N.B. Austin

Author of the Civilands Series

All About Writing

No More Books – My Writing Career Has Unfortunately Been Cut Short

Today I must share the unfortunate news that, due to unfortunate circumstances, my writing career has been cut short. Times have been hard of late, and I will no longer have the time or means to write, edit and publish to the standard which I have previously set for myself.

It comes with a heavy heart that I share this, especially now. The Civilands series was only one book away from completion. And while it’d be possible to squeeze out a sub-par product, it’s just not something I’m willing to do. For the sake of my fans I’ve determined it’s best to just end it now. This will allow me to go out on a high note, as I move onto the next chapter of my life.

No More Books

I’d like to thank everyone for all the love and support along the way.

It was an incredibly fun ride. The Murrieta Territory brought so much twists, turns, and self-discovery. It’s a place that will change me forever. All the work that went into it – the blood, sweat, and tears – will provide a lifetime of memories. It is my hope each one of you have fond memories as well, and enjoy re-reading through the years ahead.

From Jeannie to William to Latera to Dominic, and everyone in between, there were so many great characters to relate to. I will miss them all dearly.

For full disclosure, the reason for my departure is a change of circumstances and a move. We will see where that road takes me. Perhaps our paths will cross again somewhere along the way, as I will probably document that new journey as well!

Until then, I thank you again. Without you, dear reader, all the words over all the years just wouldn’t have come. Thank you for the encouragement, the tons of great reviews, the comments, the promotion, and everything in between.

I hope you have a happy, healthy 2021; a happy, healthy life; a happy, healthy April Fool’s day; and a happy, healthy time reading book 5 when it comes out soon…

I will never stop writing. Ever. The finale is coming. Prepare for war.

Increase Blog Traffic: 4 Tips and Tricks

So you started a blog. You designed a website that defines you and it’s beautiful. Every few days you look at your page just to admire your work. And you should be proud, because you built something. You’re crushing!

What isn’t as exciting though is your page views. You’re writing great content, but no one is seeing it. It’s a little demoralizing at times. But you’re determined to figure out how to capture enough eyes to foster engagement. So you did a search to figure out how and it brought you here. It brought you to the blog of a random fiction author you’ve probably never heard of.

Now, the questions are: how did you get here? And how can you replicate the path you took to get here for your own post content? If you’re looking for the answers, you’ve come to the right place.

Increase Blog Traffic

Tip #1 to Increase Blog Traffic – Take Stock of Your Skills/Knowledge and Help Solve a Problem

Before I explain this tip, let me tell you the reason I’m posting this kind of thing at all on an author blog. A few days ago, a person who enjoys my books mentioned they were struggling to build viewer traffic on their book review blog. As someone who has been blogging for several years now with moderate viewership success, I had built up a decent amount of knowledge on the subject. So I shared everything I’ve learned with them.

And everything I’ve learned includes all sorts of things I would have loved to know when my journey began. So in the case of this post, the problem that needs solving of how to increase blog traffic is clearly defined. It is a problem which I know for a fact people want to know how to solve, because I wanted to know it.

Now, it might seem like what I’m saying here is that the only way to get traffic is to post “how-to” or educational posts. This could not be further from the truth. The majority of my posts, for example, are bonus content or updates related to my books. What problem do those solve? Well, they solve a problem for my current readers who are thirsting for fun, supplemental information on the worlds I build, after they’ve read my books. A cooking blog, on the other hand, solves the problem of how to cook a meal. And a book review blog solves the problem of telling you which books are most worth investing your valuable time in. If that’s a problem you have, I know a great book review blog for you here!

Tip #2 – Use Search Engine Optimization

So hopefully you have now defined the problem your post solves. And we both know your post solves it better than any other post on the entire internet. But unfortunately it’s not me you need to convince, it’s the search engines. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in handy.

SEO is a process of designing your posts to optimize their searchability, based on specific search terms. For example, with this post, the problem we discussed in step #1 was figuring out how to increase blog traffic. The goal then is for search engines to easily identify my post as a key source of information on this problem. This is done by including the relevant term(s) in everything from the title, to subtitles, paragraphs, slug (link), page description, etc. You can see here how many times I’ve referenced “blog traffic.” This tells search engines how important blog traffic is to this post. And anyone looking for info on blog traffic will certainly be able to access info on blog traffic here. Not every post needs to be this obnoxious with references to your keyword, but you get the point.

As for your search term, be as specific as possible.

If we refer back to our cooking blog example, you don’t just want to solve the general problem of needing something to cook. Think about what the specific meal you’re posting about is good for. Is it great for the person trying to impress on date night? Or is it better for someone looking to cook out? Is it a recipe that requires a lot of time and effort? Or is it something to make in a hurry?

In the case of a book reviewer, is yours a more in-depth reviewing style suited for the curious reader? Or is it more about being entertaining? Is the book you’re reviewing a tried and true classic? Or is it a hidden gem like the Civilands series for the risk takers looking to explore a new world before anyone else does? These are all questions that will define a specific type of person who needs your post, and the terms they would use to try and find it. The more specific the terms, the better.

