Some of you may know that I just got back from my trip to WattCon. It was a two day conference in New York City featuring panels hosted by Wattpad employees, well known authors, and special guests who specialize in areas related to writing, publishing, and media.

You all know how much I love Wattpad and the community we've built here. I went there to be in a place where the community that I knew from sitting at my laptop would come to life around me and to hopefully act as a representative for all of us in the Pokémon community, knowing that many of you are not in a situation where you would be able to make the trip as easily as I can. Now I'm here to share some stories about my experience and spread some of the knowledge that I gained. Feel free to ask me any questions that you have; I'd love to tell you anything you want to know!

The General Experience

I'll start by mentioning that I'm a very introverted person who hardly ever travels and gets stressed out by things like big cities and crowds of people. The journey to the convention was not an easy one for me to make, but I was amazed my how quickly I was able to relax once I stepped off the elevator and onto the floor of the hotel where WattCon was being held.

All around, I saw signs of that familiar orange Wattpad branding. I was greeted by a volunteer who was kind and patient as I fumbled to remember how I'd stored my ticket and somehow managed to make me believe that everything was ok just by doing the job that he'd been given. I'd been full of nerves as I walked out of the elevator, and suddenly I found myself smiling as I approached the table where they were handing out ids and swag bags. It didn't feel like I was in a crowd of strangers; it felt like a slightly different form of the same thing I do everyday when I come home from work and log on to my favorite website.

^ Some of the stuff I got just for being there. Not pictured: the pop socket that I already attached to the device I took the photo with and a snack that I definitely ate on my first day there.

I'd gotten there pretty early on the first day, so I walked around a bit to familiarize myself with the space. I helped some people take a picture in front of the photo wall, checked out the Wattpad merch that was available, and saw people lounging around and chatting in some little seating areas. Inside the main room (pictured at the top of the chapter) there were some question boards where you could write in your answers with a pile of Sharpies, as well as some tables that would later be filled with free promotional materials from authors who were attending.

There were two other rooms where sessions were held when we were given a choice of which one we wanted to attend. I went to a session that was basically a bunch of free time for writing and getting help and/or advice on what you were writing that was in a room full of circular tables that encouraged discussion. The fanfic panel was held in a smaller side room where only the portion of the people attending who were interested in fanfic gathered.

The choices of sessions were planned out well enough that, while there were a few that I definitely wouldn't have been interested in attending, they were always up at the same time as another option that I was at least mildly interested in. I never felt like I was attending something that was totally useless to me. The closest was the presentation that talked about Wattpad books being picked up by movie and television studios  because that's not something I would personally want even if it was possible for some of the books I write. Even so, I did find it very interesting to hear about, and I think some of what I learned about might come in handy when talking to people about what Wattpad is and the kinds of things that can happen through being on the platform.

The amount of people there was large enough that I didn't come close to meeting everybody there but also small enough that I saw some familiar faces at the later sessions that I went to. I didn't meet anyone who recognized my username, but one of the Wattpad employees kind of recognized my profile pic when I described it to him, and another attendee thought my page looked a bit familiar when she decided to start following me. It was a little disappointing to not get to meet anyone I really knew or any of my favorite authors, but I did get to make some new friends like girlfromcali , Wolf_Fire_Ice , and Aria_Blossom . Everyone there was nice and friendly, and I had a lot of good conversations about writing and Wattpad.

The Session on Publishing

This was the very first session after the opening remarks, and it was one of the best ones of the entire convention. I seriously recommend that anyone who is interested in making the transition from Wattpad into traditional publishing go and watch the video of it because it has so much helpful information that you're not going to find anywhere else.

I'm putting the link to it right here. Please note that the session starts about 35 minutes in so you can skip right to it.

Freeform Sessions

I'm calling these "freeform sessions" for lack of a better term. Basically, I mean the sessions that weren't presentation-style listening but were more open for all of us attending to do what we wanted to do.

The first of these sessions that I went to was the one I mentioned above that was basically just a space to write and/or talk about writing with other people. I pulled out a notebook and started jotting down a fix for chapter eleven of my Getting Out of Fuchsia rewrite, which I had just figured out a way to move forward on that morning while being motivated by all the Wattpad-related excitement. I paused for a bit to listen to the discussion going on and see if I could offer any help or suggestions, but I was mostly just taking advantage of the fact that I had all the elements I needed to be able to get some writing done at that moment: free time, motivation, a solid idea, and the proper mood. 

I was referencing a map of Cerulean City on Bulbapedia when a Wattpad employee walked over to ask what I was working on. I recognized him from his posts on the forums, so it was pretty cool to be able to meet him. He asked me a bit about what I was working on and why I was rewriting my book. I knew I could have asked him for help or advice at that point if I wanted to, but I felt like I had things pretty well figured out and was happy to let him move on to trying to help Aria_Blossom with one of her book ideas.

All in all, it was pretty great to have had that opportunity. I had also enjoyed getting to talk to the other writers at my table, which was even more true in the next session. This time, the whole purpose was for us to talk to each other about writing through discussing some questions that they gave us. There was a Wattpad employee who was sitting with our group the whole time at this one, I think taking notes on the some of the things that we were saying. I really liked that Wattpad was learning a little bit about who we are, some of our thoughts are about the writing we do, and what our goals on Wattpad are. I actually wish the session could have gone on longer because my group was having some really good conversations.

