Transcript: Fansplaining Ep 3: What’s the Deal...

Transcript: Fansplaining Ep 3: What’s the Deal With Wattpad?

flourish:
earlgreytea68:
fansplaining:
Here’s the transcript for our newest episode of Fansplaining!
Flourish Klink: Hey Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Minkel: Hi Flourish.
FK: HELLO AUDIENCE! Welcome to Fansplaining! It’s the podcast—
ELM: [laughs] Oh I just talked over it. Wait—welcome to Fansplaining. Episode three.
FK: It’s the podcast by, for, and about fandom, and today I have a very important question on my mind, which is, ‘What the hell is up with Wattpad?’
ELM: That is not the title of the episode, Flourish. It is, ‘What’s the Deal With Wattpad?’ It doesn’t have profanity in the title.
FK: OK, you’re right.
ELM: When you say it, like in a comical way: [“comical voice”] ‘What’s the Deal With Wattpad?”
FK: I can’t…I can’t say that and sound like I really mean it. [laughter] What is the deal with Wattpad?
ELM: Wait. Yeah, what is the deal with it? Despite our very flippant introduction, this is a…I don’t want to say serious, I don’t want you to stop listening right now, but this is a deep look at Wattpad, which is a reading and writing platform and social media site.

Keep reading
So.
I have *a lot* of Wattpad thoughts. And if you follow me on Twitter, you know what those are.
But I think, reading this transcript, what it all boils down to is: I don’t feel welcome there? Not that I feel unwelcome, but it isn’t *my* community. I have a difficult time communicating there. I literally cannot understand some of the comments I get, because they’re using a slang I don’t know. I just haven’t been able to crack into it. I go to AO3, and I know what to do, how to interact, how to leave a comment or reply to a comment. I know how to connect AO3 to Twitter and Tumblr and I know how to use that to leverage into (hopefully) new friends as I enter new fandoms. I’m just at a loss when it comes to Wattpad. I don’t know how to do that. To be totally honest, I can’t even figure out how to *find* fanfiction on Wattpad. Like, their tagging and filtering system flummoxes me.
And for a long time I thought it was because I was old, and there’s a lot of discussion on that in the transcript, but now I’ve decided that no, I’m just *different.* I definitely have readers who are younger, who are teenagers. They’re on AO3! They’re not old! ::clings::
But no, really, I don’t think a lot of people use both AO3 *and* Wattpad. In fact, I’d be curious to see those numbers. I think people use one or the other because they’re interested in getting different things out of fandom. Or even out of writing? I want to be more coherent about this. Like, the whole thing about Wattpad being about editing is fine but it isn’t personally what I do with the stuff I post? (I thought the whole thing about lack of editing indicating LOVE and PASSION was weird. I’m pretty passionate about my fics, guys. I don’t stop and edit them because I’m lackadaisical about them, I promise. Quite the opposite.)
So I’m not sure it’s a function of age, so much as it’s a function of just wanting different things out of your online writing and reading experience? Or, maybe, finding different entrances to the online writing and reading experience and kind of getting comfortable there and not wanting to switch it up? Maybe that’s what it is? Maybe it’s like your first Doctor: You always love your first fanfiction database most?
Although, not true, because I think AO3 is way superior to any fanfic archive I used before, and I remember learning about AO3 and being like, “What is this?” and having to learn it. So maybe if all of you lot decided you were moving to Wattpad, I’d have to move with you, and then eventually I’d be like, “Man, Wattpad is awesome, I meet the greatest people on Wattpad and read the best stories!” But for now I just kind of poke around a little bit and then go back to AO3 where my transactional costs are less because I know what I’m doing already.
Blargh, this was a long ramble, and I don’t even know what my point is. I guess my point is: Please don’t leave me for Wattpad, guys. I guess, after all, maybe I *am* just too old to learn new fandom tricks! Isn’t it enough I learned Tumblr for all of you??? ::sobs::
ETA: Actually, maybe it’s just about where your fandom is located? I happen to have fandoms that are active on AO3 and not on Wattpad, so this is probably why I feel unmoored at Wattpad. If Wattpad had my fandom on it, I’d probably feel less out of my element. It isn’t my place because it isn’t about what I’m into, not because of anything more profound than that, probably?
Oh man, yes, I totally get you about learning things! As I said on the podcast I’ve been learning all this stuff about the way Wattpad works because I have been really applying myself (and sometimes crying to sammietutu) and I still don’t feel like I really get it, but I’m figuring it out and feeling less and less unmoored. Mostly, I think, because the 1D train hit me like a… train… and so now I do have a fandom that’s sited there!
I agree with you about the passion thing, but then, maybe there are different types or signs of passion? Because I totally do get the LET ME FLAIL AND LET MY FLAILING TAKE THE FORM OF ILL CONSIDERED FANFIC, but it doesn’t mean that there’s any less passion in fanfic-with-footnotes that’s been workshopped within an inch of its life, just a different kind of passion. Quick burning vs. slow match or something…?
Definitely agree with you that it’s not about age though!
This has been a really disjointed response…
earlgreytea68, these are great thoughts! (some of them echo my own) Would you have any objection to us reading all or part of your response on-air?
If anyone else has listened to our Wattpad episode, we’d *love* to hear from you. The fansplaining ask box is open! And we’ve even got extra audio we couldn’t squeeze in from our Wattpad guests, particularly some stuff about their connections with the entertainment industry, so we maybe be able to include some of that as well.

I thought the whole thing about lack of editing indicating LOVE and PASSION was weird. I’m pretty passionate about my fics, guys. I don’t stop and edit them because I’m lackadaisical about them, I promise. Quite the opposite.

That jumped out at me too, how Aron said that a lack of editing and misspellings is fine, because it’s about raw love and emotion of a topic that you want to write about. Because not editing, not spending twenty seconds to use Word’s spellchecker signals to me, a reader, that you don’t actually love what you’re writing.

Like, if I see too many grammatical or spelling errors in a story too soon I just close it. I figure if the author didn’t care enough about their story to make it the best it can be, or at the very, very least readable, then why should I care enough to read it?

If you love something and want to share that with others, why wouldn’t you want to make sure your readers are experiencing the same raw emotive feelings? That’s not gonna happen when every error starts and stalls their flow, taking them out of the story, however momentarily.

But, all that said, I never read wattpad so maybe it’s more like tumblr than ao3? In that you can eschew grammar and capitalization for humour or immediacy?

(via elizabethminkel)

fanfic earlgreytea68 fansplaining wattpad ao3