Once you figure out your specific keywords, a huge help in getting the technical formatting stuff down is downloading an SEO plugin. My website is set up on WordPress and I use a WordPress plugin called Yoast SEO. Yoast rates the optimization of my posts and provides tips for specific things I can do to improve it, which are usually very simple tweaks. If you don’t use WordPress, just search “SEO” on your plugins and I’m sure there will be alternatives as well. And if you are familiar with SEO plugins on other blog sites, comment them below!

Tip #3 – Utilize the Knowledge/Network of Others

Increase blog traffic

Back to tip #1 on solving a problem – maybe you’re having a hard time taking stock of your skill set or knowledge base. Or maybe you aren’t struggling with this in general, but there is something additional you don’t know yet and want to learn. If so, you can learn about it by posting about it! But how can you post about something you don’t know?

This brings us to my most popular post ever on my blog, “How to Get Your Story Read on Wattpad.” You can probably guess from the name what the problem is that’s being solved.

But for some background

Wattpad is a social media type site where you can post serial stories and people can react with comments, likes, etc. It is a site I ultimately decided not to use. However, when I was first exploring it, I saw several stories being posted with many views and interactions. So I wondered the same thing everyone who uses Wattpad wonders: how can you best use Wattpad to increase your story reads/interactions? As mentioned, I hadn’t used Wattpad at all at this time, so I had no idea how to answer this question. But lucky for me, there were other users who did! I soon reached out to one of the popular users and sent them a bunch of interview questions to post about on my blog. These were questions I had, which came from my own desire to learn more than anything else.

The rest is history. Years after publishing this interview, it continues averaging several views per day. The networking effects of cooperating with successful people in your field is one obvious benefit of this. Another though is you are learning something you wanted to learn. But instead of keeping this golden nugget to yourself, you are also helping others solve the same problem they too are facing. Just be sure when you take this approach to show appreciation for the person you’re interviewing. Promote them as much as possible and express gratitude for their time.

Tip #4 – Join Communities that Face Your Problem and Share

For this final tip I didn’t want to just say the obvious, “share on social media,” and I won’t. A far better strategy is to find and become a part of a tight, already established community or to seek to create your own. The platform could be social media, an email list, a texting group, etc. The choice comes down to whatever is the most convenient/comfortable. As long as the community is catered specifically to the problems you and your tribe are seeking to solve, you’re in the right place. A few examples would include a book club for a book review site, or a cooking group for a cooking site.

One major thing to avoid…

If you do join an already established group is to spam your blog posts. This should go without saying but it’s rude and will most likely get you removed. When the question you’ve solved arises, share away. Your knowledge is needed and to not share it when it’s sought out would be downright selfish. But do not self promote in an obnoxious manner without first proving that you belong in the community.

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Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for today. Hope you found this post helpful! Leave a comment below with any additional knowledge or thoughts on the subject. And if you did enjoy this, feel free to subscribe to my blog with the form at the bottom of my webpage. Happy blogging and happy reading!

Game of Thrones Review: “The Bells” Could Have Been Great If…

Game of Thrones Review, "The Bells"

Another day, another Game of Thrones review. Episode 5 of the series eighth and final season, “The Bells,” was the culmination of the series as the battle for the Iron Throne comes to a head.

Now, so far in season 8 there have been plenty of mixed reactions from viewers. The theme of the show opposing that of the books is one major point of contention. Others include clunky battle scenes and a lack of character resolution.

But I don’t want to focus on anything other than episode 5 and what led to it here. If these very simple tweaks were made, I think “The Bells” could have been one of the best moments of the entire Game of Thrones series.

And be sure to read through to the end, as I saved the most important issue for last!

***WARNING: GAME OF THRONES REVIEW WITH SPOILERS AHEAD***

1. Euron and Jamie: “That’s a Kill!”

Bill the Butcher, Gangs of New York

Where do I begin with this horrible fan-service nonsense? The skirmish between Euron and Jamie should have never happened for too many reasons to count.

First off, how fortunate for us fans for Euron and Euron alone to wash up on shore right at Jamie’s exact place and time after he had to trek through all of King’s Landing to get there. Good Lord of Light, how stupid must the writers think the audience is to suspend so much disbelief? Especially considering how all the other main characters also washed up on shore when their ships were destroyed in the previous episode, I’d say naval warfare seems pretty pointless in this show.

Next, and I might have missed this or something so if I did please tell me in the comments, but how the hell did Jamie even get here? I thought there was some kind of conflict emerging with him appearing to not get into the city when the others were flooding in, but then he somehow did get in? Or did he not and take a back way? I don’t know, whatever.

The most nauseating thing though was subversion for the sake of subversion. Not only does this fight have to happen somehow, but our expectations have to be subverted by Jamie losing at first. And not only does he have to lose, Euron has to land TWO kill shots. Because if we learned anything from Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York, “that’s a kill! Not a wound!”

. . . Oh yeah, and then Jamie lives, finds Cersei, and never succumbs to his pointless “wounds.” Again, I don’t know, whatever.

