Everyone says that solid writing makes for a stronger story, but I don't think they meant literally... If your paragraphs look like the Great Wall of China, their only defence is making the reader fall asleep before they even begin the land siege against the Mongolians- err, reading.

  I think I'll sit this one out... I'm as pretty as I'm ever going to be, thanks.

  Well, good for you. For those of us who aren't as textually-inclined, welcome back to Wattpad Sins! That one-hit series where you sit back and shut up while I tell you everything that's wrong with your story, attitude and life. With added hypocrisy, of course.

  You might've noticed that there's a small indent now, at the start of each paragraph that's between 0.5 to 1 centimetres. Only affecting the first lines of a paragraph, the words run to the end of the page and wrap down to the page's full capacity, giving off a noticeable overhang.

  Uh huh, that's real nifty. It's a shame you never bothered to do that for the last chapters, eh?

  Okay, so this little habit is new to me, too. Like the vast majority of Wattpadders, I started out with the giant-wall-of-text technique where every damn line starts at the exact same point... and do you know what? One day, I just couldn't read my own work anymore. Not because the writing itself was inherently bad, but because my eyes just slid off the edges. There was no visual hook, nothing to reel me into the next selection of dialogue or narrative.

  To do this, you can configure your indented paragraphs automatically in a word processor like MS Word, through the Format menu. For the purposes of editing Wattpad stories though, a simple double-space would do the same trick. 

  I could go on and on about how appealing indents are to look at, in contrast to the blocky alternative... but you only have to look at the popular evidence to notice the trend. How many top authors fully format their paragraphs into bite-sized chunks? This minimal effort allows the reader's mind to flow much easier from line to line, and that's our job as fiction writers; to pander towards the reader's experience as much as possible.

  Seriously, I found it absolutely shameful that I hadn't been doing this the whole time. Listen to your English teachers, kids. Reopen your story and insert those blank spaces, it'll boost your readability by a million percent. It takes what, 25 seconds for each chapter? I'll wait, so do it now. Go on.

  I bet they didn't even bother.

  You know what? That's fine. We all have our own personal preferences for this type of gig, and this is just one of many factors that people can either take or leave. Some writers have their own style, while others like to adhere by a strict code that they feel should be universal law. There may be no single way to make your pages look more appetising, but there are multiple factors that you can tweak and control to suit yourself:

  -Indenting (Pick me, pick me, I'm fun!) 

  -Cursive Type (Bold, Italics, Underline, Strikeout)

  -Paragraph Size (Bigger isn't always better... I'm told)

  -Left/Right Justification (See what I did there?)

  -Line Spacing (If you want to go that far, I guess)

  -Media (Picture or YouTube video, anything to compliment your chapter's theme)

  Okay, we get it! You can change crap around on Wattpad, everyone knows that!

  Ah, but did you know the exact chain of events that is affected by each imbalance?

  Naturally. Indentation is a tool for drawing focus onto your paragraph's text wrapping, which in turn allows for larger paragraph sizes, say 6-8 lines. Inversely, shorter paragraphs may suffer under these indents because it tends to make the first sentence appear smaller, thus giving the impression of wasted potential. 

  I, uhh... Wow.

  Also, in regards to Bold and Italics, overusing it has been known dilute the impact of a given scene, desensitising the reader to its attached context. It is much more effective to use it rarely, such as during pivotal dialogue confrontations.

  D... Don't take this away from me! I'm supposed to be the clever one around here! Where did you pick up all of this fancy jargon, anyway?

  I learned from watching YOU, Dad!

  Okaaay, 80's PSA references aside... What you said, is actually on point. It doesn't matter what material you're writing, from Hunger Games dystopian rip-offs to Werewolf MPreg Alphas going at it in a billionaire's penthouse. If your chapters are composed of insurmountable blocks of text that are multiple page-scrolls wide, don't be surprised when your readers 'forget' to bring their rock climbing gear.

----

  In our line of business, presentation is everything. I know that we're writers and not artists, which makes it that much more difficult to create neater layouts without detracting from the content itself. I know first-hand that it can be murder to change your entire backlog for the sake of appearance, but even starting from now onwards would be a step in the right direction. 

  There's no need to worry about consistency, especially not on a platform where self-improvement is always encouraged. Try out some new formatting styles, maybe leave an Author's Note to ask for feedback on whether your technique works or not. 

  Be creative, do something that sets your story apart from all of the other MS-Word-to-Wattpad copypastas. You could cut steel on those sharp unformatted edges, but us? We're smooth, like butter.

  Dude, what the heck is a MPreg Alpha?

  Don't ask questions, you don't want to know the answer.

  But I-

  Don't. Ask.