Chasing Wattpad

The Other Wattpad

Wattpad is for kids. That is the truth. It's kids that have all the time in the world to read. It's kids who love to read on the phone (psychos!). It's kids who think that they can write a book before actually learning how to read a book. It's kids that have all the time to click away their lives in a million make believe worlds because they don't have to pay rent, buy food, and take care of a house hold. God I miss being a kid!

That is not to say that Wattpad would be a library of classic literature if there were no kids on here. Adults can't write either. It's just so happens that this site is geared for kids so you get what kids write. 

The majority of the stuff on Wattpad is crap to people who like good writing. Don't cry, I include some of my stuff in that group (not all of it of course, some of it is pure genius). Not all of us are natural born writers, and the majority of the rest of us don't know the first thing about writing. Most of the people writing books on here have no business writing books. Most of those are kids who because they read a book and liked it, now think they can write one. There is no reason for them to think that other than the book they read was just that simplistic. There was nothing to it. Very little plot, simple characters, and a story made for the movies is a requirement for most young adult books today. If I read what they read these days I would also think I could write it myself. I would be wrong too, though. I can't write crap. I can write like crap, I just can't write crap. There is a difference. 

Now before you start crying let me tell you that it is okay to write crap. No law against it. You might even become rich and famous writing crap. It actually works out pretty well. It turns out that those people who like to read or write crap are also very willing to buy crap so you will always have a job producing crap if that is what you want to do. 

But there is another Wattpad out there. Below the surface, way down past all the cliche stories and mass trilogies you will find the other Wattpad. Those wondrous writers who want nothing else but to produce great writing. Now they don't always succeed, magic is a hard thing to do after all, but they strive for magic and you can tell right away they are not your normal Wattpadders. 

Many of them are writing non-fiction. You remember non-fiction? It's that genre you almost never click on.  It's true stories with true words. Memoirs, poetry, and stories about every day life bring out the best writers  in people. But there are some brilliant fiction writers here also. Talented and hard working people who can weave an imagined story that tugs at your very soul. Absolutely gorgeous writing. But alas, there are so very few in comparison to the crap. 

I challenge you to go find the other Wattpad and take a look. Find the writers that write from a place within themselves and join them. Stop searching for the ones that write for you and for the sake of wanting to be known as writers.

In the end, we are all amateurs. We all fall short of the words more often than not. But I encourage you to look for that other Wattpad. The one below the surface.  Don't follow the masses. Look for the writers and the poets whose words stay with you. They might even make you better writers.