The Corner Booth

#6 It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

High Five: Meet the panel

Rita Kovach: @rskovach

Mary L. Tabor: @maryltabor

Brittanie Charmintine: @BrittanieCharmintine

*Special guest-Gavin Wilson: @TheOrangutan

Our awesome show runner:

Nat Bradford: @natsaninja

Today we have guilty pleasures. Let's find out what the panelists' guilty pleasures are, and leave your guilty pleasures below. We are looking at three confessions today, song or artist, movie, and book

Rita: I like Pachelbel's Canon in D, Harlequin Books' trashy romances, and The Covenant's brooding male witches.

Mary: Leonard Cohen: There's a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in: Anthem is my favorite song by this wonderful Canadian poet. Movie: Mostly Martha: Food and Love and Family in German and Italian with English subtitles: gorgeous, romantic, moving. Book: Vladimir Nabokov's memoir Speak, Memory Gorgeous writing by a genius

*Gavin: Something that I listened to when I was younger and still listen to now is Pink Floyd. My movie selection is a science fiction movie called Dark City. Not guilty about this one at all, my favorite writer is Terry Pratchett. My personal favorite from him is Reaper Man.

Brittanie:

Cream or Sugar: To see these amazing shoutouts, please check out Two-Week Notice #3! You won't regret it!!

The Entrée: Questions and discussion from week six

1. As a Wattpadder, it's so easy to get lost in instant gratification. How do you push through the pain of not getting reads, receiving votes, and/or comments?

Rita: The reality is unless you already have a lot of dedicated followers that will read anything you post, getting hundreds or thousands of reads and votes is nearly impossible. What you can do to get those dedicated followers is to build relationships with the clubs and through other stories. Get a good story hook, and an attractive cover. Unfortunately there are people who try the mass follow method where they will follow a bunch of people and wait for them to follow back. They don't have any books in their reading lists, and they don't have any comments or vote trails on their profile. Make sure you interact because everyone is waiting for those reads, votes, and comments just like you are.

Mary: I came onto Wattpad as a published writer, and when I came on my expectations were really low. When one of my books came out I was told to remember, the joy is in the making, not what comes after. The scary part for me is actually being read. Once it goes out into the world there's the fear that it might not be understood. One thing that happened to me here is I found readers all over the world and I have floated like a little boat on the sea of your beliefs.

*Gavin: I would just say ultimately it comes down to keep writing and keep reading. If you find yourself at a bit of an impass, pick up that favorite book and read it again, get that inspiration. Go back and read through your comments to see what people said. Just keep going.

Brittanie: I didn't know anyone when I started posting Mermaid and the Vampires Who Love Them, so I begged all my friends to go on the site to read it. Soon it started to rank and more people found it and read it. I had a few loyal readers who found it and loved it and said "why doesn't your story have that many reads?" I started to focus on them and writing for them. The idea is you need to be happy with every single reader, comment, and vote that you get. Keep writing, keep getting better. Eventually your audience will find you, so be ready.

It's like starting out on training wheels. The clubs are like your training wheels so use them! If you don't you'll fall off your bike a lot.

2. Everyone can point to a time when he/she requires a helping hand. Tell us about a time when another Wattpadder lifted your spirits and helped get you to where you are today.

Mary: I am in debt to Zoe DiNovi who found me. She wrote to me and asked if I was posting a full manuscript of non-fiction. She extended a hand to me, and Wattpad has given me such a feeling of community. Zoe is a gift in my life.

Rita: I honestly believe in karma, if you put good out there, you'll get good in return. I have three instances of this. The first one came from Alys Arden, agents are often asking for books that might be good, a group of us asked if she could name drop and she said she would. Rebecca Sky is another one. She was looking through what people were wanting in manuscripts and she noticed a few of them were wanting pirates and she messaged me and gave me a heads up. My final example is Kris Kosach who's book was featured when mine was. She sent me a private message and she had been to Savannah, Georgia and found out it had a strong history with piracy and said if I was thinking about doing a sequel then maybe I would like to learn more about that.

*Gavin: I also believe in karma and if you are giving positive, you will get Wattpad back. Everything I've done has been made possible because of Wattpad and everyone who has read and commented on my stuff. Every time you get a little comment that says "loved this" or something like that, it makes my day every single day.

Can you tell us about Orangutangents? It was born of a desire to write something every day no matter how odd, bizarre, random it is. That was how Orangutangents was born.

Brittanie: There are so many kind people on the site, but one person who I met early on was named JayVictor. She wrote Slavedays. She started reading my story early and started leaving me the most amazing comments, and she made me feel like maybe I had something that was really good. She then decided to hold up an event called LonCon and she invited me to be on a panel for it. All the people were all amazing, intelligent, warm, kind. My second person is Gavin Wilson who I met there. He turned out to be exactly who I thought he would be; funny, warm, intelligent. When I was starting out I would message him possibly the dumbest questions and he always responded with patience.

Pass the Salt: Honesty in 140 characters or less

Brittanie: There is plenty of success to go around at the table of creativity.

*Gavin: Be excellent to each other, conduct yourself with passion and decorum, say thank you, and remember your gran may be watching what you do.

Mary: Emily Dickinson with not a word published said, "Hope is the thing with feathers that purchase in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."

Rita: Wattpad is free and most authors have many other commitments. Show your support but don't demand more or different content.

Check Please: Mailbag and signing off

Question:What is your thought on POV shifts?

Mary: The key is to think of POV as a camera. Think of yourself as the director and for the most part try to hold the camera steady. The question is not if you shift POV but how you do it. If you do it smoothly with a transition it will work, you don't want the reader to feel like they're being jerked around. All the rules are made to be broken! If you heard a rule, break it.

Question two: Do good stories, no matter the genre ,share common qualities? Since there are so many women writers can you name one we should go read?

*Gavin: Good characteristics. I think all stories should have characters that draw you in and make you believe in them and make you care about them. You want the readers to be grabbed. A lady writer in science fiction would be Ann McCaffrey If you want one book that lifts you, check out The Ship Who Sang.

#Justwriteit challenge! 10,000 words in thirty days! Take the pledge! The topic for May is Leading Lady. Write about a mother or another leading lady in your life.