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Chapter 1: Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs; My high-level overview of the art of writing Warriors fanfiction
TytoNoctua
August 24, 2025

Everything that literally forms your story like grammar, word choice, sentence structure, affects what your readers get from it. There’s a lot of best practices and rules that change with context and culture. Fortunately, you don’t have to memorize them to get the most from your writing. This chapter is a high-level overview of stringing words, sentences, and paragraphs together to tell your Warriors story. For context, this chapter assumes you’re writing in American English. The rules may change depending on where you’re from and what language you’re writing in.

1.1 A Glance at the Novels’ Words

Chapters in Warriors are generally short but dense with events that advance the story and build the world. Paragraphs are simple in structure and separate dialogue, thought, narration, and reminders of past events. Sentences are only as long as they need to be. And the choice of words is appropriate for the target reading level, with few instances of exclusively British English terms (exclusive as in having no direct counterparts in other English language varieties).

Changing things like this helps you achieve a certain tone, set the reading level of your work, or pace events. The same goes for more abstract decisions like what point of view to write in or how much the narrator knows about the world. What exactly would that look like, though?

Here is an excerpt from The Darkest Hour, where the narrator is expositing from Tigerstar’s point of view:

Everything about the Twolegplace disgusted him: the hard surface under his paws, the stench of monsters and the Twolegs they carried in their bellies, the unfamiliar noises, and most of all, the way that he could not survive here without a guide. The tabby was not used to depending on another cat for anything. In the forest he knew every tree, every stream, every rabbit hole. He was considered the strongest and most dangerous warrior in all the Clans. Now his sharpened skills and senses were useless. He felt as if he were deaf, blind, and lame, reduced to following his companion like a kit trailing helplessly after its mother.¹

From this, we know Tigerstar is uneasy about things he doesn’t understand, that he’s proud of his skills as a Clan cat, and that he hates relying on others. The Erins’ specific word choices gives us an impression of Tigerstar’s personality. And changing some of those words can give us a new impression, as in this modified version of the above passage:

Everything about the Twolegplace [frightened] him: the [rough] surface under his paws, the [disorienting] stench of monsters and the Twolegs [commanding them from] their bellies, the [overwhelming] noises, and most of all, the way he could not survive here without a guide. The tabby was not used to depending on another cat for anything. In the forest he knew every tree, every stream, every rabbit hole. He was considered the strongest and most dangerous warrior in all the Clans. Now his sharpened skills and senses were useless [and it frightened him]. He [was] deaf, blind, and lame [here], reduced to following his companion like a kit trailing helplessly after its mother.

Going over word by word, “disgusted” introduces Tigerstar’s feelings about the Twolegplace. Replacing it with “frightened” changes this introduction. Describing the monsters as “disorienting” and the twolegs as “commanding” them instead of riding in them reinforces his powerlessness. Even changing the verb and conjunction “felt as if” to the verb “was” (with an optional “here” added to clarify it’s not actually true) makes Tigerstar accepting of how he feels about the Twolegplace rather than reluctantly tolerating it.

In this rewrite, Tigerstar is still proud of his power and independence. But with a few things changed, he’s scared by the Twolegplace itself—and perhaps by whoever could survive in it—rather than disgusted by how useless he is there. His pride is buried by what he’s unfamiliar with, putting more emphasis on the foreshadowing this passage already provides. Perhaps he is internalizing fear that he hasn’t felt since before he became what he is. All from a few key word changes.

Even without the context of the previous books, that paragraph shows a side of Tigerstar we only see a few times before that event. Think of what kind of Tigerstar characterization we’d get if we rewrote his whole saga like this? That’s why this stuff can be so impactful.

1.2 Word for Word by Your Rules

Fiction writing is more art than science. As useful as it’d be in a writing guide, this chapter isn’t a grammar lesson. There are far more qualified sources for that out there. Instead, I’ll elaborate on the what and how of good sentences and choosing your words carefully.

1.2.1 Your Diction

The previous example showed how changing a few words can change the context of what’s being said. But that doesn’t mean you should agonize over every single word. Your writing should flow just as naturally as it was written. Still, key words in key places can fine tune your storytelling just the way you want it.

Take this sentence for example: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. I’m sure I’m not the first person to think of this, but rewrite this common pangram as if it were in a fiction book, keeping the subjects and action intact. See for yourself how much changing words alters the passage, only this time relying on your internal dictionary and your end goal of making it more engaging.

