Check out this awesome cover by Nathaniel Stanley for “The Makers: Wattpad’s Guide in Design.”

WATTPAD BRINGS YOU A GUEST POST FROM AISLING FITZSIMONS, AUTHOR OF AISLING’S DIARY:

Hi everyone! It’s time for a new guest post from yours truly!

As you may have noticed, I’m kind of an ambassador to beActive TV’s  channel beChilled TV, home to my own shows, Mia’s Twist, Beat Generation and now Collider and Beat Girl, so this time around I’m going to talk about beChilled TV new projects on Wattpad.

Collider World

Collider, launched just this week, is a sci-fi time travel story about six people transported to a post-apocalyptic future. Without knowing how they got there, they have to fight to discover how to survive and how to get back to the present.

The story focuses on a young scientist Peter, who sabotages CERN laboratories Hadron Collider when his credibility is wrongfully destroyed. By doing so he accidentally transports himself via a wormhole to a world ruined by natural disasters and at war with the Unknown.

Collider is told across several platforms, including comic books, available on iBookstore and Amazon - Kindle edition, App Store and Google Play, webisodes and a game, available both on the App Store and Google Play.

On Wattpad, beChilled TV brings you an exclusive prequel of the story! On Peter’s Log, you can read about the events that lead to the jump in the future and learn what was going on on Peter’s mind when he decided to sabotage the Collider, while watching the webisodes.

Fan Collider on Wattpad so you won’t miss even one bit of Peter’s story, with a new chapter and episode being released every Monday on Wattpad!

Later this year, a Collider feature film will start production, and a new game is schedulle to be released in 2013!

Beat Girl 

Beat Girl tells the story of a young girl’s musical self-discovery, in the world of DJing. Left with nothing but a piano and debts after her mother’s death, Heather’s only option is to move in with her estranged father and half-brother. She turns to music and DJing to help her through this new stage and to make some sense out of life.

Beat Girl will also be told across several platforms, including a novel, already available on Amazon and iBookStore, a feature film, selected DJ interviews and a game scheduled to be released soon.

On Wattpad, a Beat Girl book and a web series will be released, to give you more insights on Heather’s life and troubles as her life changes.

Beat Girl also has its very own Pinterest account, being the first story ever told on Pinterest!

If you like my stories, I bet you’ll love Beat Girl! A new chapter and webisode will be released every Wednesday and Friday, both on YouTube and Wattpad, so start fanning so you won’t miss anything at all!

I do hope you like beChilled TV’s new projects. Let me know what you think in the comments or tweet using the #colliderworld and #beatgirl hashtags @beChilledTV.

Love,

Ais

Photos taken by Amy during Wattpad’s trip to New York for BEA and the Wattpad meetup!

Welcome to the Wattpad Workshop Series!

These are workshops for Wattpad writers who want to be inspired and challenged. You’ll come away with new ideas, new techniques and, most importantly, you’ll generate lots of new writing. The workshops run every Monday on the Wattpad Blog and all you have to do to join in is read the post and get writing – post your writing on the Weekly Workshop Series Discussion Thread!

• May 28th-June 25th - Ideas, Inspiration and Overcoming Writer’s Block
• July 2nd-July 30th - Character - The Pulsing Heart of a Good Story
• August 6th-Sept 3rd - Dialogue - Hear Those Voices On The Page
• Sept 10th-Oct 8th - Take It To A New Level - Fixes For Your Fiction
• Oct 15th-Nov 12th - Kickstart Your Writing - Trying New Things To Fuel Your Writing

The workshops are run by Alice Kuipers, bestselling author of Life on the Refrigerator Door, The Worst Thing She Ever Did and 40 Things I Want To Tell You. Visit her at www.alicekuipers.com:

Week 3 (Missed the beginning of this writer’s workshop? Check out Week 1 and Week 2!)

