Star Wars Writing Tips and Tricks.

The Readership of Star Wars.

A dedicated readership is necessary in Star Wars fanfics like in all other types of stories to make them something more in the eyes of their audiences. But how do you engage them in your story specifically?

Well, here are a few tips and suggestions to enable greater readership outreach, though I can't guarantee that they'll work for everybody.

Understanding your intended audience.

Understanding the audience that will be reading and engaging with your works is important as it helps influence the style and tone in which you write your story.

A story aimed at 3-4 year-olds will be very different to one aimed at 13-14 year-olds to one aimed at 33-34 year-olds.

Additionally, some 13-14 year-olds many only want to read high intensity Sci-Fi action-adventure novels whereas 33-34 year-olds may prefer slow building spaghetti Western forbidden romances.

Or vice versa, you never really know until you hit publish.

Having a vague idea about what your intended audience would enjoy to read and engage with helps form the basis of how the story will be told tonally and with style.

Quality over Quantity.

This is an age old adage where works will be admired for their quality rather than their quantity. Sure you could have 50 stories on your profile, but if 3/4 of them are unfinished and only have 1 or 2 chapters out, it tells readers that you aren't dedicated enough to sticking a project through and give us the tale that was promised in the blurb/description the time of day to make it realised. 

You also cannot write the perfect novel overnight. I know, sucks right? But if you write the best version that you can in that moment, you can draw readers in with your own unique style.

Maybe when you go back and look at it in a few months or years time you'll think, 'Dear god, what was I think?!' and 'Why did I think that would work?!', even if the story got many reads and votes and was praised by your readers.

And that's okay! You're still refining your craft. Reread your story, rework it so that it flows smoother, refine it for ease of reading, but don't doubt yourself and stop before starting.

This is only your first draft of the work so write it with the same passion that drives you to want to finish and properly publish a book on the shelves. You never know where it might get you in the Wattpad community.

Consistency.

This is something I struggle with as I lose motivation, get distracted by another project and have limited free time with everything that goes on in and around my life.

But having a consistent publishing schedule, whether that is once or multiple times a day, a week, a month, because the consistency makes readers eager for the next instalment of your work.

For example, RoosterTeeth.com has released a new season of Red vs Blue from April to September since 2003, with one episode airing a week earlier for RoosterTeeth First members.

Once I work out what day that is, within hours of it being available to non-First members, I would see the new episodes, though I have now begun to wait for the season to finish first before I binge watch them.

The same goes for their other popular series RWBY, which typically airs from October to March every year since 2013.

Reader Engagement:
In Comments and Following.

Engaging with readers in the comment sections of your books and following your favourite authors enables you build a network of communication and give your readers a reason to come back and read further into the lives of your story's characters.

This is not an invitation to go and start a flame war, but readers can give you ideas that you'd never thought of that work with the established canon of your universe. If you give them the time of day, then you may find yourself with a better story than what you originally started out with.

Conversely, readers shouldn't spam the author to update faster as this can decrease the quality of the work, make the author feel pressured into having to write more for less and just make the whole book and process feel tiresome and not worth continuing.

And finally, Be Active.

In order to encourage readers to follow and enjoy your content, you need to been seen as being active and engaging in the community that you are writing.

This puts your name out there and gets you recognised by the community as one with knowledgeable information and credibility that will draw people in to read your works.

Now, not all of this is guaranteed to work for you and something's may not feel worth it, but the most important piece of advice I believe in this chapter is the consistent update schedule, because of the algorithms used by Wattpad when presenting stories to potential readers on the home screen.

Tell me how you would/do engage with your readership and make them want to come back for more every time.

Next, we delve into how to irk a readership with the annoying little habits of many of us Wattpad authors.

Feedback is greatly appreciated, and further topic suggestions are always open!