Your Favourite Wattpad YA Authors

JoeCool123

Author: JoeCool123

Books Well-Known For: The Bro Code and No Capes

How long have you been writing? I started writing on Wattpad with The Bro Code in 2012, and before that I wrote a few fan fictions (Draco Malfoy – According to Pottermore I am a Slytherin, what can I say? 😃) on other sites, but never finished them.

What do you love about writing? I love making myself laugh and have fun writing jokes into my stories. Even if I'm the only one who thinks they are funny. I also really love entertaining audiences with stories. No Capes is especially fun for me to write because I love my readers' reactions to finding out more about the Superheroes and the new powers I invent. I also love the craft of writing, and figuring out new ways to express basic actions and emotions. It makes me dig deep into how I've seen others react to certain situations, and how characters can respond to events differently based on their individual motivations and desires, which they might not even know about. It's fun to create characters that are on different psychological and emotional levels, and I love coming up with complicated plots for with tons of obstacles for them to overcome.

What's your favourite genre to write and why? Stories that have a lot going on. I like to start with an adventure-type story that also has other elements, like mystery, romance, and self-discovery. It's much easier for me to come up with a plot I like than new characters, so that's probably why, but lately I've also had fun finding the perfect nemesis for my heroes, where I ask myself, "What supervillain would be the worst possible news for ____?" and then that character enters the story and I get really excited about it. Maybe I am a Slytherin.

Do you have any advice to offer aspiring authors? A lot of writers will tell you that if you want to be a writer you need to write, or writing something is better than nothing—like you can't edit a blank page. No, duh. I don't think that fully addresses how hard it can be to write or get the words on paper. What's helped me the most is realizing that if you want to be a professional writer, you need to sit down and write every day, whether you feel like it or not. Because that's what professionals do.

Do you plan to have a future involved with writing? Definitely. Right now I'm really excited about Wattpad's involvement with No Capes, where they hired a screenwriter and a development team to try to turn it into a TV show. It's been incredible to be involved in that process and I hope to be able to continue working on that project as it goes forward.

What project are you currently working on?A few! I started taking grad school classes at Harvard University in creative writing, and one of my big projects this semester has been to write a movie. It's going to be an action/comedy heist movie and so far has been really fun. That's been taking a lot of my time away from Wattpad, but hopefully when it's finished I'll be able to keep working on my sequel to No Capes. Taking creative writing classes at different universities has definitely helped show me different perspectives and approaches to writing, and I highly recommend taking a variety of classes to anyone who is serious about writing. While I was writing my earlier books on Wattpad, I kind of made them up as I went along and got through them by the seat of my pants. But in the professional world, craft is so important, and it's crucial to know what you're doing. Or to at least be aware of tools you can use in your writing when (not if) you get stuck.

To conclude the questions today, can you tell us a fun fact about yourself?Not a lot of people on Wattpad know this, but I am a triplet! I have two sisters the same age as me (not identical 😊) that actually both show up as different characters in No Capes. Neither of my sisters are writers, but they love to read on Wattpad. I actually never told them about my Wattpad stories—they just happened upon them and were like, "wait, this sounds too familiar. I know the person writing this. This has to be Lizzie"