Genre and format on Wattpad

Format

Wattpad stories have been made into books, movies, and graphic novels, but all of those formats come after the original form: the webnovel. Though similar to these other formats, webnovels have slightly different storytelling conventions than books; things that work well in books will not be as effective in a webnovel, and effective webnovel techniques don’t work well in print books. 

Wattpad differs from traditional novels in that  Wattpad stories are released in installments (rather than being published all at once, as books usually are) and allows for reader/writer interaction via the comments, which changes how the reader experiences the story. Wattpad Originals are also usually ongoing serials, which means that the story is actively being written and released on an ongoing basis. 

The format of a Wattpad story is very important because it shapes the reader’s expectations. In a serialized story, readers are looking for easy-to-read stories with plots that move and develop quickly. The format of a Wattpad story means knowing and satisfying the reader’s genre expectations quickly. 

For more on the Wattpad reader, check out our Get Into Your Reader Brain worksheet and Ruthless Relevance worksheet.

Genre

Thinking about genre is the first step to writing your Wattpad story.  Genres are shorthands for groupings of characteristics a story might have, and thus are an indicator to the audience of what kind of story they are going to experience. Genre is important because it shapes the reader’s expectation for the story. The way a story plays into or subverts a reader’s expectation determines how Engaged a reader is in the story, and keeps them coming back for more. 

Some common genres we see on Wattpad are:

• Werewolf
• Mafia romance
• Contemporary romance
• Fantasy
• Sci-Fi
• Paranormal romance
• And more!

Each of the genres listed above has its own set of conventions and common characteristics that the reader is looking for when they open a story. A contemporary romance reader who wants a spicy office romance is not going to enjoy opening a sci-fi story, and an epic fantasy reader who wants a lot of worldbuilding is not going to enjoy opening a mafia romance. Knowing the expectations of the genre you are writing in and allowing them to shape your story is an important part of writing on Wattpad.

For more on genre expectations, see our Vertical guidelines.