5 KEYS TO WRITING A BEST-SELLING NOVEL

 Think back on the last novel that wowed you, and you will find these 5 elements:

1.) AN INTRIGUING STORY LINE

No retreads are riveting.  Originality will snare the interest of the browsing reader.  

This is a hectic world filled with head-turning headlines.  Use them as a catalyst to ask WHAT IF?

The beginning of a novel sets the stage and introduces the characters and basis of the plot. 

The body of the novel builds the plot up to the climax and resolution of the story line.

Along the way set the reader's expectations on their ears.


2.) RIVETING CHARACTERS

The Old Laughing Lady ... 

the police cannot find her.  Whenever people spot her outside their homes, they lose their shadows, slowly waste away, and finally die.

 Let the reader become the character or be in the scene with the character viewing the action. 

Bring the reader into each scene through powerful, intimate relationships with the key characters. 

Make your characters three-dimensional. Give them weaknesses and flaws and show them evolve with a sense of realism.


3.) ENTHRALLING SCENES

Take Mark Twain's remembrance of Hawaii:

 “For me its balmy airs are always blowing, 

its summer seas flashing in the sun; 

the pulsing of its surf is in my ear; 

I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, 

its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud-rack.”

Bestselling authors transform readers into people who are mentally experiencing their story.

 The readers visualize being present as the story unfolds. 

Photographs and videos are a godsend to allow writers to describe scenes in realistic detail. 

Stimulate the reader’s senses with sounds, odors, tastes, and tactile experiences. 

Bring your readers into the real world.


4.) A DOWNHILL RACER WITH THE BRAKES CUT

Readers want an emotional impact with tension, high stakes, and powerful conflicts. 

 They want to live the thrill with your characters. 

End each scene with a hook that will grab your readers by the throat and make them turn the page. 


5.) AN ENDING THAT PAYS OFF

 A perfect ending: everyone one has read at least one and, as writers, we all strive to write one.

The first and most important key to a great ending is inevitability.

Even in surprise or twist endings, each scene must interlock and weave the pattern that will become the ending.  

 Characters' actions create the ending. 

The ending should come as the result of a choice that the main characters make.

Even in a series, the Ending must end ... something.  

It doesn't have to tie everything up, but most of the characters must be brought to end of their current circumstances. 

HAPPY WRITING!