Wattpad 101 has always been a well-rounded guide. It's a guide not just there to talk about writing and how to be a better writer, but also how to get along within the Wattpad community. The source of this particular chapter is actually unrelated to Wattpad, but comes from my experiences in another blog where I release chapters of other books. Perhaps I'm writing this simply to blow off a little bit of steam, but either way, I think it's a good idea to talk about the responsibility and expectations of commenters.
I've said it before, I'll say it again. Writers shouldn't expect to receive comments. Readers don't owe writers comments any more than writers owe readers the next chapter. However, if you care about the creators behinds any of the content you consume, you probably should be commenting. Comments are the lifeblood of Wattpad, and if you have any want to see more chapters of a book, you're basically stabbing yourself in the foot by not commenting, starring, and encouraging your author to keep up their craft. When we're talking Wattpad, very few here are professionals, so naturally, encouragement is very important. It's not like its our jobs.
While we shouldn't expect you to comment, the basic reality, Reader, is that you should be commenting or at least staring. There isn't a writer on here who doesn't appreciate stars and comments. There isn't a writer on here who isn't slightly annoyed by the hundreds and hundreds of readers that ultimately fail to do anything but read and click next. Yes, I'm talking to you. Your reading this right now and you don't plan to comment do you. Can't even click a freaking star? Seriously, what the heck?
It's horrendous how low the ratio of readers to comments/stars is. Tell me, how do you live with yourselves knowing that you're basically destroying a poor writer's drive to write while consuming something they spent hours working on and not even taking 5 seconds to respond? How does it feel when you get to the last released chapter of the book, and then sitting there waiting for the next chapter release, knowing... KNOWING... that your own silence is part of the reason that chapter isn't already available? Please, tell me what it's like to be an ungrateful, unappreciative, soul-sucking, comment-lacking silent reader! Please tell me... in the comments below. I won't hold my breath though. You wouldn't be a silent reader if you weren't the scum of the Earth. Your bad... and you should feel bad.
However, this chapter isn't here to focus on the people who don't or won't comment because they're all pedophile baby murderers (refute me in the comments if you disagree). This chapter instead focuses on the people who do comment, or at the very least want to comment, but then struggle to find the proper words to say. Here are a few pieces of advice from a writer on the comments you could be making. This will tell you the dos and donts of what writers want to hear, and what will make them rage in an epileptic fit.
A comment made a good point that I wanted to clarify here as well before you start my list. This chapter makes the assumption you're reading uncompleted or in-progress works. There are a large batch of readers who only read completed works. Whether you star and comment on a completed work does contribute to its continued rank and success on Wattpad, and I think at the least, starring is an expectation, and comments don't hurt either. However, I mention later in this article that there is a difference between successful, finished works and in-progress works, and part of that difference is how much we authors pay attention to comments. Certainly, when the work is in progress, comments are a vital and necessary fuel for many authors who are just looking for the motivation to complete their manuscript. Keep in mind my advice here is geared towards these unfinished manuscripts still in their infancy.
A couple other comments had lead me to add a second disclaimer for this chapter. I do not write it to make writers "sound good". I don't say the things you expect to hear from writers. "You shouldn't expect comments'", "You should handle criticism properly", "you should make every interaction a learning opportunity"... I've said all of this before and it still stands. The point of this chapter is aimed at commenters, to tell them something they perhaps don't want to hear and may have never heard before. It's to remind them of the weight of their words, and the effect their comments can have on a starting writer, which I think is incredibly important, especially for a place like Wattpad composed of 90% starting writers with incomplete manuscripts. We typically treat content creators like they owe us, like they're punching bags that we can criticize, correct, rage at, or insult and they should just take it if they "wanted it" bad enough.
If we make a 15 yo girl cry and quit writing forever, we just tell ourselves that if she had REALLY wanted to be a writer, our words wouldn't have mattered to her, because she'd be writing for herself. This chapter tries to dispel this myth. OF COURSE we are affected by the things people say. OF COURSE comments matter. If you work a job, and you're faced with a boss who savagely criticizes you every chance he gets without ever giving you any encouragement, or a boss who promotes you and tries to help, while occasionally guiding you from mistakes he sees, which is going to get more productivity out of you? Regardless of how much you "love" the job, which job would have you more likely to quit? Which job would you be happier and work harder at?
