Bad Boys With Wings [REMOVED]

REMOVED

As per the announcement I sent at the start of this week, I've removed Bad Boys with Wings from Wattpad.

Bad Boys with Wings was once my pride and joy, especially since it's the only book I've written that won a Watty Award (2016). I want to say I appreciate the reads, votes, comments and love that a lot of you shared towards this story.

I've made the decision to remove this book because it is poorly written and I'm tired of the hateful comments it attracts. For me, the bad comments overshadow the good comments when the bad is way more frequent.

At the time I was writing this, I was young and wasn't thinking about it as a serious thing. This led to lack of research in certain aspects, as well as a protagonist who simply made too many mistakes. We all make mistakes in real life, yet when it comes to fiction a lot of people want to slam people for those mistakes. The amount of slut shaming towards Vienna in this book is ridiculous. 

I'm also sick and tired of the arguments and offensive comments made towards people's faiths and religions, as well as towards those who have no faith or religion. It would have been nice if everyone could respect people's beliefs and disbeliefs, but that's pretty much impossible, especially on online platforms. As a Christian myself, reading some of these comments is simply upsetting and frustrating and I'd rather it didn't take place in something I created to be enjoyed. Also being a young Christian when I wrote this, I didn't explain or portray my faith very well in some places, since I assumed everyone knew some of the fundamental beliefs in Christianity - which was not the case. 

To elaborate, the main reason I'm removing this book is because it's juvenile, poorly planned and poorly written. This is normal, since writers tend to improve over years of practice, which is why I have rewritten BBWW. The hateful comments are hurtful and frustrating, but that's not the only reason for my decision. I know that every good work will attract haters, so if I were to be acting solely because of that, I would remove everything I ever wrote. I understand some of you won't want to say goodbye to this original version, I do get that, and there's part of me that is sad about removing it too, but I have to do it in preparation for a future career in writing. To leave them on Wattpad is like leaving your very rough, first drafts to be read by the people you want to impress, when you know you can do better, and have done better. 

Some insight into what I mean when I say BBWW was poorly written:

- Firstly the whole mess with the love rectangle thing. I was just having fun with it at the time, not thinking that it would lead Vienna to be perceived as a bad person (though the majority of comments liked to used more colourful language to describe her, to say the least)

- Unrealistic circumstances such as how the boys can afford to live in the place they live without an income.

- Unrealistic aspects of what should be brother and sister relationship. As I have no brothers, I didn't realise at the time of writing that some of the interactions Vienna had with Joe were weird and inaccurate

- Assumptions I made when I was younger, such as thinking everyone knew about religious beliefs such as the Fall. Leading to poor explanations, if any at all

- Bad tone and voice in the way I wrote and structured sentences and dialogue (I think description wasn't too bad)

- Completely inappropriate sexual content that didn't fit into the story line at all and was written when I was a minor

BBWW Sequel

- Some, but clearly not enough research into Jamaican tourism and local life

- Lack of depth in characters (as there were too many new characters introduced all together)

The good thing is, this book has been rewritten. It was too poor to just be edited, so I rewrote the whole entire thing and made it better. Flaws and Feathers is completed and available on Wattpad for free. I highly recommend and I'm proud to share it as an alternative version to this story. I will also rewrite BBWW Sequel as the third book in the Flaws and Feathers triology! It will be so much better, that is a promise.

I've never shared this publicly, but BBWW has been pitched to three BIG publishers and even pitched to movie producers back in 2016. It was rejected by every single one of them.

My dream is to become a full time author and I've been searching for a literary agent and publisher for almost three years now. I don't want this childish and silly content that 14/15 year old me wrote online, to hinder that potential. 

I want to finish by saying this is my decision and I'm unlikely to change my mind. I apologise to those who loved this original version.

I'm leaving this here so that I don't have to repeatedly answer why I removed my book, especially since a lot of my readers don't follow me and wouldn't receive the messages I send round.

J

X

July 2020