Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

Microediting and Why I Don't Like It

Something I've said often in Wattpad 101, which is often refuted by other authors and commenters, is my general dislike for line editing advice in comments, or microediting, as I like to call it. Microediting is an instance in which someone posts a work with various grammar mistakes, and the commenters then proceed to correct said mistakes in the comments below. With the line-by-line commenting now available on Wattpad, it's actually pretty easy to depend on your readers to make the various corrections that you missed. After all, it's impossible for a writer to catch all the mistakes.

Sometimes, microediting is embedded into a critique. Need things to say about a person's writing? Just point out 2-3 grammar flaws, and you've got all you need to fill out the word count and finish your critique. It's easy, it's useful, and technically under the barest definition, you can even call it constructive criticism.

This got me thinking about how much I do not like comments and critiques that include this microediting. I've said it before, and I'll assuredly say it again before the end of the chapter, but if I wanted an edit... I would ask for an edit. On Wattpad, getting someone to edit your work is very easy. I have a chapter on it. If you want an editor, you can get one, and it won't cost you anything but a few moments of your time.

I will warn that in my experience, most Wattpad editors don't really earn their name. I suppose that's expected when they charge you in follows and are thus essentially free. However, I recall once taking a chapter and putting it through three back to back Wattpad editors. After all three editors had gone through the writing once, I put the writing in my Word document... and immediately caught five errors they missed with Word's squiggly line. Obvious misspellings too. This wasn't some obscure formatting thing. Three Wattpad editors couldn't even surpass the spellcheck in Microsoft Word, don't even get me started on using Grammarly or Hemingwayapp.

On the other hand, I mean no offense, but I must add that I think too many young authors use editors as a crutch to force their illegible content into something approaching readable. Any true editor wouldn't touch something that wasn't already close to perfect. It is NOT an editor's job to fix barely functional sentences, and most real editors would get real angry if they have to fix an overabundance of tense mistakes.

These are both arguments that seem to be in favor of microediting, and the reason I mention them is because I get it. I'm not looking down on people who like it. I understand that it can be frustrating to get an editor, and you can only truly learn from your mistakes after realizing you've made mistakes in the first place. However, as challenging as it is for young writers to get someone to properly edit their work, I still typically frown at the use of microediting.

This got me reflecting on the reason why I had these feelings. Is this just me being unhappy at having my grammar questioned? Am I letting my own insecurities come into play when I get aggravated over the harmless "microedit"? Thus, I thought about this for some time, and here are the answers I have. As I've said before, these are opinions, and are not necessarily right. You may agree with my reasoning, or vehemently disagree. However, I've stated my disdain for microedits many times, and I feel it's important for readers to get where I'm coming from. Since lists have always done me well in the past, here are five reasons I am against microediting.

Micro Editing Encourages Lazy Writing and Doesn't Help Authors Improve

I feel like there are two kinds of writers in the world, writers who have a good grasp on the English language and writers who don't. For those who don't, there is no easy answer or quick fix. You simply must practice a lot, read a lot, and tweak your own writing a lot until you finally develop a style of your own and recognize the mistakes you've made. I've dedicated many chapters of this book trying to help the grammatically challenged recognize their mistakes and fix them.