Wattpad Pet Peeves

When All of the Characters Look like Supermodels

Oh wow. Looks like I accidentally abandoned this story. Good thing I didn't promise I wouldn't do that again last time, and I'm certainly not gonna promise not to do it again in the future. I have a life to live, ya know! I can't dedicate enough time to post to this story regularly, and you're just gonna have to deal with that. Also, I know I said I would do "When You Don't Know What the Setting Looks like" soon, but I wanted to do this chapter first. 

Anyway, so you know how most people are kind of ugly up close?

Hmm... That might not be the best way to start off this chapter. 

If we blended every person on this planet's faces together, do you think the result would be reasonably attractive? Maybe, but this question could have a lot of different answers. What does someone with average attractiveness look like? Maybe kind of plain, but definitely not undateable. Lastly, how attractive do you consider yourself? Like, if you had to describe yourself, would you describe all of your best features, all of your flaws, or some combination of the two? Maybe you would list your most noticeable and prominent features. I think that's how the best authors do it. 

The main character has a round nose, his love interest has such large eyes that most would describe her as "bug eyed" (why does she always look so surprised?), and the teacher is short, stout, balding, and has large bushy eyebrows that obscure his grumpy eyes. I think when you describe characters more like this, it makes them more distinct and memorable. 

Now, how does this relate to Wattpad? I'd estimate that at least 70% of Wattpad stories are self-insert fantasies, and in a self-insert fantasy you'd want everyone to be hot, right? 

The first issue with this is that it's unrealistic. If you went out in public, would everyone be looking their best? What about all the people in sweatpants who didn't care to do their hair or makeup to go grocery shopping? Although I agree that basically everyone has "pretty potential", that doesn't mean they utilize it 24/7. 

My second problem with unnaturally pretty characters is that it makes the writing less creative. Literally, I'm reading a book right now and the narrator has described every single character as "beautiful". What does that mean??? Depending on the person, that could mean a million different things! Describe some freaking features! And I guarantee you, even if the author of all the "beautiful" characters does make an effort to describe their features, they're not gonna describe any feature that would be considered unattractive. Maybe just some large eyes and flowing silky hair of some generic color. I don't know, maybe the character is tall or curvy, but God forbid anything about them be unattractive. 

My third and final complaint that I would like to officially submit after careful consideration is that having every character be super attractive makes the reader relate less to the story. I know Wattpad has a lot of self-insert things going on that may be relatable to the writer, but having every character have long muscular legs and a blemish-free complexion makes the characters seem more elite and untouchable to the reader. If I'm reading some high school teen fiction thing, I'd expect the characters to look somewhat like awkward high schoolers just like the rest of us were at that time. 

Yeah, so I formally request to see some less attractive characters in Wattpad stories, please and thank you. 

My writing style is so weird now. I literally just finished an English class where I had to write a 10 page essay, so I've come to be a lot more organized, yet also formal-sounding in my writing. I might also be using an inappropriately formal tone for this chapter ironically (have you ever seen that tiktok where the girl gets rejected by every single race?). And also when do I ever write more than 500 words in a chapter?

Maybe I should do a QOTD????

Question: What kind of bear is best? 

Jk... That wasn't the real question (what is wrong with me).

ACTUAL Question: What is the worst book you ever read and why (it can also be a Wattpad book)?

Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be posted... whenever I guess.