Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

Comments, Likes, and Readers; Oh my!

I've already mentioned some of these ideas in etiquette chapters from long past, but I felt a need to return to and describe my opinions in depth on the subject, especially after I received a few comments that got me thinking about stuff. And by stuff, I mean how people should comment and like work on wattpad.

Now, some time ago, I mentioned that the "best" way to write a critique is to read the whole thing and provide a "whole book" critique. Chapter by chapter critiques, the kind most common on wattpad, tend to be riddled with problems. You never get a real sense of what's going on. You can sound real critical. You miss the big picture... and even when you give the big picture, the author might not really see what's important, because you mentioned so many quibbling points over 30 some chapters of book comments.

However, as time goes on, I find myself being the type of person to comment on every chapter. I don't always "critique" every chapter, but I feel the need to at least provide them with a comment. And often, I'll say so many things over the chapters, that by the time I get to the final chapter, I don't give as good of a "full book critique" as I might have, because I feel like it would be needlessly repetitive. I know, I know, always the hypocritic.

But there is a reason for this. Wattpad thrives on comments and likes. If you wait to the last chapter to comment, then you don't really help motivate the author to write. Wattpad isn't a hardcore analysis site. Most of the people on Wattpad are just trying to work up the drive and confidence to complete a story in general. When people choose to not comment, they chock the writer's motivation and drive to continue.

From my experience on Wattpad, I can tell you that silent readers are the worst. Every time you read a chapter, and don't star or comment, the writer is wondering if they did something wrong. Is there a reason you didn't like it? You, in your willingness to take free content and not even offer a star, just made a hit at the writer's self-confidence. Many of us have a hard enough skin, and know that some readers are just silent and that's their nature, but I'd be hard pressed to find a single writer on here whose thought on silent readers wasn't at least "slightly annoyed".

If you really hated a story, and you literally can't do anything but give scathing remarks on it... yeah, I can understand choosing to be quiet. But I can't imagine the often 20: 1 reader:star ratio on chapter 30 of a book suggests that you don't like the story and are just reading it because... you hate yourself?

Now, I mentioned in my etiquette chapter and I'll reiterate here, writers shouldn't "expect" stars and comments. We need to understand readers have no obligation to do anything for us. We put our work out there for people to read, and whether they like it or hate it, that's not really ours to say anything on. However, as a reader, you should understand how important this system is to us. If nothing else, it's a motivator.

For example, I recently had someone approach me asking if I was continuing with my book, Hawtness 1.5. I told her what I told everyone who started the book in the first chapter. My capacity to write is 100% dependent on how motivated I am to write. A major contributor to me completing Hawtness so quickly was that I had 3 some people commenting on every chapter and encouraging me the entire way. In Hawtness 1.5, I got no comments on chapter 2. The only comment I got on chapter 3 was someone complaining when I didn't release when I was hoping I would. That's not the community "motivation" I needed to continue to work on Hawtness. It's a vanity project for me, so if I don't have people begging for the next chapter and encouraging me, I'm not motivated to continue. I'm not saying I'm quitting writing the book... but I am suggesting that if the all the people who show up under "reads" had also starred and commented, Hawtness 1.5 would probably be done and Hawtness 2 would be under works as we speak.

It's often forgotten that the writer's here don't get paid to do our work. We do it because we want to. Many aren't even planning to publish. And no, it doesn't take 50 people to motivate someone to write... but 2-3 people who make sure to engage you and ask you questions about your story and continue to cheer you on can do wonders. So if you are invested in a story and seeing it completed, and even if you don't care about cheering the writers on or encouraging them, you should at least still do it for your own sake if you want another chapter this century.