THIS CHAPTER IS MOSTLY FOR NOVELISTS ONLY

This chapter will have three sections which you can navigate depending on your needs:

P1- Paragraphs

P2- Titles

P3- Chapter Titles

P4- Creating a Synopsis

Part 1: Paragraphs

Yes, we are still sticking to the formalities of writing before we get into the fun stuff. This is important!

No one wants to read your story if it's just ONE GIANT CHUNK OF WORDS. You need paragraphs, they make it easy on the eyes, comfortable to read, make what's going on more sensible and less confusing, and allow for you to control the time and pacing of your story.

Change the paragraph when...:

-Your imaginary camera moves.

Ex: She couldn't help but wonder why he had brought her there. The trek up the mountain was long and tiring yet he never explained why they were there.  He just held her hands and told her to trust him.  When they finally reached the top, she was stunned.

Before her was a large elegant open valley full of wonderful and exotic creatures. *Insert descriptive paragraph.*

-A new character shows up.

-Someone speaks (difference character speaking? Different paragraph)

-Something new is introduced.

-Time skips, flashbacks, character is telling a story, dreams, change to a different character in a different location, etc. (also for dreams or flashbacks, a lot of authors like to use italics. But this isn't necessary.)

-Setting or mood changes

-USE FOR DRAMATIC FLARE. Be a god.

I know I'm not the only one bothered by hunks of just infinitely long paragraphs that never break.  They're bothersome to read. They're a huge turn off. I mean, you could have the most original, incredible idea thats worthy of being a best seller but if you very first page has a huge paragraph, no one will turn that page.

I know your English teacher told you that paragraphs HAVE to be five sentences long but this is a lie. Sparingly, you can use a paragraph that is one sentence. This is for drama, if you really want something to sink in. Sometimes you can use it for humor as well.

On the English teacher note, I know you were taught to do a double space after every period. But that is for scholastic essays and MLA formatting. For writing a book, you only use one space.

Part Two: Creating a title for your work

Titles are important and quite frankly, not what I'm very good at. I mean, literally, I named my book "Land of Armonia." To me, that's basic. It tells you nothing about my story.

But finding a title for your book it incredibly important. Other than the fact that it's required to have a name if you want it published, titles get you readers. Need me to repeat it? TITLES GET YOU READERS!

If it's really bland and cliche, people simply won't be interested in it. I mean, what are you going to be more intrigued in? Something titled "Into the Beyond" or "Witches, Dogs, and a Murder of Crows". Without a doubt, the second one is more intriguing. Mostly because it's eye catching because of how bizarre it is.  While it is long for a title, it does a better job than the first option. But what if they were the same story? One title change could get you hundreds of more readers if you can do it right.

Titles set the mood of your story.

-Use the name of a character. If it's the name of the main character, people will assume that it's a fantasy series because that's simply what a lot of fantastical books have already done. (Think "Harry Potter" or "Percy Jackson"). You can also use this for dramatic books because it gets the curiosity of your potential audience. Who is this character? (Think "A Picture of Dorian Gray", "An Abundance of Katherines", "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.")

-Your title should reflect your genre. If your book is supposed to be funny, have a funny title. People who read comedies will notice! If your book is a mystery, give it a mysterious title.  Things like this will get people to even pick up the book in the first place. A bad title can kill a great story. Excellent examples of these are: "The Croaking" (What is the croaking? It's mysterious because... omg, it's a mystery graphic novel), "Not Even Bones" (Oooh! Thriller!), and "The Martian" (Very bluntly obvious that this is a sci-fi novel).

-Titles can be the name of the place the story takes place in. This usually only works for fantasies, but also dystopians. This would be titles such as "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull, which explicitely names the fantasy location of the entire series. The setting can also be an event which the plot is built upon, like "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins, which sets an intrigue for the dystopian series. Or maybe it sets up mystery about the setting, such as the case with "Asteroid City."

-Titles should tie directly to your novel. This could be a phrase commonly said throughout the book, or the name of something big (such as "Uzumaki" which translates to english as "spiral" or "vortex" which is the entire center of the horror plot from that manga). It could also be something strange that only makes sense when you read the book (like with "Howl's Moving Castle"). It could also be the name given to a person that isn't their real name (Purple Hycaninth by Sophism and Ephemerys). Perhaps it's the name of an idea/project/plot point (like "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir). Or you could go the really epic and cool route by coming up with something completely out of pocket but eye catching (John Dies at the End by David Wong).

Though I don't personally believe the titles I've created are all that great, they follow this idea. "Land of Armonia" is the location in which the story takes place. It's just the name of a fantasy world.

I seriously recomend coming up with a bunch of workshopping titles so you have a pool to pick from. What I did with my sequel to Land of Armonia was set up a pole on my instagram (marvelous_art_catastrophe) with a bunch of potential titles to have my followers pick the one that got their attention the most. I also labeled each title with it's relevancy. The options were: "The Southern Sun" (the final arc of the book), "Walk of the Ghost Faced" (the secondary plot), "The Feigned Friend" (which was most relevant to the plot) and "The Melting Star and Southern Forest" (which fit both of the major arcs). "The Southern Sun" won by a long shot of 78%, which was surprising because, to be frank, I thought it was stupid. I suppose that goes to show that a title you think is cool could be really lame to everyone else, or vise versa.

