A lot of people have started asking me for helpful tips for writing so I decided to make a book! For all of my tips I will have a basic story to show the difference between the mistake and correct.

The story:

I skip into a room with a bright smile and over to my purple haired boyfriend. I smile brightly at him, "Hi!"

"What do you want Denki?" he asks without looking up from his book.

I pout and look off to the side as I shift in my spot, "Nothing. Sorry for bothering you."

He pauses from where he was flipping the page and looks up at me with a frown. He quickly folds the corner of his book and sets it down on the couch. "You aren't bothering me Denki. What did you want to say?" he asks concerned.

"It's embarrassing," I mumble while looking down at my hands and fidgeting.

"Tell me," he demands but with a kind tone.

I look up and let a nervous giggle slip, "A kiss?"

He smiles at me and waves me closer. I bend down and wrap my arms around his neck. He pecks my lips and I pull away with a bright smile.

"Better?" he asks.

I nod my head.

1. Paragraphs
This one is really important!!!! A lot of people don't space paragraphs properly. I have opened up a story to read but once I saw that it was all one big paragraph I left the story.

So here is when you should start a new paragraph:
a- when the location is changed
b- when time changes
*c- when someone new starts speaking (*this is one I see a lot of people not do and it drives me nuts!)
d- when a new idea is introduced

What not to do:

I skip into a room with a bright smile and over to my purple haired boyfriend. I smile brightly at him, "Hi!" "What do you want Denki?" he asks without looking up from his book. I pout and look off to the side as I shift in my spot, "Nothing. Sorry for bothering you." He pauses from where he was flipping the page and looks up at me with a frown. He quickly folds the corner of his book and sets it down on the couch. "You aren't bothering me Denki. What did you want to say?" he asks concerned. "It's embarrassing," I mumble while looking down at my hands and fidgeting. "Tell me," he demands but with a kind tone. I look up and let a nervous giggle slip, "A kiss?" He smiles at me and waves me closer. I bend down and wrap my arms around his neck. He pecks my lips and I pull away with a bright smile. "Better?" he asks. I nod my head.

2. Characters Speaking
I don't know how to describe this type of writing so I will just show the mistake.

What not to do:

Denki: hi!

Shinsou: what do you want denki?

Denki: nothing. sorry for bothering you.

Shinsou: you aren't bothering me denki. what did you want to say?

Denki: it's embarrassing

Shinsou: tell me

Denki: a kiss?

*they kiss*

Shinsou: better?

Denki: *nods his head*

PLEASE DON'T DO THIS! As I am sure you all can tell, you miss a lot of detail when you write like this. It doesn't really make sense for Denki to apologize in this scenario since we couldn't tell he was nervous to ask Shinsou for a kiss.

The only time I would see this as okay is if you have a book where the characters are reviewing ships/fan art or if it is a special for something like 1k reads (both of which I have used this type of writing for).

3. Capitalization
This one is something I'm shocked I have to comment on. We all learned (unless you are just learning English) in kindergarten that you need to capitalize the beginning of sentences, proper nouns, and the letter 'I'.

When you don't capitalize letters that need to be it really just shows lack of commitment and laziness. That might not be the truth but to the readers that is what it looks like. For me I actually have to purposely un-capitalize because my phone automatically does.

If you are purposely writing like this to have a curtain affect please write a note that it is purposeful! I understand that and have done that before but if you don't write the note it just looks lazy.

This is going to be painful to change. Ugh.

What not to do:

i skip into a room with a bright smile and over to my purple haired boyfriend. i smile brightly at him, "hi!"

"what do you want denki?" he asks without looking up from his book.

i pout and look off to the side as i shift in my spot, "nothing. sorry for bothering you."

he pauses from where he was flipping the page and looks up at me with a frown. he quickly folds the corner of his book and sets it down on the couch. "you aren't bothering me denki. what did you want to say?" he asks concerned.

"it's embarrassing," i mumble while looking down at my hands and fidgeting.