My Solution:

Remove this fight. Euron dies in the ocean because who cares about him anyway? We haven’t been built up to hate him to anywhere near the same extent we had been with a Ramsey Bolton type of character. Fire would do just fine, especially since he took down a dragon.

2. Cleganebowl: The Hound (And Arya) Deserved Better

I don’t dislike that the battle between the Hound and the Mountain happened, but the way it unfolded could have been way better.

To start, the Hound and Arya make what would have been a harrowing entry into King’s Landing. They continued from there on an improbable (at best) march all the way through a battle and to the Red Keep. Then, when they arrive and all hell breaks loose with Daenerys, the Hound convinces Arya to leave.

No problems with any of this so far. Arya being scared is not the least bit surprising and the goodbye between the two characters was a good moment.

However, the goodbye between the two characters implied the Hound will fulfill Arya’s wishes in her absence. This makes Cersei walking right past him without any issue absurd to me. Why not just set it up where she gets away or something? Also, what is Arya thanking him for if not for his trying to handle what she’d have otherwise come all this way to handle?

So Cersei walks off and the other minions are dead and we get the fight we’ve been waiting for. But the end of said fight wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been, with the Hound tackling the Mountain through a wall and landing in a fire.

Now the fire is meant to be significant, right? Because the Hound is supposed to be afraid of fire, right? Well sure, it would be: if the Hound knew the fire was there.

My Solution:

Make Cersei get away literally any other way than just walking right past the Hound. Maybe have the Mountain attack first and allow her the opportunity to escape? Anything really. I don’t care if you feel the need to have a phantom piece of debris disorient the Hound for a second, or maybe a distracting albino squirrel singing the blues runs past him to catch his eye while she runs off. Anything.

Also, make the Hound see the fire below BEFORE he tackles the Mountain into it. Make it a meaningful choice to face both his fears of his brother and fire at the same time. Overcoming it in his most crucial moment while earning Arya’s appreciation would complete his entire story to the fullest.

3. Jamie Cheats on Brienne With Cersei

Again, I don’t dislike that the reunion and demise of Jamie and Cersei occurred, but how they got there felt off.

It starts in the previous episode with a far too sudden separation of Jamie and Brienne. All prior indications pointed to them staying together and his arc to righteousness being completed. There were no hints whatsoever of second thoughts on his part and if there were they were way too subtle. Nonetheless, Jamie runs off and leaves Brienne behind.

Now, praise where praise is due: the best part of Jamie’s return to his sister comes when he finds Tyrion. The goodbye between Tyrion and Jamie was one of the best moments in this episode and series. Everything about Tyrion in this episode was great, given the direction taken to this point of his plans failing as much as they have.

My Solution:

There should have been clear signs of Jamie’s feelings in one of two directions:

  1. He was bored of Brienne. Maybe the sex isn’t what it was with Cersei? Maybe he resented the prospect of living life in the north? Whatever it is, let us see it. His abandonment of her shouldn’t be a surprise to us, even if it is to her.
  2. He still has love for Brienne and is upfront with her that he just can’t let his pregnant sister die alone. She could still resent him for making this decision now, but at least it would be consistent with both the bond they’ve developed and the way we’ve seen him grow. There’s no reason to hurt her if his heart is still good and we’d still understand his leaving for Cersei.

While I like the impact his decision to leave her has on Brienne as a character (it makes sense she’d break down since she’s a virgin and her feelings for him are unfamiliar), it needs to not be so sudden. Either solution above would work.

Beyond that I think everything else is good (obviously besides Euron). I just felt like by the time he got to Cersei I lost track of who Jamie Lannister really was.

4. Nice Horse, Where’d You Find It?

Game of Thrones Review
“Hey”

This wasn’t a huge deal and I really don’t mean to nitpick little things in this post. At the same time though, there was just something off about that fancy white horse being there. It didn’t feel right in a city of dust and ashes. I know I’m not the only person to think this too. Maybe it was because it didn’t look like it was as disheveled as everything else in the scene. Not totally sure.

Because I need to point out greatness though, the makeup and costume design for Arya here was beyond brilliant. Not only is the blood and dirt on point, but her hair and attire is so Ned Stark it’s mind boggling. Being that she’s in King’s Landing and struggling through the streets the way he had here, the connection couldn’t be more on point.

My solution:

Remove the horse and focus more on her walk back out of the city. It would be way more grueling to see Arya limping and shell shocked. We aren’t used to seeing her intimidated this way so it would have a way bigger impact to drag that out. Also because, let’s be real, she’s the only likable character left at this point.

5. The Easiest Battle in the History of the Seven Kingdoms

One dragon is all it took in the end. The unsullied weren’t really necessary. The fleets weren’t necessary. The Dothraki weren’t . . . wait . . . the Dothraki didn’t die in the charge during the Long Night? And even if there were more, there are still this many? Oh, okay.

Even with those big bolts Cersei had for dragon killing on her ships and walls, even after Dany and the dragon stood right in front of Cersei ripe for the killing in the episode before, even though we were told the armies were apparently even in size, it was all just way too easy.

