My Wattpad Journey

I was never a reader; it might sound absurd but trust me it's the truth. I loved to watch movies day and night. But it all changed when my friend, Mrinal, who has always been an avid reader, forced me to buy 'The Fault in Our Stars' by 'John Green' for my birthday. For her sake, I did and for clout, posted a picture of that book on Instagram. One day when I was getting bored out of my mind, I picked the book up to see what the rave was about. And man was I hooked.

For many reasons, buying books was not an option for me but I had developed a thirst for reading. It was way back in 2012 when she told me about this website called Wattpad and shared a fan-fiction with me. I was so hooked that within days I had completed reading three stories altogether.

I was always a fan of romantic movies so obviously I had an inclination towards those while selecting books. After reading about 10-15 books, every story started to seem the same. Boy meets girls, boy leaves girl, boy realizes his mistake and they get back together after facing many hurdles. It was uninspiring.

That's when inspiration struck. Mrinal and I decided to start writing a joint-story about One Direction. Yeah, I know it's cheesy but at that time, it had become our escape. We tried to keep the plot as unique as possible but it was influenced by a lot of books we had read so avoiding a few clichés was difficult.

After writing the first few chapters, we knew writing together was going to prove difficult so soon, we had begun with our own stories. While she has not been active much, I, on the other hand, have not gone a day without Wattpad. If I'm not updating my stories, I am reading someone else's. Now, having an aversion to plain romantic books, I prefer to read stories that are packed with drama, action, suspense with a pinch of romance to keep things spicy.

I had seen many basic books get millions of reads and I thought I could too. Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned. Initially, it was difficult to procure reads and that was fine by me because I was a novice, merely scribbling ideas on a page and then typing them online but then, with experience and after reading more books, offline, my way of writing improved. That was when I knew I needed more people to read what I was writing. I got on to twitter to promote my book 'Scars and Songs'. Being a Harry Styles' fiction, it gained a lot of popularity.

Then there were my Wattpad friends who are all amazing designers and writers. Back in those days, there were forums where we used to have designing competitions and the winner's story would be promoted; or forums where we could start a thread of our designs and get feedback on our story in exchange for a banner or a cover. I engaged in many of those, improving along the way.

Those people commented about how my story lacked good grammar and re-reading it could help make it better. They also mentioned transitioning from one point-of-view to another and as it was my first experience of writing in third person's POV, I agree with how messy it did seem at first.

I learned how important proof-reading and editing was by reading the stories of other authors and because of the criticism provided by the readers. Forgiving as they were, the feedback upset me because no one likes to be told that you're not good enough. Albeit, I was sour about it at first, it then only pushed me to develop my way of writing because the support and love that the readers showered had me enraptured. I started adding more fun parts and less seriousness, which the readers enjoyed but also tried to balance it all with unpredictable situations and cliff-hangers. There were many fans who were dedicated readers and I am grateful to all of them as they were the voices of appreciation that I needed for the next step forward.

It was around 201 when I contacted Penguin India for publishing my story and they were more than happy to. However, fate had its own plans. My grandma passed away due to cancer, and we didn't have the financial means to carry out with the publishing.

I didn't give up hope and started a new story that I had been meaning to write for so long but never had the confidence to. The feedback and love, that I received for 'Feral Lust', were all without doing much promotion – somehow the book did so well on its own that every day I'd get more than a few votes and comments. I tried to give my readers more refined chapters with fewer errors and more mystery. Having them appreciate the book totally changed my life. I got a job based on the designs I had made for fellow Wattpad people, then another freelancing content-writing job based on a chapter of 'Feral Lust'. Things started to look less bleak in my real life as my confidence only grew.

It was on more occasions than one that Wattpad had managed to bring happiness in my life and continues to do so, be it with friends or reads, and I can never thank this website enough. Words fall short – for every time I think of happy memories, I always have them linked to this website.

In the end, I would only say that this journey – of becoming a self-improved writer from an amateur one – has been enriching. For making me find my passion for writing, for making me meet new people and having them all praise what I write has been nothing short of incredible and I have Wattpad to thank for it. I never knew an addiction to reading could turn into avidity for writing.

I hope that I can manage to inspire some people as my favourite writers on this platform did for me.