starting a story;

{characters}

    so when I usually start a story, I start with figuring out my character(s). I think about their face claim, what I want them to be like, who I want them to fall in love if they do, and what their background story will be. I usually write this all down in an ideas chapter to keep track of it all. I also like to figure out the characters:

-traits

-pet peeves 

-style

-their mindset

-their family 

    Those are just a few things, but you could go on forever about your character. People are complex; you could put a lot into your character if you worked hard enough for it.

{Plot Lines}

    this is something you just have to work at and do some research on. I usually start with what genre I want it to be in (I'm always writing fanfics) and then after that, I think about what I want to happen. For fanfics, a good thing to do is to rewatch the episodes and spark some ideas. I also like to look at things around me and incorporate them into my stories. For example:

-I had been shopping at Victoria's Secret when I saw a little boy playing with his sister. I then turned around and put that in my story, Chronicles of a Fallen Love, only I made Allison work at VS and I made Cole a "prankster".

-I had just watched Barry on The Flash get stuck in the speed force, and it sparked an idea for me to have my character Corey Walker get stuck after being dunked in the ice water. I made it to where a "mentor" was there to tell him the rules, so I didn't make it exactly like The Flash. I changed it into my own.

-I had done a lot of research on supernatural creatures on google to figure out what I wanted to do for Chronicles of a Fallen Love; but that creature is still a secret (:

    There are a lot of creative ideas out there up for grabs, so put your thinking caps on! Find the right environment and the place that puts you into deep thought; that always helps me a whole lot. Those places for me are my room, at school in Algebra class, and in front of the sink at work while I wash the dishes. Find your own places and use them!

{Faceclaims}

    Finding the right face claim is always a big deal. For instance, if your character is shy, petite, and sweet, you sure as hell don't want Phoebe Tonkin as your face claim. I only say this because finding the right face for your character shows a lot about them, and when I see someone like Phoebe, I think of a strong, independent, and bad ass woman. Not shy and sweet.

    Also, find people that have a lot of material out there on the internet. The most annoying thing ever, as an editor who makes covers for other people sometimes, is when someone wants a specific edit/position of the person on their cover, but there's literally like 4 pictures in existence out there of that person. It makes things hard for others and for you; because if they only have four photos, they probably won't have any GIF's either.

    Now, I'm not saying to use all of the overused face claims like Nina Dobrev and Holland Roden, but I am saying to not use someone that no one on the face of this planet as heard of. I also encourage to use a little diversity with your face claims if possible; people like to see that.

writing your story;

{editing}

    oh my god, I cannot stress this enough. Please, edit your chapters for grammar and punctuation and other things. That is the #1 turnoff for a reader, trust me. If there's a few errors, no biggee, but the whole chapter is hard to read? They'll get out of there before they finish the chapter. If you struggle with this, find a friend or someone else you know to help you edit it or educate yourself to where you know what to look for. It's a life saver!

    When I write, I also try not to put too many sentences in a paragraph. I found that when there's too many in one paragraph, the reader will skip over a lot of it and not even bother reading it (I'm guilty of this). Having a long paragraph for a quote is totally fine, just not for description. Here's an example:

No

As I walked along the paved pathway, I couldn't help but stare up at the stars above me. My golden locks blow in the wind, causing goosebumps to rise on my arms, but the jacket around my shoulders kept me warm. The moon was large and full as it casted a long dark shadow onto the lake, the water glistening and twinkling like a dream. The trees rustle around me as leaves blow to the ground, a few of them landing at my feet. I was lost in my own world. "What are you doing here?" I hear a voice say behind me, causing me to jump at the sound. When I turned around to see Victor standing there, I couldn't help but smile. Seeing him standing there in such a magical place made my insides twist. "I could ask you the same thing," I laugh at him.

Yes

As I walked along the paved pathway, I couldn't help but stare up at the stars above me. My golden locks blow in the wind, causing goosebumps to rise on my arms, but the jacket around my shoulders kept me warm. The moon was large and full as it casted a long dark shadow onto the lake, the water glistening and twinkling like a dream. The trees rustle around me as leaves blow to the ground, a few of them landing at my feet. I was lost in my own world. 

"What are you doing here?" I hear a voice say behind me, causing me to jump at the sound. 

When I turned around to see Victor standing there, I couldn't help but smile. Seeing him standing there in such a magical place made my insides twist.

"I could ask you the same thing," I laugh at him.

    See what I did there? I limited the first paragraph to a few sentences and started a new line with every quote. I always try and do that when I'm writing to make it look better, plus it can exaggerate and leave a good effect for the readers. 

{tips}

    When writing descriptive pieces, always go to your five sense. Taste, Touch, Sight, Hearing, and Smelling. This always helps me, but I do still suck at writing descriptive areas in my stories, haha. Another thing that help is by using similies and metaphors, along with expanding your vocabulary.

    Also, write as if you were really there. How would you feel? How would you/your character react? This helps a lot when writing a death or a serious scene. One way to help write these as well is to either watch something else super sad that always makes you cry before writing it (like Allison's death scene) or by listening to sad music.

{Promoting}

    You're a new writer? No problem. Time and patience in the key to getting noticed, but one way to speed it up is to:

-Follow a lot of accounts

-Read/leave feedback on other people's stories

-make friends 

-leave a short and sweet message to others

    What I mean by the last one, I mean something like PMing someone and saying something like "Hey, I love your stories and I know that you probably don't have time, but if you could check out my story it would mean the world to me. Thank you and have a nice day!" Don't just say "read my story" because 9/10 times, they'll just ignore it. It bothers me when someone tells me like that, because it just makes me not want to read it. Be considerate and nice when asking.

    Also, don't think you'll be successful overnight. It took me a year to finally reach 50k reads on my first story, and at that, it only had 1k votes at the time. Time, patience, creativity, and dedication are the four perfect things to have for a wattpad account. I encourage you guys to use you brains and come up with ways to benefit the wattpad community; like helping others or by making a book that no one has come up with before. 

well, I hope that helped you at least a little bit. I might add some more to this later if you guys have any other questions, but I'll leave it at this for now! (: