Warning: The issues depicted in this chapter are things I've notice from an innummerable quantity of sources. Any similarities to any particular persons writing is purely accidental. I'm not trying to target anyone with this advice.

You may make these mistakes, you may not make them. You may not even see them as mistakes, and will argue with me relentlessly that I am wrong. There opinions on how you can improve writing, and while not every single one of these things should "never" be used, I think they all should be limited serverly in use. When I mention them, it's because I see people using them constantly. However it falls, I think your writing will benefit positively by heading my advice though.

Also on another note. You may run through my writings and find myself making some of the same mistakes. I totally do. I make the same mistakes I preach to you guys not to make. I like to say that "I'm less of a critic and more of a hypocritic". If you want to be good at critiquing, you're going to realize you'll have to be a hypocrite too.

1) No Buts

a. Entirely too many people keep starting sentences with "But". As a general rule, NEVER start a sentence with But. It's technically grammatically correct, but you'd be better off using "However" or some other word. "But" really sounds bad, and it really should not be used in 99% of cases. Please note I use it a LOT in this Wattpad 101 book. BUT that's because I write wattpad 101 in a conversational voice, and also because I don't really edit what I write on here. (put all my grammatical advice into perspective, huh?)

"Ands" and "Ors" are another one that often comes up. Like "But", I find it's a pitfall in writing. People use them, and often they use them incorrectly and over abundantly. So please, please either cut them from your writing completely or use them only in the circumstances when you know there is no other way to say what you want to say.

2) Hyphenations and parenthesis

a. These are not substitutes for commas. Hyphenation exists between two words, linking them together, or possibly cutting off a word.

i. The weed-whacking machine is deadly.

ii. "Oh my god wha-"

viii. DO NOT: Jenny - the cute girl - sat by the beach.

b. As far as parenthesis goes, don't use them. Ever. In journalism, it can be a useful tool. Heck, I'd even use it in a self help book, like this one right here; however, in novels and poems, it has no place as far as I've ever seen. Parenthesis are used to interject unnecessary information to the reader. In a textbook, that makes sense. In a novel, why are you giving the reader unnecessary information?

c. There is also em dash, the use of two hyphens. It's antiquated. I'm not saying you absolutely can't use it, but it shouldn't be every other paragraph. If you use it at all, it should be for a specific reason, like in poetry. Just because you CAN use it, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

3) It's

a. "It's" is not possessive. "It's" stands for it is. "Its" is what you use when it is possessive. If you are in past tense, "It's" should not be used, because you need to say it was, not it is. (The exception being dialogue.)

i. It's getting bad.

ii. Its mouth is moving.

4) Quotations and how to use dialogue.

a. This whole thing is written fairly in depth in the chapter, "Writing Dialogue", so please refer to that to help fix dialogue problems.

5) Fonts and Sizes

a. I think it's pretty standard to work in Calibri, Times New Roman in 11 or 12 font respectively. I can even forgive Arial, although it is a little olden days and isn't used default anymore. I just don't understand why anyone would work in any other font or any other color than black text on white background. That's what books are. They aren't written in Helvetica or comic sans. If the font is too small to see on your screen, you can go to view and adjust the viewing size, without changing the font size. I know when you post it into Wattpad they change the font for you, but I was suprised at how many young authors choose strange colors and fonts when they write.

I see it like this... whatever you're more comfortable typing in... at some point, you want to show that to someone else. Which means that the final product is inevitably going to be black text on white background, written in Calibri, times new roman, or one of those fonts. If you write in a different font than you expect your readers to read it in, then you're creating a disconnect between you and your readers. This might be a subtle thing in the end, but fonts and colors affect perception. Advertisement writers have known this for years. That's why certain fonts are used for action and certain fonts are used for romance and certain colors are attributed to horror movies ect... ect... So when you write with a certain color, and a certain font, the impression of your own writing is being affected by your choice. Then when those choices get changed before showing your readers, that impression will be altered. A scene you felt was hilarious and fun because you wrote it with comic sans and rainbow text suddenly seems a whole lot less cute. You wrote the entire chapter with Halloween font, and now that your readers are reading in Time New Roman, it's not even scary... maybe even silly.

Obviously, it's always up to personal preference, but I'd strongly argue you avoid writing too far from the standard font. If you want your background to be grey so it's easier on the eyes or whatever, there are ways to do this without permanently altering your document for other people (adjusting your monitor settings, for example), and like I mentioned before, you can view larger without adjusting font size. So, just think about it before making any permanent decision.

