Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

Commenting 101

Wattpad 101 has always been a well-rounded guide. It's a guide not just there to talk about writing and how to be a better writer, but also how to get along within the Wattpad community. The source of this particular chapter is actually unrelated to Wattpad, but comes from my experiences in another blog where I release chapters of other books. Perhaps I'm writing this simply to blow off a little bit of steam, but either way, I think it's a good idea to talk about the responsibility and expectations of commenters.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Writers shouldn't expect to receive comments. Readers don't owe writers comments any more than writers owe readers the next chapter. However, if you care about the creators behinds any of the content you consume, you probably should be commenting. Comments are the lifeblood of Wattpad, and if you have any want to see more chapters of a book, you're basically stabbing yourself in the foot by not commenting, starring, and encouraging your author to keep up their craft. When we're talking Wattpad, very few here are professionals, so naturally, encouragement is very important. It's not like its our jobs.

While we shouldn't expect you to comment, the basic reality, Reader, is that you should be commenting or at least staring. There isn't a writer on here who doesn't appreciate stars and comments. There isn't a writer on here who isn't slightly annoyed by the hundreds and hundreds of readers that ultimately fail to do anything but read and click next. Yes, I'm talking to you. Your reading this right now and you don't plan to comment do you. Can't even click a freaking star? Seriously, what the heck?

It's horrendous how low the ratio of readers to comments/stars is. Tell me, how do you live with yourselves knowing that you're basically destroying a poor writer's drive to write while consuming something they spent hours working on and not even taking 5 seconds to respond? How does it feel when you get to the last released chapter of the book, and then sitting there waiting for the next chapter release, knowing... KNOWING... that your own silence is part of the reason that chapter isn't already available? Please, tell me what it's like to be an ungrateful, unappreciative, soul-sucking, comment-lacking silent reader! Please tell me... in the comments below. I won't hold my breath though. You wouldn't be a silent reader if you weren't the scum of the Earth. Your bad... and you should feel bad.

However, this chapter isn't here to focus on the people who don't or won't comment because they're all pedophile baby murderers (refute me in the comments if you disagree). This chapter instead focuses on the people who do comment, or at the very least want to comment, but then struggle to find the proper words to say. Here are a few pieces of advice from a writer on the comments you could be making. This will tell you the dos and donts of what writers want to hear, and what will make them rage in an epileptic fit.

A comment made a good point that I wanted to clarify here as well before you start my list. This chapter makes the assumption you're reading uncompleted or in-progress works. There are a large batch of readers who only read completed works. Whether you star and comment on a completed work does contribute to its continued rank and success on Wattpad, and I think at the least, starring is an expectation, and comments don't hurt either. However, I mention later in this article that there is a difference between successful, finished works and in-progress works, and part of that difference is how much we authors pay attention to comments. Certainly, when the work is in progress, comments are a vital and necessary fuel for many authors who are just looking for the motivation to complete their manuscript. Keep in mind my advice here is geared towards these unfinished manuscripts still in their infancy. 

A couple other comments had lead me to add a second disclaimer for this chapter. I do not write it to make writers "sound good". I don't say the things you expect to hear from writers. "You shouldn't expect comments'", "You should handle criticism properly", "you should make every interaction a learning opportunity"... I've said all of this before and it still stands. The point of this chapter is aimed at commenters, to tell them something they perhaps don't want to hear and may have never heard before. It's to remind them of the weight of their words, and  the effect their comments can have on a starting writer, which I think is incredibly important, especially for a place like Wattpad composed of 90% starting writers with incomplete manuscripts. We typically treat content creators like they owe us, like they're punching bags that we can criticize, correct, rage at, or insult and they should just take it if they "wanted it" bad enough.