Hey everyone! Since this is my first time presenting a topic on this incredible thrill ride called 'Wattpad Block party' I guess only a few know me. And if you don't, I'd love so much to introduce myself to you guys.  

It's Jonathan Wisdom at your service (bows down), I'm an African, Nigerian to be precise. A renowned Wattpad addict. (In Barry Allen's voice) To the outside world I'm an ordinary college student, but secretly I use my writing skills to fight boredom and find others like me. I am JEY NATHAN.

Somewhere around here you may have come across a book called "Z-pocalypse" by Jey Nathan—well if you took your time to read it. So if you did, I'd like to say thank you so much, but if you haven't... no offense taken (secretly cries). 

Firstly before I dive right into the topic, I'd love to give honour to whom honour is due. Thank you so much KellyAnneBlount for giving me the opportunity to share my views with you all. I feel really special, because I got the notification that I was picked on the first of January – What a way to start the new year! 

Now on to business. It is no news that a lot of Wattpad users have great writing potential. It always starts with a nice draft, maybe two or three, stashed either on a system or notebook. Many make it up to transferring their works into Wattpad's creating page, but cold feet sinks in and before you know it that 'publish' button is never pushed. Wonderful works, destined to be great, remain hidden in the dark.

I'm sure most of us have had that awful moment, more than once in our writing expedition, and I personally know how disheartening it is, especially to writers who have recently begun their sojourn into the world of writing. I'm here to talk on how you can break free from the clutches of low self-esteem and seize that opportunity we have to shine.

I began my Wattpad Journey on the 24th of January 2017. I had never heard of Wattpad before then, due to the fact that I had never read online books before. But things changed when my friend literally forced me to open a Wattpad account with the hopes of making me come out of my comfort zone and write a book that could be internationally recognized.

I gave in to her pressure and I made an account. Then I got a lot of recommended stories such as: Chasing Red by Isabeleronin, Trapped by Sallymason1, Hide and Seek by ms_horrendous, and most importantly Captured by our very own KellyAnneBlount. All the enthusiasm I had flew with the wind the moment I decided to take a look at the these books. I went back to my friend and here's what I told her.

"Lora, I quit, I can't do this. I just read the first chapter of some books and I must say their standards are way above mine. My writing can't be compared to them. These people are professionals and would look down on me if I ever write on here."

She replied, "STFU, who told you you can't succeed. You may not be as good as they are now, but if you keep writing, you'll surely get better."

Did that inspire me to write? Well... no it didn't.

As an African, surrounded in the sea of mostly international community, which I only just began to have a flair for writing, I felt that familiar feeling of low self-esteem and inadequacy surging through my veins. I was afraid I would be looked down on and ridiculed. I couldn't bring myself to hit the publish button. Every time I tried the thoughts of me getting hateful comments from my readers were more frightening to me than the horror book which I wanted to publish.

I got over that fear and anxiety with these few simple steps.

1. Read more books
Even though I never thought about actually publishing my story here, I still found time to read the stories of brilliant authors and writers. As a beginner or as someone who is yet to publish a story, it is essential you read the books of other writers and published authors. There are tons of things you could learn from them. Great ideas that could inspire you to pick that pen and start writing again. Well, as an aspiring horror writer and lover, I was inspired by this brilliant writer and 2016 Wattys award winner, Ms_horrendous with her book Hide and Seek. I particularly loved the way she turned a simple game of hide and seek into something mind blowing. You could try something of sort. Try turning something mundane into an extraordinary concept.

Please, please and please don't ever have this mindset that you won't read the books of other writers if they've never read yours. If you really want to learn, it all starts with one word "Read". Read as many books and stories as you can.

2. Make a lot of friends first
If you really want to get rid of your low self-esteem and social stigma, all you need to do is make a lot of loyal friends here. Because loyal friends equals to future loyal readers. And it all begins with a, "Hi". All you need to do is grab your phone, tablet or laptop, go the profiles of your followers hook them up with a matured and nice conversation. If you need any advice concerning your yet to be published book you have so many people that can help. Let go of that fear of being rejected, being rebuffed, feeling like a pessimist, and just start up a conversation. Don't wait for anyone to begin.

You are from Mumbai, it really doesn't matter if your follower is from Tokyo. Hit him up. You are from Ontario it doesn't matter if your follower is from Cape town. Learn to be nice.

3. Get rid of negative thoughts

"What if people don't like my writing?"

"Why are my chapter lengths so short? I feel I wasn't born to be a writer."

"Oh my word! I've never won a writing contest all my life, I'm done trying cause I will never win."

"My book didn't make it to the Wattys shortlist, I feel like such a failure."

These are examples of negative thoughts that hinder most people from moving forward.

