Writing something with counter point in mind

I used the definition given on wikipedia which I think is writing the root, then adding melody with different steps. I couldn't understand half of what wikipedia was saying. 

So could someone more clearly explain counterpoint?

Counterpoint arises out of a simple idea: Two people want to sing together. The first singer picks a melody, and a second singer sings another melody that fits to the first one, but is nonetheless a melodious line in its own right (and thus also easier to sing) That is the start of counterpoint. Two voices, each sing a different melody, but they fit together. Later on, composers developed rules which combinations of intervals between the voices and between the stages of one voice would work well and which would not work. E.g. if both voices proceed in parallel octaves, they are no longer identifiable as separate voices. Now, you may combine counterpoint with harmony theory, as has been done since the Baroque. However, you won't get very far with the approach to always put the root of the chord in the bass.

Some find it easier to learn counterpoint as an extension of harmony theory. Others find the approach via Renaissance counterpoint with its emphasis on the melodic lines easier. Others learn it by the way of Gradus ad parnassum, the venerated book by J.J. Fux, a Baroque composer at the Imperial court in Vienna. Of course, most people do not use the original book but its method is widespread.

But I am certain you have already written counterpoint without knowing it, as when you have written an melodic bass line that is not simply a filler to the upper voice.

For good ways to learn counterpoint in English, I am at a loss. Ebenezer Prout's "Counterpoint" is surely a bit dusty, but available at imslp.org http://imslp.org/wiki/Counterpoint_(Prout%2C_Ebenezer) and archive.org https://archive.org/details/counterpointstri00prouuoft. Peter Schubert's and Christoph Neidhöfer's "Baroque Counterpoint" is said to be really well done, but also to be really expensive.

Be aware, however, that many counterpoint books focus too much on certain prohibitions and ironclad rules that were never that strictly applied in real compositions. Also, for more esoteric questions, the rules may vary considerably from one author to the next. I have just read a book on Renaissance counterpoint that shows very nicely that the old texts of the Renaissance weren't that strict: They told more about what one should do to write good-sounding counterpoint rather than what one shouldn't do.

@Some Guy That writes Music Hah, I found something that could help you. One is a very accessible course at openmusictheory.com (http://openmusictheory.com/contents.html), starting pedagogically with two-voice counterpoint in a Fuxian manner and then proceeding to four-voice compositions. The part on how to write a cantus firmus actually also gives a good idea how to compose an easily singable melody.

A very compact, but accessible worksheet with comments and hints is found here: https://finearts.uvic.ca/music/current/theory_materials/Counterpoint online.pdf

There is a worksheet with Fuxian cantus firmi against which one can train counterpoint here: http://www.ianstoner.com/pdf/fux_workbook_0.1.pdf .

@Some Guy That writes Music  Mr. Alan Belkin is running a course on youtube on counterpoint: