The Writer's Guide to a Good Story

Don't Let the Jerks Get To You

Let's say you were to write a Wattpad story. One that you spend hours hammering away at your keyboard creating. It's your first story, and you're proud of it. Face flushed triumphantly, you click the "save and publish' button and sit back, beaming and waiting for a stream of comments to come rolling in.

An hour later, you get an Email from Wattpad telling you that someone has commented on your story. You sit up in your chair and click it expectantly. This is what you see...

'your story sucks. i dont even know why it has so many reads.'

You sit back in your chair, defeated. You pack your bags. You vow to move to Utah. No, you want to move to Antartica.

Live among the polar bears, eating fish for the rest of your natural-born life. You want to swim among the ice floes, climb a palm tree, eat bright berries from a bush, ignoring, just for once, the nature guides telling you that they might be poisonous. Savor that sweet..scrumptious taste...

Wow. Okay, a teensy bit sidetracked there. So where were we? Right, at the jerk who just commented on your first story telling you that it sucked.

l know that not all of you may have had negative comments on their stories, but pretty much everyone had had some sort of bully or the other trying to shoot them down.

There is a difference between a put down and a contructive criticism, guys. Constructive criticism  is when you give valid and well-reasoned opinions about the work of others, usually involving both positive and negative views.

A put-down, to put it simply, would be to bash someone else's story without giving them any idea on how they could work at making it better.

Basically, simply being negative about their writing for the sake of annoying them or just for the sake of being negative about their writing.

For example:

Constructive Criticism by @HelpfulPerson: "Wow, I really like your story. I did think that it could use some editing, but your idea is very original."

Put-down by @MeanAndNastyJerk: "Yo this SUCKS, yo! I'm not even going to tell you WHY it sucks! It just SUCKS! Kill yourself."

See the difference?

As for personal experiences, I've had some kid comment on every one of my stories, going out of his way to insult all of them for just about no reason.

He started doing the same thing to my friend as well. Let me tell you, jerks like this simply aren't something you should worry about.

Bullies are unavoidable. But remember, you can't please everybody with your writing. Some people may simply just not like your writing.

Remember this, if someone is trying to offer you construstive criticism, don't take it the wrong way. Don't think 'This person has no right to tell me what to do with my story!' Think 'I'm being given an opportunity to improve on something. l should take it.'

If you see a comment that simply bashes on your story without telling you how to improve it or work on it, all you have to do is ignore it.

Delete it if it's bothering you. If the person themself comes after you, try to talk them into leave you alone. If this doesn't work, look into blocking the user. Remember, don't say anything inflammatory. Be calm about the situation, and be the mature person.

Most importantly, don't let these people get to you. There is no one good way to write a story. There is no one good story.

By the way, same thing applies when you're looking at someone's else's work. I don't care if your Wattpad boyfriend dumped you the day before, you don't go telling him, or anyone else, that their story sucks for no good reason.

Don't compare someone's writing to your own and say 'They're so good! l'm never going to get better.' Because you are going to get better if you work at it and write. Write often.

Soon enough, you could be a published author. And what will that bully be doing? Sitting on his/her butt tormenting another aspiring writer because they're too arrogant to realize their own mistakes.