Hi, I am an aspiring writer and would really like some tips to become the next best selling writer. – Pramod
If there is one tip we love sharing with aspiring authors it would be this – Tell a story that you just cannot hold it within you anymore.
You remember that feeling of being in love so much that you had to tell it to the person you were in love with? Telling a story is akin to that. Just like love envelops you completely, the story and its characters engulf you pushing you to tell their story.
Every time someone says I want to be the next *insert a best-selling author’s name* we are always taken aback. Why would you want to be a second hand version of someone else? The world already has one; there is no need for another. Why not try bringing in your own USP and make the world notice you? That happens when you stop following the herd and try to do what you always believed in firmly. However weird and unrealistic it might sound, your belief in it will make it real.
Remember Harry Potter was rejected many times before being selected? Not everyone is able to judge a masterpiece in the first instance. The main question is and should always be – Did those rejections make J K Rowling give up and change her thoughts on writing? No, she kept trying because she believed in her own work.
There is also a doubt regarding cliché plotlines. To that there is only one answer. If your treatment is unique even clichés can sound refreshingly different. Famous romance novels like Love Story, Romeo Juliet, P.S: I Love You, The Fault in our stars etc. which are considered masterpieces have more or less the same premise but if you look at narrative that is where they are amazingly different making a brilliant read. There is nothing wrong in making your characters larger than life. The key is to make them relatable. That is when they leave an everlasting impact on the reader.
If you would have noticed in majority of the classics simplicity ruled the roost. When a reader is able to decipher what you want to convey and connect with it in more than one ways that is when the book becomes more than just reading. It becomes an experience which they want to relive again and again, not to mention share with others too.
Make your book an experience and not mere story telling.
We personally like stories where at the end of it all I feel for at least one character. It could be hate, anger, jealousy, pity, sympathy, love, care or concern. When a reader feels for a character it means s/he lived the story. For this the characters need to be fleshed out well and made to be multi-dimensional instead of cardboard cutouts.
All this and more is worthwhile if there is at least one person who gets back to you after reading your book with these words, “You touched my heart with your writing!”
This week’s Monday Microscope was answered by our in-house team expert, Namrata. Having worked as an editor for a publishing house, where manuscript assessment was her core KPI , she is now a freelancing beta reader for Team KC.
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