In this third workshop, we’re going to think about ways to fuel our imagination as writers. The very prospect of a blank page is terrifying to some writers, holding them back and stopping them from writing anything.

Most people call this WRITER’S BLOCK.

But I’m going to call it something else, something I think will make it a little easier to overcome.

WRITER’S PAUSE.

See, I’ll let you into a little secret.  I don’t believe in writer’s block.  And I’ve been writing for fifteen years now. What I do believe in instead is the cold unpleasant feeling of having nothing to say.  I believe in the anxiety a sheet of white paper can provoke. I believe this is caused because sometimes writers forget that -

THE FIRST DRAFT IS NOT THE LAST.

If you put pressure on yourself to write something perfect, something flawless, something brilliant, you are, of course, setting yourself up to get it wrong.  But you can’t get writing wrong, there’s no such thing.  You can make mistakes when you write, sure, but you can’t get it so wrong that you can’t fix it later.

If you think that writers only write one draft then you are confusing writing, or any other creative act, with something far more banal.  See, the art of writing comes from re-writing and redrafting your stories – and I’ll say lots more about this when we get to a later workshop here on Wattpad: Sept 10th-Oct 8th - Take It To A New Level - Fixes For Your Fiction.  For now, I want you to keep in mind that writing should not be perfect first time.  What would be the point of doing it if it were that easy?

And so this is why I don’t think a blank page is something to worry you too much. If you teach yourself to forgive your mistakes, if you let yourself write as if no-one will ever read it, you’ll find that those days you have nothing to say number far fewer.  Those days you have nothing to say are PAUSES, not blocks.  They are moments when you can refuel, not moments to give up.

One other thing to keep in mind, and someone else told me this, I wish I could remember who: write your first draft for yourself.  Re-write later for someone else.

Confusing getting published with the fragile early words you put on the page makes even the best writers freeze up and get stuck.  You know the old saying, dance as if no-one’s watching? Well, write the same way.  Write as if no-one will ever read it.  Trust me, you’ll feel freer and less anxious when you let go and enjoy the power of your words. (And your work will be stronger and more likely to be enjoyed by other people when you do decide to share it because you have tapped into your true creative self.)

This week’s writing prompt:

This week we’re going to do a freewriting exercise.  Freewriting is a great way to loosen up the binds of ‘performance anxiety’ that a blank page can make you feel.  And freewriting is an excellent way to fuel your imagination – if you think of your imagination as a hungry monster (or giraffe, or cat, or something that needs to feed!), then think of freewriting as food.  When you freewrite, you let your imagination take over and you stop yourself from censoring your ideas, which is the best path to inspiration.

So, freewriting means writing WITHOUT STOPPING for a period of time.  I’ll give you a prompt and then you write, even if you just write the words I don’t know what to say over and over, that’s okay!

So, write for six minutes (time yourself) using this prompt, which was suggested to me by a workshop participant when I was teaching last year:

FAMILY REUNION

Sometimes, freewriting is something you want to keep to yourself.  Other times you want to share it – after tidying it up a little.  If you like, post your writing on the Weekly Workshop Series Discussion Thread so I can have a look and give feedback where I can.  Or ask me questions about any of the stuff we’ve covered in the last three workshops and I’ll do my best to answer.

A guest post by Cristian Mihai:

Oscar Wilde once said, “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

Writing as an art can’t be taught, and even though Creative Writing courses and workshops undoubtedly help writers grow, writing is a solitary process, and it’s up to each individual to reach within the confines of his mind for answers.

Writers are unique to the extent that even if someone would try to replicate the same career a fellow writer had, he would most likely fail to achieve the same success. A lot of factors come to play in this, including luck, and blindly following a writer’s advice is not the most suitable of actions. What worked for him might not work for you. Instead, you should absorb the rules others have used before you and change them according to your own style and needs.

There are no maps to guide you in this journey. All you get are some folks who are more than happy to help you find your way from time to time.

