Start the week with some writing advice: Read nine tips from Bryce Courtenay on how to write a bestseller.
Courtenay, the bestselling author of The Power of One, was born in Johannesburg in 1933, moved to Britain in his early twenties and eventually emigrated to Australia. He passed away at his home in Canberra in 2012.
These writing tips are excerpted from A Quotionary: The Ultimate Collection of Quotations About Writing and Writers, by Jenny Hobbs.
How to Write a Bestseller
- 1. Make it a ‘big’ book – not necessarily in size, but in subject. The stakes must be high and potential losses catastrophic.
2. Make the characters big too. Their lusts, loves and hates have to be larger than life.
3. Characters should be few but important. All must be totally compelling. The reader should feel strongly about each, whether repelled or fascinated.
4. The ‘will …?’ factor: keep the basic concept simple, however many twists and turns the plot may take. Let it all boil down to a simple question: Will the boy get the girl? Will justice be done?
5. The ‘how …?’ concept: the unlikely is always possible. Don’t ignore the power of coincidence.
6. Not just the ‘what …?’ but the ‘where … ?’ Use new, fascinating and compelling places.
7. Stick with it. Nothing happens without commitment. The only thing that will make human beings succeed is perseverance.
8. The art of the storyteller must triumph; it’s back to the tribal cave-dweller who could ensnare his audience with, ‘In the beginning …’
9. Remember that your reader is your co-author. It’s only half a book before the reader comes to it with his own beliefs, skills and prejudices.
Book details
- A Quotionary: The Ultimate Collection of Quotations About Writing and Writers by Jenny Hobbs
EAN: 9781928216520
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