ashley ♡

I'm not the greatest when it comes to advice, but I'll see what I can do! c:

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1. Make your characters 3-dimensional. Don't just make them cardboard cutouts. Make them believable. Give them life. Thoughts, fears, memories, quirks, imperfections. People like to read about people they can relate to.

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2. Don't forget your side characters. Just because they're not the main characters, it doesn't mean that they aren't important, too. Give them as much life as your main characters.

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3. It's pretty much impossible to avoid every single cliché known to man. Clichés aren't a terrible thing (at least not in my opinion), but if you can, try to put your own twist on them to make the story more original and more your own.

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4. Subplots. They make the story more interesting and add more to the main plot. Subplots are very important and vital. Do not forget about the subplots.

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5. Try your best to even out the detail and the dialogue. If you have too much detail then the readers are going to get bored. If you have too much dialogue and no detail to go along with it, then your readers are not going to be able to imagine your story's surroundings as much as they possibly could.

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6. On Wattpad, having a nice cover will get you farther than without one.

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7. Good grammar. Commas save lives.

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8. Correct word usage. I mess up on this sometimes because I don't edit before I post, and I type pretty fast. But when people use "their" instead of "they're" it irritates the heck out of me. And "your" instead of "you're."

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9. Interesting opening. Have a first sentence that grabs the reader and makes them want to keep reading.

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10. Conflict is important. Though sometimes it hurts to see your characters cry, it needs to be done to keep the plot interesting and to move it forward.

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11. Avoid all plot holes! The fall can be deadly.

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12. Have an interesting summary. It is most likely the first thing people are going to read after looking at your cover. If the summary doesn't hook the readers, they will probably not click onto the first chapter.

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13. Concentrate on the words, not the reads. Honestly, if you're just writing to get popular, you're not going to get very far. You need to write for yourself. If you don't enjoy writing your story, you can't expect other people to enjoy it either.

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14. Know when to let your story go. Whether it's from trashing the story, or bringing the story to a close, you need to know when to let it go. I had a hard time with this in the beginning, and still struggle with it (including trashing stories that really have no substance). But dragging the story on forever is not going to help you.

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um um uuuummm
I think that's all I can think of xD a lot of this advice (if not all of it) has been given by other wattpaders before, so I'm sorry if it's not helpful c':

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if you were looking for more professional advice, I'd google "writing advice" or something. I did that a while ago and it was helpful c:

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