Wattpad brings you a guest post from Adam Lowe, author of featured story Troglodyte Rose:
In the past I’ve been a member of a various online writing workshops and social media networks for authors. For the most part, I never found that they offered what I needed: sound editorial guidance, advice about publishing, and readers keen to read more of my work.
I think the problem was that too many of them were geared towards showcasing an author’s vanity. Instead of offering healthy critiques of each others’ work, most of the members just posted fawning drivel, and collected friends like badges of honour. It was never about the writing.
In addition, most of the members considered themselves writers, but they weren’t readers. They wanted everyone to read their work, but didn’t read anyone else’s. I think it’s important for any writer to read the work not just of classic writers but also their contemporaries. Writers who don’t read usually don’t write very well.
It’s also important to read outside your comfort zone. If you write paranormal romance, there’s nothing worse than just reading other paranormal romances. It means you not only write yourself into a ghetto, but that you also narrow the pool of ideas and styles you draw from. Good writers are like magpies—they pick a fragment here, a snippet there—from as wide a range of inspirations as possible. If you’re only influenced by a small clique, your writing becomes closed to what’s going on elsewhere.
When I write, I draw upon conversations overheard at the local grocer’s. I draw upon the shaking hands of an old lady standing to get off the bus. I try to infuse the colours and smells and tastes of everyday life, because those things, which are rooted in the real and the tangible, are what allow our work to breathe.
I had heard of Wattpad before, but since I now devote so much of my time to writing, editing and publishing, I rarely have time to contribute to online communities. So I hadn’t joined for that reason. More importantly, I wanted to see where the second generation of social media networks for writers were heading. Most of those I had joined when I was younger have either disappeared or evolved into something more specific. I needed to know what those new communities were before I could commit my time, because my time is very valuable to me now, since I have so little!
Then I read that the sublime Margaret Atwood had joined Wattpad, and saw her comments about communities like this allowing writers to take risks and develop their talent. All this while allowing writers to build audiences of readers.
I looked a little closer, and I was thrilled to see that Wattpad users are also readers. People use Wattpad not just to show off and build up sycophantic fanbases. They use Wattpad like they use Kindle—to find and discover new and original writing from a variety of voices.
That’s important. That’s alluring. And it doesn’t hurt when it’s endorsed by a big name like Atwood, right?
So I guess I’m here to learn from you, and to discover your work, as much as I am to share my own stories and to share my own experiences. I have been running Dog Horn Publishing since 2008. I’ve had small press publications and award nominations. I’ve had commissions from the BBC and Channel 4, here in the UK, alongside commissions from a range of theatres, festivals and arts organisations. My column in the UK’s leading free monthly magazine for the LGBT community has an audience of about 150,000 people a month. I now make a living from writing and publishing. That means I have something to offer as well as something to gain from being here. And that’s what I want. If I’m going to join a community, I want to be involved. That’s what communities are for. In Wattpad, I think I’ve finally found the right place to call home.
I look forward to participating.
Check out Adam Lowe’s poetry and dystopian fic on his Wattpad profile!