By Kira Poole

Lowell, MA – Our school, LHS, is filled with potential writers, poets, and creative minds. I’ve taken notice, however, of the fact that many of them have no method of sharing their work. It can be difficult for some to enter a poetry contest or read to an audience, which is why I decided to look into another method to share writing. This search led me to a site known as Wattpad.

Essentially, Wattpad is a site that allows anyone to write and publish stories online for free. For anyone who wants to be able to write anywhere, Wattpad also has an app available for phones, ipads, and tablets. It has a simple layout to make publishing an easy task, even for beginners. Starting out is as easy as creating an account and beginning your story.

Many authors actually use the site as way of gaining a fan base when starting out. This way, they will already have a good amount of people ready to purchase their works when they decide to write for a living. If you plan to become a writer in the future, using this site now to gain fans will definitely help you later on. Not only that, but if you manage to catch a publisher’s attention on the site, writing there could kick off your career. Several people have been contacted by publishers thanks to Wattpad. If you hone your skills enough, the same could happen for you.

Curious what types of literary works you can publish? No matter what sort of writer you are, you have nothing to worry about; Wattpad allows you to publish anything from a short poem to a full on novel. You have a wide variety of genres to choose from as well; there are over twenty different genres to choose from. They also host writing contests on occasion.

Of course, the site is for more than just writers; if you want to find something interesting to read, you can read any of the thousands of published stories on the site. If you find an author or poet you really like, you can even follow them to see their latest work as soon as it’s published. It’s essentially the YouTube of the literary world.

If you have any further questions you can visit Wattpad’s help center or read How Wattpad Works on the site. Here is a link to the website: https://www.wattpad.com