It doesn't seem to me like a hard concept to grasp. In this situation, you commenters are the people we're working for, and even if we're tough, even if we love writing and are doing this for us... your words are always going to matter. And if you're in a place where you want to see more of our words, then what you say should matter to you too. Please try to keep that in mind as you read this. This chapter is about giving you some awareness, by facing an interaction we've all had many times, but from a direction you might not be used to seeing it from. This chapter is for commenters to understand the weight of their words, and to possible consider turning comments that discourage writing into comments that encourage writers.
Don't Respond With "Great" or "Write More"
It's usually a good idea to avoid a one-word comment that adds absolutely nothing to the conversation. It's not like we get all that motivated by 10-20 comments that say "great!". A single thoughtful comment could completely override 100 "great!". And perhaps more troublesome... a single negative comment can make it feel like your work is hated no matter how many "Great!" people write. When you don't add any details in your comments, they lack substance. They make no impact on the writer. They don't excite us to write more, and they don't even make us feel that much better. I'd go so far to say I'd rather see a star and no comment, then just a comment that said "Great!"
The other response, "Write more...", is a problem all onto itself, and really should be its own section. It's generally not a good idea to nag your writers, and saying things like "I want more!" feel a bit like being unappreciative of what a writer does. We either have a very specific launch schedule, which is the norm for most consistent writers, or we're writing as fast as we are motivated to write.
In either case, telling me to write more doesn't excite me to write more. It makes me think that what I wrote was emotionally nothing to you. You'll scoop up whatever crap I'm writing, and so it doesn't matter what I produce, as long as it has a word count. That's the impression a "write more" comment gives me. Therefore, unless you don't care what your writer is shoveling out, perhaps think of something a little more substantial to say then some poorly worded command. It'll irritate your writers every time they see it, or their eyes will just glaze over it and they won't even consider it a thing at all.
Don't Always Be Negative and Don't Start Your First Comment Negative
Now, you seem to have two kinds of commenters, the kind that only says positive things of encouragement, and the kind that only says negative things. There are very few that sit in the middle ground. Since I'm not talking about a chapter on writing a critique, I think when it comes to comments, it's okay to lean heavily on the positive side. However, that's not most people's way. We tend to only review an item or restaurant when they fail expectations and piss us off. Likewise, we tend to only comment when we reach something in the story that bothers us enough that we feel the need to say something.
I experienced this first hand with the release of Hawtness 1.5... a story that took me three times longer to write than the first Hawtness entirely because I didn't receive very many comments. I wrote 15 some chapters with diminishing returns on each one, until the final chapters almost didn't get any comments at all. Then, I released a chapter stating I was dropping Hawtness. It got like ten comments about how "regretful" my readers were that I was dropping the series. Had these same commenters been commenting every chapter, Hawtness two would probably already be finished, but they only decided to comment when there was a negative thing... something that shook up their equilibrium. I asked them how they felt about the fact that the thing they were "regretful" was ended wouldn't have ended if they had just spoken up and let me know they wanted it... but what can I say, they didn't comment.
I also experienced this tendency another time when I went out of my way to edit chapters on a certain website. I made it very clear I was editing a story, which was barely legible the way it was. However, no one ever commented on the edit job. No one ever thanked me or showed the slightest bit of appreciation for the editing. What they did do was whine endlessly on the chapter after the last one I edited. No matter how clear I made it I was editing this, not a single commenter felt the need to comment until the editing stopped, then they suddenly had tons of things to say, and most of it was "edit more".
Now, I'll admit I'm one who is particularly bad at saying positive things. I'm very prone to picking at the things that bother me in the story, and I can be a bit overbearing as some people who have asked me to read their story can attest. However, there is also a big difference between writing criticism for a popular web novel with hundreds of comments every chapter, and writing a criticizing comment on Wattpad for someone who might only have 2-3 comments per chapter, if that. The big difference is that the person who only gets a few comments has the time and energy to read them all.
