Hey, it's your girl, EL...!

I decided that maybe it was time I gave a few handy writing tips for you all asking me for advice! And if you just want to know what methods I use for writing, then feel free to give this segment a look.

For now, I'll just touch the technical basics of writing, and some of the problems I see in works here on Wattpad, regardless of genre, fanbase, etc.

First of all...

1): Pacing

jesus, do yoU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I SEE THIS STUFF IN BOOKS AND I JUST WANN CRY INSIDE BECAUSE I WANT TO PHYSICALLY EDIT THE BOOK, AAAAAND I SUCKED AT PACING BEFORE TOO AND I CRINGE WHEN I THINK ABOUT MY PAST WORKS LIKE BOI I WANNA BURN MY PAST SELF.

ahem

Anyway, pacing! Pacing, pacing, pacing.~

It's a very important aspect about a story, if not the ONE aspect that even makes the story in the first place. Sure you can have a general plot-line, characters and dilemma, but all of that will mean jack shit if you can't pace it right.

Pacing is different for different forms of writing. You'll get to the point quicker with a poem, and slower with a short story yet still fast. For full blown novels, its a bit harder, because depending on the kind of story that is within the novel, pacing gains a whole new array of "types".

First and foremost, you have to set up an outline for yourself. You have to come up with your main points in the story that shape it and allow it to progress to the end, and anything more detailed that lies in between those main points. Once you have your outline, you piece it all together in a way that makes sense.

Take for example: Creep (*cough cough* put aside the fact that I need to update it *aggresiVE COUGH*). For the story that it is, with little action and more character development, I usually hit the main points (events) within a relative span of time. It's a story that doesn't have a lot of detail within the main points, but will still be lengthy due to how many main points I have planned out. The pacing in that story is of a walking speed--andante if you wanna get musical about it. Usually that's how novels should be, though there can be some allegro for certain bits. Instances that include allegro could be quick, meaningless transition scenes. You don't want to write a detailed shower scene that has NO RELEVANCE to the plot WHATSOEVER (god damn shower scenes, man).

DO NOT drag out a transition scene, but don't bullshit them either. (Transition scenes are one of the reasons why I always took forever to update--they were the fucking bane of my existence, and I had to make sure they were perfect, or else I couldn't move on. Don't pull a me and just breathe, okay?)

General rule of thumb: don't waste your time on shower scenes, changing scenes, sleep scenes (unless there's a dream sequence), and etc. Mundane tasks you can just breeze through them like nothing and get to the good stuff quicker.

On the note of quick transition scenes: Do not rush a story. Allow it to flow. You can't rush creative thought, or else you'll get nothing out of it. Pacing is what builds plot, and character, and dilemma. Think about this:

You have a character named Bob (don't laugh, this is serious). Bob is a hard-working, passionate, kind man who also hasn't been able to find romantic love. Then there's Papi, who's a guy that doesn't take shit from anyone, blunt, and also pretty passionate. You have your main characters.

Then all of a sudden they meet at a damn cafe and start talking. Well, what the hell led them to the cafe, what led them to talk to each other in the first place?

All of a sudden they start dating. What the FUCK happened in between??

Then Bob and Papi get married--WHEN THE FUCK AND HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??? SURELY THERE WERE STRUGGLES ALONG THE WAY BUT NO, YOUR ASS DECIDED TO TELL THE STORY LIKE YOU WAS TELLING SOME GOSSIP. "So you know that bitch, Papi? Well, that ho got himself a mans, and they up and went to Cancun to FUCK." BITCH, TF I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO PAPI IS LIKE WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS WHEN I DON'T CARE--

You see my point? You need *rainbows and glitter* CONTEXT. And in order to have context, you need PACING.

Like I stated before, you can have a character with a backstory, but unless you actually show me the pacing of their role in the story, I will not care for them. And if you mess up the plot with piss-poor pacing, then shit yoU'rE SCREWED, MY FRIEND.

