Hooked to Wattpad

How I got hooked to Wattpad

I chanced upon Wattpad in what was, I'd thought then, the most stressed out, depressed and manic phase of my life. Sounds hilarious and a tad too-dramatic in hindsight, but there it was.

I was struggling to adjust back to my home country after a long stint in the USA. I had a full-time demanding job, an even more demanding baby and I was quite close to leaving everything behind and running away to the Himalayas. (In India, we don't run for the hills, we run to our  famous mountain-ranges.) Ok, maybe I wouldn't have really done it, but you never think straight on less sleep and poor coffee.

 I was browsing online for free stories like the cheapskate I am, and then I chanced upon Wattpad.

I enjoyed the stories in here, I remember only a few authors like cold_lady19, Marie Higgins, SinaidKincaid19, Ashful, RaziaSultana. Didn't like a few other stories, but hey, there was always someone writing stories to my taste.

It was in the year 2014 when exhausted with being up the night with my crying baby, an impossible boss breathing doom and an impossible deadline, a story idea crept up on me.

I saw a woman, waiting to meet someone who she had known and wanting nothing from him.

The idea quickly ballooned into my first novel King's Wife. Mind you, I was swamped with work, but the pressure somehow caused my creative juices to start flowing.

And man, did they flow! I wasn't a trained writer but had been a voracious reader my whole life. I wanted to write the story I would read, a romance primarily with enough twists and turns to keep the reader hooked to it. So romantic suspense is the genre I would be writing in because I like reading books like that. It wasn't something I decided, this is just what I like to read.

I didn't plot, I didn't plan. Ok, I scribbled out the direction of the story after writing a few chapters, but none of the characters in my story wanted to listen. They started jumping off the page and living their own life.

People in Wattpad actually started reading my story. The first person to support and agree to critique my poorly written work was one lady all the way from Philipines who I still count as my friend, the sweet Stella Torres. She offered to review my work for free. Her comments were always encouraging, ensuring me that I was on the right path.

Once the story started flowing, I felt empowered. Or maybe I felt like I was an important cog of this machination, the making of Damian and Mia's story. Their story was too important, it was imperative that it be read by the world.

I squeezed time out from my schedule to write. It was as necessary as breathing. I had to update, or I would go crazy. Ok, crazier than I already was. I stuck to updating once every weekend. I promoted my story in Wattpad Clubs.

Slowly and steadily, my readers increased. They left lovely comments like how they were enjoying my story. They kept adding my story to their reading lists. It gave me an indescribable high. I was, perhaps for the first time, discovering that I'm good at something I really like to do.

My story matured with me. I had started plotting my story as a run-of-the-mill romance in the style of Mills and Boon. A short read with a happy ending. But now, it was so much more. The characters were so real. It wasn't a short book anymore, it was a full-length novel.

When I wrote the scene about Sharon's death, who was my heroine's sister, I cried. I didn't know what was real anymore, I was so engrossed in my story.

And so were my readers. They kept me sane by putting hilarious comments on my stories, fighting over a character's actions. Maybe they also needed a reminder that this was just a story.

My husband never reads books, but he knew this hobby was important to me. He helped me sound off my ideas, told me not to shy away from writing intimate scenes. My other writer friends on Wattpad also helped. The readers kept me on track, giving me their timely and apt comments.

Finally, my story was done. Mia and Damian's story was out in the world. It had taken roughly the same time as it took to carry a baby full-term, lol. And it was hard work, but I had delivered it.

I was exhausted after that. I took a long sabbatical from Wattpad, to let my creative cells recharge. 

I still read comments on my story every day, it was my baby after all, and was surprised that people were still reading it.

I didn't expect people to be so supportive and encouraging. They actually considered me a writer! I couldn't believe it.

Thanks to Wattpad, I was starting my new life. A second career which was as much, if not more, important than my first one.

Wattpad has helped me realise my aspirations as a writer, it has helped me reached millions of people.

I had truly thought that people would stop reading my story after a year, maybe two, but it just ballooned from there, ratcheting up millions of reads.

For all of you, who have read so far, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Writing doesn't help you earn, but it pays you back in a currency which is much more valuable, the love of your readers.

My advice to you all is, don't stop writing. Always work on honing your craft, no one likes poorly written stories with silly grammatical errors, but if you work on spinning a good story, people will read it.

And always make time for writing. You owe it to yourself.

Now, I'm off to sleep, dreaming about my next story. Damn, why do these story ideas always hit me when I'm working on a deadline?