I remember the day I decided I wanted to publish a book. I was sitting in my eighth-grade class, thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up. We were watching October Sky, a movie where four boys build a rocket and accomplish great things in life even though everyone doubted them. I guess the movie got me thinking about my future. I had always loved writing and dreamt about one day publishing a book.
I never imagined that four years later, my dream would become a reality.
A few months later, I was sitting in a movie theater with my friends. We were waiting to see Step Up Revolution. While sitting in the dark theater, one of my friends, Rebecca, asked me if I knew about Wattpad. I had never heard of it, so she told me all about it and fan fiction.
I had no idea that there was a website where anyone could write and publish whatever they wanted. I had been writing stories on my laptop, but never finished them. I would start one story, then a new idea would pop into my head, and I'd move on. For months, I wrote the beginnings of stories, but never finished any. Until one day a few months after my conversation with Rebecca, I decided to make a Wattpad account, not knowing that it would change my life forever.
On July 23, 2013, I posted the first chapter of a story on Wattpad. It was a fan fiction about a boy who was bullied. Within a day, I got 500 reads. I had no idea where the story was going to go, and I was not expecting to get so many reads so quickly. I watched all the numbers grow every day from the hundreds to the thousands to the millions. Since Wattpad was so new to me, I was overwhelmed with the response. People could choose from millions of stories to read, and they picked mine.
In 2014, my love of the boy band 5 Seconds of Summer was getting stronger. Around that time, I started my second story, Remember to Forget. It was a 5 Seconds of Summer fan fiction about a boy, Luke, who stops speaking after his girlfriend tragically passes away. He falls into a deep depression and communicates through his phone. He moves from Australia to Maine to live with his dad, who he hasn't seen in years, and thinks moving will make things worse. (You'll have to read to see what happens from there! )
Even though I had a large following, I wasn't sure if people would read my second story. I was nervous that I was just lucky the first time, and Remember to Forget wouldn't be as successful. While it Remember to Forget instantly got reads, my followers could have stopped reading after I posted the first chapter, but they didn't. They stayed week after week, and their excitement never died down. Once again, I watched as the reads skyrocketed into millions. It's was unbelievable to me that so many people enjoyed what I wrote.
I think it was because even though it started out as fan fiction, Remember to Forget deals with common problems teenagers face, like anxiety and depression. Although the story is not based off of any of my own experiences, I did quite a lot of research to make sure everything I was writing was true. I tend to feel emotions quite deeply and can easily put myself into someone else's shoes, so I found myself feeling what all the characters were going through. I think that makes the characters feel even more real, since I was experiencing everything with them.
Even though Remember to Forget was a 5 Seconds of Summer fan fiction, people who didn't even know or like 5SOS would message me telling me they loved it. My followers were so supportive, and Wattpad became the place I felt most comfortable. It was what I looked forward to every day. It was also my one and only secret.
For two years, I didn't tell anyone about Wattpad. I had a small group of friends that knew about it, but that was it. I would go to school, where barely anyone knew me because I was so quiet, and then go home to my thousands of followers. It was like my own Hannah Montana life.
When my mom found my Wattpad from a comment left on one of my YouTube videos, she sat me down and told me she thought I should try to publish my writing. At first, I was against it. Yes, it was what I always wanted to do, but I didn't think it was the right time. I was planning on deleting my Wattpad that summer because I didn't want people from school finding it and making fun of me, or having colleges find it. I also wasn't sure if I could handle school and publishing a book at the same time. Plus, I didn't want to be known as the girl that published a fan fiction. I was afraid a lot of 5SOS fans wouldn't like that I was publishing a 5SOS fanfic and people I knew personally would find it weird.
Looking back, I should have known that most people would be supportive and kind.
My mom got an agent for me, and he sent my manuscripts out to publishers. I got many rejections, as mostly everyone does, but within three months, I got a response from Blink YA telling me they wanted to publish Remember to Forget. We ended up changing the names of the characters (the character Luke is now named Levi). We edited the entire book and even added more chapters.
Not everyone is lucky enough to get the answer they're hoping for, some spend years waiting. I am extremely grateful that I was given a chance so quickly.
I know that had I not started writing on Wattpad, I would not have a published book out right now. It is a place where creators can get inspiration from others and also get automatic responses from readers. It helped shape my writing into what it is today.
My followers are what motivate me to continue writing. Every day I receive messages from people all over the world. Many readers tell me how much my story has helped them with their own struggles. I started writing so I could help others and change people's perspectives on certain things. Knowing that I am doing that is the best thing I could ask for.
My writing has inspired others to either start writing or to continue writing. That is so amazing to me. I'm happy that I can show my readers that with hard work, you can accomplish your dreams, no matter what age you are. As a thirteen-year-old, I never would have guessed that by seventeen, my dream would come true.
I do want to publish more books. I love to write and hope to continue writing. Right now, I'm a junior in high school, and it's hard to balance work, school, writing, and looking at colleges (I hope to study Child Life in college one day, as well as English or some sort of writing major). I know writing will always be a part of my life though.
If you're dying to read Remember to Forget, you can get your hands on a copy at all major bookstores and digital retailers where books are sold .
