"Alderpaw," a white she-cat hissed, her fur bristling along her spine, "What are you doing? We're starting soon."
The tabby tom had his muzzle buried between his hind legs, stroking the soft inner fur with his tongue. "Hold on, Owlfrost! There's a thorn stuck in my pelt."
Owlfrost's blue eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Why would a thorn be down there?"
"No reason!" He mewed hastily, glancing up at her with wary eyes.
"Whatever," she mumbled grumpily.
"Greetings, Twoleg," the ThunderClan leader meowed, "Tree has decided to write a guide on how to write about us, the Warrior Cats. Remember though, everyone has their own style and I am not saying that her way is the right way!"
Mothfur rolled her eyes at the white tomcat but nodded. "This is her set of personal rules, preferences, and tips. Not everyone is going to agree with each other, but this is what she does to write stories."
Let's begin!
Stop the giant blocks of writing. There's an "enter" button for a reason!
Act educated! It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, we have all had at least some education on how to write using the English language. That is why we are here today. We're writing stories, reading stories, and learning more and more about our own writing styles.
As we develop our skill and talent, we hope that people will come along and read our work. We want them to think it's good. There's nothing better than giving someone a good story to enjoy during their free time.
We need to treat our readers the same way we would treat a customer buying our products! That's just one way to say: DON'T ANNOY YOUR READERS!
There is a special button on our keyboards that allows us to start a new paragraph, so let's use it!
Each paragraph should represent one idea. These ideas can be dialogue of a character, action, character interactions, explanations, lists, inner thoughts, or even general descriptions and mood setters. In fact, this very paragraph is a single idea explaining what paragraphs should be! Paragraph-ception!
Circling back to not annoying the readers, we certainly want our audience to be able to read our stories easily and smoothly. By separating our ideas into different paragraphs, the readers -and the authors- can easily follow along with the flow of the story.
However, we can't be overusing the enter key either. Having dozens of single-setenced paragraphs is just as bad as one giant block of words. Either way is annoying for everyone. Our eyes will keep losing their place, and the good story will be reduced to confusion.
Here, I'll write an example of what NOT to do:
Hazelpaw and Foxpaw circled each other slowly, their eyes locking and pelts bristling. Hazelpaw wouldn't let her focus waver. Not right here in front of this ginger tom. She felt her heart racing beneath her fur, but she swallowed her feelings and met his gaze steadily. "Keep your body low, Foxpaw," Graypelt meowed, blue eyes watching the apprentices like a keen-eyed hawk. "Remember to push down with your paws," Mothfur said to her apprentice. "Never let an enemy have a chance to claw at your belly." Hazelpaw said nothing. Her paws continued to trace a circle into the floor of the Sandy Hollow. Foxpaw's whiskers twitched. Finally, Mothfur gave her the signal to attack. She bunched up her muscles and sprang out at the bigger cat. Foxpaw smirked through his green eyes and hopped out of the way. Hazelpaw extended her hind legs and landed on all four paws at once. At the same time, she lashed out at Foxpaw. He received the blow to the side with a gasp. Graypelt and Mothfur exchanged looks. "Good strategy, Hazelpaw," Mothfur mewed with shining eyes. "Let's do that again." Hazelpaw straightened up and casted a smirkish glance at the ginger apprentice.
This is the same piece of writing broken up into smaller paragraphs:
Hazelpaw and Foxpaw circled each other slowly, their eyes locking and pelts bristling. Hazelpaw wouldn't let her focus waver. Not right here in front of this ginger tom. She felt her heart racing beneath her fur, but she swallowed her feelings and met his gaze steadily.
"Keep your body low, Foxpaw," Graypelt meowed, blue eyes watching the apprentices like a keen-eyed hawk.
"Remember to push down with your paws," Mothfur said to her apprentice. "Never let an enemy have a chance to claw at your belly."
Hazelpaw said nothing. Her paws continued to trace a circle into the floor of the Sandy Hollow. Foxpaw's whiskers twitched. Finally, Mothfur gave her the signal to attack.
She bunched up her muscles and sprang out at the bigger cat. Foxpaw smirked through his green eyes and hopped out of the way. Hazelpaw extended her hind legs and landed on all four paws at once. At the same time, she lashed out at Foxpaw. He received the blow to the side with a gasp.
Graypelt and Mothfur exchanged looks. "Good strategy, Hazelpaw," Mothfur mewed with shining eyes. "Let's do that again."
Hazelpaw straightened up and casted a smirkish glance at the ginger apprentice.
I would not be surprised if you didn't even bother to read the first example! It's dense, stale, heavy, and hard to read! Honestly, I wrote the second example first because there is no way I would be able to write in giant chunks like that. It makes it harder to edit, harder to read, and harder to enjoy.
There are a lot of fics out there that are really good, but they are written in fat chunks! Most of us are going to just skim the story or just leave the page without even trying to read the words. We have a doc editor on this website for a reason! It would help everyone if we all put our writing into comprehensible paragraphs.
So, come on, cats! Let's make sure we're appropriately using the enter key before uploading our new chapters! Meow.
Author's Note: I told myself I wouldn't write a guide. I lied to myself. Anyway, is this helpful? This chapter was about the bare basics of writing. We are all talented writers here, but it surprises me that people don't break up their writing before publishing. People reviewed on my mock-fic that they find this annoying, so I know it's not just me. Heh heh. The other chapters should be shorter and more Warriors-ish. This story shouldn't be reported since I have plenty of story content. Meow.