Also, what was with the explosion when Drogon flanks the troops at the gates of the castle? Were explosives set up for if the walls were breached? If so, shouldn’t they have been green, which is the color I associated with Cersei’s explosives throughout the episode? Because I’m not buying that was just dragon flames. Something exploded but we don’t know why other than it totally looked so cool and stuff.

My Solution:

As bad as these guys have proven to be at constructing sensible battle sequences, this should have been way more of a struggle at first.

I’ll go into this more in the following and final point, but it would have also justified Dany’s final turn more if the actual conflict was more difficult. Perhaps the last of the Dothraki do fall? This would symbolize the end of a powerful alliance she formed during her ascent. Perhaps Drogon, her final dragon, gets injured once or twice? This could lead to Drogon acting more erratic, which would in turn further spurn Dany into the rage we come to see from her.

And so we reach the biggest missed opportunity of the episode . . .

6. MOST IMPORTANT: Dany’s Unearned Madness

Let me start by saying I love the idea of Daenerys burning King’s Landing to the ground. It fits her character’s trajectory and it makes sense under the right circumstances.

Dany has lost several friends, survived assassination attempts, and overcome those who doubted her on her long journey to rule the Seven Kingdoms. For her to successfully take the city of King’s Landing, only to be rejected by the very people she sought for so long to liberate, it would be a logical breaking point.

And while this seemed like it might have been the intent of the writers, it was not what played out on screen.

Instead, Daenerys is simply told about the opinions of “the people” by Varys, who is promptly executed. The problem with this is that Dany never trusted noblemen and we don’t even get a clear message she’s unwanted. Her heart, in contrast to all other characters in the show, was always with “the people.” For her to now flip without evidence other than the words of this person she deems disposable is totally out of character.

This is why when the bells ring and we see her light up everyone in between her dragon’s perch and the Red Keep, all of whom are begging for mercy in the lead up, we don’t understand her decision.

My solution:

I was on the edge of my seat when Daenerys Stormborn Of House Targaryen, First of Her Name, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and The First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons stared down the Red Keep. It was going to be the epic end of a show’s worth of Lannister rule. Cersei’s decision to sacrifice her people was going to come back to bite her because there would be no surrender granted to her.

So we’re just going to pretend the Game of Thrones writer’s made that happen. Dany flies Drogon straight at the Red Keep and burns it all to the ground.

“The people” in this case are liberated and Dany takes the city. Only now, word of Varys’s letter about Jon has gotten out and with her army weakened, the people of King’s Landing demand the rightful king take his place. The survivors of Cersei’s Golden Company, numerous still due to the surrender, take their side as well. The more vocal the cries get for her to leave the more an injured, erratic Drogon starts to react, and before the first person is burned, Dany’s hatred for them is solidified. Because if “the people” are against her, then everyone is against her, and power is the only thing this “rightful ruler” has left to seek.

Conclusion

This could have really been one of the best episodes in the entire Game of Thrones series, especially given the trajectory the writers decided to take with the White Walkers. It was set up to have major character resolutions for most of the main characters we’ve been following for eight seasons. It is my sincere hope that the payoffs in next week’s finale feel more satisfying because this has certainly been one of the best shows I’ve ever followed to this point.

The above have been my opinions on how this episode could have been significantly strengthened, which I hope you enjoyed. If so, or if not, or if somewhat, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Thank you for reading my Game of Thrones review!

If you enjoyed this content, you might also enjoy the Civilands series and the Tuesday Night Fiction audio book podcast. The series is best described as Game of Thrones meets Gangs of New York meets Manifest Destiny. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and feel free to subscribe for more blog updates.

Today I Started Writing Another Book

And here’s the thing… I haven’t written a single word of it since I woke up.

No, stories don’t begin when you start typing them. Stories begin when pieces of the plot fall from the sky one-by-one like meteorites with trajectories all directed at a single target. But they are imperfectly directed. And in that imperfection there is beauty. Because they will mold the subject of their strike into something new.

Three books in, they’ve beaten me to a bloody pulp before. And to be honest with you, I love the pain. It’s an addiction I have no desire to kick. What it’s shown me is that when you change in a positive way, you influence everyone around you in a positive way.

Which brings me to today.

The difference between the start of the book 4 writing process and any of the other three is that my own heart is whole today.

When I started writing two years ago I was in search of myself. I am elated to the point of nirvana to say that somewhere along the way I found what I was looking for. It’s taken me until now though to see my writing and dedication to it for the impact it has had on people other than myself.

So I want to thank you.

If you’re reading this now and/or have read anything I’ve written in the past. Thank you. If you’ve never read anything I’ve written and are just one of the people who have told me that what I’ve been doing has inspired you. Thank you. If you’re doing what you love and I don’t even know you. Thank you.

It is my sincere hope that you will share with me how your own journey develops. If you do I swear I will be your biggest fan (or second biggest behind your mom). Either way though, I’m going to keep writing both for me and for you and I’m not ever going to stop.
Image result for here we go gif

And. Here. We. Go!