Stephen King – On Writing

“This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit. Fiction writers, present company included, don’t understand very much about what they do—not why it works when it’s good, not why it doesn’t when it’s bad. I figured the shorter the book, the less the bullshit.”

Part memoir, part guide for aspiring writers, The King is extremely honest in this book of his. He offers some advice on the technics of writing, but he also underlines the importance of determination and perseverance.

The tools required to write great fiction can’t be borrowed or bought – they have to be acquired through hard work.

Anne Lamott – Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy.  Just take it bird by bird.”

Anne Lamott’s guide on writing is extremely helpful for the struggling writer – the biggest lesson she teaches in her book is that sometimes we fail to write the book we set to write, and often we fail to see the difference between what’s in our head and what’s on paper. Bird by Bird is an honest, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, account of Anne Lammott’s own career. A must read for any aspiring writer.

Continue reading

Dirty Little Secrets

Listen to our podcast with Liliana Hart, an award-winning author of romantic mysteries and historical fiction with lots of laughs, steamy sex, and suspense. Learn about her writing inspirations, her career, and what it’s like to be a successful writer of adult novels such as “Dirty Little Secrets.”

giveityourbest:

Got my first “fan” on wattpad and you have no idea how happy i am!! Maybe it isn’t really a big deal for someone but IT REALLY IS FOR ME! omg! :)

From A Wattpadder:

Since my About Me in Wattpad can’t fit these stories anymore below the character limit, I think I’ll just post them here. Haha.

1. She’s Bad News (Bright_as_night)

2. Their Paid Girl (ella_enchanted)

3. Lessons on Love (AubreyEatsHearts)

4. The Last Dance (xoStardust)— COMPLETED 

5. Late Summer Rain (AubreyEatsHearts)— COMPLETED

6. The Kissing Booth (Reekles)— COMPLETED 

7. Believe Me, I’m Lying (XxSkater2Girl16xX)— COMPLETED 

8. One of the Boys (knightsrachel)

9. The Way He’s Not (xXBeautifulFighterXx)

10. The Bad Boy, Cupid & Me (Slim_Shady)

11. Cupid’s Granddaughter (GermanSam)— COMPLETED 

If you have not read any of these fics, then I swear to God that you have not enjoyed Wattpad as thoroughly as you should.

Late-night reads are always the best because I tend to get a lot emotional at night. All of these were my late-night reads before I put them in my library and patiently wait for the author to update.

WARNING: YOU WILL CRY WHEN YOU READ THESE!!!! (Or maybe not. Depends if you’re as sentimental as me.)

Which version of “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline do you like better - 1, 2, or 3?

Check out some sci-fi stories to read for FREE on Wattpad!

Welcome the newest member of the Wattpad team!

We’re always on the lookout for great people who want to help us shape the future of how readers and writers interact and share stories. 

Just last week we announced a new investment that will allow us to grow our team. We’re moving fast and today we’re happy to introduce you to our new Head of Product - Mike Beltzner!

This is a BIG hire for us! Mike previously lead the development of Firefox at Mozilla. If anyone knows what passionate, collaborative and creative web communities are all about, it’s Mike! So there’s no doubt he’s going to fit in great here at Wattpad HQ. 

We’re excited! Mike’s excited - check out his blog post! Exciting things are happening here in Toronto. If you want to be a part of the great team we’re building let us know!

Writers may sometimes put their stories “on hold” when they’re taking a break from writing. If you fan a writer, you’ll get notified of their updates when they continue writing their stories in progress.

A new Android Beta app is available! Now you can get alerts when a story in your library is updated. Want to try it out?

Join the Wattpad Android Beta Support for more info!

The Weird World of Fan Fiction:   

They’re amateur writers—with millions of readers. After years in the shadows, they’re starting to break into the mainstream.

Fan fiction is the fastest-growing genre on Wattpad, a popular site with eight million monthly visitors where writers can post their fiction free. The site now hosts 500,000 pieces of fan fiction, up 144% from last year. One piece based on “The Hunger Games” has been read close to two million times, reaching a wider audience than books by many professional best-selling authors.

