The One Thing All Stories Need (Especially Yours!)—Guest Post by Issabelle Perry

    HEELLLOOO, my good and loyal subjects!!! Grab a comfy seat that you're probably already sitting in and prepare yourselves for a SUPERLY EPIC, ONE OF A KIND, post today!!!! But is this a normal post? Oh no, it is not. *waves fingers mysteriously* For today, you will be reading a guest post by THE ONE AND ONLY Issabelle from Teen Writers' Nook!!!! (I'm pretty sure most of you read or have heard of TWN, but if you haven't checked it out, you TOTALLY should!! *shoves the link in your face and uses the Force to make you click it*) XP

    However, before I let her take over, I'm gonna brag about mah girl for a minute and say that if you don't have Issabelle in your life then you are SERIOUSLY missing out!!! She's one of the best friends a crazy ole girl like me could have! Issabelle is encouraging, thoughtful, supportive, and a TOTALLY EPIC WRITER and I've truly been blessed beyond my years to get to know her! Plus, you know you have a real friend when she doesn't give up on convincing you to read The False Prince (which I finally have, by the way) and helps plan our dream vacation to New Zealand! 😉

    Soooo, without further ado, I present to you the FABULOUS Issabelle Perry!!!! (Enjoy her post!)

*****

Yo, yo, yo, Victoria’s peeps, it’s… 

Well… 

Er… 

Obviously not Victoria. BUT I’m sure she had a really good reason for abandoning y’all to yours truly.

*tries to figure it out*

*thinks harder*

*thinks EVEN harder*

Yeah, I got nothing. But, hey, I may be a slightly crazy, overly enthusiastic, exclamation mark-obsessed teen, but I’m sure she could’ve left y’all with way worse. 😉 

Anyway, that’s enough of that. So as this lovely title to the post suggests, I’m here with an awesome post to help you with your writing! Let’s dive right on in. 

So regardless of whether you’re writing poems, nonfiction, short stories, novels, or anything you can think of, this one piece of information I’m about to give you will drastically change your writing. So what IS the one thing YOUR story NEEDS? Simple.

Your undying love, devotion, and dedication.

You may be like easy, right? Izzy, do you really need to devote a whole post on this one thing? The answer is yes, yes I do. This fact may be obvious and simple, but it’s something I often forget about my writing. So unless I’m the only one out there like that (and it’s very much possible), I’m using this post less to teach you something new but to instead encourage and remind you. 

The fact is, since writing comes with sooo many rules and guidelines, it’s SO easy to get lost in the whole mess. To think I have to follow a, b, c, and d JUST to have a story worth reading. And while, sometimes it’s really great to follow the standards, especially when it comes to things like character development, worldbuilding, engaging plots, etc., if you let your writing only stay within the boundaries of these rules and never let it break free and go where you want it to, the story will never be something that catches the attention of readers. Why? Because it will be like every single story out there. What makes your story awesome and unique is that you’re bringing all the things that make YOU awesome and unique to your story. If you put all your love, heart, and soul into it, if you choose to write the story that you wanna write and not the one the world tells you to, it will be so magnificent and beautiful!

Don’t believe me? Well, I’m gonna give y’all an example from this ole gal’s writing journey. I’m gonna give you two of the latest novels I’ve completed: Into the Lamp and Heir to His Crown. Now, about the time I started Into the Lamp, I had just finished a huge journey of devouring every single writing tip book, webinar, video, and blog post I could find. (Y’all, I am literally someone who spends her free time watching YouTube videos about the writing craft!) Anyway, so when I started Into the Lamp, my one goal was to do it right. To make sure the characters followed the outline, to make sure the plot had every single huge moment you could imagine. To make sure the entire story hit all the criteria you could imagine. Now, lemme just say, through edits, I ended up making sure to add my own flair of writing into the story, but what I’ve lost is just gone. While there were some scenes that had my signature wackiness and just a lil' bit of me in it, most of the book was just what I thought people wanted to read, and not entirely what I wanted to write. Now, that doesn’t mean Into the Lamp is terrible. (Well, er, it definitely has its flaws that need fixing, so maybe I’ll take that back. XD But, hey, that was just the third book I’ve ever written. I get better, y’all.) But anyway, the first version of Into the Lamp lacked so much of my heart and love that it just couldn’t compare to some other things I’m writing now. (But like I said, I’ve been able to go back and fix a lot of that through edits and stuff.)

Anyway, that leads me to my second book. When I first started Heir to His Crown back in January, I had one plan. I was just tired of how Into the Lamp turned into this book that was supposed to please the readers and not something I really wanted to write, so my goal was this: I wasn’t going to care or worry how this story turned out. It was just my free space to write the tale in my heart and that was that. So it took a bit of work to break myself away from following the structure, and instead, using the writing rules as a guideline, I just wrote. I put every bit of my heart and love into that novel, and while it is still a long way from publishable (I’m just beginning the edits!) I've already gotten tons of love for this book from my betas. So many people are telling me how much they’re enjoying it (and y’all, most of them are only on chapter six, so we’ve got a ways). And that’s my proof that if you want your story at its best, you will give it all of you. It’s your story! Don’t try to make it fit the masses and crowds of other novels. Let it stand out!

And that’s my reminder and encouragement for all my fellow writers today! Now, I will see y’all in the comments! Until then, as always, KEEP WRITING!!!!

~Issabelle Perry

*****

Issabelle Perry is an extroverted, slightly crazy, teenage published author of YA fantasy. On the rare occasion when she's not plotting and pursuing her next story idea, you can find her reading, blogging, graphic designing, searching the web for odd facts about the middle ages, or envisioning herself wielding a magnificent sword (but due to her clumsiness, let’s hope that never happens). What she's probably doing right now is either fangirling about her favorite books to random people or scanning the pantries for chocolate. You can find her on Teen Writers’ Nook that she co-founded with her sisters or follow her on Goodreads.