This is going to be the best book I’ve written so far, and certainly the best I can imagine myself writing at this moment. So buckle the fuck up, my friends. The next leg of this road has bigger twists, turns, vengeance, violence, family, love, pain, and happiness than ever before, all delivered as fast and furious as you can handle.

And I’ll keep you posted along the way but if you want to know how it feels to be at the beginning of this amazing process, here it is… My blood is warm. My insides are boiling. There is a raging fire there and a ferocious tenacity rattling my bones. I’ve said it before: I will write a story that’s adapted into a TV series. You will see my show on Netflix or HBO. I’m going to keep saying it until it comes true. This is just the next rung in the ladder. I’ll see you when we reach the top. 🙂

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QOTD: Won’t you join me?

Thank you for reading and for everyone’s continued support for the Civilands series. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, feel free to subscribe for more blog updates, and click here for free book giveaways, including best-sellers!

What I’ve Learned About Screenwriting… and Learning Itself

To learn the ins-and-outs of authoring, I paid maybe $10 for a variety of e-books from talented author, Joanna Penn. After authoring, I wanted to also learn about screenwriting, so I purchased a $90 Masterclass hosted by TV titan, Shonda Rhimes. How great is it that we have access to these kinds of learning resources, literally at our fingertips? And for so cheap?

Now, while I highly recommend both to anyone with interest in either pursuit, the second part of any education came next: execution. This leaves us with two phases.

  1. Strategize (Masterclass, books, college)
  2. Execute (Do)

With two books now published and a third on the way, I can say execution is a far more important way to learn. With so many educational resources out there though, it’s easy to bury yourself in them and stall on taking action. This is something I’ve done to myself plenty of times, so I’m with you if you’re in this boat. If I had to estimate though, I’d recommend focusing 20% on learning to strategize and 80% on learning through action.

With this in mind, here’s what I’ve discovered so far through my screenwriting execution!

What I’ve learned so far about screenwriting

  1. Formatting matters – a screenplay follows a specific format. For anyone starting out, I highly recommend using Scrivener. This software provides hints and drop-downs for how a certain section should look so you don’t need to adjust margins or fonts at all.
  2. No narrator – one of the most interesting things for me in this process has been the challenge of telling the same story in two different ways. Where a novel’s narrator can get inside a character’s (or characters’) head, a screenplay is much more focused on what is seen. The latter relies more on actors/actresses to bring the characters’ interiority to life. In this way, the script almost feels to me like a picture painted with words.
  3. Story-boarding – my current task. Along with the script, story-boarding is also necessary to set up the scenes frame-by-frame. I’ll just be drawing with crappy stick figures, before going to the set and scoping out the frames which will be used.
  4. More of an outline – a novel is the final product for an author, but a script isn’t really the final product for a screenwriter. As such, I think of the script as more of an outline for what’s going to be said/seen on film. Maybe every other screenwriter agrees with this too and maybe none do. I’m still figuring things out obviously. But there somehow feels like a bit less final-product pressure in writing the script than there is for a book. This might also be because I am using a book as an outline though, so we’ll see if I still feel this way on the next project!

For all who are interested, below I’ve shared the script itself. Beyond excited to be shooting it next week and I expect to have it released by mid-February!

To those skilled screenwriters out there, I’m still learning the composition. It is also too much work to do perfect margins here in html. As such, if you could forgive me for any screenplay formatting sins, I would appreciate it. 🙂

Civilands Live Action Trailer

TEASER

EXT. FOREST – DAY

A forest blanketed in a thin layer of snow. Puffy, gray clouds fill the sky overhead. Birds are chirping, likely celebrating a day off from the snowfall.

JEANNIE (V.O.)

(Panting and crying hysterically) Momma!

JEANNIE’S MOTHER (V.O.)

(Men roaring, the sound of a fire) Jeannie–Jeannie put on your coat, baby.

JEANNIE (V.O.)

No! Momma no!

JEANNIE’S MOTHER (V.O.)

There’s no time to waste, Jeannie, do it now. For me, okay?

Put on your coat, run out back into the forest and don’t you stop running.

One of the wider tree trunks has CLAW SCRATCH MARKS torn through it. Five symmetrical, jagged lines stretch along its aged exterior. They go deep enough that the tan inner sapwood is revealed.

JEANNIE’S MOTHER (V.O.)

(Jeannie crying) Your daddy and I need to fetch your brothers upstairs now.

JEANNIE (V.O.)

(Sobbing and panting) I can’t go.

JEANNIE’S MOTHER (V.O.)

I know, baby, but you need to. Go and find Chieftain Arkouda.

Don’t stop until you do. Okay? He’ll keep you safe.

JEANNIE (V.O.)

I can’t leave you. No.

JEANNIE’S MOTHER (V.O.)

(Embrace) I love you, baby. Momma loves you and will

always be with you. (Both crying) Now go. Please. And quickly.

Aside from the scratch marks, there is stillness and tranquility in the forest.