Other examples from my workshopping title lists have just as many dramatic changes. I always refer to my thriller series as "The Black X" because that's the name I picked for it way back when. But it has other potential titles too, such as "Dr. Crane's Moving Mansion" which makes it sound whimsical rather than scary. It defeats the point. I also have "Project Anti Halo" or "Project X" which gives it a science fiction feel. "Dr. Crane's Monsters" feels a little silly to me but does lean into a comedy thriller. The genre of this project is only thriller. It's not a comedy, it's not science, it's not magical. This is why I stress the importance of having your title reflect your genre.

Part Three: Chapter Titles

Chapters with titles are a creative way to hook your reader. You already got them into the book, but having memorable chapters is a definite win for everybody.

-Chapters can easily just be labeled by numbers. This is really basic, but it works just fine. Not much can be said about it though, and even if you name your chapters, you should always have it's number there.

-Chapters don't even have to exist. They can be replaced by sectionals. This is what John Green did when writing "Looking for Alaska". There are absolutely no chapters, thus removing the idea of chapter titles. He used sectionals which had numbers of a countdown to some unknown event the reader was unaware of. "128 days before"... "110 days before" but they were not divided as chapters and some only lasted a paragraph.

-Chapters can be the name of the character in which it follows. Rick Riordan used this in his second series, "Heroes of Olympus".

-Or you can take creative liberty which I believe is the best way to go. These would be the case when you create funny titles. I am praising Rick Riordan here. I love the chapter titles given to his first series because they're memorable, they feel like they're coming directly from Percy Jackson's mouth, and it's great for his target audience's age. He also used haikyus in "Trials of Apollo" for the chapters.

In some of my writing I like to be organized. In Land of Armonia, all the chapter titles start with "The" which is followed by one or two words only. "The Cat", "The Grand Ball", "The Centaurs", etc. It's basic, but it keeps to a pattern.

In my other books (unpublished as of December, 2023) I like to be more chaotic and sometimes funny. "Jason is an asshole... as usual", "The Fine Art of Being a Dumbass", "Even God wouldn't sit on that throne", "This is why Iisan is antisocial", "Lauren deserves epic background music", "The sky is crumbling and the normals are gone", "Jason got hit by a car and it's totally not his fault", "Lauren is a literal baby now", etc. Or for Sharu Valley (which is slowly being posted on wattpad to gage reader reaction and recieve criticism) I've got ones that set the mood of the chapter, "Greeting the Dead Wanderer" and ones that are meant to make light or humor of a situations, "Monnie Eats a Ghost."

Sometimes you can be more flexible, depending on what you're writing. Chapter titles may set the mood, so if you fill the book with funny ones and have a sudden serious title, your readers will know that something goes wrong in that chapter and will feel more interested in continuing to read.

Part Four: Creating a Synopsis

Perhaps this is the most important part of setting up your book.

I think it's a good idea to write a story synopsis before writing your book, and then another after you've finished writing it. Sometimes your story starts to change as you write it and you can edit your synopsis as you go. I recomend writing multiple versions of a synopsis for your book and test them out with different people to find which one gets their attention the most.

A synopsis is the summary you might put at the back of your book to get people to want to read it. Here's an example of my first summary from my book, Land of Armonia:

"Herogi had never expected to be swept away on an adventurous mission to save her precious land, but when a boy from her enemy tribe convinced her of certain doom, she feels she is left without a choice. Together, she and Amante gather powerful tribes and cultures, on a quest to save their fantastical world with the aid of magic from a prophecy of war.
Magic?  Check.
Mythical beasts? Check.
Survival? Well..."

That.... Is tacky. And bad. Not a good synopsis whatsoever but I wrote that back in 2018, so it has the right to be cringe.

Now that my story is finished, I've created a new synopsis of it!

"Plaguing the earth with war, Amante's home tribe takes hold Armonia with Destructive Hands. Starving, ill, and suffering, his people would gladly jump at the opportunity for a land grab. So when Amante hears a prophecy of what this war could do to the land, he knows he has the power to stop it--if he has the help of others.

Herogi is a protector, her only job is to guard the Cretos during the night, keeping them from the harm of the fearsome Chatons. With a cocky ego and immense pride in her identity, why would she turn down the opprotunity to be a hero?
Turns out, forming a friendship with the enemy can be almost fatal, especially when magic is involved."

And then you can add other details under it if wanted, such as (for mine):

"An indigenous inspired fantasy novel about magic in the hands of evil"

Or

"Set in a mysterious world of magical creatures and unforeseen truth."

Literally just be dramatic with it. Be so dramatic. So so dramatic.

Remember, sometimes less is more. Show me your book synopsises in the comments! I'd love to see what you're working with!

That's all I have to say for this, enjoy advertising your story and don't be afraid to leave questions in the comments.