To write a great best seller, there must be something in it that other people have never thought of before!

People love to use their imagination:

So it’s up to you to provide stuff that WOWs their minds right out the box! Give them thrills one after the other, right up to the end of the story. I can hear you say, “How do you do that?” 

Basic strength of the story:

1. Basically, you must have some idea what type of story you want to write, and what you think will be a great story to tell.   
2. And how many people do you think will want to buy your book and read that type of story, excitedly to the end? 
3. Then ask yourself why it is so important to you that you write it? It must have a powerful impact on you in the first place, because that energy force will carry over into the writing of the story. 

Have some idea what excites people: 

If you watch TV, what excites you? When you like a film, what gripped you? Like when a film becomes very popular, say the Harry Potter films, what do you think made it such a hit worldwide? 

What dynamics must you story have?

Was it the magic in the Harry Potter films? Perhaps the wild way-out stuff, things you have never seen before, the personalities of the characters, the situations they were in or how the story unfolded? What do you think? Use those gripping facts and emotions you felt about the film in your own stories. 

Putting your story together:

How would you entangle the facts to make an exciting gripping drama, with hope and a twist in the tale? 

(This is a A5 watercolour)

Giving your plot more impact:

Here are some questions you can ask yourself, to give it more authenticity as you build your story: 

1. The time factor and speed: What space or time dimensions are we talking about? What type of transport would they be using in that time warp? How fast are people travelling? What if their transport breaks down or they have an accident? How are they coping under those conditions? Are they going to able to catch up with the bad people and prevent their worst fears? 
2. What would be your characters’ greatest fears? And what would happen if their fears really came to pass? How dramatic can you make it? 
3. What do you think is the most dramatic situation and circumstances that anyone could face and live through in their life time? Why and how do you think it would grip you in its power? 
4. What would happen if the whole scene were to change suddenly? What would cause that change: dangerous weather conditions, magic, war, transportation into the future or into the past? What else and how would you handle it, if you were actually living it? 
5. What is your ugliest nightmare? What is the scariest thing can you conceive in your mind? What would it look like? Now, make it much bigger and more dramatic in your mind’s eye. Does it have big sharp teeth, wicked eyes, what? What type of person, animal, snake or insect would blow your mind to bits?  
6. Dramatic action: People love action and fast moving animation. Give it to them. What is the cruelest thing that could happen to your characters? How would they deal with that? Could you have a circumstance or character that could perhaps save them from that bad situation? 
7. Sometimes weird things happen in life. So a breath of humour lightens the hearts of those who read your story. So every now and then bring in a silly, weird or adorable character that adds a touch of humour and laughter to what’s happening. Humour brings pockets of relief, to built up tension. 
8. What are the people like in your story and how do they live? Who hates who and why? What is their personal mission, motto or mantra? What do they lack that could possibly prevent them from winning in the end? 
9. Romance is always welcome in a plot. Consider the relationships between your characters as your story unfolds, so you can have a happy ending.  
10. Because of the conditions of plot and its placement, time, etc, you’ll need to consider how people would dress for protection, tools they would use in that type of era. Clothes must suit the activities they are pursuing. 
11. Colours have a powerful effect on people. How dangerous the person or place are, etc. For example bad people usually wear dark colours, have dark expressions, dark hair or beards, etc! Darkness and vagueness creates mystery. And dark places seem scary until you see the `light at the end of the tunnel’. There must be a sense of hope for the reader to hang on to. 
12. What are the powers that are running the show? What is behind what is happening, that controls the plot? Are there more than one power? Who is using the power against the good people?  
13. Have more than one person that could be the bad wicked scheming person. It could also be someone who acts good… but in fact is really `a nasty piece of works’. 
14. If things got so bad (the build-up of the story) how would you then turn things around in the story, so that the good people still win in the end? Could it be a car or plane crash, or just a change of weather, or a character’s change of mind, etc? If you can think up something more dramatic than that, like an unthinkable miracle, that would be much better! 

Now go for it!

Take time to write answers to these questions. And out of your answers, maybe you’ll find the basics of a story, that could make a best seller book.  

All you have to do is embroidery on those facts. Put your own interpretation or spin on it. And there, Walla, you have a great story to tell!