Review: Escape From Benzor

Escape From Benzor by S.A. Krishnan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was longing to read a really good science fiction for a long time and then I stumbled upon this book. Well I must say author has done really nice job working with the characters, scenes and technical aspects in the book. I felt like reading a star trek version of a book. I am pretty much sure if you are star trek fan, you might love this book. All of those Inter-Planetary stuff will excite you and keep you guessing.

I really enjoyed reading it throughout but there were a lot of confusions with the new-worldly terms and things that were mentioned in the book. I wish there could be a glossary to decipher the meanings of those things. Apart from that, I was able to get many terms by the time I finished the book that had me confused and head scratching in the beginning.

Narration was brilliant and the writing style was enjoyable. There were areas, I felt it could've been more engaging but well it might be just me. I'd recommend this book to geeks or the ones who like reading geeky, techie and suspense filled books. It is the first book in series so I am excited to see what will be coming in future releases.

I'd classify it as one of the hidden gems, try it and you will love it.

Buy this book on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2qt22zb


If you like reading quirky and mind tickling stuff do subscribe to the blog by clicking here (Don't worry its free :P)

If you are an Author and want to get your book reviewed do fill this form up and let me know the details.

View all my reviews

Kaleidoscope is Selected in The Best of 2017 Author Websites

It's not every morning when you get up and have an email in your inbox saying ," Dhawal,

First off, a huge congratulations! We've selected Kaleidoscope as one of the top author websites of 2017! We were suggested over 1500 author blogs to review. It took awhile, but we went through them all and pulled together the final list of blogs that we felt were the highest quality and most unique. A huge congratulations! Out of the thousands of sites, you made the list!

The top 45 we selected were all so high quality that it was very difficult to rank them; every blog selected here is of extremely high quality."

A hearty Thanks to all of you lovely readers who supported me and this humble abode over internet. 

Another good news that many of you might know that I have now upgraded from itskaleidoscope.blogspot.com to a new domain DhawalJoshi.in and added a few more things like subscription options to blog which will update you whenever I push a mind-tickling post here. Nothing's much changed on your side apart from new address name to type in the bar and a nice little internet post-man sending you blog updates in your email inbox.

See the Results of Top Author Websites here : https://commaful.com/play/2017/top-author-websites-of-2017/

You can check their website here : http://thewriterawards.com/

Are you ashamed of yourself?

Heyo! By the title you might have guessed what this time I am gonna write about. But you know the trend on this blog. I am not gonna give you any motivational super-boring lecture but rather a fun and mind tickling read.

Coming to the topic, are you actually ashamed of yourself? I have been within this writing community for a long time now. I made a few very weird observations here on perspectives that people are having. Basically I am going to relate a few things with writing community here as my main message is for them but this also applies to others.

Why are you ashamed of yourself?

We being Indians have seen a lot of people around faking accents. To me, nothing annoys me more than a person who is faking something just because he is ashamed of his own self. We Indians specifically have this tendency to always feel low of our selves because of our English that we received as an hereditary package from British. But as time passed, we have developed our own touch with English.

Most people shame it by calling it as 'Mother toungue Illness' by classifying it as illness. Let me tell you, It's not Illness. This is a very peculiar thing that is going on in our literature community especially. There are people who think we still are going somewhere wrong with our language. They think Literature is something that should be on level of Shakespeare else its rubbish. But they forgot the most important aspect of Literature here i.e. Language. Language changes with people, with time. I have seen many users classifying them as #GrammarNazis online. But then I laugh as grammar is something with also made by people. Grammar changes with language.

Most of you won't know fun fact about the famous lines that we always use online.

Roses are Red, Violets are blue, ...... blah blah

Well I know most logical nazis will say that violets are violet and not blue. Is that person colour blind? But when this thing was framed, the colour violet wasn't recognised. It was more like a shade of blue. Hence violets are blue here.

I have seen people classifying books as shit and rubbish online, surprisingly they're best selling ones. I know at times marketing nuisances make actual shits famous but well that doesn't apply to all books or art pieces you think. You don't like a thing that doesn't equate to shit always.

Apart from all these things, I personally despise people who despise our own Indian way of English. Even software have Indian English options these days, c'mon we are  in 21st century. India is 2nd largest populated democracy. If you ignored a thing here, language is made for people by people.

Time changes a lot of things and we need to adapt to it. I have a few friends who think Victorian Era literature is only thing that we can call as books rest other is shit. My friend I am sorry to say your head is filled with shit. I have never said that thing before ever on my blog posts, but this time I needed to say this.

