With over 3.2 million stories, Wattpad is the world’s most popular community of readers and writers. 

We’re always on the lookout for more ways to inspire and engage our MILLIONS of users! This past week, we hosted a contest for a chance to meet Peter Facinelli, who famously plays Carlisle Cullen in the Twilight Saga:

The Wattpad team went out to the grand opening of Tanger Outlets in Cookstown, ON on May 20, 2012 to interview Twilight star Peter Facinelli.

We were lucky enough to snag a few minutes with Peter, aka Dr. Carlisle Cullen, to interview him about fan fiction (Still Dawn is still the most popular Twilight fanfic on Wattpad with over 2 million reads!), his upcoming projects, and the genres he would like to try next in film making. 

Watch out for our video interview with Peter Facinelli tomorrow!

Having played Dr. Carlisle Cullen in the Twilight Saga for many years, Peter knows first hand how intense the Twilight fandom can get. He was nothing less than gracious in greeting all the enthusiastic fans who came to see him at the VIP Reception in Cookstown.

We found Peter very friendly and approachable with everyone. One woman drove 4 hours just to see him that day, and Peter gladly gave her a kiss on each cheek to thank her for coming! 

Our Wattpad 24-hour contest grand prize winner, Jill Kneeshaw, and her daughter Leah also got the chance to personally meet Peter Facinelli and Wattpad’s head of Community Engagement, Eva Lau.

We’re very grateful to Peter for signing a TON of Wattpad swag for us. We can’t wait to mail these Wattpad shirts and tote bags to our contest winner and 4 runner-ups!

What would you ask Peter Facinelli if you had the chance to interview him?

Wattpad brings you a guest post from Niamh, author of Inamorata:

Nightingale is human - or would be, had it not been for the manner of her creation. Genetically engineered and grown to adulthood in a lab, she was created, not born. Why? For the sole purpose of the entertainment of rich men as one of the many Inamoratas in the bordello business . Beautiful, elegant, a superb dancer and an even better singer, she is the perfect lover for any man. Perfect, that is, except for her personality - the one thing you can’t engineer.

You Are What You Read…

When scratching my head and trying to come up with a blog post, I searched my memories for interesting conversations I’d had with fellow Wattpadders, trying to find something, anything, that would get some creative juices flowing. I was throwing stuff around the room, ready to freak out with frustration when I remembered something my good friend Kevin (username “Parogar”, the most illustrious author of Psych Investigation Episodes) had said to me.

He’d brought up the point that, no matter whether you’re a reader or a writer, it’s important to do a little bit of both.

People on Wattpad can usually be classified into one of two distinct but equally important species: readers and writers. Though there are some people who are truly both, usually, a person fits into one camp or the other.

Readers, for the most part, read Wattpad authors’ works, comment, fan, and only write a little bit. Writers, for the most part, focus on their own work, though they might have favourite stories they read and comment on. But switching between the two is crucial, especially for writers. After all, you are what you read.

What do I mean by that? Well, chances are, if you’re a writer, your writing style is a mishmash of your own creativity and the writing style of every author whose work you’ve ever read. It’s like anything you so much as skim goes into the melting pot of your brain and, eventually, when you go to write something down, what you end up putting on the paper will have been influenced by what you’ve seen. I’m not saying that writers copy their favourite authors (that’s utterly disastrous when it happens, and also really unfair to the original author), but good writing does have the tendency to rub off on impressionable writers. Therefore, a writer can draw on everything they’ve ever read in their writing, making it vital to actually read something other than their own work some of the time!

So it’s important to read, and it’s important to read good stuff, both from published authors and from Wattpad’s very own unpublished ones. If you’re a writer, sit down for a little while each day. Read something good, think about it, absorb the information, meditate, read it aloud in a warm bubble bath, do whatever it is you do when you read a good story. Pick works you like and authors you think are talented authors, because that’ll be the stuff that influences you when you sit down to write.

So read more, all you writers! You’ll be amazed to see what it does for the prose of your work, the flow, even the grammar!

And as for the readers out there (don’t think I’ve forgotten you) it’s important to write a little, too, if only to be able to understand the agony of writer’s block…

Check out the romantic sci-fi Inamorata on Wattpad!

Thank you to everyone who entered for a chance to meet Twilight Saga’s vegetarian vampire, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, for a rare daytime appearance! 

