There was an interesting article in The Times 2 yesterday about how to write a bookclub bestseller. It was written by ‘the most powerful woman in publishing’ Amanda Ross, founder of the Richard and Judy bookclub.

Here are her tips:

1. be original

2. don’t mention the war (too many war stories on the market)

3. stay out of it (don’t write your autobiography unless you’ve led an amazing life)

4. spin a yarn (tell a good story)

5. raise issues (make people think)

6. mix it up (you need to describe the book in more than one way i.e. the next Celia Rees meets Stephanie Meyer)

7. don’t write for critics

8. it’s OK to be highbrow (and I’ll add it’s OK to be lowbrow, too)

9. find a niche

10. be realistic (i.e. learn to accept criticism)

Of those I’d say number 4 was the most obvious thing for a writer to do. Tell a good story - that’s what it’s all about. What Amanda Ross doesn’t tell us is how.  It’s the same for number 1. Be original. Yes, but how?  What does that mean, exactly?  Christopher Booker, in his towering door stopper of a book The Seven Basic Plots, argues convincingly that there is no such thing as originality - that all stories follow a traditional theme or plot. The Quest, for example, Rags to Riches and so on.

I’m not sure about number 2, either - don’t mention the war. Surely it depends on whether the story covers all her other provisos - i.e. be original etc. War stories will always be popular - look at Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse, now on stage and getting great reviews or Goodnight Mr Tom (Michelle Magorigan) and more recently ‘Once’ and ‘Then’ by Morris Gleitzman, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas etc. And that’s just the kids’ stuff!

I totally agree with Ross on being realistic and not to write for critics. Always write the story you want to write. It has to come from within or it’s doomed.

For what it’s worth, the best ‘how to’ book I’ve read on writing (I haven’t read many of them, mind you) is Stephen King’s On Writing. He tells it as it is. Like it or lump it.