But then, from in the distance above the trees, we see the beginnings of a SMOKE CLOUD rising. The wispy, black body thickens quickly but still, we have tranquility. Until…

…from behind the trees, a YOUNG GIRL suddenly appears, running in our direction opposite the smoke. She looks disheveled in her long dress and what must be her father’s coat, thrown on in improvisation. The movements she makes aren’t blissful over the crunching forest floor.

As she comes further into view we begin to hear the ferocious barking of HOUNDS and the cheering of MEN. The group as a whole sounds so vile that it’s difficult to distinguish which noises are the men and which are the dogs. The only indication is a drawl that overtakes the others.

UNKNOWN PURSUER

Oh, Jeannie! We ain’t gonna hurt you, Jeannie!

Jeannie maneuvers forward, close enough to see that she’s crying and screaming and panicked, but then…

…WHOOSH! She runs right past us in our view of the forest setting. The smoke behind her now fills the sky.

EXT. RIVERBANK – DAY

The sound of her pursuers remain, but now we see Jeannie from her back, panting before a river. From behind she looks defeated and exhausted for at first, until she stands up straight and her hand balls into a fist. It’s clear she’s prepared to cross in order to escape them. It’s clear she’ll have her revenge.

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Thanks for reading and hope you’re enjoying the Civilands series. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, feel free to subscribe for more blog updates, and click here for free book giveaways, including best-sellers!

How to Get Your Story Read on Wattpad (Guest Post by C.G. Laflamme)

I’m so excited to be hosting my first ever guest blog post about how to get your story read on Wattpad! 😀

The following is a summary from a talented Wattpader with a growing fanbase, C.G. Laflamme.

Ms. Laflamme started posting her first story, The Catalyst, on Wattpad December 31, 2016. A few months later, seeing that the story wasn’t getting noticed, she began researching how to succeed on the site. She outlines thoroughly below what she found both in research and practice, which led her story to the following impressive statistics (as of this writing):

  • Highest Rank in Fantasy of #148
  • 67.2K story reads
  • 8K story votes

Have to give a special thank you to C.G. Laflamme, again, for the contribution and helpful insight! With that said, here’s what she had to say about getting your story read on Wattpad:

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I’ll begin by stating the obvious. There are a lot of stories on Wattpad. If you’re just starting out, readers won’t find you. The competition is fierce up there at the top, and readers only ever see those top stories when they browse.

There’s a paradox in making it on this site. You’re going to want reads and votes, lots of them. But, in order for readers to find your story—and give it those precious reads and votes—you have to already have plenty of reads and votes. Kinda makes no sense.

But there are a few ways to still make it work, if you’re serious about it and willing to put in the work. Nobody said it was going to be easy.

 

Read-For-Read

The first obvious one is read-for-read/feedback-for-feedback partnership. Or, as some people call it, chapter swapping. This is the first method I tried. I figured, there must be many other authors like me out there, just craving reads to at least increase the story’s visibility a bit. And hey, you never know, you might actually end up enjoying each other’s work. That’s when Wattpad friendships are born, and those are important.

But be careful. I was naïve in the beginning. I thought everyone—or almost everyone—was well-intentioned and trustworthy. That, of course, is not the case. Some people will ask you to read their story and promise to do the same in return. So you read theirs, but then you never hear from them again. This happens a lot. You just need to learn to recognize the signs. Often those types won’t talk to you much, they won’t engage. They’ll just ask for favors.

My advice: give everyone a fair chance. Read one chapter. Leave a comment or two. Vote if you feel so inclined. If they never return the favor, just don’t visit their story again. Who cares? Their loss. The truth is their strategy doesn’t work in the long term anyway. Move on to other people who are more serious.

The problem with read for read though, is that it just doesn’t work that well. And honestly, that be expected. Being an aspiring author on Wattpad pays nothing, as we’re all painfully aware of. People have jobs, obligations, busy lives. It’s easy to forget about a read-for-read agreement you made with someone, even if you were earnest about wanting to do it at the time.

Book Clubs

So you have book clubs. There are many book clubs on Wattpad. It’s all about finding the right one—or the right ones—for you. There are book clubs for specific genres, book clubs for people who have time to read many chapters a week, and others for people who can only read one or two. There are clubs that don’t accept mature stories, others that prefer those types of stories. This is only an example. There are so many different book clubs out there. Doing your research pays off here. If you join a book club that has other authors you love as its members, you’ll have a lot more fun. And don’t join one if you know you won’t be able to complete the assignments. It’s not fair to the other members.

I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. Once I joined a book club where you had to read four chapters a week. That’s a lot. But I knew I could do it, and I did. Except two out of the three weeks I was a member, none of my chapters got read. My partners hadn’t completed their assignment. I looked into it, read other people’s comments on the book club’s current page, and it seemed that the admins were in over their heads. The organization was poor and they couldn’t keep up. So I just wrote them a polite private message saying I was quitting the club. Don’t waste your time and effort on something that isn’t beneficial or fair.

My advice: book clubs are great for meeting like-minded authors. Some of my best friendships on Wattpad, I made thanks to those clubs. We sometimes decided to keep reading each other’s stories even though the assignment was over. And I haven’t even mentioned feedback, but of course if an honest opinion on your writing is what you’re looking for, book clubs are a great option. There are some amazing authors on Wattpad who are excellent at giving constructive criticism. Again, do your homework and find the book clubs best suited to this.

