writing tips – G. S. Banks

10 Tips For Starting Out on Wattpad

March 30, 2017February 3, 2022Posted in Art, Books, Inspiration, Life, Publishing, Writing, Writing TipsTagged adventure, art, author, authors, book, inspiration, life, literature, wattpad, writing, writing tips, young adult

Wattpad is a writer/reader platform, like a YouTube for stories. There are around 45 million users, so if you are a writer, looking for a home for your work – it could be right up your street.

I joined Wattpad in 2011 and since then I’ve posted 3 short stories, 2 novels and a collection of essays, and had over 2.4 million reads of my work. These are my top ten tips to starting out.

Have a read

The first thing I would recommend is something all writers are good at – grab a cuppa, put your feet up and enjoy a good read. There’s all sorts of stuff on there. The majority of the users are female teens, so there’s plenty YA. The Romance and Fantasy genres are strong but there’s also loads of other stuff such as Sci-Fi, Historical and Poetry. Hopefully there’ll be something that will float your boat. There’s an app if you like reading on your phone.

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Living Free of “What Will They Think of Me?”

September 4, 2015February 3, 2022Posted in Directing, Film, Inspiration, Life, Supergirl InterviewsTagged being judged, criticism, directing, film, inspiration, life, living free, love, passion, screenwriting, scripts, supergirl interviews, writing tips, young adult

This is the second Supergirl Interview where we ask kickass ladies from across the world how they survived those troublesome teenage years and what advise they now have for the next generation of amazing young ladies.

awards-large — Bayou Bennett. Total Supergirl.

We have someone very special today, someone I have known for a few years and who always stands out as a most creative, inspirational person. Bayou Bennett. Award winning writer and film director, Bayou creates films with her husband Daniel Lir and together they form the husband-wife duo ‘Dream Team Directors’ working with some of the biggest stars in the world.

Bayou Bennett and Matt Bennett — Directing Matt Bennett in short film “Text Me”

Bayou and I talk about the subject of ‘being judged’. A terrible subject for many teens and many people in general for that matter! We tackle the question of whether it is possible to live free of that thought: ‘But what will others think of me?’ It’s about time we found out how Bayou, despite the pitfalls of teenagehood, managed to remain true to her heart and stay faithful to her own self.

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Location, Location

February 19, 2015February 3, 2022Posted in Books, Writing, Writing TipsTagged author, book, edinburgh, literature, location, screenwriting, scripts, setting, story, writing, writing tips

I wrote a new short story. It is available on wattpad only and was specially commissioned by USA Network as part of their campaign to launch a new TV show called DIG. I was pretty excited when I was asked to do this as USA Network produce some of my all-time favourite TV shows such as Heroes, Homeland and Suits. The show is an international mystery and inspired by this a new character sprung up in my mind named Elisa Hartwood – a 16 year old super geek who studies at Cambridge, a gifted puzzle solver, who is called upon to help solve some of the most high profile, hush-hush cases. You can read the story here.

The location needed to be international. Usually when I think international I think New York because for me there is hardly any better location for any story than New York – I just kind of think that. It’s probably energy, the variety, the scale of it all. This time however I wanted somewhere different and so my mind turned to Venice which is a place I lived during the spring of 2000 – fifteen years ago back when I was a little 19 year old duckling! You can see me in some of the film camera photos I took back then!

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