I am a sensitive person and sometimes I find it very hard to bite my tongue and just shut up.  The more we adult, the more we understand that we must pick our battles.  This will be a short chapter about behavior because I'm still learning. 

Shaming

No matter what anyone does to you here on Wattpad, do not share anyone's horrible comments or shame them in any way.  It's a sure-fire way to get your profile shut down, even though you may have been bullied.  Report the comment and delete it if you wish but do not shame the user in public.  If it's done in a comment in one of your stories you can leave it and risk one of your readers getting into an argument while they try to advocate for their favorite author, or delete it.  My best advice is to report it then mute them. 

Two wrongs do not equal a right and I believe Wattpad believes in that statement.  Don't stoop to a bully's level, be the bigger person.  If you feel like someone is shaming you on their profile, report them.  If someone is bullying or harassing you, report them. 

It's okay to vent to friends privately, but don't give out their username.  Your friends may retaliate and you don't want to be mixed up in that mess. 

Arguing

It does you no good whatsoever. 

Politics/race/sexuality

This is another time I wonder exactly what to say.  It's also a weak spot for me. 

My mom used to tell me three things should always stay private.  Religion, politics, and money, I wish I would actually take that advice.  My personality mixed in with my background in social work makes me a target for political debates, I'm passionate about politics. 

Believe it or not, every story written could easily be said to contain politics.  Some people look at the way you construct society in your stories as some kind of political statement.  Especially if you have written about kings and queens or any kind of societal structure. 

The problem lies in whether or not you bring up topics that are currently being argued in today's politics.  From the morning after pill to characters owning guns.  At this point, people can just about pick an argument over anything the characters choose to do.  You don't have much control but if you hint to your leaning in politics, you could be bullied.  Wattpad is community-based, so conversations could be started in your book or they could take offense.  It's your decision how much you want to share about your beliefs, but you should be ready for a backlashing. 

Some of you may welcome the challenge but if you're not then just be careful.  Any kind of more right or left beliefs is where you may lose some readers. 

My own beliefs are somewhat moderate.  Some subjects I can be very liberal and some very conservative, not many people believe you can be both at the same time, which is an assumption that just isn't true.  Just think things through very well before you post them but my advice is to consider everyone's feelings and love everyone.  Do not discriminate on what writers you help based on your own political stand.  We are all human and being an author can be a very powerful thing when it comes to beliefs. 

When it comes to my own experiences, I've stayed on the fence over sensitive subjects.  My book about abortion condemned nobody or shamed anyone in the book over their decision.  I didn't use my story as a tool about politics, it was simply a "what if" kind of situation. 

I will say I have been judged over my religion. Being Catholic and my characters being married in a Catholic Church made me a target.  What the readers didn't understand is that I am a liberal Catholic and support Dignity USA while not all of my beliefs align with the Church.  My judgment on society and politics is not a religious one, so I never purposely pushed any beliefs on anyone during my writing. Yet, I was still targeted by someone that stated they respect all religions except mine.  I simply wrote the ceremony Catholic because I'm most comfortable with writing that type of ceremony.  It's really no different than writing characters from Ireland or Irish Americans because it's what I am and there's always a piece of us in our characters.  That reader made it quite clear she will no longer read my stories because I was raised Catholic. I'm also straight so my MC's are straight, not that I haven't considered writing a story about an LGBTQ+ character.

Don't avoid writing diverse characters. Do your research and write your character the same as everyone else.  I wrote one character as a member of the LGBTQ+ community and nobody knew until the end.  My purpose was to show that we are all human.  Of course, I've written them into many stories and also written characters of all races.  It's okay to be diverse and show your readers that you love everyone equally. 

My favorite line from any of my books is, "You're perfectly Dylan."

The best bet is just to simply be respectful.  I do not separate romances by sexuality or race.  Meaning a project containing stories to help promote other people's work and the story happens to be about an LGBTQ+ romance will not have its own category, unless requested by the author.  It's a romance and will be filed with all my romance novels equally where it belongs.  I don't make a separate category because love is love no matter how you look at it.  My readings lists are categorized by the author although I do have a category for holiday based books that is not limited to Christianity.

Respect Wattpad

I've had friends that have experienced a book being deleted by Wattpad.  I've heard you can appeal, but I'm not sure.  The tech people with Wattpad are very busy.  Some things can't be fixed overnight and just keep in mind how the platform is free for your use.  Wattpad strives to give readers and writers a great experience, and like I said in other chapters, shit happens.  I wouldn't suggest bout mouthing Wattpad on your wall. 

Do not ever make a false report just because you're angry with another writer.  It takes up too much time and jealousy is very ugly on people.  Please do report any abuse or things Wattpad sees as harmful but don't use it for retaliation.  Be nice, otherwise, Wattpad may not choose your work to highlight or even choose you as a Wattpad star.

Follow Wattpad Guidelines as much as possible.

I'll say it again, the guidelines aren't all that clear, but just do your best.  Never do anything just because you see others doing it.  Also, do your best to respect copyrights.  Wattpad has the authority to delete a story or even delete your account so it's best to read over those guidelines.