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

Sin #02: Everyone Is Your Enemy (Even you...)

Don't pretend that you're a lone wolf, unless your story has werewolves in it. Even then, you should still try to play nicely with the other cubs- err, kids...

So you've finally created a story that's semi-coherent, what now? Do you keep posting chapter after chapter, and hope that someone will eventually take notice? Think again. What you need to remember, is that Wattpad is a community full of other writers. Therefore, your story might not be as unique as you keep telling yourself...

B-But I'm special... My mom said so! Screw you, Tyro31!

Hang on a second! I'm not saying that you don't have a special something that makes your story speak in its own way... I'm talking about genres, recurring themes, all of that good stuff.

For every type of story (let's use My Little Pony fanfics as an example), there's about a thousand or so other stories with those same ponies and plot points, posted right here on Wattpad.

Now, here comes the problem. Some authors would undoubtedly see the other MLP books as competition... and rightfully so. However, the slip from 'friendly competitor' to 'undying rivalry' is very easy to make with the wrong attitude. Some people will scrutinise the other writer's stories and use that bitter anger to punish them for stealing potential readers.

You're damn right I'm angry! They have 11 more reads than me!! Grrrr!!

Is that really their fault, though? You can hate them all you want, tell everyone that they 'copied your story' and comment negative reviews into every one of their chapters... but is that going to boost your own reads at all? If anything, the bad publicity will just make the rival MLP book even more popular, and you're back at square one.

Like it or not, this person is slightly more popular than you, at least in the Pony genre. There is something that you both have in common, though; writing MLP stories.

You can either make this person your sworn enemy while stewing in complete jealousy of their works, or you can swallow your pride and actually try to socialise with them. You might find out that they aren't so bad in real life!

I guess I understand... but I'm still kinda pissed about it. What do I get out of making friends with them?

Why does anyone make friends? You need people who are close to you in order to feel enriched, happy... Humans are very sociable mammals, and interacting on social media is no different. We all have one uniting factor here, and that's our interest in reading/writing.

Send that famous MLP author a private message, and congratulate them on their book's success. Ask them how they did it, what techniques they used, whether they would be interested in critiquing your book in exchange for you doing the same for theirs. You two are birds of a feather, after all... or rather, ponies of a... err... pony-tail? I don't know.

This goes for everyone out there, not just Pony aficionados. If you feel like your story is at the bottom of the respective genre's totem pole, go and do some research! Find people with similar stories, and have a chat with them. See what makes them tick, and who knows - you might make a few friends who can give your story the attention it deserves.

Wow! Who knew that exploiting other people's success for your own personal gain could ever be that simple? :D

Yeah, well it's- wait, what? No... That just sounds terrible! It's called 'networking' in the business world, look it up! Twisting my words, sheesh...

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It's such a waste to exclude yourself from a community like this, especially when there's the potential for a mutually-beneficial relationship between yourself and another budding author.

There's no doubt that you've probably come across one or two difficult Wattpadders in your time, but if you haven't tried it already... Why not reach out to them? It could be that they're acting out because they feel insecure about their own story...

Nah, I'm good. They probably suck even worse than me... Besides, I work better when I'm throwing half-baked insults at those stupid successful authors. Who needs friends, right?

You've heard nothing, haven't you...