So I had a question about formatting for writing stories on here, so I'm going to try to encompass as much of formatting as I can.
Story format
As you know, Wattpad is a website. That being said, stories will go by web formatting which means when you read a story (such as how you're reading this one) you will notice that the paragraphs are blocks of text without indents. You can create your own indents if you wish, but to do that you have to use the tab, or you have to hit the space bar a few times.
The problem you run into with using the space bar is the number of times you hit it. You will want to use the same number each time. A lot of people write on mobile devices and you don't really have a tab button on a mobile device, which would mean if you choose to make an indent, it would have to be with that space bar.
Those indents don't always translate well into stories once they are published. Sometimes Wattpad does weird things when stories go from a draft to being published and the majority of the time those indents just don't look right when you go to read a story (if you've read a story where the author tried to make indents then you know what I'm talking about).
Similarly, people sometimes forget that they're making those indents and sometimes you won't even see them.
If you type into word and then copy and paste into Wattpad, you'll find that even if you have indents in he word document, they will disappear when you bring them into Wattpad, save, and reload the page. That's because it's essentially turning it into web formatting.
I would just say to leave it how Wattpad has it. They will be chunks of text like what you're reading right now. Everything will be all lined up and even. It's fine, it's what all the other stories look like (unless people are putting in the tabs by hand).
Paragraphs
When you're writing, you break things up into paragraphs to help separate things. This is for the reader as much as it's for you and the story.
Paragraphs in writing on Wattpad is similar to paragraphs when you write a paper to school. You're using them to follow a thought and move the story along.
They are separated when you are making a new "point" or when your characters are conversing. This one is very important because your paragraphs during conversations help the reader understand who's talking.
Example
"I can't believe you don't trust that won't use any of the weapons on you," I said sounding hurt.
"You do realize that you're a hunter and I'm a werewolf, don't you Electra? Using weapons on werewolves is sort of your job," Jared pointed out.
Separating the conversation makes it easier to tell that a different person is talking. When the same person's talking however you could keep it within the same paragraph.
Example
"Just because I'm a hunter and you're a werewolf doesn't mean I'm going to use any weapons on you." I threw my hands up in the air. "If I wanted to hurt you in any way, I could have done it already. I don't need you in our arsenal for me to do that."
The length of your paragraphs is going to vary from paragraph to paragraph. Some are going to be short, maybe only one or two lines, some could go on for a little bit. You just want to make sure that you aren't rambling in your paragraph. Essentially you keep the idea of one thought per paragraph.
Chapter length
This one depends on a few different things:
You
Your story
Your genre
Your readers
You and your story sort of tie in together, but how does the length depend on you and your story? Well, you can only write so much before you naturally come to a stopping point. Sometimes you'll find that you just wrap up your chapter without much thought, it just sort of happens.
When you write on the site, you'll see that in the place where you're writing your story, it gives you a word count. This is both good and bad.
It's good because you know how long your story is and you know about how many pages it's going to be when you publish it. However, I find myself looking at it sometimes and subconsciously that determines when I wrap up my chapter.
That can be good, because then you have chapters that are roughly similar in length, which is good for consistency. But it could also mean that you're ending your chapter before your chapter really wants to be done.
The story readers and genre also go together. These affect your chapter length because readers are genre people typically. They pick one or a couple genres and they stick to that. They are accustomed to a certain chapter length in a way. If you look through the werewolf genre, more often than not the chapters are shorter. Just a couple pages typically. Go over into fantasy and you're going to see some longer chapter lengths around 4-8 pages probably.
(Also a note, Wattpad pages are different from actual pages. Four pages in Wattpad can be around 10 or so pages in Word.)
Because they are accustomed to a certain length, it's sometimes good to keep around that length. If you do too long then they may lose interest and put it down, but if you do too short, they could lose patience and forget to check back. If you have short chapters, readers could be waiting until a few chapters build up so they can read more, but that can also be dangerous depending on your update schedule because like I said, they could forget about it and just not check back in.
My personal advice for chapter length would be whatever you want it to be. Let your story determine the length of the chapter. A point will come up when it seems natural for the chapter to end, and when that time comes, you will know it.
Don't force it to be something that it isn't. Don't worry too much on word count or page length. Yes your readers may have an idea in mind, but if the story is good, they aren't going to be worried about the chapter length (although short chapters could get some complaints because they just want more).
Just let your story be what it is.
So if you're on the site, scroll so that word count isn't staring you in the face. If you're on the app, well you probably don't have that word count anyway, so just keep writing until the chapter finishes itself.
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As always. If you have any questions about anything on Wattpad or about writing, ask them in the comments below. I will write it down and answer it in an upcoming section.
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Writing and Wattpadding (a guide)
Non-FictionIn here I will cover many different topics about writing such as coming up with story ideas, and getting those ideas to morph into a story. I will also discuss becoming a productive member of Wattpad. The "secrets" to getting reads, how to act pro...
