - some of my personal favourites are PoppyTea's Spark, thislittlefreak's coldclan books, and animallover_37's The New Four. A single (sometimes filtered) image and rather subtle, soft fonts. Beautiful and certainly not overwhelming - really, all the information a reader needs.

Other covers are similar in their simplicity, but include the Warriors logo atop the cover, automatically giving it that extra punch and heaviness (this results from the font the Warriors logo uses). Sometimes, the size of this logo can make it seem overwhelming but, with the proper amount of scaling, it can be made to fit the cover and, with some colour choices, compliment the cover further. LightningStrikeTC's Icetail's Enemy is a good example of this.

Another way to create your covers is to develop a system, which might require a bit more work but is certainly worth it in the end. It could be something as subtle as only depicting half of a cat's face on each cover, as I do with my own. Some, like FallingSkies89, use the same colour scheme, fonts, and similar imagery for a series (see her super additions).

The most important thing to remember with any cover is to refrain from adding too many items. Unneeded text or images can be very distracting and take away from the main idea you are trying to get across. Basically, the canvas becomes cluttered (much like your bedroom, at times). The thing you want most in your cover is balance.

Bringing across your ideas visually is tough but, hopefully, with some of these tips, cover design will have become less of a hassle and more of an enjoyment!

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If you would like to step your visual game up even further, continue reading! This is super nit-picky, and perhaps why I love design so much, but I find I am more likely to read a Warriors fanfiction if the allegiances are neat, orderly and have some sort of stylistic theme to them. This could be as simple as sticking to a single punctuation mark when separating the members' names from their descriptions (-, :, /, //, etc.), to making sure to italicize or bold the name of each apprentice beside their mentor's name. Even spacing does a lot - making sure there is a line break between each rank or an indent before each warrior's name as you list them gives the page more white space and feels less claustrophobic to the reader.

Some people like to dress up their story even more, finding dots, arrows or some sort of repeated emoticon or text image to use as a breaker between ranks or names and descriptions. They might even use this motif in their chapter names to further unify their stylistic choice. Whatever the reason, finding something that further stylizes your novel and makes it your own can be a draw to some readers, and can continue to keep it neat and clean but with an extra, personal flair.

But, like with covers, remember that going overboard can turn out to be your worst nightmare - balance is key!