It is important in a bonsai to have a leader branch. What I mean by this is to have one branch leading upwards which will in turn become the trunk. To create a good taper on your bonsai, you need to keep changing this leader year by year instead of letting it grow straight up and chopping it to the height you like.
It’s certainly possible to make a nice looking tree by chopping and then carving the trunk of course. But to make a natural looking bonsai the best way to do it is over a long length of time making sure you know where the leader is heading. When you get good at understanding the way it will grow just by changing the leader it is possible to style the tree just by nipping unwanted buds and not having to use wire at all. Wire can be a nice helping hand however.
Failure to choose a leader will result in a bonsai which looks very stumpy and the branches having no taper whatsoever. You will end up with a thick trunk which rises up however many inches you’ve decided on and stops as if you have chopped it. So remember when styling your bonsai to have one branch which you intend to grow onwards because your tree needs to get very slowly bigger to look right.
A picture of a crepe myrtle I have trimmed as an example. Hopefully I’ve made it extremely obvious which is to be the leader! (You don’t have to make it this prominent on your own bonsai)
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