After overthinking it, dreaming about it, over-editing it, worrying about it, and over-complicating it, this past Saturday I finally published the first chapter of MODEL RICANS on Wattpad. Yes, I am officially publishing on Wattpad, can you believe it?
Doing a little happy dance.
My plan is to publish on Saturday mornings around 11 a.m. and Wednesday nights, some time between 8 p.m. during the weekly virtual write-ins of Sarah Nicolas and Sarah Fiske on YouTube, and 11 p.m. when I write with my UCLA comadres. The idea is to get myself on a regular publishing schedule since I thrive on deadline pressure.
Today is Wednesday, so I’m planning on publishing chapter 2 tonight.
I had already loaded it up, along with 16 other chapters, with the idea that I could just click “Publish” on Saturdays and Wednesdays, but once again I am overthinking it, over-editing it, rearranging it, worrying about it, and over-complicating it.
Stage fright has kicked in.
This is what happens every time I “go public.” It happened when I was doing The Fake News YouTube video series with Dr. Nutmeg and The Femmebots. I started caring too much about the opinions of the audience (as small as it was) and lost my purpose…which was what, at that time? Attracting a producer in Hollywood, I suppose.
This time around, my purpose is different.
The purpose of publishing MODEL RICANS on Wattpad is to tell a good, entertaining, educational story for an audience of teens. My mistake with Dr. Nutmeg and The Femmebots was focusing too much on me, me, me. After watching the new “Judy Blume Forever” documentary on Amazon Prime, I was reminded that the point of storytelling is to connect with people, and to help them contextualize their own experiences.
So, after considering the first round of feedback from six readers, I’m going to keep it simple.
I am going to focus on the main character’s journey from MODEL RICAN to StereotypiRican and back to MODEL RICAN.
In Chapter 1, Desiree Sanchez jumps out her bedroom window and into a taxi cab because she wants to see her boyfriend Sky Bowman, who lives on the more posh side of town. Why? Action and Adventure, ala The Goonies and Back to the Future.
In Chapter 2, Desiree is sitting next to a strange man in a taxi cab in the middle of the night, realizing that this action and adventure can easily turn into a horror movie, ala The Shining and Poltergeist.
And so, here it is…I am officially publishing on Wattpad, and you can read here: MODEL RICANS.