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

Sin #04: Being A Prude (Excuse me? How very dare you!)

As a critic, I know how stressful it can be for authors to find decent people to review their work. That's why I promise to accept everyone's requests, regardless of what your story contains. Unless it has horror in it... or fan-fiction. Won't do LGBT either, and I'm certainly not reading anything with a prologue.

Make sure that it's in third person as well, and doesn't contain any reference to the word 'chair', because that's a trigger for me. Also, I don't read anything with more than one character in the plot. Can't wait to start on my positive critiques!

This sin can appear in a variety of forms, but the most common offense is through the Critic/Editor Club pages... before we get to that though, we need to understand what 'being a prude' means.

As with the other entries in this book, it isn't meant to be taken in a bad way... these chapters are simply suggestions, nudges towards becoming a well-rounded Wattpadder. With that in mind, we'll be discussing how the above attitude affects your web image.

Super! So let's start with that 'prude' statement... Why is it so bad in the first place?

To highlight the negativity that stems from prudishness, let's use an example from the typical author's perspective. Say that you have a tendency to include lots of female characters in each of your stories. Maverick, eh? Now, after completing a healthy portion of your current book, you want someone to critique it, right? So you head on over the the critiques page, as you would rightfully do.

Checking the first post, you see that the critic refuses to even look at your story because the cover has a girl on it. Whatever, you tell yourself. They sound pretty horrible anyway, to make such a strange restriction. Upon further scrolling, you see that the next post, and the majority of the ones following it outright state that female characters are unacceptable.

Your choices are severely limited to maybe one of the staggering twenty-five critics per page, and you know that most of those people would love your story that only has one female character, but they won't even take a look.

Without any hostile intentions afoot, you're left feeling offended and uncritiqued for a story you consider to be 'salt of the earth'. They have lost your potential payment as a result of this narrow-minded behaviour, as well as a little of your respect for the so-called community. Count yourself lucky that you got away without being reported...

Obviously, there aren't many people who refuse to look at stories featuring women, but feel free to replace any hot topic with 'fan-fiction', 'horror', 'LGBT' or 'love-triangle'. These themes/genres frequently get turned down from the moment they are mentioned, and even if a background gay couple or a potential love triangle has a minor appearance later in the story, you can bet that most of those club posters would just drop the book there and then.

That's a little sad... but so what? A critic should be able to ask for certain books that appeal to them!

Of course they can! This is where 'being a prude' comes into play. The distinction is whether your tone is guiding interest to a topic, or deflecting it. Let's try two Editor Club samples:

1) "I don't read any fan-fiction. horror, fantasy, comedy, teen fiction, romance, action or science fiction.  If I see any references to BoyxBoy or GirlxGirl, I'll report you. No blacks or asian characters, and don't you even think about sending me any books that feature paper at any point, because that's a trigger for me. I got a paper-cut once when I was six, and was fighting for my life in hospital for weeks."

2) "I usually read teen fiction and romance, but horror's okay too. I'll consider any other genres as well, for alternative payment. Send me a PM and I'll get back to you on whether I can help or not. Have a nice day!"

Two Wattpadders available for editing, which one would you choose first? Number One, who probably lives in an unvaccinated household covered in bubble-wrap (shout-out to medical pariah, Jenny McCarthy)... or Number Two, who sounds like a lovely, welcoming human being who would take the time to look at your request regardless of restrictions?

The thing is, these posts could easily be made by the same person. The key is language... If you use negatives consistently and spout off a list as long as your arm about what you don't like to read, do you really expect people to pay for your thoughts?

I guess Number One did sound like a spoiled brat... 'Number One', 'Number Two', hehe!

Take it easy, bro. Anyway, you can see that being positive not only gets you more payments as a critic/editor, but upholds your public image on Wattpad. No one wants to be known as the homophobic racist who won't read any stories that their Sunday School teacher didn't approve of first, so don't act like one! Be an open book, you'll attract more readers with honey than vinegar.

Not everyone has hostile motives, which makes it tricky to determine why they would have a specific aversion. Most people reject horror because of the gore, and avoid fan-fiction because of One Direction. These are stereotypes, and it isn't a healthy habit to share online or offline.

The fan-fiction genre isn't an encompassing term for locking Harry Styles in your basement, just like Americans aren't fully composed of gun-toting rednecks. It's just plain ignorant to reject a book before you even look at the cover.

What if I can't read something like LGBT, because of my religion? Exposure isn't good for everyone, y'know...

Then state exactly that in your post! There's nothing more infuriating than someone who denies a request and doesn't give an answer, but you can at least let other people know the real reason why. It looks a lot more intelligent than robotically spamming 'Don't show me any gay characters, yuck' on your profile, club posts and other stories.

However, it should be said that even if you have underlying issues with a topic... wouldn't it be better for you to understand the concept fully before you make snap judgments about why another author would include those themes? Closing yourself off to the world is the problem here, not accidentally reading a single page about two chicks holding hands. As long as you're not doing it yourself, what's the harm?

----

There's a lot of evolving genres and themes out there, some you might not even be aware of. Do you really have the time to write trigger warnings for each and every one? Maybe it's time to loosen the stuffy necktie, unbutton your collar and just dive into some fun stories.

Frequent readers can't avoid certain genres forever, and while they're certainly entitled to ignore disliked books, that doesn't give them any justification for polluting the Wattpad Clubs with hateful jabs about race and LGBT.

Real things happen in the real world... you can either suck it up and acknowledge that fact in a polite manner, or spread more negativity and wonder why people aren't responding to your sphincter-tight requirements for customers.

Wait a minute... This book is called '70 Deadly Wattpad Sins'! I'm reporting you for exposing me to the concept to religion :O

Wha- Really? After what we just talked about? Not cool, man. Not cool.