Everyone's Guide to Wattpad

Picking Your Stories

It's the time you've been waiting for: choosing a story to read, that You will like. You see that big button called Discover? That's the doorway to such a beautiful place. Now the difficult part is choosing a story from a library of 11,000,000 stories. You will need help on choosing a story, for sure.

What if you already found a story, but don't like it? Even if you like it, is it completed? Even if it's completed, what will you do when you finish it?

Look for a new one?

Yes, well done! I can tell this guide is rubbing off on you already. When you have finished a story, head to the author's profile and leave a lovely comment in his or her Message Board on how much you love it. We will talk more about this later, but for now I will introduce all we will be reviewing in this part.

You will learn about picking a story, commenting (and why you should do it), voting (and why), and all those other little options you can do while reading. There are many differences in the Mobile and Web version of Wattpad when reading, so I will separate the two again briefly, as I did last part. They won't be separated for long though, I promise. Let's begin!

Picking a story

When picking a story, there are many factors involved, such as the amount of time you have, the amount of stories in a subject you want, how long the story is, and the story being completed or not.

These factors will determine which type of stories you want to read.

First, determine how much time you have to search for a story. Maybe you are in a classroom and bored out of your mind, but then you have this urge to read a new story and onto Wattpad. Since you are in a classroom, your first place to go would probably be the Featured stories. But if you are in the case where you have a lot of time on your hands, take a good look around Wattpad and find the story you want. Just because a story is in Featured, doesn't always mean you will enjoy it. Look at your favorite author or friend, they might have a great story!

Determining the amount of time available to search for a story is the most important step. Short amount of time, then choose a story on the front pages. Plenty of time, take a good look around. Look at the Recommended for You area. It's a great place to search.

Step two in this process is the category you want to read. Like One Direction? Head to the FanFiction area! Do you love nail-biting stories that make you shriek from freight? Horror and Mystery/Thriller is a great place for that. Maybe you want a gut-killer laugh. Humor is a place for that. Whatever you are craving, Wattpad probably has it! You may not enjoy every subject in Wattpad, but you should have a great idea of what you want to read. This step is the second most important when finding a story.

Thirdly (and possibly the last), is how long the story will be. Some stories are short and have about 12-15 chapters while others can have 30-60. Choosing how long the story is.. well.. isn't something you can change. It's up to the author and the author only. If you enjoy reading a quick story, don't pick one that has 50 chapters! When looking around, you may find a discover section called "Lunch Break", which is a gather of short stories. If you don't care how long a story is, then this may not involve you.

The last factor is optional, but still pretty important. This is if the story is completed or not. If you don't mind waiting a certain amount of time for another upload, then you should be okay on finding a story. If you DO mind waiting, however, then it might be best if you search for a completed one. This may be one reason author's should finish their stories sooner, rather than leaving a monthly gap between each upload. When searching for a completed one specifically, there are a few things that will shine. One is a green checkmark, which means it's been completed. The other should be a circle that says Completed.