In 2020 I began writing a fiction novel or at least continue writing it. I actually began working on the year before, but hadn’t done much with it. Then came the Covid-19 pandemic. Everything changed, everything stopped, putting the world on pause. In my case, as I’ve mentioned previously on my blog, I help moderate both Nick Carter’s and Backstreet Boys Fan Clubs. It’s something I’ve been doing for many years now. I’ve been involved with the Backstreet Boys fan base for just about twenty years online. I was on message boards/forums, whichever you want to call them, then my own fan site for Nick Carter. All before being asked to join Nick’s official website to post news regarding his career. My focus was always keeping fans updated on news, sharing the latest media, helping them out with ticket pre-sales on the Fan Club, and other similar things regarding Nick and Backstreet Boys.
Now that the pandemic hit what was there to do? This was a time to take a break and so I took this time to focus on writing my story. It has made me enjoy writing and motivated me to continue to improve my work. Most of my time was spent writing and I was able to finish the story in the summer. While it may not be my best as it was my first fictional story in years, it was a start. I never claim my work to be the best either. All writers are different, but I was glad that I was able to finish it. Then came editing it and then publishing it to Wattpad.
Why I joined Wattpad
It’s been over two years since I finished and added it to Wattpad. I have since then removed it off the platform. Many people enjoy Wattpad. I did too, but I came to realize it wasn’t for me. For those who don’t know, Wattpad is a platform that allows people like you and me who like to write to share their work and get feedback from readers. It did remind me of fan fiction sites specifically of the Backstreet Boys from more than 20 years ago. I do know that being on a platform as big as they are it wasn’t going to be easy to gain visibility. I didn’t post thinking I would gain so many reads right away. Mainly I just needed a place to share my work so Wattpad became that place.
I didn’t know much about self-publishing and I could have gone that route instead. I didn’t as I felt my work wasn’t at a high standard to even consider self-publishing. It was my first shot in years at writing fiction again and there’s always room for improvement with my story. That’s one reason I decided to just go with Wattpad and see how it does. You have to start somewhere, right?
I submitted my story after writing and editing it for their annual awards. Thought I’d try something different and enter a contest. I knew when submitting it chances of being picked were going to be very slim. They had 40,000 entries in 2020 when I entered. Do I think my work was read by those involved with the awards? Not at all. It would be impossible to read so many entries in a short amount of time. They have their own system of finding what they’re looking for. I even entered the story a second time the year after only to see they were posting a shortlist of potential winners. This lets you know that your story was not chosen.
Before I eventually removed my work not that long ago, I managed to receive over 1,700 reads in two years. Which honestly is more than I thought it would get. Yet, it had little to no feedback either. Not knowing what people thought of it. Seeing the lack of comments I took that as not many were interested. I’ve done some social media promotion for it and I even submitted it to reading lists for various genre specific profiles. I’m sure they got many submissions, but I never received any reply. Except a verified profile for undiscovered stories. They informed me that they would not be accepting it as it lacked a narrative. I never understood their reasoning and ignored the message. They even said they could help me fix it. I’m well aware that my work will always need improvement. As all writers do as they continue their progress and improve their work. Not all readers are going to like your work either. It was a bit of a disappointment, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from writing.
That wasn’t what led me to remove my stories though. My issue is there’s no real way to promote your work and get visibility there. I didn’t like the idea of going around reading other stories and commenting to attempt to gain readers that some people would write about in help books on there. Who had the time? I certainly didn’t. I do realize that being on a platform as big as they are it wasn’t going to be easy to gain visibility. I was surprised that I even had 1,000 reads on what I had published. To me it just felt stuck at the same number reads for a long time. There were no gains to be seen. I wasn’t expecting to have a huge following right away either. So many writers take years before they’re well-known. If I want my work to be noticed it needs to be elsewhere.
In the end, Wattpad is not for everyone. I feel it is more geared to young adults and teens. Those who are in huge fandoms and so on likely do well too. Would I join another website like that? Absolutely not. I on the other hand have bigger ambitions for my story.
New year, new motivation
With the release of my first ever book, Backstreet Boys: 30th Anniversary Celebration, I’ve gotten a glimpse of how dealing with a publishing company works. They made it a fun experience to write about a group I loved for so many years. They’ve always been helpful too. We have new things coming with the book very soon so stay tuned to my social media. You’ll hear about it all! I can’t believe it’s almost here!
I have plans to rewrite the story I originally wrote. I will keep a lot of the same elements of it, but make changes to improve it better and maybe I’ll self-publish or try to get it submitted to a publisher. I need to do more research on this first. This is a new experience for me and something I’m motivated to get going. My upcoming book (even if it’s not fiction) has really inspired me to do this. If I just wait and wait nothing will get done. I’ve had many friends tell me they want to read my work, but never joined Wattpad. Which I can understand. Why join something that you may not use? I probably would have done the same. My thoughts with this was always just post to Wattpad then figure out what to do to get it out there for more people. That’s what I’m going to do this year. I’m going to try and make 2023 better than the last. My main goal? Get my novel Fallen published. I’ll explain more about the story once I get a good portion of it rewritten. I will say this, it is music inspired, drama, romance, maybe you could say it has some suspense to it.
While I do like what I have written of the story, it does need improvement before I can say it’s just how I want it. To anyone who has read the original you know it’s 69 chapters and over 100,000 words. I know, it’s long! I’m going to have to trim a good majority of it. Things that I feel are unnecessary. Will it be perfect? No, no story is, but I want to make the best it can possibly be. It’s a story that made me enjoy writing again and it made me want to better improve my writing. It’s never an easy task to rewrite/edit a story, but that’s the plan. I had planned to do this sooner, but I’ve had to deal with personal things that have kept me from working on it. Now that it’s a new year it’s time to get going!
As always you can follow me on social media and I’ll update my progress on things there too.