"tell me," he demands but with a kind tone.

i look up and let a nervous giggle slip, "a kiss?"

he smiles at me and waves me closer. i bend down and wrap my arms around his neck. he pecks my lips and i pull away with a bright smile.

"better?" he asks.

i nod my head.

4. Thoughts
There are a few ways to do thoughts actually. This isn't really a critique type thing but more of my opinion.

First way to do thoughts: I am a thought.
Boom! That's it! If you are in first person you don't really need to do anything since everything should be told from their perspective and that includes their thoughts. If it isn't in first person though that's a different story and this isn't acceptable.

Second way to do thoughts: I am a thought.
I use this type the most. A great way to have your main character talk to themself.
Ex:
He is going to think I'm stupid for asking for a kiss.

If you don't do it you will never know!

Fine.

I use this also when *cough cough* baaaaad thoughts come.

Third way to do thoughts: 'I am a thought.'
Real simple. I would suggest not doing this, "I am a thought" since it will confuse people by thinking they said that line out loud (I know from experience) but as long as you say 'they thought' after the line it will be okay.

5. First Person V.S. Third Person
This one is also my opinion but I think most readers share this opinion. First is better then third. Edit: I'm now more of a fan of third person. Tastes can change!

If you don't know what first person is it is like this, I went on a walk. Third person is, Denki went on a walk.

If you are going to do third because you like that writing style better to you (which is cool if you do) I suggest having it be third person limited. That means although it is third person the narrator is following one character around instead of everyone at once.

6. Re-Read before Pressing 'Pubish'
Okay, I don't always do this either. I should though! It is a helpful way to make sure there are no mistakes and not have to go back and change anything after you published it. I get stoped in my reading when I see a mistake even if I know how it is suppose to go.

7. Notes
I have author notes often and I suggest that you do those in a different type of font like this, this, or this to make it easier for the readers to know that you, the author, is talking.

Also, I suggest you have it at the start of a book or at the end. You can have small interruptions/author notes during the book but not too many and don't have them too long (calling myself out here).

Totally random, well not really, but A/N means author note and it took me embarrassingly long to realize that.

Please don't have sole chapters for author notes unless you are planing to delete it later on or if it is really important.

I guess this goes under notes so here: if you didn't describe something like, let's say your story is an omega verse and you couldn't find a way to talk about heats in the story add a note at the end/beginning about them.

Heats come once a month and last anywhere from a week to three days long. Heats will end after the omega has sex.

Stuff like that may seem obvious to you but remember that you are the author. Your readers may have read a book where they did things differently and could be confused if you don't describe something.

8. Quoting Something While Speaking
I don't think I have ever gotten a question about this but who cares! I remember when I first started writing I just had to guess how to do this so now you don't have to guess.

What not to do:

""Nothing"? What does that mean?"

You don't put quotation marks twice!

To do:

"'Nothing'? What does that mean?"

Also note that I didn't put the question mark inside. If the person that they were quoting asked the word 'nothing' then you put the question mark inside.

9. Point Of View Changes and Time Skips
This is something you can do but not too much. Most of the time I find that people who have constant time skips don't have them because they are important details and that is the main reason you should have time skips, not because you don't know what to write next.

(Time skip brought to you by Todoroki's cold soba)

~~~~~

Both of these time skips are acceptable! It is up to you what you want to do. I personally do the second but find it funny when authors do the first.

10. Character Development/Trauma
The most important thing I am going to write about in this post. Character development is key.

-Trauma
When someone in your story has trauma they are not going to just tell someone what happened. They have to build up trust first. They we share pieces of the trauma story that by itself isn't traumatic as time goes by but aren't going to say it all at once. The only way these two things don't happen before a character shares their trauma is if something triggers them and while panicking tell someone.

These sheets you should be able to fill out for every character in your book (unless they are a random person you pass on the street).

(This last one is for villains only)

That is all! If you have any more questions just comment and I'll make a new post! I hope this helps you guys.

Till Next Time
Meowz~