I know this Indian Author, until she got published herself, when someone asked her about what did she read and why? Her answers used to be, I don't read Indian authors, because they write shit. and after her own anthology got published the opinion changed to, I discovered that not all Indian Authors write shit. You know How many times I have facepalmed on this thing?

I know there's a term popular for these people which you might already have guessed it in your heads and I won't write it down. Samajhdaar ko Ishara Kafi hota hai.(A Hint is good enough for the Wise )

Even more ridiculed I am right now because every wannabe I meet across this community turns out to be same ideology beholder. The issue isn't when they keep these ideologies with them, Issue is when they make actions based on these ideologies. They demotivate people, here good writers. I have discovered many really good writers during my Wattpad Journey. I may not have written many things myself but I have read a lot. I don't judge others usually but this was something I had in my mind for very long. How shallow minded can anyone be?

Only thing I would like to tell such people, If you aren't happy with things around you, don't demotivate others.That's the minimum you can do to help yourself and people around you. Secondly I really Hate, if someone says Indian Authors Don't know English or write shit. You my friend should better get off somewhere else because this place isn't for you.

Apart from that, I want to end this with a positive note. Remember the story of the Ugly Duckling,for those who don't know, it's a classic children's tale that you can google up. You will come across a many people in your life. Most haters will disguise themselves as critics, but trust me, a critique will try to improve your skill by giving a solution. If their opinion isn't providing any solution they aren't a critique, its just a hater. Mean comments and haters are like black spot on a white board. No matter how white the board will be, our focus will be somehow on that black spot. I'd say everyone is unique, people wait for something unique always. You can't eat pasta and burger with same flavour all your life. The same way you can't follow cliched old trends all your life. With time you need to adapt, you need to change and most importantly you need to grow. Because nature doesn't wait for anyone and it only makes the best survive.
 -------------------------

If you like this place over Internet then click here to subscribe to my blog. Why? because its free :P

Rangolis with Mom

You know what is the best part of Diwali? Some will say Fireworks, Some will say sweets, Some will say lights, but nah I'd say its the Rangoli. One of the most beautiful forms of the art which comes out from hibernation during the time of Diwali. Rangoli is an ancient form of art which is been done on special occasions usually by females of the house.
A Typical Rangoli is made on a brown canvas, which is made by using a soft red rock like chalk traditionally called gheru in the local language. Then using white powder called charodi/chirodi in the local languages a basic outline or a sketchy framework for design is made in which we later on fill in the colours. There are various forms of rangoli some of which are sanskar style, classic dot form, the flower rangoli  and the modern artistic ones.
I still remember me being a 5 yr old, observing mum making rangoli outside our house. I kept watching it with awe when it was finished. My mum's actually super skilled at the traditional dot-style rangolis . Since then, as I grew up, I kept observing and learning from her. Then slowly one day I asked her if I could help her out. She smiled at me, took a little dish and poured some white powder into it from her dish and handed it out to me. She said, " Try some of your own in that little corner at first." I let a frown and stared at her for a while and then being grumpy me I said, "I wanna help in this one."
She smiled and said,"But for learning you need to try out there first and then I'll see if you do any good then I'll allow you to work with me in this one." At that moment, I felt like my self respect was hurt and I was challenged. Since I loved challenges even as a child, I began my drawing my own separate rangoli beside hers. Every day, during each of the diwali seasons. I used to do that. It felt as if I was mentally competing with her. Each time I made my own and then frowned when I compared that with my mom's. Hers used to flawless and perfect. Each line precise and dots straight in line whereas mine were like some ants were crawling by. But that 5 yr old me never left hope. Each year I tried to do better than ever.

I was 10 yrs old, again it was the diwali season. I finished mine and asked mum, "how's it?" with a broad smile plastered on my face filled with satisfaction of my completed 'picasso' style artwork. My smile turned into frown when she said, "It's Okay." I gazed at mine for a while and then had a look at the huge one she was making for diwali. As usual I sat down beside her and began observing. As I rested my chin over the palm she said," Take  this colour and fill it here. In this part." I couldn't believe what I had just heard. I blinked a few times and then realised finally I am working on the main one.
Since that day, till this date every year me and mom together put out some cool designs. Each year we try something new, from traditional to sanskar style to some modern art forms. We always sit together and plan as if we are gonna make a architect plan for some building. Which colour? In What combination, Which style should we do? what size etc etc. I know many of you would be thinking being a boy I am into rangolis. Well to be honest, art doesn't go by sexes and its joy of making and creating something awesome that pleasant to eyes that inspires me to do that.
Below are a few pics of Rangolis which me and mom have made.