Improving at this aspect of writing is challenging to do intentionally. A straightforward way to do so is to read more. As you read, your vocabulary will naturally expand. As you write, you might recall the way certain authors wrote something. Two authors might’ve written the same interaction differently because of their writing styles and what each wanted from a scene. A thesaurus is your best friend here. Most importantly, think about why a certain word needs to be replaced. A word should fit your story first, rather than something that just sounds clever or looks nice.

1.2.2 Briefly About Sentences

Sentence structure is easier to control and not agonize over like diction. Adding to or subtracting from a sentence’s length shifts the tone. Punctuation alters pacing and how much information a sentence can get across. What makes a good sentence varies between writers, which means there’s no best or correct answer here.

The first and last sentence of a paragraph tend to be the most important. They both introduce and conclude a specific story beat, narration, monologue, or pretty much anything else. If you ever get lost in finding the perfect way to express something, focus on the first and last sentence. It’ll help your readers along the most, and save you time better spent writing. You can always go back to that paragraph later.

Here's an exercise I found online from a book on writing sentences. Rewrite this sentence, “Catkit hit the mossball,” as a seven, fifteen, or thirty-word sentence. Then think about why you chose the words you did and what each addition brings to the tone, structure, or pacing. That’s the hard part. But it’ll be close to how you’d think about exchanging or adding words to your own writing.

Like words, not every sentence can or should be a deep thought exercise. They usually just say what happened next.

1.3 What About Readability

Readability varies based on the subject matter and context, but is generally the ease a reader can understand written text. We don’t expect a doctoral thesis and a middle grade book to read the same just because they’re written in the same language. Even fanfiction doesn’t have to read exactly like the series to be good fanfiction. Let’s look at the more objective things that can be done about readability.

1.3.1 Grammar Is Step Zero for Readability

As mentioned previously, I won’t go over the specifics of proper English here. Yet it’s still the most important step for a readable fanfic. Missing periods, misspelled words, and never-ending paragraphs have a cumulatively negative impact on your readers. Note that this is different from formatting, word choice, and the like. Grammar changes with language and variety, but it’s strictly technical.

Warriors has series-specific terms and rules, too. Mistakes like CatKit instead of Catkit or semitruck instead of monster distract your readers with meta errors they immediately know are wrong. These errors can easily go unnoticed because they’re specific to Warriors rather than a particular language. Lists of canon terminology and grammar are all over the internet. Watching for these errors keeps one less thing from distracting your readers. And when in doubt or aren’t making your own rules, default to how the series does it.

1.3.2 Another Quick Note on Word Choice

Warriors books typically rank at a sixth-grade level and appropriate for ages eight to twelve. Your fanfic doesn’t have to adhere to these restrictions. You can use all the big words and obscure punctuation you want. But if the series is most likely to be read by a certain audience, expect its fanfiction to be read by that same audience. The most important point is consistency. If you’re choosing to write fanfics for older or younger readers, keep that in mind when working on readability. A thesaurus is your best friend here, too.

1.3.3 Tuning the Big Picture, Paragraph by Paragraph

Sometimes you’re writing a massive epic with several plotlines, lots of secondary characters, and planned sequels. Other times it’s a somber character study about a cat you think didn’t get enough time in the books. Space these ideas out and give them room to breathe. Cramming events together in short-winded walls of text overwhelms readers with specifics while they’re trying to keep track of the most important details.

Space out your major events across chapters to ensure each gets the attention it needs to be compelling. As mentioned previously, the series tends to be written as small story beats that make up their chapters and constantly move the story along. But major events like battles and Gatherings tend to get their own chapters. You have the benefit of the longest-form medium. There’s no need to rush your readers along.

1.3.4 Stay out of Your Own Way

Excessive authors’ notes and allegiances amendments slow down the tempo of your fanfic because they add things your readers need to know from outside the narrative. If you need to address readers directly, give it its own chapter or use a host website’s social media features. If the information is so important they won’t understand your book without it, incorporate it into the narrative. If you need to explain what you’ve written before and after every chapter, you should look to revising your story.

Readability is relative to your audience. Whether that’s an older or younger audience, people looking for what-ifs, or something wholly unique, they’re all reading. Don’t let poor structure impede them.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of every possible way to do things. But everything mentioned here has an impact on the type of fanfic you want to write and what your readers will get. And this isn’t even the storytelling stuff! You can never make these details perfect, but you can use them to give your readers the best experience possible. You can always change these things later. A little bit of editing goes a long way.

Keep writing, don’t stress the perfect word, and always be done at some point.

• Tyto