Better Writing?

Assalamualaikum and hello guys! Countdown starts now : 9 more days until the final exams! Okay, so skip that. I don't want to remind myself about the finals or studying. So as the title goes, better writing. Raise your hands up if you are writing a story. *cricket cricket* No one? *cricket cricket* Well, never mind that. If you wanna know, writing is a common hobby for the form 1s in my school and I have to say that it's my hobby too. We also like to put up our stories in www.wattpad.com , a place where you can share your stories online. As I was checking out the writers club, I saw a discussion with the title, "What is one thing that lures you away from a story?" I couldn't help but nod and agree after reading the comments. And I noticed that even *cough* I have done the things that can make someone turn away from my story. Let me share you some of the things that I have learned:

1. Having A Mary Sue/Gary Stues Character
What's a Mary Sue? A Mary Sue is a character that is perfect. Well, not perfect, but wasn't well thought out. Mary Sues can adapt quite easily and excel at everything they do. They are intelligent and pretty, as described. Their eyes "change according to their mood". Most are overpowered. No real flaws, except for being "clumsy" and that's usually a stepping stone for being "cute". Everybody likes her, except for the many jealous girls. Bella from Twilight, for example, is a Mary Sue. Most main characters in fanfiction are Mary Sues (female) or Gary Stues (male). (Definition provided by felicitous from Wattpad).

2. Over-Detailed Descriptions
You know how it is, like the character goes inside a room and starts describing the color, the surrounding, the width, what it reminds her of, the smell, the type of material the floor is, the place the bed/closet/carpet/windows/door/lamp is located and other stuff. Seriously? Why don't you just put how it tastes like? Then there's the usual female author that goes out of her way to describe the main character and love interest with 7 paragraphs.Seven. Siete. Sept. Nana.What? Why is that even necessary?

3. Too Much Spelling And Grammar Mistakes
*cough* I have to say that I have also made some grammar mistakes in my story but at least it's not really noticeable unless you're an English teacher. Actually, grammar mistakes are still forgivable because you know, we're all in the process of learning, right? But what I really don't like is when there's unbelievable spelling mistakes. See the sentence below and tell me what you think:
"she said 2 meh, wht do u mean? i tld hr 2 sht hr mth up."
That, is way horrible man.

4. When The Romance Takes Over
So I read this one story which has an interesting plot and all. It's mostly about finding out the hidden truth about her necklace or something like that. But then the main character (which is a Mary Sue) falls in love with this guy and the guy likes her back and so the quest about finding out the truth is just.. buried. And suddenly it becomes a romance story which tells the same cheesy thing (hugging, smiling, kissing) in EACH chapter. I was like tapping my foot impatiently waiting for when the character will remember back what she was trying to do before she met the guy and believe me, I had to endure 7 or so chapters until she does.

5. A Cliche Story
The guy is popular, handsome, and rich (most of them a player). Then the girl is sweet, kind and almost pathetic. Clumsy, always gets kidnapped. Oh and there is always a mean-but-pretty girl at the school who wants the nice girl dead.Plus a sorta nice beta and a nice guy who helps the mean-but-pretty girl.And dont forget the nice/innocent girl's best friend who is always bubbly and crazy. Well I pretty much plotted out all the main characters in a cliche story :) Wait a second, after second thoughts, what I have just typed out is pretty similar to my story. Oh boy.

So I listed out some of them. Which is kind of what I always do in my stories. *sigh* I'm seriously a hypocrite and I hate it. I hope this post helps! It's okay if you do this five things, but you'll find out there won't be much readers for your story ;)

Have a happy weekend!