Another example I can provide is Cruel & Blue. It's a different story from Creep, as there is an ENTIRE world to introduce, even with Killer Protector having been the start of this world. There are A LOT of things in C&B that I had to cover--so much that it reached into the 70s in chapters. Mind you, I acknowledge that some of the content in that book is often unnecessary to the overall plot. The date scenes and romantic chapters are good examples to this.

Even though there is the underlying (main) plot that allows for other plots to stem from it, those sub-plots are still important. My sub-plot in my trilogy is always the romance. The long-ass date scenes and romantic moments are there to build the romantic relationship with whatever characters are included, thus adding to the MAIN plot since love is always a driving force for all of the main characters in my series. I have a lot of sub-plot (mainly because I don't stick to just ONE genre in my writing. I can write a fluffy, cute scene one moment, theN OBLITERATE IT WITH HORROR AND DEATH AND DISASTER AND ANGST IN THE NEXT because that's my style!~). With a lot of sub-plot, you're going to have some kinks with your pacing. For first time writers, I would suggest you take things easy and stick with what you're most comfortable with. I, myself, never imagined my series would be as complicated as it is now when I first wrote KP, but hERE I AM, BASKING IN THE SEA OF CRACK SHIPS Y'ALL MAKE.

A great way to pace your story right is to focus on relationships. Character relationships build character and world development. Relationships are the easiest route to go when pacing your story. Make characters share moments together, let them talk, let them connect! Don't make them seem cool, make them seem real! Because if you do it right you'll be able to pace your writing into your dilemma and plot line. Everything ties together as long as you have proper pacing.

Next up on our technical basics is....

2): Grammatical correctness and proper spelling

just...don't even get me started on this, i just.... *sigh* i wanna hang myself every time this basic writing tip goes horribly wrong

Y'ALL KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "YOU'RE" AND "YOUR", RIGHT??? BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T ASSES ARE BOUTA GET KICKED, IS2G, IT'S 2017 PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW THIS

Grammatical correctness and proper spelling not only looks professional and legit, but it helps readers to fuCKinG READ WITHOUT HAVING TO STOP AND WONDER "TF IS THAT SUPPOSED TO SAY" BCS LORD KNOWS IF YOU DO THAT READERS GET TURNED OFF LITTLE BY LITTLE. Plus, save yourself the embarrassment of having a casual comment float by screaming at you that you used "your" instead of "you're".

I would suggest that you, uh, READ through your draft first before publishing it. Even I need to revise my chapters multiple times after all of these years dedicating my time to writing. You never check your work once, or twice. Hell, even if you think it's ready, IT'S NOT.

Use a dictionary if you have to. Read it out loud to a friend--DO THIS ESPECIALLY, I GUARANTEE IT WORKS. Because what happens when you read through your draft to yourself is that since you wrote it you know what happens in your chapter. Subconsciously, your mind skims through your writing as you read, which leads to you missing any errors that you couldn't catch. When you read aloud to a friend, you're able to process your writing better for them, therefore you catch mistakes easier. Don't cheat by reading aloud to yourself, because even that may not work either; it's the same concept as reading in your head.

If you need to, have someone read and edit your draft, or point out errors for you to edit yourself. I do my own editing because, personally, I can't rely on someone else to edit my works themselves. Even if it's minor words that need fixing, I don't want anyone else fixing them but me. Others can't copy my writing style, because my style is unique, same as anyone else. This is something you can develop given enough practice, but I'll cover this in a different part because this wouldn't fall under the 'technical' of writing.

Here are some helpful grammatical rules to remember!:

-Your: for possession or owner ship for one person. You're: for "you are". (I don't think I have to remind you all of this, but just in case.)

-Their: for possession or ownership for a group of people or a person given a general label. There: regarding a place or physical placement. They're: for "they are".

-It's: for "it is". Its: for possession or ownership for an object or a noun without a gender/label.

