Wattpad is an amazing community. There are writers and readers all over the place. There even people who will volunteer to read your stories and point out all your grammar and spelling errors. Those people are called betas.

If someone offers to beta your story, my advice is to put your ego aside and accept. They will be able to catch all the little things that you just can't. Take their advice. They aren't being critical to hurt you.

You know your story fowards and backwards. You know that that 'sufmggested' is supposed to be suggested so that is what your mind will perceive it as. For your readers, each word is new and they don't know what word is supposed to come next. They will likely catch every typo or mistake. Let them tell you which ones they see. It will help you go back and fix them later.

That brings me to my next point. Honestly, you will hate me for this but it is true. Don't edit, rewrite. Seriously. This point deserves it's own chapter so guess what's next.

Back to betas, though. I know how hard it can be to accept criticism. Honestly, I do. It makes you feel stupid and like the other person is being picky. I get it. Put your ego aside and listen.

Would you rather people read your typos and mistakes and think you are a bad writer, or have someone catch your mistakes and help you fix them? I know which one I would prefer. Even when you edit you won't catch all the mistakes.

Another good thing to do is to copy a chapter into a document and change the font or size. Your brain won't recognize the story as easily because of the font and you will have to pay attention to each word. It makes it so much easier to catch spelling errors. Plus, word and google documents often catch spelling errors for you. Wattpad doesn't.

Work smarter, not harder. A motto to live by.

To people who beta, be gentle. A lot of people have fragile egos. But also, be firm. You're only trying to make them a better writer. I appreciate all of you soooo much!