The MAGIC FORMULA for Writing a BESTSELLER_IWSG post

 

You might think the above image suggests that formula includes sexiness, mystery, and ... 

cats.

Midnight made me include that last.

But while the BESTSELLERS of the last 100 years may have included those, 

what they ALL possessed was a hotly contested SOCIAL ISSUE of its day ...

RACE, SEX, POLITICS, ALIENATION ...

Some large, unresolved, deep-seated nation-wide conflict in the minds of those who don't ordinarily read.

Even more important, those bestsellers focused on 

fractured families, outsiders, iconoclasts who go their own way irregardless of the outrage from those around them.

And above it all is  

THE DREAM

Be it the AMERICAN DREAM, the DREAM DEFERRED, the DREAM PERVERTED, the DREAM LOST, the DREAM INVADED.

It is some form of that DREAM which drives the protagonist ever onward or downward to an unknown destination.

We Americans are innately suspicious of institutions, public or private, and 

of strangers professing only good for us.

After all, the hand reaching out to feed us may actually be intent on feeding upon us.

Focusing on the mind is all very well and good, 

but the thing all bestselling authors possessed was the ability 

to connect to the heart and to the innate needs of the readers who read their books and then urged their friends to read them as well.

LAST THOUGHT ... 

FIRST LINE

SCARAMOUCHE:

"He was born with the gift of laughter and the knowledge that the world was mad."

IT JUST SEEMED THE THING TO DO:

"The rape was the best thing that happened to her."

THE OUTSIDER:

"Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure."

1984:

"It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

An arresting first line is crucial to grabbing readers and urging them to turn the page to find out what happens next.

May your next book be a BESTSELLER.