Believe it or not, those who regularly comment are people they recognize. They start to know those people and grow familiar with them. Thus, when I receive a negative comment from Billy who has been commenting on every new chapter for the last ten, I'm perfectly happy to hear him out and see why he felt this chapter was particularly bad. If you're reading a web novel that is actively releasing, being on speaking terms with the writer isn't a bad idea.
However, let's imagine someone else doesn't say a damn thing for any chapter. Upon reaching chapter 15, they suddenly see something they don't like, so they decide to comment negatively. For many writers, this will immediately raise our hackles up to full alert. You see, readers and writers have a sort of relationship going on. The writer produces the content and the reader enjoys the content and tries to motivate the writer to keep writing. However, when you've been a silent reader for whatever reason (perhaps it's only because you just started the novel yesterday and binge read to the last chapter), when you suddenly comment, and the only comment you make is a negative one, that's all we see.
You may have spent the last week reading this story under an author, getting familiar with his style and prose, but the author has never met you before, and the first time he ever sees your screen name, you're whining about not liking a plot choice he made. Imagine if this was real life. Would you approach someone for the first time, and the first words you said to them are "I think your hair looks like shit today, please fix it and I'll be sure to check back tomorrow."
Of course, you'd never talk to a relative stranger that way, yet we all seem to think we can talk to writers like this (and actors, and anyone in the public eye for that matter). The first time you ever open your mouth to them, and it's just whining about something in the book you didn't like. By very nature, people focus more on the negatives than the positives... and also by nature, people are more likely to comment on negative than positive things. So, this skewed result is a complete mess that can quickly lay a writer down.
You might have only said one negative comment to the reader, but they also had a negative comment last chapter from someone else, and another from someone else in the chapter before that, and two in the chapter before that. I'm not telling you to never make a negative comment. It's great to be honest, and it's great to help people improve. What I'm saying is that you need to understand the consequences and emotional burden your put on your writer when you want to shoot off negative comments. Figure out your priorities. If your goal is to see the next chapters as soon as possible, maybe don't piss off your writer, is all I'm saying.
Don't Criticize what the Author Can't Help
So, if you've grown comfortable criticizing, and feel like a negative comment has to be made for the future of your book, one thing to avoid is criticisms about things the Author can't help. I've mentioned this in my other chapters about criticism, but you need to not nitpick. What do I mean by things they can't help? These would be things associated with tastes. These would be things outside of the author's creative control.
"I don't like romances, so I wish you wouldn't write so much romance." This is a stupid comment to make when reading a book with a romance tag. This is a romance. I can't help you don't like romance. If you don't like romance, don't read a romance book. By complaining about things your author can't help, it can be pretty frustrating.
Here's another example that happens a lot on Wattpad. Criticizing the novel cover. Most Wattpad writers are not also illustrators. Thus, we can only rely on asking book cover makers to make our book covers. Sometimes, they do an awesome job. Sometimes, they do a crap job. If they do a crap job, the writer is probably aware of it, and is only using it until they can get around to having a better cover made. The alternative is that they like the cover, and since it's not a cover they themselves made, you talking smack about something they like can just come off as frustrating.
Once again, I'm not saying never criticize a writer's work. However, you need to consider that telling a writer that you'd like their book cover better if they did A, B, and C... is pointless, because they didn't make it, and can't just go edit it and do A, B, and C. Now, if you want to say something like the book cover gave you the wrong impression as to the kind of book it is, that's fine, but when you want to complain about the book cover to the person who didn't make it, it grows double frustrating.
A simple example of this is complaining about something after the fact. This can especially be difficult when you're commenting every chapter, and then the author makes a choice that you just hate and it keeps coming up to bite you in the ass. Let's say the author choses to make the protagonist and the antagonist brothers. However, this big reveal doesn't happen until chapter 10. So, on chapter 10, you make a comment.
"Ugh, this is so frustrating. Making them brothers makes no sense."
There you go, you've made your comment. However, your author's already written up to chapter 20, and them being brothers has already been established in the story. At this point, further commenting on it every time the fact they're brothers comes up In the story will only start to grow increasingly aggravating. What's done is done, and you can't retroactively edit large plot points out of a story, so commenters need to drop it, and move on.