-Commas are for breaks/pauses in sentences. (Transition words will usually have commas after them i.e. Finally, Afterward, Until then, etc., and, of course, ands and buts are a little tricky but I usually put commas before them. Sometimes they won't need commas around them at all.

-Dashes indicate added emphasis or interruption (i.e. His eyes were a bright blue--no they have a little bit of green in them--and his smile was kind and bright). Hyphens join words together when they cannot be compound words (i.e. well-thought, dog-sized, non-abrasive, etc.)

-Semicolons (every writer struggles with this punctuation) are used to join two ideas or two independent sentences (i.e. My mom used to drag large, squishy garbage bags out of the basement; it's something she usually does on weekends.). You can use this tricky punctuation to connect independent sentences instead of having choppy short sentences throughout your writing...! Semicolons are also used for listing when it gets long (i.e. I went out to buy groceries; milk, eggs, butter, meat, bread, sugar, and water.)

-Parenthesis are usually used when you want to input an additional detail into a sentence that isn't that important and has no need for commas (i.e. I went to the grocery store (the one I usually go to) to pick up some groceries.)

-This one isn't a grammar rule, but something that I use to help with spelling and word meaning is a handy little app called Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It's easy to use and requires no internet connection as words are already installed within the app's data; just type in the search bar and you'll find your word automatically! (You can also favorite words if you especially like them, and you can play mini word games.) This app is also a thesaurus and comes in handy with vocabulary variety, which I'll cover in another part.

Next up is...

3): Paragraph separation and when to use it

FUCKING. PARAGRAPH. SEPARATION.

lord, end my suffering

Always, always, always, people struggle with paragraph separation.

What is a paragraph? No, it isn't just a bundle of sentences.

Merriam-Webster states that a paragraph is: a part of a piece of writing that usually deals with one subject, that begins on a new line, and that is made up of one or more sentences.

Paragraphs are what help to separate and organize your story. You can't write about walking your dog, then talk about how you got your pet dog within the same paragraph. There needs to be a break in between those two subjects.

Sometimes you'll only have one sentence as a paragraph, and that's fine! Because if it's independent from other paragraphs, it should stay independent.

A lot of first time writers like to jumble their paragraphs, either because they're rushing (look back at pacing), don't know how to separate, or because they're on such a roll that they don't stop to look back at their work (look back at revision, yo.)

Separate your paragraphs, ESPECIALLY WHEN DEALING WITH DIALOGUE.

Dialogue is always separated in order to distinguish which character is speaking when their names or labels are not stated. If you've ever read a script for a play, or if you're in drama club, when you read scripts the dialogue is separated to allow actors to follow the story easily. This is the same concept.

For example:

"I'm in love with you," John admitted. "I've been in love with you for months now."

"John," Sarah murmured, "I...I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. I just wanted to let you know my feelings. I don't want to be a coward, especially not towards you."

ScENE BITCHES--

Don't separate sentences that a character says. If they have more than one statement, put them together between quotations, or separate them with actions like "he said", then keep going. With different characters you have to separate.

An additional note, if you follow this rule, you can write dialogue-only paragraphs for a good duration. Since there's a pattern to the characters speaking, you don't have to put "he said", "she said" after every bit of dialogue. You even can make a character do an action like frowning, or sighing, then give them dialogue. If you do this correctly, readers can follow dialogue easily.

On this note, when dealing with a large, monster of dialogue only-paragraph, sometimes it's best to separate those, too. How that works is you begin the paragraph with a quotation but DO NOT close it with a quotation. Begin the next paragraph with the quotation, indicating that the character is still speaking. Then you can close when you feel their dialogue should end.

Alright, well, that seems to be it for now. If I have any more technical writing tips, I'll give an update and some handy explanation! I hope you enjoyed this and maybe it'll be useful for any future writing projects.

Thanks for reading! See ya!~