cool and unusual punishment

where to next... feat. rant

So my camp is winding down. I wouldn't say it's over, yet, in fact I have about half a week left. After that, I'll be back on the ball, and I've missed my kids dearly, as well as my fine circle of comrades in writing. Given that... I kind of find myself dreading my return.

Let me be clear. Many of the people I am close to on here are incredibly talented and kind beyond belief. In fact, there is a lot of young talent on Wattpad and I can not count the number of times you all have quite literally saved my life. I have also done many of the things I'll be listing below, so I can not claim my hands are clean, but still... let me just say, after being part of a legitimate, supportive writing community, remembering the atmosphere on Wattpad, especially the Warriors subsect, gives me a migraine.

For one thing, this community is beyond derivative. I'm not talking about derivative of original works- I'm talking about derivative of itself. Any trend that comes along is immediately echoed by hordes of people to the point where nothing even remotely interesting can exist without being beaten into the ground a thousand times over. Anything that is original in any capacity, even amongst fanfictions, is GUARANTEED to have hundreds if not thousands upon thousands of less reads just by virtue of not being one of those nauseatingly common, lazy-ass "short stories" that have NO reason to be in that format besides some faux air of suspense and the ability to multiply in chapters like rodents in the breeding season. Whatever ingenuity the concept once had has been devoured. 

Furthermore, we have moved from a community of beginners to a community that, in the name of helping young writers with 'rating' and 'guide' books, actively condescends to, mocks, and eschews them. People who write certain types of characters are continuously put down in favor of new molds (if I have to hear about another f-cking psychopath that we're supposed to sympathize with because EVERYONE DESERVES IT I will off myself ) which I hope to hell and back are someday mocked as much as people look down at the 'Scourge's daughter' trope of yesteryear. 

Worst, though, is how ANGRY  and INCESSANTLY NEEDY the community is. Rant books. Rant books fucking everywhere, almost all of which say the same thing. S/mb books (s/mb. jesus god) are loaded with constant petty drama about essentially nothing. If you like this character you're a bad person and I will sic all of my followers on you. If you don't like this character you're a bad person and I will sic all my followers on you. Almost all these arguments are loaded on premises that originate in canon errors, false assumptions on how anthropomorphism works in the Warriors series, or people just straight up being sheep and hating a character because Senpai said so. The vigor at which this community hates people is frankly remarkable. There are so many books dedicated exclusively to the likes of it, up to and including people just straight up writing about murdering characters. Furthermore, if anyone does something nice for you, nine times out of ten it's followed up by the implication that you owe them something. Fuck that. (Fuck anytime I've said that, either. You don't owe me shit.)

A lot of it, far as I can tell, is in the name of fame. Anger is invigorating. It's righteous. It seeeeeeeeeeeeells. You can preach to the choir until you're blue in the face and make reads, get votes, have a nice posse behind you to sic on people. But really? I don't think anything original gets said on this website, and well, it's 

not very productive. :V

I want to re-evaluate myself and dedicate myself to my craft and I just feel that Wattpad is bogging me down. There are a few people's works on here I legitimately care about and more I've promised to read, which I will, but in the future I'm going to abstain from drama even more so than I already have and the community in general. It just doesn't really seem to be about the writing at all, or bettering ones self in the pursuit of it, or even just a passion for anything besides getting Wattpad Famous, and while I know a lot of people do not treat the website that way (thank God) most of them are aggravated by this as I am. Furthermore, Wattpad as a website is just... seriously faulty? The recommended feature is broken. They're going to start charging us f-cking video ads in a while because of course they are. I will be here for likely a lot longer, if only because I love my audience and my friends, but it remains that this is like trying to build a castle in the sand when there's brick and stable ground a few miles the other way. 

Most people I've met on this website, actually, have quit because of one issue or another, often some of the things I've mentioned above. One of the more popular writers a while back had to leave because people started harassing her friends for her real name and address. A really good friend of mine quit because of community drama. In general Wattpad is just... a hot mess.

Right. Anyways, I'm going to try to be less of a hot mess myself in the future and tamp down on the updates except where genuinely necessary. I'll be back to work Sunday. 

Regards.