Following

You’ll find all sorts of behaviors on Wattpad. Some people are very picky with their follows. And some people follow an extremely high number of authors, in the hopes that some of them will follow back. And some of them do. But I don’t believe this to be a good strategy on the long term, because you’re following people for the wrong reasons. And the ones following you back are doing it simply because they think it’s the polite thing to do. It doesn’t mean they have any real interest in you or your stories.

My Advice: when someone follows you, check out their profile. Read their bio, look at their stories, their reading lists. Just try to see if you could be a good fit. Try to always write them a thank you message for following you. Maybe read a few paragraphs of their story before following back. If you like what you see, you can not only follow back but offer to check out each other’s work. At least then you know you’re genuine about it.

When you become famous on Wattpad, it’s most likely impossible to keep doing this. It would be way too time consuming to study each new follower’s profile. But hey, if you’re already at that point, then you probably don’t need help anymore. The same goes for a famous Wattpad author you’ve decided to follow, by the way. Don’t ask them to read your story. Chances are they don’t have time and hate getting those kinds of requests.

Chapter Dedication

This isn’t a big point, but I’m still mentioning it because I think it’s important. For each chapter you post, Wattpad allows you to dedicate that chapter to another user. This is another way to strengthen connections with your fellow users, especially those who show prior support.

My Advice: when someone takes the time to read, vote, and comment on your story, consider dedicating a chapter to them. It’s easy to do and they’ll get a notification. It’s a small gesture that is often appreciated, and the person might feel more inclined to continue reading, knowing you appreciate what they’re doing. I would advise against dedicating a chapter to someone who hasn’t read your story yet. It might just make them feel uncomfortable. Unless they did something for you or the story, like graphics or a book cover, then it’s completely appropriate.

Share Your Story

In the Community/Clubs section of Wattpad, you’ll find a list of all the genres. For each genre, you have the Share your story thread. This is the only place where you get to just plainly advertise your story. They give you the link to post your book cover’s image. You can include a brief text about your story, like the blurb or anything else you’d like to say. If you’re in the market for read for reads, you can tell people about that too.

My Advice: to be honest, I don’t think it’s that useful to share your story on there. I still do it from time to time, because it’s easy and quick, and I figure, who knows? Maybe someone will stumble upon it and I’ll get a new reader or meet a new author. But I just don’t think it happens that often. I think only authors actually go there. To post their story. Then they leave. So we’re all just doing the same thing, and hoping for that same other thing. But, oh well.

Review Books

A lot of people on Wattpad create their very own review book (or critique book), where they talk about stories they liked or didn’t like. Usually, when they’re open for business, they’ll have a form you can fill out. If they accept you, they’ll start reading your story, or place you on their waiting list. These people usually get a lot of requests. If there’s an author you admire opening a brand-new review book, don’t wait. Apply right away. Otherwise their waiting list gets ridiculously long, and they might never get to you.

There’s usually a payment. They’ll ask for a follow, or they’ll ask you to read a few chapters of their story, leaving a comment and a vote if you liked it. If they actually read your entire story and take the time to write a thorough review on it, then that payment is the least you can do. You should definitely honor it.

My Advice: here, too, it’s important to do your homework. If you have more than five, or more than ten chapters up, and you want a reviewer who’ll read the whole thing, that might be harder to find. Most of them only read a few chapters. And if you can, go and read a few of the reviews they’ve already written. Some reviewers are harsh and blunt, while others go easy on people. If you like their style and the way they do things, then apply. If you don’t, save yourselves both the trouble.

Awards

There are so many different awards and contests on Wattpad. In the beginning, I was enthusiastic and entered a lot of them. Now I’m rather picky. But it’s okay to experiment.

Awards will offer prizes for the winners, of course. Take a look at those; if all they offer is a sticker and you don’t care about stickers, don’t bother. Sometimes they’ll offer interesting prizes, like a follow from each admin as well as honest reads and feedback on the winning stories. It’s worth looking into and reading the awards’ description page carefully.

My Advice: I would advise being wary of contests that ask you for ridiculous things, like following the admins and all their Wattpad friends. When you discover more Wattpad awards, you’ll realize that sometimes they don’t ask you for anything at all.

Look for judge-based awards. The more judges, the better. And if the admins ask the potential judges to pass a test before accepting them, even better. Look for experienced admins. Maybe it’s their second or third time organizing an award on the site. You’ll have a better chance of your story getting read and judged fairly.

The Hot List

Each genre has a hot list. One day you might wake up and see that your story is ranking on the hot list for the first time, and you’ll get all excited. Maybe your story is #800 on the hot list. Then the next day, it’s gone. Three days later, it’s #625 and you’re excited all over again.

What I’ve noticed is the amount of votes your story gets on a given day is a factor. I think in general the activity your story is getting plays a part in its ranking too. On top of votes, maybe reads and comments matter too. I honestly can’t say for sure.

