Hello guys! Welcome to our first lesson. For those who read the first version of this book, I wanna apologize to you all for this--for redoing a lesson and so it shall occur for the next several chapters. But I can guarantee that this will be a lot better and informative 

Lesson 1 || Getting Started

For the past few years, I've met a lot of people and I've made a few friends. It's obvious to know that there are only two types of people here in Wattpad, and those are the writers and readers. As a reader, you look for stories that have ideas that capture your attention. Though there may be a few factors to differentiate one thing from the other, you notice and you take the bait. You're practically the judge or critic of the book because you are the one who gets to determine if the book is good or not. As a writer, you're supposed to impress the critics so you write the best book you can write.

I'm sure that a lot of you have read a lot of books, and, naturally, you would encounter books you wouldn't enjoy because of elements that it lacks. Of course, the first step is only getting an idea that you would like to base your story from. I read somewhere where a teacher (a creative writing teacher) never told his students that their stories were wrong. The only thing he ever told them was, "How can we make this work?" 

In the same way, feel free to consult me about your stories if you ever have a hard time getting an idea. However, it would be a lot better if it comes from JUST you, because you can put your whole heart into it.

The only thing you should ask yourself is, "How can I make this idea work?" It's more positive, and you would be able to grow from it. Imagine this scenario to understand the concept better: a teacher would ask his students to write an essay surrounding a theme he would give. And we are all familiar with writing essays are we not? And we all know the result from this: there is always someone who makes the best and someone who makes the worse essay. They only have one thing in difference, which is that the student who made the best essay wrote an essay that portrayed the idea in the best way possible.

Ok so I'll be dividing this lesson into only sections: finding an idea and making that idea work.

1) Finding an idea

A lot of people say that writing a story is hard, but I think it's only because they don't have the sufficient amount of ideas to work around with. But we have to realize that writing a story is not instantaneous--it is continuous. We may have the base ideas ready to write with, and those include the characters, the background of the main characters, the setting, and then the conflict. I'll tackle those things little by little as we go along the book :)

To find an inspiration for a book, the about-to-be-author (or author, whichever applies to you) must first think of what he or she want to write about. Include the fandom you're basing your story-that-is-yet-to-be-conceived. For me, for example, I enjoy writing characters with in depth backgrounds (I have yet to explore writing drama fanfics because I quit doing that quite a long ago //boink). They mostly have tragic backgrounds because--I don't know--the character development involves getting the character to change perspective and stuff like that. It's like putting an iron rod into fire and then pounding on it until they have been reshapened.

It gives me a "god-like" sensation and makes me feel like an arbiter.

This is probably just me, but I love it.

Stories are all big "what if's" and it's the author's job to expound on THAT "what if" which currently occupies their brain.

Then another way to get an idea is watching anime, movies, tv series, manga, comics, or even from just everyday life. If you experience writing for more than a year and you expand your horizons, you would realize that even just the slightest bit of drama you experience or observe can become an idea for a book. A lot of writers actually base a lot of stuff in their books from their daily lives. This happened to me when I was going around a toy store with a friend (don't ask why I was there in the first place xD), and this idea popped into my head when I saw the teddy bears lined up in the shelves. 

It's amazing how the mind could work :)

2) Making that idea work

The essence of making a book is making sure that your idea works out. You can start, but a lot of people don't finish. I'm sure a lot of you could relate, because I can, too. I've written a lot of books, but if you guys would check my profile only two books of the same fandom are finished. Then if you've been following me since 2014, then you would know that I wrote a lot more than what I finished.

Some authors just can't seem to work out their ideas. They lose inspiration and motivation, and it's important that we keep those two essential keys to work out. Otherwise, you either ruin your book or you just won't be able to finish it. Some people worry about originality, clichéplotlines, and so many other worries that discourage writers.

To make an idea work, one must think of all the scenarios they could think off and write them all down. Write down all the details. Think of the genre--genre is SUPER critical in making your story because that is the tone you'll use. You can't make a horror idea into a comedy, and whatever else that can't go in line. Picking a genre also allows you to determine the rest of the story. Like me, for example, I center around mystery, action, and drama. Then for the characters, just write down all those details you want to add: personality, habits, likes, dislikes; you name it.

Ideas don't suck. You just need to work it out.

One way to stay motivated is to actually write out the basic plotlines of your fanfics. What I mean is writing down the plot without the details. You can add the details you want which are critical to the story, but you are free to include that. I do this for all my fanfics. Like, before I write the story I do this:

> write the number of wanted chapters

> write the beginning

> write the ending

> write the climax

> add all the in-betweens to make the climax and ending happen

I follow this format for all my fanfics. The only problem I have left is figuring things out as I write and the time needed to write those parts of the story. Following this format allows me to be aware of how long I have for the story. Because there are some people who just write chapters that reach 20 (which is actually the standard number of chapters that I learned recently) or some reach beyond 50 (with short chapters). It's important to make a goal while making a margin around that goal so that you won't drift off the plot line you have set.

The whole process of getting ideas seem simple, but it's otherwise in actuality. So basically when you finalize, polish, refine your idea, you just need to add and remove details to get the final solution in making your story. Don't get upset when you take a while in finalizing your story. Taking long to process a story idea is normal because it requires a lot of thinking after all. Even great movies could take more than a year to finish.

It's normal to throw away "crappy" ideas, but sometimes those ideas can become really good as long as you work it out. Three of the fanfics I'm working on are all ideas I developed a long time ago. They're even all revised stories. Take Terror In Resonance for example, it was revised twice before the state it is now.

I have only one question to ask you:

❝What kind of story do you want to write?❞

  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦  

I hope you found this helpful, please comment your thoughts, suggest ideas, and good luck on your writing!!!

//hugs

See you at the next chapter! And don't be scared to request lessons, or something. Lol.

To be honest, while I was revising this guide, I had to reread through my old lessons. I was cringing while I was reading because I was such a child ; u ;; Anyways, for the readers who were reading the previous chapters, please just wait for the updates. I am revising old lessons and adding new ones. I hope that I get to finish soon so that I could do other stuff I need to finish like critiquing books and updating my stories as well.

FRIENDLY TIP:

If you're writing from a certain anime that you think rarely has fanfics, or if you think, try searching through Wattpad if there are such fanfics from the anime you're basing your story on. Then read them (if there are any) and then you could start thinking about a whole new plot, and make sure that it's not similar to what you have just read. Authors, such as myself, would greatly appreciate it if other people don't copy our ideas.