How to Write The Maze Runner Fanfiction ✓

60 | reasons to be an active reader

hey guys, i've been noticing reader inactivity a lot lately and decided to make this post to encourage potential ghost readers to come out of their shells.

(i literally can't type an intro for this without sounding mean wOw)

1. i do not have to do this.

sometimes i wonder if people realize that myself or other wattpad authors could literally log out one day and never come back. we do this for free, we do this in our own precious free time, we do this for literally nothing except to make ourselves and our readers happy.

i feel like a lot of readers take advantage of authors who regularly update. i won't see a person comment for the entirety of one of my stories, then when i don't update for a couple of weeks, they comment "UPDATE." which, i mean, isn't very motivating?? to me it's the equivalent of going up to a celebrity and shouting "MAKE MORE MOVIES/SONGS" instead of telling them you love their work. (but even then, actors get paid, so i mean...)

2. i spend hours on a single chapter

i usually never, EVER publish a chapter that's less than 2,000 words. the only exception is Radiance because most of it comes out of my own head and it's so i can draw out the beginning of the book.

i spend hours writing. sometimes (okay, well, most of the time) i even lose sleep because of it. i will spend days, weeks, even months trying to perfect a chapter. i'm the kind of person who edits their chapters to oblivion most of the time, trying to make it flawless.

only getting two or three comments kills me a little on the inside. especially when i'm extremely confident in a piece and think "wow, they'll really like this" and i get a few comments saying "haha" or "lol."

3. i have sacrificed my own mental health

some of you may know that i take hiatuses if things get really bad and i need a break from writing, but sometimes i attempt to publish a chapter or two even under a mountain of stress. that usually relieves some of it because i love reading comments and responding to them, but seeing a lack of them causes me to have a breakdown.

let me explain. to be honest, i am a very self-conscious person. i've mostly stopped reading fanfictions on here because i found myself constantly comparing my work to it, pushing myself to change my style and format because i keep thinking it's not good enough. seeing the comment or vote number drop from 60 to 20 within a single chapter makes me automatically think the chapter wasn't good enough.

and i'm not saying "BE ACTIVE TO PRESERVE KRISTYN'S MENTAL HEALTH OR SHE'LL HATE YOU FOREVER." please don't think that. all i'm saying is that when i say comments motivate me, i'm not kidding. they absolutely do encourage me to write faster and usually my quality of work will be better if i'm in a good mood. having few responses makes me feel like i'm giving a powerpoint presentation to an audience of 900 people and 16 of them clap at the end.

i know that other authors feel the same way, too. even a simple "i love this story!!" or "i love the way you ______" can literally make our day. knowing people actually enjoy what we're doing reminds us that we're not doing this for nothing.

and if you feel nervous about commenting, trust me, i don't bite. i just needed to get this out of my system because i've been thinking about it for months. pls don't think i'm a mean person or something.

thanks for coming to my ted talk lmao