My Advice: some book clubs are helpful in getting a higher ranking on that list, because they have a rotating system. Each week, a few members’ books get read by all the other members. So if it’s your story’s turn, you get a lot of votes and reads, all at once. The ranking climbs higher. If you reach the top 200, chances are a few readers browsing the genre will stumble upon your story.

That’s how I started getting a few readers who are only readers. It’s a happy moment when that happens, because let’s face it, that’s what authors truly want. But there’s a lot of work involved in being visible to those readers. Your story won’t just magically appear on the hot list’s top 200 on its own.

Being Featured

So yeah, being featured is one of the best things that can happen to a Wattpad author. Your story gets advertised everywhere on the site and you’re at the top of that awesome Featured List in the Browsing section. Readers are finding you, a lot of them.

My Advice: the sad thing is, there’s nothing you can do. You can only wait and hope that someone from the staff notices your story and decides it deserves to be featured. I guess if you’re already doing all that other stuff, and being active on the website generally, you have a higher chance of your story getting discovered.

If it does happen, then that’s great. It never happened to me, but it happened to some of my Wattpad friends and I can tell you that their amount of reads and followers skyrocketed. In two weeks, one of them went from 2K to 20K reads, and from around 100 followers to over 800.

So there you have it, that was my little piece of knowledge. I’m sure other people have different strategies, but since these have been working out for me so far, I thought I’d share them with you.

More than anything—and I can’t stress this enough—write what you’re passionate about. And if you haven’t found what that is yet, ask yourself this: What kind of story do you wish was out there? What would you want to read that doesn’t exist right now?

That should be a good place to start and once you write it, the above strategies will hopefully help you connect with others who want the story you have to offer!

~By: C.G. Laflamme

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Thank you for reading!

If you enjoyed this content, you might also enjoy the Civilands series and the Tuesday Night Fiction audio book podcast. The series is best described as Game of Thrones meets Gangs of New York meets Manifest Destiny. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and feel free to subscribe at the bottom of the page for more blog updates.

August Autobiographic Author Audit

“Is August really almost over already?” Yes. And it’s time for an author audit!

I’ve heard that question repeated a bunch in the past week and I’m just as surprised and/or in denial about it as any of them. On the one hand, football and hockey season is right around the corner! On the other hand, how can 2017 already be more than halfway over!?

Seeing as how this is the case though–and considering that I am officially 1 year into my author journey–I figured this would be a good time to update my progress on all fronts.

Some pretty beach somewhere. Author audit!

Manuscript Writing

I’m currently in the line edit phase of book 2: Crystal Eyes and still on track to release on 11.01.2017, or possibly even a little earlier. I’m also working on a short, prequel story that I’ll be posting on my various channels. It will feature Dominic Turner and the working title is The Illusionist’s Tale. Extremely excited about both and can’t wait to publish!

Script Writing

While this has taken just a bit of a backseat to manuscript writing and platform development, I am making good progress so far on episode 1 of the series. It has been really fun to learn screen writing and translating the book into a screenplay. In a way, it’s almost like writing another story entirely. More on this in the future once some other processes wind down.

Amazon

I recently did my first giveaway on Amazon and ran it alongside sponsored product advertising, which resulted in 40 copies moved over what was essentially a weekend. With my strategy here being to get as many copies of Crimson River read (and hopefully reviewed!) before the release of Crystal Eyes, I considered this move a win.

Wattpad

I’ve wanted to provide a full update as a follow-up to my post about starting off on Wattpad, but I’m still giving it more time to learn the ropes. For now I’ll say that I’ve really enjoyed the creativity of so many users on this site and the community around sharing stories! I think this is a great platform for getting reads, feedback, and just finding like-minded people in general. Like I said, more in-depth details to come, but so far so good.

Goodreads

There’s still a lot for me to learn about how to effectively leverage this site. I did recently get a new review, a couple of “to-read” designations, some new friends, and joined some lists. While I am making progress there for sure, I know there’s still so much more ground to gain. I think, like anything, it will be a slow accumulation over time–especially since this is a social media for book reading. For now though, I’m going to try to focus more on the groups, making friends by reading along with those who have similar interests. Like with Wattpad, I will probably provide an end-of-year progress report and, “what I’ve learned,” post for this site alone with more progress.

YouTube

As stated in my first Enter Civilands video (in all honesty, my first real, solo YouTube channel video EVER) I’m thrilled to be getting started on there. Not only is it a fun way to connect with people by getting passive face-time, but being involved with film of any kind is quenching my screenwriting thirst–even if only in a small way for now. Talking about a world I built and love makes it even better 😉 Obviously I’m still brand new and learning the ropes, so further updates later.

Twitter

I’m gonna be honest here… I’m not really a big fan of Twitter. Maybe I should be and maybe I will be over time. But right now it’s kind of the last social media I use for authoring. That being said, I like using GIF’s a lot. If every post could be just GIF’s I wouldn’t complain.

If you have any thoughts on any of the above, let me know what you think. Otherwise, thanks for reading and hope your enjoying the Civilands series!