In the previous chapter we discussed what to do to make your story better and in this chapter we will talk about what to avoid. I'll elaborate on some of these points in further chapters.

Some of the things to avoid (or straight out never do) are:

1. Writing in capital letters (unless it's an abbreviation).

2. Text talk (unless your characters are texting).

3. A/N-s (Author Notes) in the middle of the chapter.

4. Smiley faces (unless your character is texting, you are writing a rant book or you include the emoticons in an A/N).

5. Writing one sentence that is five or more rows long, especially without any commas or semicolons.

6. Whiny/annoying characters are a no-no unless they are meant to be whiny to help the plot progress or to contrast other characters.

7. Major plot holes. And no, an excuse such as "I know that *event* happened in the previous chapter but it's no longer working for me so pretend you haven't read it" is not acceptable. Re-write the chapter, send a message to followers to notify them of the changes (also put it as a status for better measure) and the next time you upload a chapter, write an A/N to tell people to re-read the previous/edited chapter and why.

8. Adding twists is good, it can even be great and make your story stand out, as long as you don't add so many that people are no longer able to keep track of what's happening in the story.

9. Clichés.

You want to write something completely original?

Honey, everything has already been written!

Sure, you can make up a new world (or dimension), new creature or new race but you will base them off of something that already exists. Even if you don't intend to, your 'new and completely original' world/creature/race will remind your readers of something they already know. Does that make your story clichéd?

No. The trick to a good story is to take something familiar and give it a twist. Mind #8 of things to avoid though.

10. Re-writing an existing story and claiming it's your own. That is wrong on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin!

11. Your favorite story is put on hold or is no longer updated so you decide to finish it instead of the original author (and without asking for/gaining their permission). If you are doing it for yourself, then it's okay. But if you plan to upload that on wattpad for the world to see, you most likely are in for some hate. You want an example?

I'll give you one.

How many of you have read The Way He's Not by xXBeautifulFighterXx?

It's one of my favorite (sadly maybe-never-to-be-completed) stories so I'll add a link to it in the first comment.

Anyway, this happened to The Way He's Not: Dani (xXBeautifulFighterXx) had not uploaded in a really, really long time and someone went "I'm tired of waiting for her; I'll finish the story myself". That someone posted how she thought The Way He's Not should continue and Dani's followers (and she has a rather large fan base) pretty much tore that girl to pieces. They didn't want anyone but Dani to finish the story; it wasn't written in Dani's voice, the characters didn't sound like themselves (even though they were supposed to be the same) and most importantly: Dani had not given this girl permission to finish her story. In the end, that girl had to take it down.

Now, I know how it feels to fall in love with a book and your heart pains when you might never get to find what happens to your beloved characters (and the ones you hate) but if you insist on finishing someone else's story (I don't recommend it), then ask for their permission; if they say no, then don't. If you can't get in touch with them and still persist on uploading your version of their book's ending, then at least give the original author credit. At any rate, some of their fans will get upset over it and are probably going to take it out on you. And I dare not think what the author would do if they found out.

As for making a fan fiction about an existing wattpad story – I don't think there's anything wrong with that but you better ask the original author first, just to be on the safe side.

Do you have any more tips on what to avoid?

Do you feel like ranting about what you hate seeing in stories?

Let's read your thought in a comment!

If I come up with more "don't-s", I'll add them to this chapter and I'll send a message to followers so that you'd be notified that an edit was made. I'll also add the date of the edit next to the chapter's title so you'd know when it was made.

Next chapter: Character profiles. How to make a believable character and not forget what they are like (I'll make several chapters on "characters").