Sometimes it's okay to have a little paranoia and self doubt about yourself, but don't let it get in the way of your writing. If you are having negative thoughts about your writing, all you have to do is replace it with positive thoughts.

You don't need to think about what people would say about your writing, or if your reads would ever get the "M" sign. Write what you love, do not write for reads, but for readers. Your vocabulary doesn't have to be Stephen King perfect. Even if it's middle school grammar, don't let that stop you from hitting the publish button. Once you get critiqued by your readers, you could always come back to edit your errors and replace them with the right tense, punctuation, word or sentence.

After you're done with those three steps then you must be surely ready to share your story with the world. But there are still some things you need to be careful of, even after you've published your first chapter.

Do not ever message a random person, requesting for a read. Trust me that is just flat out rude and one of the biggest mistakes you can ever make. You need to build up your relationship with your followers step by step before you ask for a favour. If you ever had the mindset that requesting a random user for a read is not rude, ask yourself, if a random guy/girl walks up to you on the street only to start asking for your hand a marriage, how would you feel?

I'm sorry if I hurt some people, but it's the truth. I once asked a random lady to read my book and all she did was comment "Wow" "Cool" "This is awesome". she even 'lol' at places that weren't even funny.

At that rate, your book can never move forward. You need a reader who can relate with your characters.Feel what they feel, be with them in every twist and turns throughout the story, comment on every action they take, and most importantly critique you when they spot an error. That's the moment you experience the real Joy of having your book read.

Avoid plagiarism. I know I said earlier that you could grab ideas from other books and use it as an inspiration for your books, but I never said you should totally copy what makes their books stand out and turn them into yours, trust me you'll get sued. And how would you feel, if after all your effort in writing a good story, Wattpad takes it down just because they found out you plagiarized someone's idea and turned it to yours. Trust me you would have a mental break down.

Follow mainly users who write or read in the same genre is yours. Have you ever gone through the profile of some Wattpad users only discover they have 2.56K followers, but their book barely makes 500 reads? The reason is simply because they follow random people.Wattpad isn't about finding followers, it's about finding readers. You can't follow an obsessed Harry style fanfic fangirl, expecting her to read your horror book... Never!

There is a "browse" feature on your wattpad homepage. Click on it and you'll be given various genres. Click on your favorite genre and you'll be shown books related to your genre. Go to "new" you'll find new books from your genre, follow the authors of those books and try making friends with them. They'll not only follow you but check out your book.

Read without expecting a read in return.Once you begin to read the books of your followers, don't ever expect a read in return or else you'll be disappointed. There are certain ways you can get your followers to read your books even without you requesting for it. Having friendly conversations, sharing ideas would build the bond between yourself and your readers coaxing them to read your book even without you asking. But don't expect to always have a read in return when you read a book

Be nice and don't underestimate the talent of people due to social stigma. I recall when a Wattpader messaged me and asked which country I was from. I told him "Nigeria" and he replied saying: "I don't believe you're an African. For an African you write pretty well". I know this seems like a harmless compliment, but I felt really offended by that comment.

Don't be rude to people just because you feel they are from a country less developed than yours. We are all talented writers and it doesn't matter wherever you're from when it comes to writing. We all learn from each other. I have two female best friends on Wattpad, an Indian and an Aussie. I feel writing should have no religious or social barriers. I think it would be better if you all feel that way too.

Advertise yourself always.Advertising yourself is pretty different from randomly asking people to checkout your work. What I mean by advertising is: you need to join a club, forum, group, or contest. Make your presence known on Wattpad. Don't be a ghost reader or writer. Aspire to be the best always. Be in every contest, on every book on your genre. At the end people will say "I see this dude everywhere, I think his story might be great. I'll go look it up." And voila...you've got a reader.

Aspire to be the best. Sometimes you're going to do everything to ensure you succeed. You're going to use better grammar and thesaurus, better punctuation, a great plot! But that doesn't guarantee you'll become a Wattpad star or have millions of reads. The majority of writers on Wattpad don't get the reads their book so badly deserves, but that shouldn't stop them or affect their self confidence. Wattpad doesn't define what you write, being a Wattpad star doesn't mean you're the best writer ever.

Don't quit Wattpad just because of how low your reads are. We are only here to get better at writing through practices and interactions with the people we meet here. Being famous here won't get your book published. But actually writing something that is astonishing to publishing companies is what turns you from a writer to an author.

And finally write what is in your heart. If you think the plot of your story is a little cliché you should remember stories are cliché because people love it. Nothing should stop you from writing what you love. It's not about the trend of your story being cliché, it's how you turn your clichéd work into a totally fresh piece of art.

Well I hope this helped and you are now ready to finally get rid of your self doubt and hit that "Publish" button, because we all can't wait to discover the wonderful stories you have written.

Now let's party!!!                                             

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