The Writer's Guide to Wattpad

"Why Wattpad Works" Sneak Peek and Q&A w/@bensobieck

The chef eats last, so the final installment in this sneak peek series is from the editor, who also happens to share a name with me. I hope you enjoy the book, and please pick up a copy at your local bookstore or favorite online retailer of fine read-ery.

~Ben

Sneak Peak

****Q&A

Why Did You Join Wattpad?

My fiction hit a dead end, and I was looking to try something different. Wattpad wasn't like anything I'd tried before. It turned out to be a very good move.

What's Your Favorite Part About Writing?

Writing is mysterious. Certain things appear out of thin air. I'll be poking at that mystery the rest of my life.

What's Your Least Favorite Part About Writing?

The feeling that whatever you're doing, it isn't enough.

What Advice Would You Give to a Writer Just Starting Out on Wattpad?

Wattpad can be a numbers game, but don't confuse quantity with quality. You'll get much further on Wattpad with one mind-blowing, awesome story than 10 just-OK ones.

How Do You Write?

Desktop or laptop. I am the rare person who loves working in Microsoft Word.

If There Was a Sandwich Named After One of Your Characters, What Would it Be and Why?

It'd be called the Zandra Sandwich, after Zandra in my Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective series. You'd order it at a restaurant, and it would never come. However, you'd be happy to pay for it, and you'd leave a nice tip.

How Much Input from Readers Do You Use for Your Stories?

It used to be more, but now it's not so much. I need to stick to an outline. Also, I'm outlining now! Or at least much more than I used to do. I write faster that way.

What's Your Favorite Place to Read a Book?

Leaning on the counter in the kitchen. It's not comfortable, I don't particularly enjoy it, and there are better places to read around here, but it's where I find myself most often. That basically sums up my life.

Do You Think Technology is Making the Craft of Writing Better or Worse?

Technology has influenced writing since there has been writing. It's neither good or bad. The fundamentals of storytelling never change.

How Do You Manage to Stay Away from Social Media While You Write? Or Is that Even Possible?

One word: deadlines.

Socks While Writing: Yes or No?

With passions and partisanship so extreme right now, I'm afraid of what happens if I answer this wrong, so I'm going to say I place stones warmed in a teapot on my feet while writing instead of socks.

Where is the Best Place to Write a Book?

Anywhere I can plug in headphones and lock myself inside my work.

Suppose You Just Inherited $1 Million. What Would You Do With the Money?

Pay off all my debt and invest the rest so that there's a financial machine regularly cranking out money, with a focus on businesses started by people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Give half to charity, and spend the other half on buying the weirdest stuff I can find.

With Whom Did You Last Text With?

OK, this one requires a story, because it's freaky. I was writing a rather unsettling chapter in my WIP about a person accessing the Dark Web for content that is...uh...well...bad. I had a few windows open with "true" stories posted to Reddit and elsewhere about the consequences of accessing the Dark Web (there's truth to it, but the entire mythos behaves like an urban legend). One of those consequences is the denizens of the Dark can locate you wherever you are, and they are not the type of people you want finding you.

I did not and have never been in those illicit trenches of the Dark Web, only having read about it on mainstream websites, but I got a text message from an international number in the minutes after I shut down my computer. I've never received an international text before, and certainly not from this number. All it said was, "Hi."

This was almost certainly a coincidence with an industrious spammer, but I couldn't block that number fast enough.

Smartphones: Apple or Android?

Apple

Hemingway Said to "Write Drunk, Edit Sober." What Do You Say to That?

I think that works until your late 20s, when you either burn out or give it up. There's a reason the 27 Club stands at 27.

Granted, Hemingway was 61 when he died by his own hand, but a combination of depression and electroshock therapy may have had more to do with it. The latter came courtesy of the Mayo Clinic in my home state of Minnesota, and I grew up on a road called Hemingway Avenue. Coincidence? Oh, yeah, definitely.

Do You Think Writers Should Leave Their Older Works Up on Wattpad Even if They Don't Reflect Where They are Now?

Yes, and I do. It's good to show progress, and you'll never be completely satisfied with your old work anyway.

You're Floating High Above Earth, Alone in a Space Station. You Hear a Knock from Outside on One of the Windows. What Do You Do?

Knock back. Two can play this game.

If You Could Live Inside a Fictional World Created in a Book, Which One Would You Choose?

I'd be in the world of Jurassic Park (the book or the movie), because I can't think of anything cooler than getting the chance to see a living, breathing dinosaur. And then I'd like to eat one. Turkeys and alligators can draw a line back to dinosaurs, and I've enjoyed both in sandwiches. I bet dinosaur is pretty good.

How Much Coffee is Too Much Coffee?

I gave up coffee for the first couple months of 2018. I felt better than I had in a long time, because my quality of sleep went way up. Apparently, I was drinking too much coffee. So whatever that was, it was too much.

Anything Else You'd Like to Add?

The best mark of success for The Writer's Guide to Wattpad is for someone to pick up the book and write the next big thing. I can't think of anything better than that.