Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

Outrage, Backlash, and the Art of Being Offended

And it's a category that doesn't quite fit under my chapter about accepting criticism. Criticism targets things you specifically change or improve. Outrage doesn't necessarily have something physical. It feels far more personal, because it's taking the message you attempted to display, and then telling you that message is wrong. Sometimes, that's because the message you attempted to display wasn't clear to the reader, other times, it's a legitimate crossing of ideologies.

So, when you become the source of outrage, you need to ask yourself what you should do about it. Is it worth changing at all? Well, we live in a lucky age. In the past, pre-internet, if you printed something in a newspaper, other than printing retractions, there was no way to really change anything. Every misunderstood line, badly written idea, or poorly thought out work piece became a permanent fixture that anyone could look up for all time.

Of course, it wasn't all bad, because in many ways, these permanent mistakes were also hard to see. Who would read newspapers from five years past? Virtually No one. While the past was certainly more permanent in its information, it also had a much poorer memory. With the age of the internet, every post, blog, or comment I made in the last ten years can be found by anyone with the desire to find it. But... I also have the freedom to go back and find my words written ten years ago and change them.

And while ten years may seem like forever for some of you, I can guarantee you, ten years from now when you're applying for a job, when you find out you have that rape fiction you wrote when you were 12 still attached to your name online, you won't be able to delete it fast enough.

In ten years, society can change, and our understanding of things change. Cyber bullying wasn't something people acknowledged ten years ago. Our views on sex, transgender, bullying, race... all of these things change over time. And the reason I'm bringing this up to you, is that even if you write something now that doesn't offend anyone, ten years from now, things might be different.

Many teen movie from the 80s, Revenge of the Nerds, Weird Science, Porky's Day... if made today would have been immense sources of outrage. And while we kind of give a pass to pre-internet era stuff a little bit, blog posts you made as a rebellious teen, if you don't remove them, will still be there with items that might seem outrageous in retrospect. And believe me, the internet is a place that can grunge up things you've done years ago easily, and there is no reason something you did six or seven years ago might sudden, only now, become offensive, long since you forgot about even writing it.

So... it seems to be unavoidable. At some point, you're going to piss someone off with something you write. Usually, it's comments, if you're the kind of person who talks a lot on message boards. But if you keep pumping out books, eventually, there is going to be that one character that creates outrage because they were a racist stereotype, or because you handled rape poorly, or because you used mental disabilities in an offensive way. Although, that outrage could just as easily be something you still don't even see as wrong.

So, let's assume you've reached the point of people being outraged. Do you ignore it, and let the internet piss storm pass you by? That can work. Not engaging with people, especially when they're caught up on something you did ages ago, can certainly seem like an easy option. They're emotional. You're not. Let's not get into this.

But what if you think your work is fine. You've got a hundred stars and a thousand reads and 10 comments, and only six months later does someone suddenly decide they didn't like something you wrote. Should you change it? Was those hundred stars a hundred thumbs up, versus this one obvious thumbs down.

Well, you need to consider that if your words pissed someone off, it's likely you've pissed off others too. Not everyone has the desire to call you out on something offensive. Just because you've had 1000 readers doesn't mean 100 of those people weren't bothered by what they read. Maybe they weren't bothered as much, but if you can fix something that makes 10% of your audience slightly perturbed, shouldn't it be worth fixing? If this is something that really is worrying you, you could always take your work out and simply ask. To be effective, you can ask the people who you feel would actually be offended, and see if they actually are. Note, you're probably going to get trolls and whatnot, but after getting a handful of opinions, you can decide if things are worth fixing.

And I'm right there with you. I don't want to completely rewrite something I wrote because one or two sentences triggered someone. You get kind of attached to what you write, and sometimes, axing text to reword things feels like it cheapens something you thought was worded well. It's a bit of a hit on your pride, even if you don't really want to see it that way. Many people will tell you that in the end, some people are just going to get offended. It's nearly impossible NOT to offend someone when you're talking about the vast group of differing personalities, and the massively increasing library of your own works.

So, you can rewrite parts of your work, although it may not always be possible. You can apologize, I guess... but in my experience, people in outrage don't give a lick about "good intentions" or "forgiveness". They simply want to emotionally display their feelings of disgust... towards you. Because you disgust them. (Or at least it feels that way sometimes)

I haven't given you a clear answer on how to act towards outrage, because I don't have a clear answer on how to act. If you want to fix it, fix it. If you want to double down on what you wrote, double down. Both can potentially have consequences, such as more outrage, or poorer reception. I've found, however, that whatever you do, you should do it sincerely. Don't half ass it. If you want to own up to and fix the problem, own up to and fix the problem. If you want to ignore it, ignore it. If nothing else, as long as you're steadfast in your choices, you should do fine.

Because in the end, it isn't about the outrage. It's about you. Don't let the outrage pull you down. It's easy to get buried in the frustration, guilt, or anger of interacting with people who are outraged. If it becomes too much to handle, leave the situation BEFORE it puts you into tears. Talk it out with friends, but stop engaging with the source of your frustration until you've cooled off. As people say, someone is always going to find a reason to be offended. Don't let it stop you from writing and expressing yourself how you want to...

Unless you're a Nazi. No one likes Nazis. Sorry.