Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

What You Don't Write, Doesn't Exist

Every once in a while I make a point that I think is important to repeat. After repeating it enough times, I realize that it really ought to have its own chapter, so I repeat the same idea that can be summed up in a sentence, only stretching it over 1000 words or more. This is one of those chapters.

For example, everything I'm writing right now is filler. You're reading it because I'm writing it, but ultimately, what I'm writing isn't actually telling you anything. However, I keep on writing and you keep on reading, all so that we can both feel like this one idea was worth the price of admission. I think I've written a few chapters already on how to avoid writing filler. Congratulations, this is filler.

But I'm writing the filler above to make a point too. At least, I'm going to claim it has a point to justify wasting your time. Even though everything I've just written above could probably be cut from this chapter and you probably wouldn't be any worse off, the fact that I wrote it at least has some meaning. As the chapter title states, you don't have what you don't write.

In previous chapters, I've always suggested people set their goals to write more than they currently write. If you struggle to write 1000 word chapters, maybe it's a good idea to set your goal to get to 1500 word chapters. I've experienced some push back on this, people who don't like the fact I'm encouraging writers to fill their chapters with superfluous words, meaningless dialogue, and irrelevant scenes just to fill out some arbitrary number goal.

I can understand the argument. You want people to be able to improve their writing, and how can someone be a better writer if they're writing crap? Furthermore, encouraging them to write crap will only make them a crappier writer. We want to encourage 'good' writers... not just writing for the sake of writing.

My thoughts on this are simple. You can't work with what you don't write. Those words can always be cut later. I agree there can be some difficulty when an unskilled writer is asked to cut out something they've already written. Sometimes writing big can affect the entire structure of a book, forcing edits to completely rewrite entire scenes, which can be tough.  Some of this I'd blame on poor editing skills. If you lack the willpower to cut out things you've written, that's your problem. Don't blame it on writing too much, blame it on your inability to let go of your work.

However, there is still the reality between what is and what isn't. If you don't write it, it doesn't exist. And I'm sorry, there are no brownie points for not doing something. Now, a skilled author might make a good argument about efficiency. If they take twice as long to write twice as much, and then have to go back and edit those things out, they're wasting a lot of productivity all in the name of following my advice. But I'm not really talking about skilled and established authors here, I'm talking about starting authors. I'm talking about people who struggle to write 1000 word chapters. People who suffer from a minimalistic writing where they don't quite get how to create characterization.

In the end, you're going to write a chapter, add 500 words of miscellaneous dialogue, and you are not going to suddenly create a riveting and dynamic character. However, you might have those 500 words get edited in another draft. Then changed again. Then refined. Then altered. And by your final draft, a scene you never planned to write originally becomes the scene where you establish your characters motivation as he mentions his dying grandma.

However, none of that is possible until you write it. When you create a chapter, there is something to be said about the entire structure of your chapter. That is to say that it's a lot easier to change a scene that already exists in your story to convey information you might have forgotten in the first draft. However, if you write the chapter with none of that... with none of those breaks of description or scenes of witty banter, then suddenly tossing them in during your final draft can come off as clumsy and hard to read, because the story wasn't structured to fit that.

So, when you're a struggling writer, simply getting words on the page is important. You gain nothing by not writing something. As long as you keep writing, you'll keep improving, and the more you write, the more you have to work with, both in terms of editing and chopping and also in terms of having accomplished something. Therefore, I'd recommend people write more. Don't settle on 1000 word chapters when you could be writing 1500 word chapters. Don't settle on a 1500 word chapter when you could be writing a 2500 word chapter. Fill out your chapter, even if you plan to cut it all away later.

Now, switching gears for the people regularly throwing out 7500-word chapters, my answer isn't necessarily to write more but to come up with ways to distribute your scenes in more bite-size increments.

Let's put it this way. If you live in the US, you likely have a phone number that is 10 digits long. When someone asks you for your number, do you read off all 10 numbers continuously without a break? No. Usually, you read three numbers, three numbers, two and then two. The reason for this is simple. Our brains can only handle the smaller piece of information.

Your chapters are the same way. When you're creating an 8000-word chapter, you're hitting readers with something called reader's fatigue. It's the equivalent of just saying the ten numbers of your phone number without a pause. Go ahead and try it. See how many people are able to catch the entire phone number on the first try. Some can manage, sure, but most of them are not able to do so.

In writing, it may not be as obvious, but people will be missing chunks of your text. They'll gloss over it, miss it, or pass potentially important plot points because you shoved those points into 8000-word chapters. It can lead to them becoming tired of your work, and thus more quick to stop reading even when they find it interesting. 

So you come up with pauses... good points in the story where you can chop up your 7500-word chapter into 3 ~2500 word chapters. It'll give people the same story, but you're delivering the scene in smaller chunks that are easier for your readers to handle. This can have the unexpectedly bad effect of altering pacing, so you always need to be careful, but if you're on the opposite side of the spectrum, that is what I'd do.

But I'm digressing here, I think the big takeaway is the title of this chapter. What you don't write doesn't exist. You can rearrange what you write if it becomes too much. You can crop it if it's pointless. You can change it if you think you can turn it into something better. But if you don't do it, you have nothing to show for it. So write, write, write... and worry about "writing good" when you actually have something written.