The Development of Wattpad Digital Fiction Story Ideas in Response to Readers’ Feedback

Abstract

Digital literature is literature in electronic/digital media. Such literature offers a forum for intensive communication, in which readers may provide suggestions, ideas, opinions, and comments. This feedback can provide new insights for a digital fiction storyline. This is what is called as a collaborative idea. The information transfer process on Wattpad uses the circular model of communication created by Osgood and Schramm during 1954. This research is conducted using the phenomenological method. The data is taken from a popular novel entitled The Devil's Own. The data is grouped using the theory of readers’ comments patterns on digital literature. The results of this study show that the transfer of information on the Wattpad digital platform can be in the form of ideas, criticism, opinions, suggestions, and information, each of which represents a two-way form of interaction between the readers and the writer. This interaction continues until the work is complete. In the collaborative idea phase, the digital literary work is enriched through the process of combining the writer’s and the readers’ ideas. The combined ideas may contribute to further development of the story.