This one isn't mine but just added coz I liked it.

How To Train Your Wife - Satire

Hello!

I know I am pretty late with a blog post this time, but I am trying to be more active in my writings. I along with that if you might have noticed, I also changed the commenting box so that anyone of you can comment with or without any IDs. Well people who don't have any accounts can also now leave their feedback on posts. So feel free to leave out your opinions and lets have a cool interaction.

While I was scrolling through my Facebook Feed a few weeks back, I found a very interesting article written by one of my close buddies. So I just messaged her to send the that article, so that I can let it out to much bigger audience.

Below I am now upload that article 'as it is' So feel free to drop down your comments, I am pretty sure you'll have a lot of things to be shared.

~*~*~*~

A/N: This was a draft written for an Eng. Comp class I had. Information cited on this page was accurate as of November 9, 2016. I do not endorse spousal physical/mental/emotional abuse. This satire was not written to make you buckle with laughter. I am satisfied with your level of forewarning. You may proceed. ;p

How to Train Your Wife

After many revisions post 1923, the 1982 Equal Rights Amendment declared that women are equivalent to men. However, thriving marriages cannot function while wives claim equal rights. Unsuccessful unions with balanced spousal power are conveyed by the increasing rate of divorce. There must be a leader, a head of the household, someone that takes the reigns in tough situations. Patriarchy must be restored.

In the past, a woman’s role in culture was fair, practical, and uncomplicated. Sensible explanations concluded husbands governed income and the house, so a wife’s place was simply attending it and the children. Ideology shifted in the twenty-first century. However, the same crucial, undeniable facts demand acknowledgement and acceptance. Females are physically inferior, which explains why 84.7% of men compose the military and 88% of the police force nationwide. Women are not as decisive as men, raising issues when affirming her family’s needs. As it stands, with the 20% wage gap, females (especially minorities) cannot financially support a family as well as their male counterpart. Perhaps the most compelling argument is that religions, such as Catholicism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all support patriarchy. Scripture in Ephesians proclaims that managing the household is a God-given right and duty bestowed upon a man.

Society injects women with atrocious notions that they can accomplish anything a man can. The majority of these encouraging snakes are executive women who have no idea what labor and commitment it takes to be a real, suitable leader! Absurd morals prompt feminists to rob traditional authority from men. Modern women are less compliant and reluctant to submit themselves to their partner. These beliefs must revert lest girls run the world. I guarantee things will return to the way they were before the 1980s–when laws first began restricting a husband’s power to maintain domestic order. After all, a woman should know what trains women faster. Control and tenacity are necessary components to paving the relationship. Repentance and repetition are the two r’s of any enduring union.

To establish a prosperous marriage, transition complete sovereignty to the husband. While cementing merited supremacy, control must be assertive and unrelenting. Any man that hopes to survive in today’s world must lay down laws. Women view vulnerability as a prime opportunity to challenge every verdict. I cannot stress the utmost importance of setting the bride into line as soon as possible. It behooves new grooms to enforce two fundamental laws: Address men with honor and humility. Subservience is non-negotiable.

If she struggles with rational, remain indefatigable and resort to physical measures. Do whatever is necessary. As women are progressively pig headed, I recommend grand intimidation tactics. For optimum effectiveness, encroach the wife’s space. Tower, point, scream, and shout. Let it all out. Females are biologically programmed to cower, so once she does, a strong male mustn't capitulate and coddle. Witnessing the weaker gender frightened may be afflicting, but women are mistresses of manipulation and may initially whimper as a ploy. That is why husbands must remain tenacious during discipline.

Repentance seems counter-productive since women always instigate drama. (Sometimes they just deserve harsh, intimate retribution for outright insolence.) However, females operate complex mind games. Thus, an intelligent husband can appreciate uttering "sorry"––accompanied by chocolates and flowers (whatever ensures her interest)––automatically coaxes forgiveness towards “cruel,” corrective measures. Modern women worship men who graciously admit (false) blame and will work to be better for their faithful lover. Perhaps these gestures will inspire her to concede; she'll realize she was wrong all along.