The Fanfic Session

This is the session I was looking forward to the most. It was partially disappointing but also partially really good in ways that I hadn't expected. 

Firstly, it was disappointing because I didn't meet anybody here. I suspect that I was the only Pokémon fanfic writer/reader who was at the convention, but I still wished they had taken a couple minutes at the start of the presentation to ask for a show of hands for how many people in the audience were from which fandoms. That would have been a nice way for us to see who else in the audience it might be great to meet while also giving the presenters an opportunity to tailor their discussion to the audience that was present as much as it might have been possible.

As it was, there was a lot of talk surrounding Real Person fanfiction (One Direction, Kpop, celebrities, etc.). This was probably due to the fact that two out of the four presenters write RPF (Larry Stylinson in one case and Kim Kardashian in the other -- those were the main ones mentioned anyway). A third was the Wattpad employee who was moderating. The one presenter who had written Harry Potter fanfic seemed like she hadn't done so in a while and was much more interesting when she was talking about her job as an intellectual property and Internet lawyer. That was the part of the presentation that I hadn't been expecting but was really great.

I know that I as a fanfic writer have concerns about public perception and legal issues surrounding fanfic, so I was very interested to hear what a lawyer and a person who works in media had to say about these things. The presenters answered one question about the stigma surrounding fanfic by saying that they believe it's better than it has been in the past, but they did admit that there are still significant challenges. The person who works in media expressed the opinion that there isn't any barrier to entering the world of film or television after having written fanfic, but all the presenters ended up agreeing that there's a good chance that there would be a barrier for a person entering the traditional book publishing market, especially if that someone is a woman. 

Like, wow, I really can't express how much I appreciated the honesty of that answer. Am I upset by the simple fact of the matter? Absolutely. But I know sexism exists. I've been upset about it before. Those emotions were mostly overpowered by my appreciation of the fact that it had been acknowledged.

I was also feeling hopeful because of the way that the lawyer was talking about her work in trying to make sure that fanfiction is protected, just as it should be under fair use laws, and that people and institutions respect its place in society. She talked about trying to argue with sixty year old men who often just don't get it and about trying to get schools to update their policies so that fanfiction can have a place in the classroom. 

Just by listening to her, I was able to start imagining a better future. I really do hope that I will live to see the day when all of the work we do and the stories we create will have the respect that they have earned. Maybe someday the greatest pioneers of fanfiction will even be admired like so many of the artists throughout history who started movements that are now said to have been "ahead of their time". The world is not always kind to us fanfic writers, but we do have a hope.

Sadly, I think that Wattpad was only recording the sessions that were taking place in the main room, so it's very possible that none of you will have the opportunity to watch it. That's why I've tried to describe what I remember from it. If there's any part of it that people want to hear more about, please ask and I will make another chapter if it's possible for me to remember enough that would be interesting and/or useful.

Stuff You Can Watch Right Now

I really encourage all of you to check out some of the videos that are up on the Wattpad Facebook page if you're interested in any of the following sessions: 

- The Lay of the Land: A Writer's Journey in Publishing (all about transitioning into traditional publishing after having started out on Wattpad)

- Setting the Scene: a Writer's Journey in Entertainment (about Wattpad works turned into tv shows/movies)

- Be Your Own Hero: The Wattpad Writerprenuer (I didn't go to this one, but the description says its about things like developing a personal brand, setting goals, and building an audience on and off Wattpad)

- A Writer's Weapon: How to Wield a Personal Brand (again, I didn't go, but probably self-explanatory)

- Into the Unknown: The Art of Character and Worldbuilding (probably self-explanatory again)

- Breaking Through Myths: Wattpad Studios (probably more about tv and film opportunities, but possibly also about getting picked up by a publisher directly from Wattpad)

- Era of Own Voices: Writing Diverse Stories (Panelists discuss their work on Wattpad surrounding things like feminism, sexual assault/harassment, race, mental health issues, and LGBTQ and provide tips for those who are or wish to be writing the same kinds of stories)

- The Fountain of Youth: Writing YA (probably self-explanatory)

- Behind the Curtain: Wattpad HQ AMA (all of us asking questions of the Wattpad Staff, including one of the co-founders explaining how the website got its name)

Conclusion

I really hope I did a good job of representing our community. I definitely got the impression that our Pokémon community is a very small part of all that Wattpad is, but I still believe that we are one of the greatest examples of what Wattpad is. I didn't hear anyone talk about group accounts like the gottareademallclub or the PokemonWatties all weekend long, and I'm sure many of the people I talked to, if not all of them, don't even know that group accounts similar to ours exist. You could take that in a couple ways. One of them is to be discouraged, but I think the other way is to realize that we are doing something truly unique and special. I think we truly are making Wattpad a better place, and I'm inspired to continue doing what I'm doing and to continue making it better and better. I hope that all of you will join me and continue being part of this community that I love.

And maybe consider going to the convention next year! ;)