KOCHI: High schools students, teenagers, university graduates? Not necessarily. Girls and boys from the age of 13 to even 60 fall under the category of writers and readers here. There are pregnant women who find these sites and stories a solace and writing a pass time during the turbulent period of pregnancy. Some of the authors have mentioned this too. There are brothers and sisters who are co-authors, so are best friends. There are also authors who do not know each other, but connected through the works and the sites and proceeded to co-author a book.
Age-appropriate content
Here is where the issue comes in with all the sites as some content may not be suitable for all ages. All stories have ratings, however, accessing them is not difficult for the young population. “ Good writing does get recognised in Wattpad and we also have comment sections. Good works that do well in Wattpad gets published too. For me, Wattpad was a phase. I used to read most of the genres. However, one thing I felt is that anyone can access age-inappropriate content from Wattpad. But Wattpad is trying to regulate their content, but it’s not easy. Wattpad also removes stories if it is given under the wrong warnings. I have also heard of radish, “ said Nikita, a former Wattpad user.
Literotica
While there are many plots, fleshy stories in Wattpad and every other site, Literotica also exists in there. They may feature the author’s deepest fantasy’s and would find a lot of admirers. However, for some readers, especially younger ones, coming across the Literotica could be disturbing. This is one reason why age-appropriate content revision would be favourable.
Romance
The favourite Mills and Boons kind of romances are abundant. The hero being a billionaire, a jock, a nerd and even a cop has its attraction. The heroine is usually down on her luck but valiant. It is not to say that there is no variety.
LGBTQ stories
From coming-out stories to gender assertion stories, there are a variety of stories in this category too. There are a lot of same gender romances, with and without homophobia playing a role. In some cases, these have a bit of the author’s or a friends’ experience when they came out. However, one would rarely see hate comments here either.
Indian stories
Stories rooted in Indian culture are common in Wattpad. Sometimes, the characters are self-made, while at other times, they use characters from the author’s favourite soap opera and give them a different ending than in the actual work.