Cracking the Wattpad Code: Insider Secrets the Pros don't want you to know!

Get Featured! Part 2

And now we continue with where we left off in the last chapter.

Just to recap, the most important takeaway from the last chapter was this: you have to get past the slushpile first! And getting past the slushpile is difficult, because the slush reader is actively trying to find a reason to reject you.

Think of the slush reader as Wattpad's goalie.  Only the good writers are gonna get past them. If they even so much as find a typo or grammatical error, bam! You are rejected.

Now if you do happen to have a work that is grammatically correct and you've also proven you can string words together meaningfully, well you move on to the "next level".

Ok, now that you've managed to get past the slush reader. What now? Well, here's where the real challenge begins. You now have to face off against the real reviewer of your book. I call this person, the "Consideration Reader". In the real world, such a person is called a Literary Agent, or a Publisher.

Important note: this is a bit theoretical. In truth, it might be possible that the slush reader and consideration reader are the same people. Somehow, I don't think that's true. You really need two people for this and so I believe this is the model that Wattpad employs.

Who exactly is the Consideration Reader? Well, it's basically a critic who knows exactly what to look for in good prose. In my case, my consideration reader (I won't name them so they don't get bombarded with spam) was an accomplished writer. My CR had a number of published stories to their name, and they understood the art of prose inside and out.

Put simply, the Consideration Reader is a PRO.

Which suddenly now explains why some writers who happen to write pretty well, still don't make the cut.

So now we know what we're up against, how do we increase our chances? Well, if we're trying to get from Point A to Point B, we need a special kind of map. We need a roadmap that shows us what we should be doing - the very things that the Consideration Reader is looking for.

So please, sit back, enjoy and allow me to take you through a really brief tour of a number of "Literary Techniques You Must Know" (LTYMK, LOL!). These are the things the Consideration Reader is probably looking for.

Important thing to note: I, like many of you, am also an amateur writer. So I don't know everything, and though I do my best to give examples from well known writers as well as from my own writing, my examples may not be perfect either. This is a crash course in literary writing, but if you want to evolve beyond this, I suggest reading up on the subject. For starters, @Ctyolene's "Be Your Own Editor" is a wonderful book devoted to the subject. Check it out, right here on Wattpad!

LTYMK #1: Voice

Writing style varies dramatically from one author to another.  This is what's called voice. Voice is like a signature. It's what makes a writer unique. Now, many writers haven't quite found their voices. If you're one of them, don't fret. It will come with time. What you need to do to develop your voice is to read a lot, and write a lot. Now, a few of us are blessed to be born with sort of a sixth sense for it. I've seen many young writers on Wattpad with amazing voices.

Both Stephen King and the Beatles were famously asked the same question: "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to try and write as an unknown writer/songwriter just to see if it wasn't just luck? Why not write a story or play a song under a fake name and see if it will become a hit without your famous names behind it?"

Both the King and the Beatles responded with exact same answer:

It would never work.

Huh? How so?