The death of Wattpad is killing writers

Maritza Baptiste, Contributing Writer

As a senior English major and creative writing minor, I have taken my fair share of intensive writing courses, many of which include a workshop element. I find workshops to be an important element of writing classes, as we are not just subject to our professor’s critical opinion, but also that of our peers. However, they have been eye-opening experiences for reasons I did not expect. 

In many cases, my classmates and I have read papers that do not live up to the standards of a college-level course. Now, it is glaringly obvious when a paper falls flat from a lack of effort or from being written last-minute — work simply lacks sophistication. 

These students have talent and creative story ideas, but it’s clear they missed a crucial phase that many poised writers of our generation have: a Wattpad phase.

I didn’t fall in love with writing in public school English classes — it came from fanfiction. More specifically, Wattpad, a site for publishing original works, including fanfiction. I immersed myself in worlds built by fellow middle schoolers and fell into bittersweet love over and over again with stories that took forever to be updated — a wait that frustrated me so much, I decided to write my own, introducing me to a community of writers who were also finding their voice. 

Wattpad infamously does not have the best quality of writing. Stories are often littered with grammatical errors, plot holes or cringeworthy content. But the site was a space for young writers to share stories that would otherwise sit in Google Drives and Microsoft Word documents — unread and unloved. 

It’s through the publication of these stories that young writers grow, being subject to the criticism and love of a community of their peers. Writers have the opportunity to take the lessons they learn on Wattpad and apply them to their other writing, in academic form or other creative endeavors. 

Unfortunately, Wattpad as a space is dying. What was once a free site for writers has now become relatively unusable and riddled with ads. The only way to recapture a semblance of what Wattpad used to be is to pay their $9.99 monthly subscription fee. 

I returned to the platform recently, for nostalgia and to potentially find a good story, only to discover that Wattpad autoplays an unskippable ad after nearly every chapter and has much stricter content guidelines than before. While Wattpad has capitalized on the popularity of its writers with book deals and its new movie studio, which increases writer incentives with fame and compensation, the platform’s user experience has severely deteriorated. 

The paywall has discouraged new writers from using the platform. Those who seek fame and book deals have found ways to benefit, but writers who just want a low-barrier place to publish have been pushed to other fanfiction websites, like Archive of Our Own (AO3), that are free to use but do not offer the same community and demographic as Wattpad. 

This commercialization doesn’t just inconvenience readers — it alters the culture and community that once nurtured new voices. 

Many people’s first introduction to writing is in English class — a heavily structured writing environment that forces strict guidelines and perfect grammar. Rules like these do not allow creativity to flourish, and unfortunately, public schooling is just not enough to properly cultivate good writers. 

Without a wild, unregulated space, we face the reality of watching writers wither — just like Wattpad has.