Hopscotch With Stars

amandaonwriting:

Analysing Agatha - How to become the best-selling novelist of all time

Agatha Christie wrote 85 books that sold between two and four billion copies.

The Agatha Christie Code

According to UNESCO, she is the most translated author in the history of the world. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognized her as the Best Selling Author in any genre of all time. See the list of the Top 10 Best-Selling Authors here.

Note: Shakespeare was left out of this comparison, because he wrote plays and not novels. Even so, the best he can do is match Agatha Christie’s sales numbers.  

What is Agatha Christie’s secret to success?

There is a link between the success of Agatha Christie and Plain Language.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. ~Thomas Jefferson

Dame Agatha seems to have mastered that talent. In The Agatha Christie Code, a team of professional linguists in England analysed Dame Agatha’s way with words.

The experts agree that she has a hypnotic style, but it is her use of patterns and plain language that make her so readable.

In Plain Language

Dr Pernilla Danielsson explains her success by her use of Plain Language.  

An excellent example is that Christie almost exclusively uses the word ‘said’. (Novice authors often try to use silly synonyms when said is the perfect choice.) She doesn’t introduce new words, but makes the reader comfortable with her use of everyday language. She doesn’t challenge the reader with big words, and long convoluted sentences. She doesn’t bore the reader with unnecessary descriptions. The reader is free to enjoy the story by focusing on the plot.

Her books also follow a formula

They are all similar in style, word length, and sentence length. Take Evil Under the Sun as an example. This novel follows her classic formula: 

1. There is a body, very early on
2. There is a closed group of suspects, either because of setting or social group
3. The detective arrives
4. We are taken through a series of red herrings
5. There is a solution, and closure

Excerpts from The Agatha Christie Code

But how many other best-selling authors use plain language?

Agatha Christie is not the only author to have realised the value of using Plain Language. In Fiction Writer’s Brainstormer, James V. Smith explains exactly how the best-selling authors succeed.

A Writing Standard

After studying authors like Stephen King, John Grisham, Danielle Steele, and Elmore Leonard, he came up with this as an ideal writing standard (if you want to sell your books).

You should have (on average):

• no more than four characters a word in any scene
• no more than 5% passive voice
• no less than 80% readability on the Flesch-Kincaid scale
• no higher than a 5th grade readability level on the Flesch-Kincaid scale

This is writing in plain language. If you want to communicate, I recommend you try it. If you want to sell lots of books, I recommend you apply this formula. On our creative course, Writers Write, we teach you exactly how to do this.

by Amanda Patterson from Writers Write

(Source: wapiti3, via mentalalchemy)

amandaonwriting:

How to end your novel

The Dos and Don’ts By James V. Smith Jr.

Don’ts

1. Don’t introduce any new characters or subplots. Any appearances within the last 50 pages should have been foreshadowed earlier, even if mysteriously.
2. Don’t describe, muse, explain or philosophize. Keep description to a minimum, but maximize action and conflict. You have placed all your charges. Now, light the fuse and run.
3. Don’t change voice, tone or attitude. An ending will feel tacked on if the voice of the narrator suddenly sounds alien to the voice that’s been consistent for the previous 80,000 words.
4. Don’t resort to gimmicks. No quirky twists or trick endings. The final impression you want to create is a positive one. Don’t leave your reader feeling tricked or cheated.

Dos

1. Do create that sense of Oh, wow! Your best novelties and biggest surprises should go here. Readers love it when some early, trivial detail plays a part in the finale. 
2. Do enmesh your reader deeply in the outcome. Get her so involved that she cannot put down your novel to go to bed, to work or even to the bathroom until she sees how it turns out.
3. Do resolve the central conflict. You don’t have to provide a happily-ever-after ending, but do try to uplift. Readers want to be uplifted, and editors try to give readers what they want.
4. Do afford redemption to your heroic character. No matter how many mistakes she has made along the way, allow the reader—and the character—to realize that, in the end, she has done the right thing.
5. Do tie up loose ends of significance. Every question you planted in a reader’s mind should be addressed, even if the answer is to say that a character will address that issue later, after the book ends.
6. Do mirror your final words to events in your opener. When you reach the ending, go back to ensure some element in each of your complications will point to the beginning. It’s the tie-back tactic. Merely create a feeling that the final words hearken to an earlier moment in the story.

By James V. Smith Jr.

Source for Dos and Don’ts. Visit Writers Digest for more.

(via br0wn-sug4r)

amandaonwriting:

Daily Writing Prompt from Writers Write

maxistentialist:

Kurt Braunohler raised $6,000 on Kickstarter to “hire a man in a plane to write stupid things in the sky.” I backed this project.

(Source: kurtbraunohler, via boychic)