Zig Ziglar once said, "Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.” This is particularly the case for females. These techniques require frequent reinforcement. Drill proper commandments and mannerisms into her brain for a lasting foundation. If she cannot recite them in her sleep, all this invaluable training is in peril.
Be paranoid for her safety; install cameras to capture every room just in case someone dares to corrupt her studying. Limit contact with outside parties to reduce temptation. Exercise consistent comeuppance. In no time, a tamed and tempered wife will humbly serve at her rightful place. I urge adherence to these instructions, but intensify lessons until the woman is fit.
Order will resettle in homes. Wives will have wired household laws into their brain while regarding their man with flickering, wide, revering eyes. Freely confessing guilt for every flaw, they will dutifully volunteer for appropriate punishments. In this type of healthy environment, husbands can reflect on their resolute control, their unquestionable tenacity, their repenting wife, and subtle need for repetition.

About Author:

Hi, I’m Mel! As a full-time student and part-time guardian of aquatic life in the deep blue chlorine ((aka, professional people watcher aka lifeguard)), if not otherwise engaged, I'll be in my bedroom making no noise and pretending that I don't exist. ;P To close, I’ll leave you with my life-long credo: fries before guys. Now, I politely interrupt your leisure to report a hungry.  =^._.^=

How to Support Your Favourite Author 101

I've been receiving messages saying, I'm your fan, I really enjoy reading your books, When you're publishing you next book and so on. Then when I ask them if they had bought a copy of my book, the conversation slowly goes awkward and then turns into How many copies did I sell? Well, for the first instance thanks a lot for supporting and taking interest in my book sales, much appreciated.

I know many of us first search for pirated books of our favourite authors online and if we don't find any we just ask our friends if they had them. I know there'll be several ones who wouldn't be able to afford books by themselves, but Piracy  isn't a way out to it.

So here I am bringing you a list of tips that you can do to support your favourite authors and encourage them to write more. Everyone needs motivation don't they? Just they're published doesn't mean they're super duper millionaires right now.

1. Try to buy books legally and don't support piracy. I know many of you'll say why to pay for something that's already available on Internet for free. This is something that you won't understand until and unless you yourself publish your work and put yourself out to people.
2. I know paperbacks can be costly and some publishers over charge for copies. You can opt for Ebooks which are I think almost 1/4th of the original paperback's cost. Even Ebook is a published book. Some people count it as nothing. Talking about Ebooks, do you remember those save paper campaigns? I don't think I need to write an article on advantages of an EBook.
3. Please don't opt for piracy as far as possible, get 2/3 reader friends, contribute and buy a copy that you can share amongst yourselves.
4. Even if you any how fail to buy a legit copy and go for pirated copies, at least promote the book over socials, give it some reviews on Goodreads, support the author while you can.
5. If the author is your friend, mom, dad, brother, sister, anyone close, Please don't ask for free copies. I know this sounds weird but who'll support if you won't? When you buy copies it increases the sales graph and book sales rank rises. There's absolutely no issue in giving free copies but when author buys the copy himself it doesn't account in any sales.
6. Free copies distribution to people is a mere gimmick for authors and an earning trick for publishers so in that way they earn something even if the author doesn't do good in market. By this way of authors buying their own books, publishers are getting their cut but poor author ends up paying for his own stuff.
7. Never ask an Author how much did he sell, it's like asking someone how much he/she earns.
8. Getting published doesn't mean we are millionaires itself. It takes time, people need to buy, read, support, appreciate.
9. If you want to read, and are given a free copy, please review it and spread it over socials and help author with promotions. It doesn't take much time to just post what you're reading over socials.
10. Last but not the least, please don't support piracy and opt for any library service like Kindle Unlimited, which can be accessed over kindle app on mobiles. When there's a will, there's a way. EBooks are real books as well, just its not on paper, doesn't mean you can treat it like anything.

So these were a few points which I as a newbie author wanted to tell out to my readers. Personally, I always upload my first drafts on Wattpad.com Where people can read and comment on initial drafts. I know it won't be as good as edited and published materials but that's how you can read my books for free and without promoting piracy. Along with that you can comment on it and lemme know what you like and what you don't.

Having fun with the Anonymous feedbacks

Recently there was a huge trend of Anon-feedback websites and apps. At first I was a bit hesitant to try them out. But later when the Sarahah was trending, I thought to give it a try. At first I thought, there'll be haters (keyboard warriors) spamming the inbox as it was totally anonymous but what I got totally surprised me out.

I know many of you will judge me after this, you're free to do that. But trust me this was one of the most fun things that I had tried ever. Generally I have noticed on thing, whenever I am hesitant to try something out, it always turns out to be the best thing I've come across.

So here, I'll be posting some of the messages I had received from you people, who always read and support my work.