Fan fiction is often baffling to outsiders. For the casual reader, it can be hard to see the literary merit of a story in which Harry Potter falls in love with Voldemort, then kills off rival suitor Darth Vader in a duel. Others would argue that it has been around for centuries, tracing back to classical authors like Virgil and Sophocles who spun new stories out of old legends. In the late 1800s, devoted fans of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes began writing their own stories. William Thackeray wrote a parodic sequel to Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe.”

Read more on WSJ

Welcome to the Wattpad Workshop Series!

These are workshops for Wattpad writers who want to be inspired and challenged. You’ll come away with new ideas, new techniques and, most importantly, you’ll generate lots of new writing. The workshops run every Monday on the Wattpad Blog and all you have to do to join in is read the post and get writing – post your writing on the Weekly Workshop Series Discussion Thread!

• May 28th-June 25th - Ideas, Inspiration and Overcoming Writer’s Block
• July 2nd-July 30th - Character - The Pulsing Heart of a Good Story
• August 6th-Sept 3rd - Dialogue - Hear Those Voices On The Page
• Sept 10th-Oct 8th - Take It To A New Level - Fixes For Your Fiction
• Oct 15th-Nov 12th - Kickstart Your Writing - Trying New Things To Fuel Your Writing

The workshops are run by Alice Kuipers, bestselling author of Life on the Refrigerator Door, The Worst Thing She Ever Did and 40 Things I Want To Tell You. Visit her at www.alicekuipers.com:

Week 4 (Missed the beginning of this writer’s workshop? Check out Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3!) 

I’ve been really enjoying reading your work and seeing how well some of you are doing with the writing prompts. I’m encouraged that so many of you are taking part and making a commitment to improve your writing. But this week’s workshop starts with some news that might be a bit of a downer:

Writing is hard.

Really hard.

I’m not trying to make any of you feel discouraged here. Precisely the opposite, in fact. I’m trying to bust the illusion that writing has to be easy to be any good.  I want to push away the notion that writers merrily sit back while the story just flows onto the page, line after perfect line, paragraph followed by perfect paragraph, plot slotting into place, characters fleshy and real.

Real writers find out pretty fast that you have to earn the good days.

This means that yes, sometimes, some rare and gorgeous days, the words do cascade onto the page and everything is easy. But many, many writing days are challenging. The writer takes wrong turns. Every sentence feels stiff and awkward until there is nothing more to say. The story is wooden and downright dull.

On these terrible writing days, your mind starts to play tricks on you, telling you that it isn’t worth writing the story at all, insisting you should give up.

Don’t give up.

Believe me, those days when it’s going badly are actually good for your writing. I know it sounds unlikely, but by accepting, even expecting difficult writing days, you are growing and improving as a writer. Writing shouldn’t be easy to be worth doing. In fact, what would be the point of doing it if it were easy all the time?

Your unique imagination and stories are worth the fight, they are worth the struggle and hard work.

Practically, there are two ways to deal with a challenging writing day.

1-   Push through it. Allow yourself to write badly and get words on the page. You can always edit them later.

2-   Walk away. I heard Martin Amis talk at a festival and he said that as he matured as a writer, he learned to walk away if the writing wasn’t going well. Take a stroll, do some gardening, cook, whatever, but let your mind relax into solving the problems on the page. Come back refreshed and ready to write.

I tend to push through on the page. A good friend of mine walks away when she is struggling. Either way works – you’ll have to figure out what works for you. Whichever way ends up being your way, remember that sometimes when you think you’re at a dead end, you’re not. You’ve only got to look at the situation differently to discover hidden doorways and paths to the perfect story…

This week’s writing prompt:

Think of this exercise as a metaphor for those trap doors in your mind that lead to unexpected places when you dare open them.

