Dichotomized world of writing: Why throw hate?
The proliferation of published books on an online storytelling community website called Wattpad has received comments and criticisms from different people —to the extent that they labeled it as ‘trash’. But do the young writers of these published books deserved to be undermined? No, they don’t.
Wattpad has opened its doors for everyone to write something that they want to share—whether it’s about one’s crush or about one’s love for their own country. Neither the genre nor the way of writing does matter. As long as one has a story to tell and has the confidence to write about it, there is no problem.
Looking at the wide variety of genres that the Wattpad offers to read from the users, there is nothing wrong with the website’s goal. It just democratized writing; it just let everyone to have the power to write for free without any restrictions from the academe.
It was a surprise when the Summit Books—and later on, Pop Fiction books—announced that they would publish She’s Dating the Gangster by Bianca Bernardino, or SGWannaB of Wattpad, back in 2013. As much as some other people think that it is not worthy of publishing and cliché, the book still propelled its way as National Bookstore’s number one best-selling book. The book became so popular that it had a film version starring Kathniel Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, which like the book a box office hit that earned 296 million pesos.
What do those numbers imply? Clearly, there is a market for Wattpad books. As long as people buy these kind of books, publishing company would always publish them. Even if users from Goodreads keep on giving one star and rants about the books, there would always be people who would read these books.
Why? Because it is relatable. As Eros Atalia said in a forum on October 18 at the Philippine National University, the writers of Wattpad are just merely teens and one cannot expect them to write something so ideological such as how the polar caps melt or how the ozone layer vanishes. They are teens whose life revolved around their crushes, puppy love, and bullying. Hence, they would write something that they know and that they had experienced.
There is nothing wrong with Wattpad, because it is a tool for self-expression. If the young writers want to write about their experiences as a teenager, let them. aLLOP grow as a person and a writer. Just let them explore the literature. Let them experiment with words and genres.
If the academe composed of so-called professional writers could not stand it, then help them. Train these budding writers into becoming the next Palanca Award winner or Nobel Prize awardee for Literature. Instead of expressing disapproval to them, encourage them to write more because that’s how a writer grows.
Stop dichotomizing the amateur writers and professional writers. After all, they are people who wanted to impart something to the world through the use of words.