6) Present Tense

Edited:

I'll be honest guys, I'm still not very fond of present tense, but I felt an update was in order because I've been pretty downright no on it up until now. I also consider it a good example of a pitfall, being as it isn't that you should never use it, its that people who do use it use it wrong and have it be a major deterent in their writing.

That being said, when you choose a tense, think about why you want to use that tense. That reason should not be, it's easier for me to write in present tense. As a general rule, you should consider past tense easier for your readers to read. That's pretty important when trying to write something for other people to read... that they have an easy time reading it.

So when you decide past or present, think about the kind of book your writing. A suspense or horror might work well in present, because it keeps the character in the now. Meanwhile, a world building story might be better in the past, due to the fact it often deals with past events that formed the world.

It should also be noted that a present tense writer has to juggle present and past tense when they are referring to events happening now or narration about events that did happen. That's a lot of extra effort and a LOT of opportunity to mess up. When using past tense, the only present tense you need to deal with is dialogue, so it's a lot easier to get that everything in the quotation marks is up for free game. That's why I often argue past is easier to write in, because your less likely to mess it up freestyle.

That being said, I'll bregrudgingly accept present tense as a necessary evil, but I still encourage people to at least try to excel in past before hitting on present.

7) Numbers

a. Write out numbers, don't spell them. Pretty much all numbers. If it's a six digit number and you can't round, then you can use numbers. If it's 347,231 then yes, write it out. If it's 300,000, then it's three hundred thousand. This isn't a grammar rule, and every publisher has their own policy on it. Personally, in fiction, I'd argue the two significant figures rule. If the number can be express in two significant figures or less, write it with words, if it uses more than two, use numbers.

8) Chapter Size

a. Another one people might not like the advice on. I say you need a limit of chapter size. Only write until it's done? It's exactly as long as you need it to be? Hogwash. A poem can be 500 words. An essay can be 500 words. A chapter? No...

My reasoning is this, if you set your limits a little higher, it forces you to do a little more. Here is why it works... you needed to write fluff. What? Fluff is bad? Yes... it can be bad. However, I think a lot of the authors here suffer from minimalistic writing. They write exactly what they need to accomplish the scene. What you are left with is all action, and nothing else.

Forcing a word limit on yourself forces you to go back and add to your chapter. Suddenly, you add pieces of dialogue that *gasp* aren't relevant to the plot. This causes character development and your one dimensional characters are fleshed into something more. Suddenly you have side plots. Suddenly your characters have emotions. Suddenly your scene has detail. I can guarantee you that at 750 words, your chapter is probably not full of emotion, development, side plots, or detail, unless of course nothing happens in the chapter. So seriously, force yourself to write a little more.

The same goes the other direction. If you are prone to writing 6000 word behemoths, set a limit to yourself. This might force you to cut out a lot of unnecessary stuff that bogs down your work. If nothing else, I find word limits to help you think positively. Sure some people tried to stretch some scenes to try to make their word limit. Obviously avoid doing that. But think of new and creative ways to bring your chapters out more. To flesh them out. I know not everyone is going to agree with me on this point, but I think you should give it a shot.

9) Thoughts

a. Thoughts, in my mind, can be portrayed in two ways. In one way, it's a direct thought from someone. In the other way, it's the thought portrayed through the narrator. As someone who writes in limited third person, I do the second a lot. I imagine first persons have a similar effect. I'm not an expert on thoughts, but if you are having the main character expressing a specific thought, it should be italicized. If you are having the narration express the thought, italicizing is not necessary.

i. Is that all there is to life?, I thought wryly, not knowing the answer.

ii. Is that all there is to life? I didn't really know.

10) Comma versus semicolon

a. An independent sentence exists without the need of any other dialogue. A semicolon unites two independent sentences. If in doubt on whether a semicolon should be there, replace the punctuation with a period. If both sentences are complete sentences, then you should use a semicolon. If not, comma. Remember, using the word AND at the beginning of a sentence immediately makes a sentence dependent, so no semicolon.

i. I liked her, and she liked me.

ii. I liked her; she liked me.

Anyway, hopefully that will help. Take the advice for what it is, advice. I can guarantee you it will help you become a better writer. Just like the "never use very" rule. Some things just make writing better, and I think this list is something we should all keep in our mind.