Thread: Number one secret to writing a great book

Write the story you always wished to read. You might have read some stuff but it didn't hit the spot right on, right where you wanted it to hit, right on. There was a type of book you always wished was on the shelves out there for you to read, that is the book to right , you know how you wished the story to be write it. Write the story you always wished to read, you always wished was in the book stores. When you goto the book store your wishing for a type of book that reads a certain way, you know the type of book and how it would read so just write it.

Yeah I have written something purely because it was a story I wanted to read. I wonder if most authors do that anyway. Do you think some just write what they think others want to read?

Well, any author that actually intends to have something published, writes a lot. They practice, learn, more practice, more learning...then once they figure out how to tell a have decent tale they start crafting better stories with more depth and characters that come to life from the pages. There is no one thing that makes a story good. No one thing that makes one book better than another. Stories require an audience, and if you don't care for a particular book, then you probably aren't in the group the author wrote it for. If you don't like scifi, then you probably won't like most of what I write. The thing is, it's perfectly fine for you to favor mysteries over scifi.

I would say any author that wants to sell a book will write what they think people will want to read. If not, why write it at all? Writing for yourself is a bit dull, since you know the plot and the characters and...well, it's easier to daydream than write a coherent story. So we must write what someone who is willing to pay will want to read.

To write a great book requires skill, practice, and dedication to writing something a lot of people will enjoy. It's a lot of work, and no matter what I think might be the greatest story ever, I have to build stories that will fall withing the myriad of rules and accepted styles that make it so others can enjoy it. Great books are written by people who learn how to write solid stories. Wishing your story is great won't make it so. Writing what you think is great won't make it so either. Learning what makes writing good, and learning to use those skills to write good stories is the only real way to writing a great book. I will concede there is the rare occasional person with natural skills and can spin a tale with little or no real effort. Chances are it isn't one of us.

I don't doubt they write what they think others would want to read. But I wonder if they must also have to write what they want to read too.

You can't write what you doesn't interest you, not well anyways. I doubt I could do a decent novel outside of the areas that interest me. If I'm not interested in what I'm doing, then there is little chance of doing a good job at it. But within the areas I like, I still have to write something other people will want to read.

I would say any author that wants to sell a book will write what they think people will want to read. If not, why write it at all? Writing for yourself is a bit dull, since you know the plot and the characters and...well, it's easier to daydream than write a coherent story. So we must write what someone who is willing to pay will want to read

.

On the face of it it sounds rational, but there are arguments to be had,
if this is true,
"why write it at all? Writing for yourself is a bit dull,"
why qualify with this
"any author that wants to sell a book"

look at the argument stripped,

"Any author will write what they think people will want to read. If not, why write it at all? Writing for yourself is a bit dull."

Firstly, if someone thinks it worth writing there will be someone thinks it worth reading, there may not be a lot of people, but there will be someone out there.
Secondly an awful lot of books are not written because the author thinks people will want to read it, but because he wants them to read it, or even thinks they should read it, think of the Bible.

Writing for yourself is a bit dull, since you know the plot and the characters.

I also find this premise questionable, I find that I have an idea of the outline, and the characters are a bit 'shadowy' when I begin. As I work on it I find and fix the flaws in the plot and the characters become solid and more real, this is very satisfying overall, and sometimes there are even real 'eureka' moments.
When I have finished I mostly forget about it, I am not sat there imagining my readers, I am living the experience again with my next piece. It is actually the writing that's exciting. I would expect that with any form of art, creating it, moulding the world into some meaningful form is the really exciting bit, I can't imagine Picasso standing round the gallery getting off on the punters admiring his work, can you?

Firstly, if someone thinks it worth writing there will be someone thinks it worth reading...

I've read stuff that the author thought terrific but that nobody would want to read.

Originally Posted by Baron

I've read stuff that the author thought terrific but that nobody would want to read.

In your opinion, there are a lot of very varied people out there, it seems unlikely to me that none of them at all are on the same wavelength as the author. Though, equally, that is only my opinion. I certainly see people here praising things that I would think not worth reading.

Can someone please explain what this thread is about? That is, in simple, easy-to-follow sentences.

Can someone please explain what this thread is about? That is, in simple, easy-to-follow sentences.

That all you need to do to write the greatest book ever is to write what you want to read.

I say if you want to write a book worth reading you need to learn how to do so first. Algebra on sentences aside, I've had more than a few people that used the argument "I'm writing for myself" as an excuse not to take the time and effort to learn to write in a way someone might be interested in reading it. Basing the current model of people pay for good writing, the idea that if you wish to be a published author (outside of vanity publications) you have to write something worth selling. End result, if you are only writing for yourself, why are you on a writers site? Improving your writing doesn't matter if the ultimate reader will by yourself, and since you wrote it you'll always understand what you meant...ect.

There is no one thing, secret or not, but hundreds of things that go into writing a good book.

Originally Posted by Lord Darkstorm

End result, if you are only writing for yourself, why are you on a writers site?

I write the kind of books I like to read, on the assumption that there are probably other people who want to read them and in the knowledge that there's at least one person who does want to read it.

I could probably sell a lot more by writing romance/erotica, but my heart wouldn't be in it and I might end up with something that literally no-one wants to read.

Improving your writing doesn't matter if the ultimate reader will by yourself, and since you wrote it you'll always understand what you meant...ect.

Only if you like reading crappy books. I like reading good ones, so I'm always trying to improve.

I agree with the OP's suggestion, to write what you want to read, though I may question the validity of that being the "number one secret to writing a great book".

It's logical that if you write something you wish to read, your writing will be energetic and have a well-defined voice. Granted, that voice may need technical revision, but it will at least have consistency.

Consider the alternative: write what you would hate to read. Imagine what awfulness could come from that.

An example middle-ground would be: write what you have been told to write. Examples of this are assigments (scholastic, journalistic, etc.), where creativity and freedom of choice are stifled if not all-together stamped out. And of course, the writing usually suffers as a result.

As for being published, while it seems an obvious goal, it's not a universal one. There are those of us out there that simply write for the love of writing. Just as not every person who learns to play the guitar is doing so because he or she wishes to become a professional musician.

Write what you want to read! I love it. Simple and effective.

Number One secret to writing a great book?

Write it.

Don't talk about writing it.

Sit down and write it.

When you're done, then you can tell people about it.

Until then, sit and write.

In the last eighteen months i've been writing the type of thing and in the style that i just can't find to read, or at least not enough to read.

Cool thread. Before I even opened it I had decided that I thought the number one secret was exactly as the OP stated... writing the book you always wanted to read. That's what I'm doing with my novel... It's my dream story.