Don't Be A Grammar Nazi
This isn't a particularly hard one to understand, but this is one that some will disagree with. There are authors on Wattpad who seem to like their commenters doing their editing for them. I personally despise this way of thinking. Yes, most of us are using Wattpad to release in-progress books, learn, and get better as a writer. However, using, or should I say abusing your readerbase and having them play cleanup editor for you is just shotty. Edit better, or get your chapters properly edited. At no point should you be depending on your readers to clean up edits... and your readers catching all your mistakes does NOT help you improve as an author.
That said, this isn't a chapter about the writers, but the readers, and for the readers, I'd lean against correcting your writer. To me, it's infinitely irritating for reasons I think I've mentioned on a previous chapter about Grammar Nazis. You are not my editor, and if I wanted an editor, I would hire an editor. As to you trying to "save" all future readers from having to go through a hiccup in the English language, well... don't shout "Freedom" just yet Mel, because I'm not very likely to see you as a martyr.
This isn't to say if you don't see a frustrating, confusing, or consistent mistake, that you shouldn't correct it. However, if you see a tiny insignificant mistake... I don't care. There are tons of mistakes. I could read my own chapters and find ten mistakes in each one. However, at some point I stop, because it's too difficult to catch new mistakes. That's why we have editors, because the writers themselves reach a point where they just can't see them anymore. That doesn't mean commenters should be there to pick up the slack. Once again, this is all about encouraging writers to keep writing, and you're not going to achieve that goal by reminding them that in paragraph ten, line six there was a punctuation error. You're also not going to make them a better writer by revealing it.
Guess what? Stephen King makes spelling mistakes. So does JK Rowling. Definitely Stephanie Meyer. Do you think Stephen King would benefit because you told him one of his books had two periods by accident? No... because little mistakes happen when typing, and they do not reflect the skill level of the writer after a certain point. So, constantly nitpicking over these little mistakes serve the exact opposite effect. They demotivate writers, and perhaps make them so scared of making a spelling mistake and setting you off that they write even worse.
Remember Why You're Commenting
I think this is the biggest point in all of this. You don't have to take any of the advice I just gave. In fact, I expect many people to disagree with it. I'm sure there are writers who love edits and who love "Great!" and "Write More!". The main take away of this chapter is simply this. When you're going to comment, remember why you want to comment in the first place.
If the story is a big story smothered in comments, maybe your comment is there to generate discussion. Maybe you want to put out ideas and see what fellow fans think. However, when the story is smaller and has less comments, perhaps you just want the author to keep releasing chapters so you can keep reading them. If that's what you want to do, then you should be catering your comments to achieve that effect.
I can assure you that when most writers ask for comments, they want them to excite them about their own work and to get themselves jazzed to write more. They want to know they've helped brighten your day or given you an emotional reaction. They want to confirm that something they created had an effect, any effect, on you as a reader. They want to know people have read it, thought about it, and enjoyed it. So, when you make a comment, it probably should be something that helps us fulfill our goal, in order to help you fulfill your own goal.
Some might step up and say "I want comments to help me become a better writer." I'd respond, "No, you want critiques to help you be a better writer." There is a distinct difference between the two. Some writers do depend on comments as mini-critics and mini-editors. I'm not sure I'm particularly one of them, nor do I necessarily agree with that sort of thing. However, critiques, even when constructive, can be demotivating. Most people aren't tough, myself included, and while "in theory", we should all handle criticism fine... the truth is, we don't always do that.
So... when we receive comments that are overly critical, nitpicky, and all around negative, it'll naturally effect our mood and our capacity to write more. If you want to see more writing, then maybe you should keep that in mind when you choose what to say. Hey, whatever you comment, you still are better than those freaking silent readers who choose to do nothing. Those guys are the spawn of Satan's butthole.
I can say things like that because what are they going to do? Comment? Hahahahahahahahahaha! Oh Noes... I've offended the people who don't comment and don't star... How will my book manage to continue to not benefit from their lack of doing anything? That's correct, readers... if you don't buy (comment/star) anything, you don't have any purchasing power (influence on what is produced), and if you have no purchasing power, well doesn't that mean you're worthless? Comment below if you disagree... I dare you!