The rules that govern high school are the same rules that run the entire world.
More or less.
For the purposes of the point that I actually want to make, I'm going to focus on just one of these inescapable rules of life: popularity.
Funny thing is, you don't even have to look at a group as large as a high school to see this rule in play. Study your group of friends for a moment. You'll see that there's a select few that everyone else looks up to, whose opinion eventually becomes public concensus - whether it be on music, clothes or tampons versus sanitary pads.
Fact of the matter is, the world spins at a pace set by whatever - or whoever - is popular.
The world of Wattpad is no different.
As cool as Ally (@WooWooWriting) is, she has only just realized that there is a Wattpad Inner Circle. Not to brag - and, yes, when people say this, they are definitely bragging - but I realized that a few days after creating my account.
Ally does a better job of elaborating on the Wattpad Inner Circle than I do so, to check out her views on the matter, hop on to the External Link. In the mean time, I'll cover something I get asked about often: popularity on Wattpad.
Most of you know I write teen fiction. Hell - most of you know me because of the teen fiction I write. Basically, I have a knack for teen fiction that becomes fairly popular. Let's just leave it at that.
Now, hold up.
I'm not going to give you a tutorial on how to be popular because there isn't one. I repeat, there is no one-two punch for reaching a single digit rank on the What's Hot list or tens of thousands of followers. Achieving popularity on this site is just about dumb luck as it is about talent.
I cannot stress this enough but I do not know how my books got popular.
Admittedly, I used to advertise in the clubs and on people's message boards asking if they wouldn't mind checking out my books - yes, I was one of those people that a majority of you hate - but the barage of reads and followers came without me knowing what the hell was going on.
But cheer up because I'm not done.
During my stay here, I haven't stayed completely clueless on the topic of what you can actively do to be, if not be more popular, noticed: You can be creative.
Sure, there is something to be said about skill and talent and the ability to follow through with a decent plot - but those are all things that you can learn along the way. There is also something to be said about a well-written book that finds its niche and gains a following slowly and over time.
But jumping off with an idea that is different - or a different take on an idea that has been wrung out - is the proverbial hook that will rein people in.
Don't even get me started on creativity in titles because I have way too much to say about that.
Point is, if you infuse your story with creativity, people will keep coming back for more.
If it sounds hard, it is.
If it sounds like an impossible task, it is a shot in the dark.
If it sounds like too much work, then you don't want it as much as you think you do.
The things that seem impossibly hard, the things that you have to work, sweat and bleed for are also the things that will make you feel best about yourself.
If you haven't been discouraged yet, then you are the person Ally and I want to join our uprising: @thegreattakeover.
Ally and I may have started @thegreattakeover with different "takeover" ideas in mind: Allie wants a Wattpad that is diverse while I want a Wattpad that is creative. But, as she smartly pointed out, creativity breeds diversity and diversity does the same.
We both dream of a Wattpad that is, for a lack of better word, more.
Doesn't that sound like an awesome place to hang out in?
It's simple, really.
All you can do to help is to write something original and different, infused with your own stamp of insanity that makes it stand out from the sea of standard Wattpad books. You don't have to go bat-shit insane but a dash of insanity is always appreciated and enjoyed.
Tag it with #thegreattakeover and Allie and I will read it and, if it tickles our fancy, spread the word about it. [Side note, I do story recommendations at the end of my books and your stories might make it there.]
So, for the love of all that is exciting and innovative in literature, help up prove that different can rule the world.
