Writer
Abroad is reading a great book called Quiet by Susan Cain. It’s about how our current world
is built for extroverts. Study a few job descriptions—at least in the US—and
you’ll see that most jobs want us to be super enthusiastic, real go-getters,
and team players.
You’ll even
see these qualities desired in jobs for…gulp, writers.
It’s true.
In many writing jobs Writer Abroad has held, she’s had to brainstorm in big
groups, try to write something while a team critiques it, or compose headlines
out-loud in front of people.
Cringing
yet, fellow writer introverts?
Group work
does not bring out the best in writers, at least for most writers Writer Abroad
knows—including herself. In fact, she knows that writing collaboration hinders
her work. She would much prefer to hide in a corner and write. Alone.
Without having to act enthusiastic about it.
So what
happens to us writer introverts when a new technology comes along that makes
writing a social project? A start-up in Toronto, called Wattpad, is
both fascinating and frightening to Writer Abroad.
Wattpad is
a social network of readers and writers. It has over 2 million writers and 20
million readers. When writers upload something, comments about their work are
posted within seconds from readers. Writers often post stories or chapters on the fly and
then delete them just as fast. It’s reading and writing for a world with ADD.
And it’s working.
What will
this do for traditional publishing—let alone the e-book world as it is today? Will
the next popular authors go from being traditional introverts to risk-taking,
quick posting extroverts? Or is writing for the Internet, with a screen in front
of us and not a person, completely different and actually beneficial for writer introverts?
Only time
and technology will tell.
Do you use Wattpad either as a reader or
writer? If so, what is your experience with it?