I want you to imagine that you walk into a room you thought you knew well and discover there is a secret trap door in the floor.

Where does it lead? Do you go in? What do you discover? Write up to 500 words describing what you find when you open the trap door. 

Post your response to the prompt on the Weekly Workshop Series Discussion Thread.  I’ll do my best to get feedback to you. Ask me any questions there too.

Wattpad brings you a guest post from Hannah Hunt, the writer of our latest featured story, Divine:

“Dystopia: [dis-toh-pee-uh] noun: a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.” (Dictionary.com)

Dystopian novels are a hot commodity these days. What, with the all the fandom for The Hunger Games series, it’s only to be expected. However, dystopias have been around since the late 1800’s, starting with George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four. (Which I highly recommend reading.)

But, what makes a dystopian simply that? Dystopian? What sets it apart from sci-fi, or even general fiction?

For starters, most dystopian novels have a different form of government than what we experience in the United States, the United Kingdom, and throughout Europe today. These futuristic societies have either a totalitarian or dictator form of government where everything is ruled by a certain person or group of people. Or they have no government at all where the main character is one of the last survivors from an attack/catastrophic event.

In Nineteen-Eighty-Four there was a Ministry for everything – Ministry of Truth falsifies history for the society of Oceana, the Ministry of Plenty rations and controls food, the Ministry of Love identifies, monitors, and arrests suspected rebels; and the Ministry of Peace supports Oceana’s perpetual war with Eurasia or Eastasia, keeping the nation at equipoise, or at balance within itself.

For example, in my own novel, Divine, the government is controlled by a line of the royal family, or a monarchy – think back to your early European history classes, guys. Syd, the ruler of a small chain of islands of used-to-be Italy, has complete control over the food, education, and economy.

Dystopians can also have futuristic aspects to them, such as the monitors in Nineteen-Eighty-Four, which is how the MiniLuv and Thought Police monitor the civilians of Oceana. In Divine, they have com-centers – a holographic projection pad similar to the device in Star Wars, that projects messages and news updates throughout Cidy.

Okay, so we get that dystopias have strict governments, or none at all, and some futuristic stuff. But, what else?

Dystopias have issues. LOTS of issues. But they all try to pass it off like everything’s totally fine, normal … perfect even.

In Nineteen-Eighty-Four their English vocabulary is one of the only languages that gets smaller and smaller every year, being replaced by newspeak, a form of dumbed-down words such as good and ungood instead of “bad”. They also make no effort to improve the quality of the lives of their citizens as long as they can keep them occupied. Most people live in rundown flats and apartments, but they’re oblivious to the fact that their homes are not the best they can be.

In Divine there’s an economic disaster, where people are forced to trade things like necklaces, candelabras, pocket watches, and pearls for the things they need. There is a currency, but it’s not worth half as much as the material objects one may find around the house, and though Syd reassures the citizens that everything is fine and as it should be, clearly there’s something wrong. There are also sandstorms that whip through the city on a regular basis, and can cause some serious damage, though the people return to their daily lives as if nothing ever happened.

Okay, got anything else?

With dystopias, when writing one anyway, you have to build your world and pay attention to geography and what shifts and events may have happened between the present and the time of your novel. Nineteen-Eighty-Four is based on old London society with a Victorian sort of flair. Divine is architecturally based on the city of Dubai and of Shanghai, while recognizing the fact that with sea levels rising and shifting poles, Italy could in fact be underwater, thus separating the nation into eight total islands with the capital in the center.

The worlds also tend to be separated into districts, as is true with Veronica Roth’s Divergent series. They are based on cultural beliefs: the Dauntless are fearless daredevils, the Abnegation are quiet, selfless, and conservative, etc.

In Divine each district is assigned to a certain aspect of production: One is for politics and Service (their police), Two if for textiles (clothing, shoes, etc.), Three is for: manufacturing of material goods, Four is for farming crops. Five is the trade center to the mainland, Six is farming animals, and Seven is for infrastructure. Center is where they all cross paths. Everyone has his or her part to play within the society.