In case you were living under the rock and don't know what the whole thing is about, then lemme guide you here. A few weeks back, a trend started with people making accounts on Sarahah.com which helps you to get Anonymous feedback from the people near you, so that you can improve. It's a kind of constructive feedback system, so people are free to say whatever they feel like. For most of the times it was used as a dating site, yet it was a total fun.  The popularity reached so much that the servers were overloaded. If you're reading this and want to give me some feedback/message or ask me something, here's the link -> click here Leave your constructive message for me here.

The thing with this anon feedback system, that I enjoyed is people can say anything they have in their mind. They can tell it to you without fear of being judged. Most of us at times don't say anything to people because we feel the fear of being judged. We feel if we comment we might lose the friend or mess up the relation we had with that person.

Here I am attaching a some messages that I had received. I have answered all of them on my Twitter, don't forget to follow me there.

My Experiences after being published

I know many of you were awaiting this post since a very long time. Well for those who aren't yet aware, last week I published my first Novel via Amazon and is now available as Paperback and Ebook.

Many of the readers approached me with FAQs regarding getting published. I might make a post with FAQs of publishing later, but this post is solely for the experiences I had after getting published. So here I begin with a quote which was rather used as a mantra  at my school.

Winners don't do different things, They do things differently.

 After getting published, new doors opened up for me. It felt like I was in an another world even after most of the things being same. I am not talking about fame or fans here, which is another concept but rather I am talking about the self-respect that you achieve. The proud feeling your parents get, the feeling that their kid did achieved something on their own. The smile that yous see on their faces when they see your achievements. It's just a bliss.

New people started connecting to me, for various reasons. The friend circle broadened but I kinda felt separated from my group of friends who were underdogs. They began avoiding me, and I don't know yet why.

When people write about after-publishing effects online, they always pen down the usual, fame, money, media things. I am not gonna talk about that. It feels as if everyone starts expecting more and more from you. Some unwanted expectations are being tied to your tails. But we are still the same, aren't we?

Before my book, when friends used to meet we used to blabber and rant about college life. But now all they ask is 'hows my book doing? What are the sales?' My social media messages are now more of the standard template I use for promoting my book rather than those mindless bickering we used to have as teens.

People who enjoyed reading your books start asking you when is your next book getting published. I know its a good thing but rather it builds up more pressure, pressure of expectations.

But apart from old friends getting far away, I found some new friends who were supporting me even without knowing me yet. Like imagine someone sharing your posts just like that and you wonder who's this. No, I am not talking about social media marketers (sorry but they're annoying).

All that goes in my mind right now is how to get my book to more people, being the one-man-army, I have to do the marketing as well. Along with that I am also planning for my second book, which will be an Adventurous blend of Sci-fi & Fantasy. You can read its first drafts for free on Wattpad.com

Hayden Mackay & The Forgotten Kingdom - A Wattpad Book Review

Title: Hayden Mackay  & the Forgotten Kingdom.

Author: Jyothi ( @jyothi89 )

Genre / Style / Subgenre: Fantasy/ 1st & 3rd person mix / Action

Link: https://my.w.tt/UiNb/TslHKB5ItA

Tags Used: Action, Adventure, Fiction, Projectfriendzone, Folk, Friendship, Indian, Suspense, Violence, Young Adult.

Review: Hayden Mackay is a young American teen with Indian roots. His life is normal until he loses his parents in a road mishap.

After which a series of events turn the state of the situations completely as a weird stone starts following him everywhere. Also a boy, quite similar of his age starts stalking him, he observes him from a distance and keeps smiling whenever the protaginst notices him.

The story takes twists and turns when Hayden Mackay accidentally burns a hound with his bare hands which was on a rampage.

This is a story of friendship , adventure and supernatural powers making it an interesting read.

Critique: The concept of the story isn't flaunted very well with the blurbs and cover as both need some serious remakes.

Speaking of writing, the author as ensured to make the least of the writing errands and grammar knick-knacks. The language flows smooth and is very well written.

As coming to the plot, the plot and concept idea of the story is really interesting. But the story is snail paced and you need to have lot of patience to see some real action.

The story doesn't take place in any other world but the events are most of the times taking place away from the most human interventions. It gives away a feel of another world and not being some other world actually.

The events takes place in present and kinda reminds me of Harry Potter plot.

The plot sequence is really good until and unless you've the patience to go through it all along as the writer plans a book series. This is the first book in the series and there are a total 3 books uploaded on Wattpad as of now.

Personally I feel it's one of those undiscovered gems which need a Spotlight as this story has some real original plot and might leave you with a happy experience of reading the next book.

How to Judge a Book - Is It a good pick?