We have a winner! Congratulations to Jill Kneeshaw, grand prize winner of our 24-hour contest. Jill is the lucky recipient of 2 VIP passes to an exclusive reception with Twilight star Peter Facinelli at Tanger Outlets in Cookstown tomorrow! She will also receive a Wattpad prize pack (Wattpad shirt and tote bag autographed by Peter Facinelli). Have a ton of fun, tomorrow, Jill! Please pick up your 2 VIP passes on Sunday, May 20th before NOON at the Shopper Services in Tanger Outlets Cookstown. (Must show ID as proof of identity)

Congrats as well to the runner-ups who will each receive a Wattpad prize pack (Wattpad shirt and tote bag autographed by Peter Facinelli):

Wattpad brings you a guest post from writer J.A. Marlow on her writing inspirations:

My love for the written word started early. Both of my parents were readers, and I loved to climb on their laps with volumes of an animal encyclopedia full of pictures. Typical story children’s books weren’t enough for me. I thirsted for knowledge, and the answer to all those ‘why?’ questions every toddler asks.

I still remember being fascinated that the dark marks on the page could mean things. How I wanted to figure out what they meant so I could read to myself!

Fast forward to school. I took to reading and writing like a duck to water. Soon, I was writing my own simple stories, frustrated to get better so I could tell stories like those in the books around me.

My mother was a writer and she used to set up her typewriter on the kitchen table. Well, what kid doesn’t want to mimic their parents? When she realized I wanted to ‘write my own stories, Mom!” she put up an old manual typewriter for me to work on. When she wrote, so did I. I was so little and my fingers not very strong, so I had to push the keys down with two fingers to make it work, but, by gum, I was going to write my own stories, too!

“Dick and Jane” clinched that I wanted to some day be published. I can still remember sitting at my desk in class, looking at it and thinking, “THIS is what can get published and put in every school in the country? I can do better than this! Wow, am I gonna get published!”

Overall, I was pretty much doomed to become a writer.

Many things influenced the type of stories I would go on to write. Other than books, the sometimes campy television shows and movies of the 70’s and 80’s influenced me greatly. Which ones? Glad you asked!

1. Star Wars

The first movie came out when I was pretty young. The second movie, “The Empire Strikes Back,” is what stuck with me more than the first one. Then came “Return of the Jedi,” leaving the impression forever of fun science fiction adventure behind.

2. Battle of the Planets

This translation from Japan (original: Science Ninja Team Gatchaman) was Sandy Frank’s answer to the phenomena of Star Wars. Wow, did it catch on with me. Planetary invasions, an elite team, superhero bird suits, an imperfect team dynamic… what a contrast to what else was showing on TV at the time. The series has remained with me down to this day.

Read more..

Want to win a chance to meet Peter Facinelli this weekend? Act fast.

Join Wattpad for a rare daytime appearance from the Twilight Saga’s Carlisle Cullen. 

A shout out to our friends at Tanger Outlets in Cookstown for hooking us up with amazing VIP passes to share with you! They’re celebrating their grand reopening this Sunday by inviting Twilight Saga’s Peter Facinelli to host a Summer Fashion Giveaway and greet fans! And did we mention the awesome shopping sales going on as well?

Enter our 24-hour contest for a chance to win Wattpad swag autographed by Peter himself and passes to meet him at an exclusive VIP reception! Oh, and of course, Wattpad is super pumped to interview Peter on Sunday. We can’t wait to let him know how much he’s loved in our community. Stay tuned for more next week! 

Prizes

1 winner will be randomly chosen to win 2 VIP passes* to a reception with Peter Facinelli in Tanger Outlets, Cookstown, ON, Canada + autographed Wattpad shirt and tote bag.

4 runner-ups will be randomly chosen to win a Wattpad shirt and tote bag autographed by Peter Facinelli.

There are 2 ways to enter:
Share our Facebook post on your timeline. Make the post setting visible to the public so we can see your entry!

OR

On Twitter, tweet “Pick me @Wattpad to meet #Twilight’s @PeterFacinelli this weekend at Tanger Outlets in Cookstown.”

Contest ends at 12 pm noon on Saturday, May 19th. Winners will be announced by Wattpad on Saturday afternoon.

The winner of the VIP prize must pick up the passes on Sunday before noon at the Shopper Services in Tanger Outlets Cookstown.

*Winners are responsible for their own means of transportation to the VIP Reception.