For example, Caddy, the main character of Divine, lives in Two with her family. Her mother works at one of the mills to make Service uniforms. Her sister-in-law works as a dress tailor. But she and her brother know that following the paths into the factories isn’t worth it. So they take to the streets and have become some of the best pickpockets in Cidy.

With dystopias, there is always conflict as well (like in every story). In Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Winston is conflicted because he does not believe in Big Brother the way the rest of Oceana seems to. In Divine, things get worse after jewels are stolen from a royal museum, and Syd cracks down on all of Cidy, using Service to interrogate his citizens. The Service lets the power go to their heads and starts making random arrests and searches. (Think Germany in the 1930’s with Hitler and his Gestapo.)

And then there’s the action: what these characters decide to do about their problems.

Well, Winston joins a rebellion, and Caddy struggles to deal with growing up as her mother gets sick and her brother is arrested. But there’s more to it than that. I just don’t want to spoil it for you.

Ready to read more? Check out Hannah Hunt’s Divine on Wattpad!

Looking for something new to read? If your tastes fall in the romance, fantasy,and historical fiction genres, check out JanineMimi’s Favorites on Wattpad!

View her complete reading list for more!

Exploring the Future

It’s not everyday we get to make an announcement like this. It doesn’t really get much bigger, but today we’re incredibly excited to let everyone know that our fellow Canadian, the esteemed novelist and poet Margaret Atwood has joined Wattpad.

You can find her profile here - http://www.wattpad.com/MargaretAtwood. Reach out and say hi, read her work, or share your own!

Remember when Oprah joined Twitter? That’s what it’s like for us to have Margaret on board. She’s a legit legend: a prolific and award-winning author of over 50 books, a technologist, an entrepreneur, and an inventor who spends her spare time provocatively exploring the future of publishing, recently launching a campaign on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo for her own start-up, Fanado.

Like us, Margaret is deeply interested in the evolving nature of reading and writing online. She is at the forefront of the major shift happening right now in the publishing industry and realizes that authors need to be aware of the brave new world of digital opportunities that are out there.

It’s an adventure all around! As part of her deep dive into digital publishing, Margaret is going to be sharing work on Wattpad. Starting today Margaret is posting a collection of poems called “Thriller Suite” and she wants to hear from you.

We’re also happy to announce that she will be the final judge in our upcoming poetry contest, which will get underway in July. Please keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, Margaret told us she looks forward to exploring how our community connects people to reading and writing, and how it gives writers confidence through direct feedback. She’s also interested to connect with an entirely new audience, many who will be reading her poems directly on their phones!

Margaret’s been a great supporter of ours for awhile now; we love that she “gets us” and is always helping to spread the word.

All concerned about youth literacy and the net: many kids are putting their writing up on wattpad.com. You’d be surprised!

— Margaret E. Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) December 6, 2011

A lot of people think that reading and writing have taken a backseat to audio and video in our new multimedia universe. But did you know that users now post over 20,000 new stories every single day on Wattpad and many, many more people are reading and sharing them? Real time feedback and interactions between readers and writers is new. We’re not sure where it’s going to go in the future, but we’re glad Margaret is along for the ride. 

Wattpad brings you a guest post from Angus Ecrivain, author of Tales from the Easter Quadrant. 

Check out his writing tips on developing a story character:

Character Development

1. Let’s start off easy. First, you have to create your character. Come up with a name. Your character’s moniker is unimportant, yet at the same time it may well be the single most important thing about him/her. For argument’s sake, let’s say this character’s name is Jamie.

Boy or girl? Man or woman? The choice is yours but in this case, we’ll say Jamie is a twenty-two year old woman.

2. OK that’s the easy part over and done with. Now comes something slightly more difficult. What is it about Jamie that makes her special? Every single character you create needs a defining characteristic, no matter how small or insignificant it may be.

