Between The Pages

Chapter 03

*ping*

A notification broke the eerie silence spread in his bedroom. Tucked in a cozy blanket, Tanmay glanced over at his phone. An orange LED blinked every other second, leaving the rest engulfed in their darkness. Wattpad!

Tanmay had installed this application with a hope to spread his stories in the world. He never wished to top the charts. He never wanted a million followers like he saw on the profiles wattpad suggested him. He had very simple aspirations from this magic land - a place in one of the tiny corners of his reader's heart. And what did wattpad give him? A broken heart.

"You don't matter anymore," he shouted turning away in his bed.

Yes, the app mattered a lot when it was new. Everything does. In that first couple of weeks, he would've grabbed the phone by now and opened the app. He was so eager to see people voting for his story, praising it, applauding him. His childish heart broke when none of that happened.

If wattpad had its way of building someone's dreams, then it had its own unique way of crushing them too.

"Ahh..." He let out an agonized scream before turning back to watch the LED blink.

His story had been sitting in there for a couple of weeks now. The Adventures at the Phone Booth. He was so excited to write it. He even had the whole plot played out in his mind. But the lack of response literally knocked the wind out of his sails. There was no one out there to meet the fragments of his imagination - Dev, and Anjali. They were supposed to have so many great adventures together.

It wasn't as if he didn't take any efforts from his side. He did all the things mentioned in 'How to get Successful on Wattpad'. He found the best picture he could over the Internet to make a cover for his book. He spent an hour thinking the perfect title for the book. He read other's stories. Voted on them. Left some comments too. Hell, he even pleaded a couple of them to give his book a try. But nothing. All his efforts were in vain.

It was as if the whole universe had conspired against him.

The orange light was still blinking, disturbing the peaceful darkness of his room. He mentally cursed himself for leaving the Internet ON. With each blink, his curiosity went up a level. He didn't wish to open that app now, not after it brought up all those memories again. But he knew his heart won't let him sleep without that.

At last, he threw the blanket aside and grabbed his phone from the corner table.

01:00, the startup clock displayed.
Great, he thought. Wattpad didn't just destroy his dream, it even robbed his favorite sleep away. The boy who was usually used to being in bed by ten o'clock found himself awake past midnight nowadays. He still wished his parents goodnight at the same time. That didn't change. What changed was the way he spent hours after that in this virtual world.

Shutting all other thoughts away, he resigned himself to the task at hand. Opening wattpad, he quickly maneuvered to the notification log. There were a couple of notifications mentioning the updates of a story he was following. But they weren't the ones which made him jump around in excitement. It was that little red dot over the messages tab.

It was not only the first ever message he received on wattpad, it was also the message which was going to change the way he lived in the world of wattpad.

A message from MissMagician.

***

20th May 2017

"Writing is not just any other thing, it's a process. A process which needs to be done over and over again. A process which should never stop."

Here's a challenge for you guys.
Let's relive the game of ten words again.

In just ten words, tell me what writing means to you.

And to the new writers reading this, I'd just like to say that don't ever stop expressing yourself just because you didn't get some votes or comments.
Yes, those things are important too. But what's more important is to keep writing.

Coming back to the story now...

What are your first views about Tanmay?

And, MissMagician?
Now, why would Natasha choose that username?

We'll find out the answers soon...