Once you made up your mind that you want to read a book, then you're off on Internet either to check some reviews before buying one or go to some book website to order them. Many of the times the reviews are biased or your thinking doesn't match with the reviewer. Many times you follow reviews and get a book, but after reading you feel 'Ah! It's boring', 'Why did I waste my money on this?',' This is not my type'.

It completely spoils your mood when you're soo into a book or waiting for it to arrive and read as the reviews and even the cover and blurb is great but when you open and read the first few pages cuss words leave your mouth. Ah! Don't deny, we all do that and it's okay. After this many will ask me 'how to choose a book?' for them I am writing this post so that you don't end up choosing something that doesn't suit your taste and end up spoling your moods.

The cover and the blurb has a lot of effect on the readers when they are out for choosing a book. Whether you're buying it from a local bookstore or ordering it online. Online at times you can save your money from buying something that looks so promising but isn't your type at all. As many times, some websites allow preview for a few pages to be read to see if the book is really good or not. Some of you may be old school and follow the book bloggers/vloggers. But there's a difference when you see a review buy a blogger and any normal user.

While reviewing the proffesional bloggers mostly avoid harsh terms or most of them time they don't even point out any cons in the work. As many of them go by the line that its someone's hard work and things like that but for them, I would like to say, why would anyone get what you like?

And then there are times when you'll find people writing really crappy reviews all over but if you just see the amount of copies that the book's been sold is really impressive. So when it comes to end, after seeing reviews by bloggers and comments on social media and stuff, you are actually now not in a mood to buy a book.

You suddenly start feeling that nothing's worth a buy or nothing is worth your money. Even if you're on some website like Wattpad you'll feel like nothing suits your taste. It's all crap.

So I wanna share a few tricks that I use while picking my books to read. If you think they're good you can follow them or else the old school methods awaits you ;)

While searching anywhere for a book, the very first thing I would notice is the cover and blurb. Many times the cover and blurb look so promising that you end up buying them, but what if that's nothing something that book actually contains? We'll discuss this after a few topics. So first check if the book and blurb are in sync.

For example : The cover looks proffesional with detailed graphics and eye pleasing but when you get to blurb you'll find the same old tetto-tales which you're not at all interested in.

Many times you'll find cliched stories, honestly as much I've read and experienced, I found cliched stories much more interesting and story filled and juicy as along with the cliched plots they added some wonderful creativity along with it which made even cliched reads enjoyable so I won't say a no no to Romance or Cliche works.

When you feel that okay, now this books looks promising. The blurb says a lot in itself, the way of writing blurb tells you itself the how the book might be. Personally I would refrain overly melodramatic stuff. It would be like a big NO NO for me.

When you're done with blurb and cover and have made up your mind for trying that book out. You think to go and check the reviews. Now see if the reviews and what you felt is in sync or not. Personally I would advise to search for full reviews and refrain from considering some random one word or sentence publicities.

While searching for reviews if you know someone whose thinking matches yours then without any doubt check what they think about it. Else first search reviews for a book which you've already read. In this manner it'll be easier to check if the reviews can be trusted or not. As both reviewers and readers are humans and humans are unique there are chances you feel that the popular reviewer is not posting correct views, but well that's his/her POV and it need not be same for all.

Once you find a reviewer that you feel is good for you then you can check if he/she has reviewed the thing you're buying. If not then dude! Stop overthing and just try it out. WHY BEING SO CONFUSED.

You're not gonna lose or gain the world if you would buy or won't buy a book. As simple as that.

Keep it simple Keep it easy

So folks, that's all for now. I hope you enjoy reading this and do follow me on socials for the updates. 

How Wattpad became more than just an App

With happy new year kind of posts plaguing the internet, I thought about doing something different. Well, 2016 was a kind of special year for me. It was a year full of surprises and thrills like a roller coaster ride. High soaring heights along with deep scary chills were filled throughout the year and now it's finally over.

I am actually awaiting the surprises that are packed in this new year. Along with the year end It was also a year completed on Wattpad. I know officially and technically I had logged into Wattpad for the first time last week of Dec 2015. But I considered it seriously only after March.

So I am sharing my first year at Wattpad Along with my book writing journey with you guys. Jan and Feb were the months I considered Wattpad as just like any other app that you install.

I am a regular tester and try a lot of apps including their beta versions as well. So while scrolling across the play store I came across with this app named Wattpad. At first, I felt like 'Okay! this sounds cool. Let's try this.'

