Liz's Book of Shit✐ Announcements, Miscellaneous, and Randomness! ✐

Talk to Me BEFORE I Lose it. I'm Begging You.

What does everyone think when they log onto Wattpad?

How do you feel when your newsfeed is being blown up and filled with activity from your favorite Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy authoresses?

For all the writers out there, how does it feel to get a bunch of comments and votes?

For all the readers out there, what's it like getting to know your favorite writers and see that they're human just like you?

How can we get those feelings if the fandom's been completely dead?

I completely understand that school or work has been kicking everyone's ass; hell I'm a senior taking all AP classes and I'm getting dumped with projects right before finals roll around. You couldn't tell me anything I didn't know about being busy, especially when I've been getting four hours of sleep to catch up on exams and things that I've been missing after all the AP tests I took. School sucks. Work sucks. They drain the life out of you.

Writing, reading, Watty, that's my escape for all of that. On Wattpad I have the honor of having so many people who follow my works, who support me and genuinely enjoy my writing. I've made friends that I text on a regular basis, to rant and complain with just like I'd do with any of my friends I see face to face on a daily basis. There is so much life in this fandom and so many people to keep it alive. I know that. But lately, I just haven't gotten the same sense of this from Wattpad. I log into Wattpad to see an unchanging newsfeed, a bare bones dry notifications tab, and a rarely used private messages tab.

I'm not saying this is anyone's fault. We're all busy. Commenting is really rough for people who read on the go or in between breaks at work and school. Life likes to kick everyone in the ass constantly. Sometimes it's just plain scary taking that first step. I also haven't really updated much of anything either, and that's not because I'm ridiculously busy. It's because I'm ridiculously busy and I don't have motivation.

If you've followed me long enough, you know that one of my major pet peeves is ghost readers. I've been there. I've been in that closed off bubble of anonymity. I've read fics and fangirled to myself without ever letting the writer know how much I appreciate them.

That was as a reader. Now, as a writer, I regret never speaking up.

Writers are a sensitive breed. We pour our thoughts and ideals in the form of writing onto pages upon pages and leave those pages for anyone with an internet connection to read and judge them as they please. Words don't appear out of nowhere. It starts with the planning process, ideas and a flow don't appear out of thin air. After we finally get the planning done, we need to actually sit our asses down away from our hectic lives and get to writing. While writing, we have to make sure that we can somehow convey these abstract thoughts of ours into coherent words that everyone can understand. We fuss over getting scenes with our favorite characters just right and we struggle with keeping characters in character. When we're finally done, we nitpick the story for errors, weeding out everything from plotholes to improper characterization to grammar. It's exhausting. I don't know about everyone else, but this process easily takes me a minimum of 10 hours for a single chapter, exclusing all the interruptions and breaks that I have to take. AT. LEAST. TEN. HOURS. That's more than an entire day of school. That's more than a good night's rest.

What I'm saying is, writers put their heart and souls into what they do. My writing gets as much dedication as a full time job. Fanfic writers don't get paid. We don't expect to get picked up by Square Enix or Disney to be storyboard writers. We do what we do because we love the characters, because we love to connect with others who share our love for these characters, and because we have a vision we want to share.