Does she have some kind of super power? Is she a witch? A werewolf? A vampire?

I hope the answer to all of the above questions is a definitive ‘no’. Don’t get me wrong, there really is nothing wrong with a chick possessing super powers, magical abilities, or being a creature of the night - I’ve used all of those myself, but so have a lot of other people. Use any of those in anything other than an already well established story and you’re in serious danger of writing a cliche.

Let’s say that Jamie’s primary defining characteristic is her OCD. Her routine is the same every single morning. She wakes up and has a cigarette whilst still being in bed. Once out of bed she makes her way downstairs, I’ll leave it to you to decide her attire, and has a coffee and another cigarette. You get the point? Good. Every day, always the same. Simple. Effective.

3. Now for the interesting part. As a twenty-two year old woman, it’s likely Jamie has a job, especially as she can afford cigarettes and coffee. So what does she do for a living? What profession would conflict with her OCD? All characters need conflict on some level or another. That’s what makes them interesting.

Jamie could be anything you want her to be. A Stripper? A Doctor? A Priest? A Teacher? A Taxi Driver?

All of the above would provide conflict with her OCD, and make life difficult for her. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy strong female characters so for that reason, we’ll say that Jamie is a Police Officer in the Metropolitan Police Force.

4. So now we have Jamie, an OCD-suffering Police Officer, twenty-two years of age.

Now you need to come up with a scenario to test Jamie. It can be anything at all.

Aliens invade London? Yeah… I like the sound of that. Surely that would be a test for anyone, never mind one suffering with OCD. Especially if these aliens are anything like those from the ‘Alien’ movie franchise. Chances are, a coffee and a cigarette when she wakes up in the morning will be the last thing on Jamie’s mind. Although I don’t know about you, even if I didn’t smoke, I’d likely take up the habit!

5. By now you’re well into your story. How’s that going? Are we winning, or are the aliens well and truly taking over? Either way, it doesn’t matter to me and makes no difference to the development of Jamie.

From this point you can go one of two ways.

a) Make her kick-ass.

b) Make her one of those whiny girls we all hate.

I have to say I’d go with option ‘a’ every single time, and that’s where even I fall prey to the cliche trap. But the thing is, no one wants to read about those whiny girls we all hate, they simply do not make believable heroines. Whereas a totally ass-kicking babe who overcame her OCD to save the world? Well… we’ll all buy into that.

Check out Angus Ecrivain’s stories on Wattpad!

Th Wattpad team just keeps on growing, and we’re hiring even more people! Join us in writing the next chapter of the Wattpad story.

Want to subscribe to a new comic about Wattpad, created by our multi-award winning friend Margaret Atwood?

An esteemed Canadian novelist and poet, Margaret Atwood is also a big supporter of new innovations (like Wattpad!) and we’re big supporters of her digital projects, especially her latest effort to take Fanado worldwide!

Fanado: (n) fan.ad.o /fe’nado/:a person who is totally into and wildly knowledgeable about great artists of any and all kinds.

Fanado is a new way for fans to connect with writers, artists, musicians, and other celebrities online.

As an exclusive perk for being part of our awesome community, every Wattpadder can subscribe for 8 weeks to Margaret’s WattFano Comix by donating $1 to Fanado’s fundraising campaign to go mobile:

1$: Be a WattFano Comix Subscriber

You’ll receive a Fanado digital badge to post on your site, plus an 8-week subscription to the exclusive serial strip, Lost in the Genreworld. Our HeroPersons find themselves in the WattCave, where Creatures inspired by Wattpad stories lurk! Drawn by M. Atwood, comix author, especially for Wattpad+ Fanado. With Wattpad Superhero costumes specially designed for the Wattpad Team!

Wattpad-themed comics and a Fanado digital badge - how cool is that? If you’ve got a dollar or more to spare, claim your WattFano perk and help us redefine interactive storytelling!