As I logged first time into the app, I was totally disappointed by its interface and design. I know some of you will say its a place for writers. But let me tell you, my internal instincts of a programmer and beta app tester didn't allow me to get impressed at all with the design of the app. That was one of the reasons I did consider the app seriously till March ending.

I hadn't uninstalled it but I didn't even look at it during that time. I was too engrossed with reading published eBooks. As everything has an end, so had my collection. Being a foodie for books kind of a person (i know there's nothing as such, but stop being so nit-picky)  I started my search for new books in Wattpad.

To my astonishment, I came across wildest of book themes and the topics I could ever imagine. Most of the Books I could see were filled with Mafias and their angel romances or Bad Boy-nerd girl romances. I know again people will say making a grumpy face - 'there are a lot of books apart from that on Wattpad' to them I'll reply - 'I know dear!'. But those are the kind of books that still plague my Wattpad recommendations.

So coming back to the story, I started writing my first book which I titled-"Friendship V/S Relationship". Yes as the title suggests It really has a war between Friendship and Love.  As it usually does, A first few chapters went unnoticed. It might have a few reads but everything felt like a waste as I had uploaded more than half of the story by September and it still hadn't completed 1k reads.

But later on during Oct-Nov when I had started editing at bit and uploading the chapters again. My Book hopped up into What's Hot list and that's where the fun part begun in the journey. I completed the book by November and December was one of the best months in my writing journey. The book was completed and it ranked highest in the What's Hot list.

While I was still busy enjoying my new found writing success. I received a message on Wattpad from Wattpad Team. I had applied for Wattpad Ambassadors during Aug-Sept. Well, they really felt that I can be a worthy candidate and I landed up in the "Friends Of Wattpad" Group.

The people and engagements with the Wattpad community are the things that really makes it all special. The stories and imaginative worlds along with the mixture of different communities and people from all over the world makes Wattpad overall more than just a web-portal for me.

As I started engaging more and more with this awesomesauce community Wattpad really became just more than an App for me this year.

I have started writing my second book which is a sci-fi and fantasy mix. I hope it's loved as well.

How to plot an awesome story

Once you have made up your mind that you are going to write a book the very next thing that comes to your mind is what should I write about.

Many time it might have happened that you start writing a book and might have even reached the half way and you just come to know that your plot idea is really boring or someone just has wrote the very same story in much more interesting way.

One of the few most important things that you need to take care about before writing a story is designing a good plot.

A good plot is like a blue print of your story, where you know what the story is going to be before writing it out or you can say plotting it with ink on a paper. I might say it as designing your own creative world where everything happens what you think of.

So here I am presenting you some of the important tips that you need to take care of while creating or designing a plot for your story.

1. First you need to choose a genre before you think about a story line or you can do vice-versa if you already have a story in your mind.

2. Once you have decided a genre you need to think about the things or the sequences of events that you need in your story.

3. If you already had a story in your mind you could skip that point and directly think about the characters that you might need in your story.

4. Always remember to keep a few blank spaces in plot so that you can make changes when you feel like as you get to write the story.

5. Choose the amount of characters only as much as you need. Pull only those characters into highlights that are needed. Don't over do with the characters, that might look like chaos and very difficult for readers as well as you to remember who's what.

6. Ensure that you have at least one Main Character (MC), you can have more than one which totally depends on the type of your story but its advisable to limit the main characters to max 3 or 4.

7. Once you're done with the characters choose the time in which your story exists along with the place you want it to happen.

8. Once you are done with all the points above you can start now plotting the characters according to sequences in your story that are going to happen.

9. Always remember to provide the information only as much as its needed according to your plot. Avoid information dump as far as possible.

10. If you're story has a character's past don't overdo with the past, just keep it as much as its needed and let the story flow.

11. Write down all the things that you think are god enough to start with and finalise your story plot.

12. Ensure that you have realistic characters and they don't end up looking same in your story.

13. To avoid generalisation of the characters you need to research about the time, era and type of personality that you're going to develop for your characters.

14. While developing personalities for characters ensure that it goes with your genre and story. Dont make a bad-ass character type a hero in your story. I know its you're story you wanna do it how you want but that certainly won't be keeping up while writing and readers as well.

15. Don't ever forget to play with the characters as much as you want and even with the plot and timezone. Be as creative and realistic with your plot as much as you can. Bring it out into reality. You can always do some character sketches and stuff to get a proper idea of your characters and scenes.

16. Last and the most important thing is choosing a POV to write from. You'll find many articles over internet that'll guide you to choose a POV but always keep in mind to choose a POV that suits your story. After all you're the writer and choose one you need and just let your creativity flow.

if hope these points will help you out to plan out a good story and if you like these don't forget to share the post and follow me on socials for further updates.

