WATTPADIAN'S

UNPLANNED FRIENDSHIP.

Jikan_madaki's POV

.I've always been able to derive
serenity through writing. Writing books, poetry, etc. It has always been a way through which I escape boredom or some emotions uncalled for. 
 
On one of my journeys through writing I met a friend. We started chatting on Wattpad. She was very welcoming and friendly. We motivated and supported each other through our journeys as writers. We also shared ideas to help improve our writing abilities and capabilities.We got comfortable and decided to exchange contacts for easy communication-through texting; through WhatsApp.

After a while, we came up with this idea of formulating a WhatsApp group for writers like ourselves and named it WATTPADIANS. Naturally the aim was to meet new writers from Wattpad all over the country, improve our skills and support one another. It wasn't easy-peasy getting access to writers who wanted to cooperate.

Thankfully after we were able to access a desired amount of members, we started conducting interview sessions, book reviews, poems, and collaborations. Gradually, our numbers started increasing and we couldn't be happier, because everything turned out spicy and good.  It wasn't easy, yet slowly but steadily we moved forward. 

We decided to write a book on Wattpad application and titled it wattpadians. The contents of the book contained the interview sessions of each and every member we had on the WhatsApp group chat we had opened. Every member had a chapter to themselves and it couldn't get any better.

Along the line, things got less hectic. Life engaged us and we all got so busy, we literally had no time to conduct our interview sessions, book reviews, and so many other activities we had going on. Things got a little messy in such a way that some members would be active when others were busy and vice versa. Coming back together after some time, the group slowly slipped into a home of fun. We just have fun with members, talk about our lives, our busy schedules, talk about everything and nothing. We sidetracked our main aim. Which was to improve our writing skills and related stuff. 

A few months passed by and a member brought us some juicy news. It was another WhatsApp group named HOME OF POETS. It was meant for poets. Thankfully some of us who were into writing prose were also engaged in poetry either directly or indirectly. A link was sent to our Wattpadians WhatsApp group to join the HOME OF POETS group. A lot of people from wattpadians joined the group. 

Ridicule is the best world to describe our welcome to the HOP. Apparently, their admins had ridiculous rules and regulations guiding the affairs of the group. I mean rules are supposed to provide comfort and regulate affairs, right?! In HOP, we weren't given rules instead we faced dictatorial and authoritarianism from the admins of the group. They dictated what was to be done and not without considering other members of the group. They didn't even care if it was compatible and comfortable for us. Basically, we had a bunch of egoistic people regulating our lives. We learned quite alright but not the right way and definitely not in a conducive environment.. 

Poems written and given for reviews were ridiculed by the so-called better members. In terms of review, they practically change the entire poem and in doing so the real meaning and mood of the poem is lost. The environment became claustrophobic and non- conducive. Things got spicer when one the dictators of the group was found plagiarizing poems from the internet. What he literally does is a copy and paste work.  He didn't even try to defend himself, instead he shamelessly admitted to it and didn't feel any remorse. It's the confidence and effrontery for me.

With a dictatorial group like HOP, things didn't go well. There was a lot of conflict by people and arguments sprouted out between the members and the admins. The dictatorship became toxic and extreme, therefore, things went down the drain. We created another group on WhatsApp named REVOLUTIONARY POETS, sent the link to the group, condemned the previous rules, made the rules inactive in the new group, and were surprised at the number of members that actually joined us.