70 Deadly Wattpad Sins (The Book Of Evil Advice!)

Sin #24: Experimenting (It's not just for college!)

By Jove, I've done it! Years of dead-end research, countless nights wasted... The other bad-boy scientists mocked my ambition, but who's laughing now? It's alive! The bad-girl-meets-good-boy genre, it's alive!!

Huh, there's a new twist on an old joke.

Shut up, I'm still totally relevant. What's not so fly and/or hip, is the lackadaisical attitudes that certain youths are taking towards their plot craftsmanship! Not pointing any fingers, no one needs to be shamed—

It was you, wasn't it? That's usually the answer, like, 90% of the time.

Well, we all get caught in a rut sometimes, don't we? My point being, it's rather easy for an author to stagnate over a particular story or genre. Your interests and hobbies are a major influence, letting you feel more comfortable as you write about the stuff you know.

The problem is, once you hit a certain stage in extending the same old franchise, you're pretty much rehashing past events and invoking god-awful cliches just to stay, dare I say, relevant.

So what? Maybe I like it when my creative potential is restricted!

Maybe you do, but I'm willing to bet that the people reading this book are looking to improve their literary selves, to challenge what they already know. How are you supposed to collect more Writer Experience Points, if you only grind mobs in one precise cavern?

Just because you like romance, that's no reason to pigeonhole yourself. If you only write about beefy firemen with tight abs and chiseled jawlines, your 'hot' guy would be all appearance and no substance! A cardboard cut-out could do the same job, just ask Kristen Stewart— oh, we've already used that bit before, huh.

If you've dabbled in the Action genre even a little, you would be able to fill your fireman's role with the appropriate sweaty scenes and have him rescue his darling Mary Sue. The most important tool in an author's arsenal is their range, their ability to adapt to any scenario!

How many 'most important tools' have you mentioned in this book so far?

Way too many, it keeps changing. That only proves my point, though — I've grown a lot myself, changing the priority of my techniques to suit whatever it is I'm writing at the time. From zombie thrillers to satire comedy to historical fiction, I've experimented with many genres on my own.

You might think that none of these niches have anything in common, but you'd be surprised. A comedic moment in a thriller may lift the reader's spirits just enough, only to be dashed back down when the next tragedy strikes. 

Meanwhile, the research that goes into a historical story may end up tying into another plot's anecdote or exposition. Facts are facts, even when used in fiction. Every skill tree is connected, people!

I don't see nearly enough mixing on Wattpad. Everyone sticks to their respective genres, maybe a relevant sub-genre, because that's what they're comfortable with. They're completely right to do so, but they are missing out on a genuinely-fun learning curve... possibly the only one that's not a cruel trick by your math teachers.

What's so fun about writing crap that you hate?

You won't know whether you really hate it, until you try from the other side of the pen. I challenge you to think up a fresh story — the polar opposite of what your current one is about — and write a little practice scene. Doesn't have to be more than a few words, just enough to establish it as a genre.

I know that most of you won't bother, but if you're ever stuck being a potato, you might as well think about it. Move away from your usual light-hearted themes and try something a little darker, or vice versa. Give poetry a quick go, maybe even a werewolf tale if you're one of the few remaining nay-sayers.

A new perspective is your best guarantee to break through a bad case of writer's block, regardless of how you achieve it. Some like to go on vacation, some redecorate their writing space, and some throw themselves into the darkest corner of an unfamiliar genre. Are you brave enough to write yourself out of that hole?

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If you don't experiment and take your writing to its absolute limit, you'll never know what you're truly capable of. That's not to say that you should become a total edgelord like Edgar Allan Poe, but rather apply yourself in situations that you find difficult to grasp.

Write something completely out of your comfort zone, that you wouldn't even expect until it's already on the page. Life is too short to spend all of your focus in one area, especially when you could be sharpening skills that will come in handy during later projects. This could give your story the romantic/comedic twist it needs to stay—

I swear to Lucifer, if you say—

R-E-L-E-V-A-N-T. Relevant. That's me. I'm so relevant these days, yup.

Urgh, you sound like a middle-aged Dad.

I am your middle-aged Dad. Now go to your draft folder, young man/lady! Listen to your super-relevant and totes-lit father.