Things I Find Funny In Cliche Genres

Stories have been our source of entertainment from an era that no one can remember. All of these have been classified into several genres making it easy for us to choose what kind of entertainment we might need.

But I have noticed many times that even after so many years some of the genres have remained so cliched and redundant that they have turned out to be funny instead and people have started to mix genres and created new genres to hide those mistakes.

So I thought about combining all those thoughts that were in my mind and write a small quirky little post about it.

Romance : Romance is one of the oldest and even the most cliched genres that have been existed right since the beginning of entertainment era. You might just think how romance can be cliched as we have been seeing a lot of stuff in romance now a days.

well clearing your doubts here are the things that I found weird -

There's always the same plot with no whatsoever new design. If you wanna make a romantic plot its like the same old recipe.

There's same old stuff having a boy and girl with opposite and contrasting qualities for both the characters like rich and poor, bold and shy, and stuff.

Then comes the scene where they both meet for the first time and every time its surprisingly same old boy and girl having eye contacts the surprisingly there's a magic and love sparks as if cupid was standing there waiting for both of them to have eye contact and install love software in them.

Then there's same old thing that one of the is desperate and chases the other one which is quite aware of the fact that the other one is nuts for them and still they choose to have ego and ignore them.

Next you come to a scene were there's a difficulty. It's like a game you can't power up without completing a challenge. Difficulty scenes may include things like misunderstandings, family issues, money issues etc...

And after like you complete a challenge successfully in a game there's a reward, same goes for your MC where the reward is his or her partner. The sequence of events might differ but you certainly will find these in any romantic story.

Horror : This is one of the most redundant and illogical genres according to me that is still the same as someone had invented it maybe eras ago.

There's same one thing where a bunch of people or a character going over to a haunted scene where there's always a new organism doing stupidest things ever that people think are scary.

The haunting organism shown in these movies are so powerful that they can make humans and even things fly. Maybe those organisms are some bad kids from Harry Potter's Plot whose mommies didn't allow them or taught them how to socialise with people.

At times I feel, if this organism wasn't stupid then this could be an awesome sci-fi movie and the people portrayed in the movie are either of too scientific or too superstitious.

Mystery/Thrillers : There are times when people often are confused between these two genres like they don't know whats should be a mystery and what should be a thrill factor in there.

Most of the times there's a murder mystery. Guys people aren't always curious to know who murdered whom or why a particular person was killed.

There's aught to be a scene where they goof it up making it a sequence where one person is killed- detective comes- difficulties in case investigation- finding killer - verdict on killer.

Most of the times mystery is mixed with either horror or sci-fi. If you wanted to make any of those genres then why did you choose mystery first of all?

Mystery is something that increases curiosity and surely doesn't meant that we start getting curious about other people's personal lives.

Science Fiction : Popularly known as Sci-Fi. Its one of the most cliched genres in line after Romance, and Horror.

Why you guys need to everytime to mess with biology or nature? Can't you think of something more interesting then messing with nature? Then why do you name it sci-fi name it messing with nature don't add science to it.

Every other science fiction been picked as one of the same things typically messing with nature. Science is just a hell lot more then messing with nature.

There are the same things like some aliens dropping from other planets, whereas even NASA is unable to find living beings on mars or a bunch of people who start experimenting on some stuff which was nonsensical for other but then creates a new discovery which is extremely harmful for others.

Fantasy : Fantasy I feel is somewhat cliched but has seen most improvements so its the last genre in my list.

If you randomly choose a fantasy movie, there's aught to be a magical cum intellectual sage type person who knows everything and can do nothing himself so he needs someone else do the work for him.

I feel this as a insult of all intellects honestly. Most of the times its an old sage or sometimes it might be some other organism. You'll always find a MC which knows nothing, A intellectual and a bunch of honestly useless cast with MC that does nothing but add to difficulties of MC. At times you might find a lover who is again typically a emotional fool and useless again to be honest.

Half of the time while going through these genres I can see surely lack of ideas and nothing but messy plots which were poorly designed by some  people who clearly have no knowledge about these genres.

Though there are many stories which have awesome plots like if I talk about Fast and Furious, Transformers, Avengers, Harry Potter,  Iron Man, Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey. These are a few stories which I personally feel that have something more than cliched same old plots and the creators have really worked on the plots.

If you liked and enjoyed this post don't forget to share it and comment so I can know what you think about cliched genres. I am coming up with another post where I'll guide you how to go about making a really great plot.