...and so on for the rest of the characters. Or maybe she would write a profile list at the front for absolutely all characters mentioned in the book?
Let's start with a topic which should be familiar to all of us: Grammar. Have we not being taught by English teachers about the importance of commas, the meaning of paragraphs and the functions of quotation marks?
"Stories" similar to this just make me sick: "n so ya u look at him adn smle coz his hott n u go so how ru? nd he gos im k u?"
Haven't we all encountered such specimens at least once in our Quizilla history?
Hello, my name is Bill Gates. When I invented Microsoft Word, I added a spell-check.
Don't mind that, just the voice in my head. (An overused feature in Quizilla stories, but fun nonetheless.)
The point is: Instead of typing up your stories in the Quizard, why don't you try Microsoft Word? It will help you correct mistakes, allow you to evaluate the length and format of your story, save it on your computer if you need to, and just make it so much easier!
Now I don't want you thinking that it's only the people who use netspeak or can't spell who do wrong. I see many stories with perfect spelling, commas and quotation marks in the right places and no netspeak which are still difficult to read.
Do you want to know the secret to keeping your readers' attention? It's so simple, that you are going to laugh when you read it. It's just one word.
Ready?
Paragraphs.
A story which is a constant flow of thought is difficult to read. The computer screen is not a book, and when reading a Quizilla story it is important to add breaks in the right places. Separate the thoughts and put some space between them.
It's as easy as hitting the "Enter" key or adding a < P > if you use HTML. (You need to delete the spaces, though.)
You can have long paragraphs and short paragraphs, but I suggest putting one after every few sentences and after each line of speech.
Bad example: The phone rang, I reached over and answered it. "Hello?" "Hi Tom!" I heard Maria say. "Hey." "How have you been?" She asked happily. "Fine, a bit bored, and you?" "Oh, I am so EXCITED!! I can't wait to go to the concert tonight!" And then it hit me. The concert! How could I forget?! "Um...Maria?" I said slowly. "You haven't forgotten, have you?"
Good example:
The phone rang, I reached over and answered it.
"Hello?"
"Hi Tom!" I heard Maria say.
"Hey."
"How have you been?" She asked happily.
"Fine, a bit bored, and you?"
"Oh, I am so EXCITED!! I can't wait to go to the concert tonight!"
And then it hit me. The concert! How could I forget?!
"Um...Maria?" I said slowly.
"You haven't forgotten, have you?"
I know that in the good example it's a lot more stretched out, but didn't you find it a lot easier to read? Just look at the Highest Rated list, most writers there use paragraphs the way I did.
Another aspect of story appearance I must note is the layout. If you added a background, a banner and changed the font colour, the readers see that you've spent time on your story and care about the way it looks.
I am not saying that the layout is more important that the words, not at all! The words are the essence of a good story. However, if those words are arranged appealingly, readers will be more interested.
If HTML looks scary, you can always get a layout from one of the professional layout makers, or go to a site that explains it all.
HTML Goodies is a good place to start for those who want to figure out the mysteries of ugly codes which make our stories and homepages pretty.
W 3 Schools is another one, probably my favourite.
For those who want ready layouts, I suggest 'Zilla Layouts, although I am more of a DIY nerd. (DIY stands for Do It Yourself, for those who don't know.)
Finally, there's the last option of messaging me and asking me to do the layout for you. I may be grumpy about it, but if you ask nicely and I like your story, I will do it.
Now, let us talk about characters. There are two universal stereotypes of characters that everyone hates. No, I do not mean preps and Goths or anything of the sort.
Stereotype 1: Perfect body, perfect personality, rich, popular.
Stereotype 2: Miserable life, abusive parents, abusive boyfriend, depressed. (Probably has a perfect body as well. In fact, it can be both stereotypes blended together.)
Don't you think this gets a little bit boring and overrated?
Create interesting characters, with original character traits, faults and flaws. Beauty is in the imperfections, forgive me for sounding cliche.
Some writers create character profiles and I am personally not a big fan of those. I prefer to get to know the characters through the story, let their personality and details slowly unfold through events and descriptions.
Imagine if JK Rowling wrote something like this at the beginning of her books:
Name: Harry Potter
Age: 11
Eyes: Green
Hair: black, messy
Height: 5''2
Likes: Magic
Dislikes: The Dursleys
This is not a video game where you chose characters by their profile. If you write stories, write like an author. Case closed.
