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

Sin #33: Finishing What You Started (Hello stranger!)

That awkward moment when your novel's timeskip bleeds into real world time — whoops.

Been a while since you updated your story? You're not alone. As we've discussed before, writer's block can be both the saviour and executioner of any story. You can either take some much-needed time to scavenge the inspiration you need, or you might decide to throw the entire work away like one of your crusty nose droppings.

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However, not all writing breaks are hiatuses or cancellations. Sometimes, you can have the drive and you still believe in the concept, but you simply don't have the third element of turning your idea into a story — that would be the time to lay out the words.

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Today we're talking about the kind of hiatus that few people can recover from — the year-long, sometimes multiple years of inactivity that can kill every kind of novel, profile or even career. How can you bring yourself back from the dead?

DOTDOTDOT—

I can hear you, pal! It's okay. I'm back now, right where we left off.

We left off on March 27th, 2018. The entire world has changed since then! You were gone for so long...  How could you forget all about us?!

I honestly couldn't if I tried! The entire time I was gone, I was always looking for moments to continue this series. You were still the voice in my head, even while I was on my extended leave from Wattpad.

To cut a long story short, life got in the way. I know it does, you know it does, we get the idea. When the world throws us on a different track, we like to pretend that we don't have enough time for anything. We need to feel busy, validated.

Of course we may have the occasional free time where writing is a possibility. But this kind of hiatus is tricky — it asks us to fill the void of writing by doing other tasks that make us feel more productive.

Maybe you've gotten yourself a new job, or you have a gauntlet of exams coming up. The itch of 'what am I doing with my life' has been scratched. So why waste time on a fruitless hobby when you could be doing something you will actually be recognised for?

Sounds harsh, but this is where most authors hang up their writing caps. I believe that ghosting your own hobby is a mistake, one that people can't afford to make anymore.

Are you telling people to stop studying for their finals and write garbage fanfics instead?

No, definitely not. 

The thing is, I've lived through this half-quitter mindset, working full-time for two straight years without writing a single word. All I can say now is that I am creatively drained.

You see, creative writing is like a brain muscle that needs to be flexed, trained and possibly tickled. You can't just dive back into a story after two years and expect to pick up where you left off.

Sure, my mind was always in the place of 'I could write again if I wanted to'. I wasn't betraying my own projects, since I was keeping them in my thoughts and refining every detail.

But what good is a story if it never gets told?

Exactly. 

I wasn't keeping my stories alive. I had locked them in a prison, knowing that I would never have the spare time to make them a reality.

Why not dump the stories you can't write? That was Sin #12, right?

If you feel like that's the only way to free yourself, then go nuts. But for me personally, if a concept has stuck with me for this long and it still gives me that rush of excitement, then it's a story worth telling.

Of course, in this case, it wasn't a novel or even a story. It was this book of sinful advice that I started, way back when. I still look into the comments, the discussions that take place, the tips that shaped myself and many others into somewhat-competent authors.

If there's any story worth telling, then it's the tale of how I beat the odds and managed to survive Wattpad Hell, crawling out from the flames after 2 years and 5 months of burning myself out. I promised you all 70 Sins, and that is exactly what I will deliver.

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If a miserable sod like me can be resurrected, then so can you. If you're reading this and feel as though you've been out of the game for too long...

Just change the rules. You're the only one who can set them, after all. Your stories are locked in a prison that you created, all you have to do is take that first step outside and see where it goes.

You might regress a few times, but that's okay. Heck, I know that I'm not going to have time to write a demanding project anytime soon. I should be getting ready for work as I'm writing this chapter!

But that's where the excitement lies. Being that one-in-a-million author, the one who can make sacrifices like this, but it doesn't feel like a sacrifice. Not if it helps, entertains or even makes one reader laugh. That's the core of what Wattpad should be.

Uh, about that... What do you actually know about Wattpad in 2020? This book is seriously outdated.

Huh? What do you mean, outdated?

They got rid of the Community Forums, there's a subscription service called Wattpad Premium and you now have to pay for stories with digital coins.

...Are you fu—