Star Wars Writing Tips and Tricks.

Titling Your Future Star Wars Story.

So you have an idea, but don't know what to call it. You want something to stand out and not be overlooked by prospective readers. Essentially, you want readers to believe that your book is the only one worth reading in their limited free time.

So how do you do that...?

Flashy covers will help you.
Sadly, the old adage that states 'Never judge a book by its cover,' is completely false and it is especially true on Wattpad, where most people may only give your book a 3 second glance if it doesn't have a decently designed cover no matter how much time and effort you have put into it or how amazing it might actually be.

I am guilty of this as charged.

There are hundreds of people on here who are willing to make covers for fellow authors to use, usually for a small fee that is typically a shout-out in the pre-face/first chapter, acknowledgement that the cover was made by them in the description and/or a follow from their customers. This is the usual and each artist may have different requirements when they make and give you a cover for your book. Check with them before you use.

Attention-grabbing words are a must.
You want to snare your reader in at a quick glance and to do that, you are going to need a short, sharp, attention-grabbing title.

And some words are going to be better than others in this sense of grabbing the readers attention in an instant.

Forbidden immediately grabs people's attention, as we are inextricably drawn towards the forbidden, unless it's in the Star Wars fandom and followed immediately by Love. You've probably just lost a number of readers with that simple second word. A title of Forbidden Love in the Star Wars fandom is likely to make people move on to the next story in the line up.

Why?

Because there are a million and three other stories that share the same title and premise as you. All Star Wars fans learn quickly that attachment is forbidden for the Jedi, and love is a form of attachment which subsequently makes almost all Jedi love stories forbidden love stories. Hence why it is only logical to chose a title such as this to reflect it, but this inevitably makes it seem like a carbon copy of the last Forbidden Love story that a Star Wars reader saw just moments ago in the same recommended list.

Dictionaries and Thesauruses are your friends!
You may be hoping that you never have to see one of those again outside of an English classroom, but I will tell you right now that they will definitely save your ass on that literary work you've been ignoring lately. And, since we spend so much time on our devices, Dictionary.com, which also includes Thesaurus.com, is a completely free app that allows you to spice up your titles.

But, as my best and favourite English teacher would say, "Check the word you plucked from the thesaurus actually means the same as the word you are replacing it with."

Descriptions can be the make or break.
Professionally known as a blurb, this is what people read in order to decide whether or not to give your story a go, assuming that they were hooked by the cover and title. A description/blurb allows you to further hook readers into racking up those read counts.

This gives just enough away to allow a reader to want to know what happens, but does not tell them how it actually ends. Frequently, they will end with a question that is either answered or explored throughout the book.

That being said...

Don't write synopsises!
A synopsis is basically a description of the entire story which includes how it ends, thus causing readers to lose all interest in your story and just skip along until the part where, essentially, shit goes down. They aren't really reading then and just looking at how the fallout occurred or, worse still, will simply move on without any curiosity as to how you crafted this story so that the scenario described happened.

Correctly categorising improves reads.
This is almost a no brainer. If you put something in the wrong category, then readers who love paranormal are going to be mystified as to why there is this lonely and random poetry or nonfiction book there as well and will likely skip over it to read what they like/prefer.

Tag! You're it!
Like the categories above, tags allow your story it be discovered by a wider audience. If someone is looking for a particular tag, take swr for example, then books with this tag will appear in their search, one or more of which might be yours. If you hook them because of a tag, then they may only be looking for instances of this specific tag but a well written story may hook them to reading it from start to finish.

You have a maximum of 25 tags for each of your books nowadays, an upgrade from the 20 tags that I began writing with, so make the most of them to reach the widest possible audience who will potentially read your story.

Are Mature stories acceptable for Star Wars?
Mature stories, specifically ones involving sexual themes, are most certainly an acquired taste that will unfortunately limit your accessible audience. I see no problems with writing Mature Star Wars stories, so long as the warnings are in big bold letters in both the tags and a preface to the story that warns prospective readers who many be uncomfortable with certain topics and themes. Many readers will also appreciate warnings at the tops of each chapter before they commence reading the chapter as a warning to them.

Another requirement I'd like to stipulate before you may go and write something like this, is to keep it realistic and remember that these sorts of things do still happen across the globe. So, if you decide to include a mental illness, abusive relationship, domestic violence or something of the sort, be sensitive and seriously research the topic as to not have someone breathing down your neck for incorrect portrayal and normalisation of something that should be totally unacceptable.

You can, and almost certainly will, be reported to Wattpad for the normalisation of such actions like abuse and domestic violence in stories.

You have your title, blurb and tags, as well as a mature rating if necessary. What's next?

The next step is to begin planning out your story and then dividing it into chapters for us to read when you update. Let your creativity flow and see where it will take you and your story on the path to being complete.

But alas, even with all the cool ideas now sprouting from your mind about the Star Wars stories you will now go create and the stories you will tell with them, we must inevitably make mention of the dangers that arise with the use of clichés...

Next up, Dangers of Clichés in Stories...