Actually, case not closed, because I know there are some fans of character profiles out there whom I have not managed to persuade. Well, you can't win them all.
Moving on, I should mention plotlines. The plot is where you get really creative. I'll give you a few things which are not advisable:
1. Following a stereotypical romantic movie plot. We have enough of those. We are not here to write Miles & Boon novels. Surprised?
2. Having the characters live a perfectly happy life. This just gets you nowhere.
3. Having the characters live a perfectly miserable life. This is depressing and gets us nowhere, too. Dont start telling me life is sad and unfair. Life has ups and downs. Most of us do not want to read pages and pages of whining. (I am not having a go at emo kids, just for the record. Well, not much.)
4. The love/hate relationships, especially popular in Draco Malfoy FanFics. It's more complicated than that. They are overused anyway, try something more original and you will have more readers.
5. Romance, romance and more romance. A story purely about love and feelings will get boring and repetitive. Add a teaspoon of friendship and a pint of reality at least.
6. Drama in excess - an argument in the first paragraph, a love affair in the second, a friend's betrayal in the third, finding a long lost brother in the fifth. Did you notice how I didn't mention the fourth paragraph? The character was unconscious then.
7. Parents who don't care due to being busy and rich or abusive parents. They are too typical, so please try to avoid them.
8. Confusing title. You know the ones I mean, with tons of symbols and brackets. The title should be intriguing and to the point. If you can't decide on a title style, I suggest you think about the kind of title that would interest you and make you want to read the story.
So, if you shouldn't do any of that, what should you do?
Here are some suggestions:
1. Add unexpected twists. They are fun to write, but need planning.
2. Have one or two main events in a chapter and focus on them. For example: Chapter 1 - Louis runs into his old friend Christina on the street and they have coffee together. Chapter 2 - Louis invites Christina to hang out with his band, Christina gets into a fight with one of the band members.
3. Introduce characters over a period of time. In the example mentioned above, we would meet only Louis and Christina in Chapter 1, but the band members are introduced in Chapter 2.
4. PLAN! You cannot underestimate the importance of this one. I put it as number four for a very strange reason. I have an attraction to the number, as you may have noticed from the previous list. You have to have a plan, either written/typed or just a plan in your mind. Sometimes you can go with the flow, but at least make sure that something can in theory happen in the next chapter.
5. Add humour. Of course, some stories are meant to be sad and beautiful in that tragic way, but most readers like humour. Stories are there to entertain, amusement in an excellent form of entertainment.
6. Teach us a lesson, give us a moral. Your story has to give readers something to dwell on, to think about...
7. Write about something you know from the inside. In other words, if you've seen one episode of Inuyasha, don't start writing FanFics about him. If your life was generally happy, don't try to write from a depressed person's perspective. If you haven't been there, chances are, you won't be able to write with enough passion and sincerity. I am not saying you shouldn't imagine or attempt to write stories about something that interests you even if it never happened to you, just research you theme of choice.
8. If you write FanFics, get the context right. In other words, you can't be Voldemort's daughter who Apparates to Hogwarts. You can't be a Vampire who loves garlic. It just isn't done. It's just wrong.
9. Have fun. If you passionately love what you are writing about, you are more likely to succeed. This one doesn't need explaining, I guess. Just don't write about something because it's popular on Quizilla. Maybe you just need a different audience for your work if you think you are doing everything right, but you are not getting positive feedback.
10. Make friends. If only 1 person read your story and only half a person rated, maybe people just don't know about you yet? Read other people's stories, and send them messages. The may message you back and take a look at your stories in return! Just don't be pushy, no one likes that.
11. Go back and edit whatever it is you've written. Add changes, cut bits you don't like, correct accidental typos.
12. Keep writing, don't give up. The more you write, the better you get.
13. "Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window." ~William Faulkner 
I don't know if you benefited from my teachings or merely found them amusing. Perhaps you even found them useless. All I did was share what I know, what I think and what I apply.
One of my friends has followed most of the rules I set in this guide, and I suggest you read her stories. Crackerjack. is not only an awesome writer, but also a fantabulous person. I am proud to say that I helped her a bit, but she would have done great on her own.
Knowing me, how could I not advertise for a friend?
I would advertise for myself, too, but there's no need for that. You are all such good readers that you will rate right now, message me with your thoughts on this little guide and/or leave a sweet message in the Cbox on my homepage.
Because you know that if you don't, I will be offended!
P.S. I meant what I said about helping people with layouts.
