Retribution | A Writer at Heart

If I had an advocate like Jaskier to sing my praises, I’d hope he’d sing, “Toss a rating to your writer, oh readers a’plenty, oh readers a’plenty!” And now congratulations, if you’ve seen Netflix’s Witcher, you probably have a certain song stuck in your head ;) What can I say, except you’re welcome! :D

Today marks the launch of Chronicles of the Sentinels 2, Retribution, and I’m so excited to present this newest chapter of Sentinels to the world!

But as a writer, there’s one thing I often struggle with – ratings. The struggle is real ;) and except for the most famous of them all, just about every writer out there knows the struggle.

I mean, sure, there’s all sorts of purported hacks and tricks out there to being a successful writer (one of which is to write and publish a new novel every month. That’s ludicrous and unsustainable!) But the one thing that everyone can agree upon, including statistics, is that ratings and reviews make or break a writer.

That is to say, no ratings breaks a writer, dozens or hundreds makes a writer.

I wrote about it before, but an analysis shows that a reader that has to choose between one book with ten 5-star ratings, or a book with one hundred or one thousand 3- or 4-star ratings, will choose the latter almost every time. There’s a bias involved, but as someone who doesn’t study statistics and behavior, I don’t know what that bias is called. Even though the latter book has worse ratings, it has more of them, and that makes a reader more likely to try it.

As this article I read not long ago points out, there’s an even greater reason ratings have become more important than ever. “…the slush pile (unfortunately) has been dumped into the reader’s lap. There are a lot of bad books out there.” The author goes on to say, “Want to know the bigger problem? There are a lot of good books out there.”

Ratings help readers find the good ones.

So to all of you avid readers out there, but especially to my fellow writers out there, your ratings are important. Your reviews even more-so. Do your writers a favor and toss a rating to your writer.

We’ll love you for it :)

Retribution Available Everywhere!

Don’t forget to snag your copy of Retribution, available today!

In 2020, thanks to all of the lock downs and days off from work, I was able to do what I’d never done before – write three novels in one year!

When it came time to write the second novel in the Chronicles of the Sentinels trilogy, I knew I had to do it right. Too often, I’ve read or watched trilogies in which the middle story was just filler, and did little to advance the story or characters. I’ve also heard people say they hate when all middle stories do is focus on inter-character relationships and don’t give enough action, adventure, or plot development.

So I looked to one of the most famous, and well-liked middle stories of all for inspiration – The Empire Strikes Back.

Except, back then, when I started analyzing Empire to try to figure out what made it work so well, I was a bit confounded.

What Makes A Great Story?

So what makes a great story? Honestly if you can find a Universal answer to that question, you’ll be rich for life ;) But one of the things that is drilled into a writer’s head from the moment they take any creative writing classes or go to any peer events like writer critique meetings is that of a character achieving a major goal.

When it comes to genre fiction like fantasy, this can come in many forms, but often is through action-packed sequences of daring adventure and trying battles against the forces of evil.

But in the end, the good guys win, and get what they were striving for in that story…right?

Except, that didn’t happen in Empire Strikes Back.

The good guys didn’t win. At all. The best they did was survive.

I mean, yeah that’s an accomplishment, given the forces that were arrayed against them. But they didn’t defeat the Empire. They didn’t destroy any weapons or win a strategic victory or gain ground. In fact, they lost ground. They lost an important ally. They lost far more than they won.

So what made it work? What makes it so popular compared to the other Star Wars movies? (And yes, I know it isn’t everyone’s favorite, but it is definitely super popular.)

The Right Combination – Action, Character, Plot

Luke learns the ways of the Force. Han and Leia fall in love. Luke learns about his father. There’s a healthy dose of sci-fi action, fantastic music, amazing set pieces. And the fact that our heroes are never safe until the very end (and even then, one of them isn’t safe,) leaves the audience on the edge of their seats throughout.

Empire was the right combo of all of that and more.

It also expertly built upon the fact that these characters were already established. Other than introducing one new protagonist more than halfway through, it didn’t have to focus on establishing new characters like A New Hope did. It also didn’t act like the protagonists hadn’t changed or hadn’t gone through more adventures between the first and second movie. They were already different at the beginning of Empire, and they all changed again by the end of the movie.

It also didn’t rehash the story from A New Hope, something far too many sequels do (I’m looking at you, Ready Player Two.)

In short, Empire Strikes Back made all the right moves, hit all the right beats, and not only satisfied the audience with quality story telling, it left them wanting more (what happens to Han? Do they rescue him?)

Retribution – Striking the Right Chord

Legacy introduced the characters for Sentinels, the Universe, the stakes. So when it came time to write Retribution, I knew that I would try to hit all those same beats that Empire Strikes Back did. I didn’t have to introduce the characters, and this allowed me to hit the ground running (literally….page one, Chris is running) and allowed me to give the characters more room to develop and grow.

And while I didn’t intentionally mean to make it so much like Empire as I did, in the end of the book, the characters survive. That is their biggest accomplishment.

But not their only one. Of course, what victory they do celebrate, I’ll not spoil ;) But it was a link to Legacy, integrating the first book while setting the stage for the third, all while telling its own story.

Plus the villain has their own victory to celebrate in the end.

If I did my job right, Retribution will be even more popular than Legacy. And it definitely will leave you wanting more!

Don’t Forget to Pre-Order!

Thanks for reading, and if you’re ready to continue the journey with Chris and the Sentinels, don’t forget to pre-order your copy of Retribution today! Retribution comes out on February 19th, 2022.

Kindle Edition
Amazon Print
Barnes & Noble Print

-Jon Wasik

Trials and triumphs of writing, finding an agent, and publication.