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The art of writing a bestseller | Neil D’Silva | TEDxTCET


so to talk about myself I have written
six books three of which are short story
collections three of which are
full-length novels and at least two of
these books two that I know of are being
adapted for screen in various ways in my
interactions with readers
I found out certain things that have
worked for them and certain things that
have not and to summarize all those I
made a presentation which I will be
talking about today and that is what it
probably is nobody knows what the what
the art of writing a best-seller is but
we can only talk about experience and
that is what I am going to do so let us
the first point that I would like to
talk about is this don’t follow
best-selling trends if any of you who
are aspiring authors and even if you’re
not you will find a connect with this
because this talk is designed for
readers as well as authors and all of us
have at least readers I suppose when I
started out in it was 2014 when I
decided to give up my lucrative business
was a very flourishing business and I
decided to leave it and follow this
passion of writing that’s what I wanted
to do since a long time but I had never
taken that leap in 2014 I did that when
my well wishers came to know that that I
am deciding to write and making a switch
of this career the first question that
came was how will you earn it went on
and when they came to know that my first
book is going to be a horror novel and
we’ll have serial killers and
cannibalism and it will have dark rites
and rituals and things like that then
the question became more emphatic how
will you earn what will you eat because
that was the time when romance was
ruling the roost when we had every book
inspired from popular authors at that
time even now like we had Chetan Bhagat
no talk on vessels can be complete
without him right so when we had Chetan
Bhagat having his huge success with one
night at a call center and five point
someone before that there was this spate
of books written by aspiring authors
that had similar kinds of stories young
protagonists falling in love with each
other talking in urban slang and
battling with the contemporary problems
of the modern world and that is what
happened then a mystery party came on
the scene and suddenly we had mythology
there were books written in various hues
all kinds of mythological heroes who
were pulled from the closet and they
were made as shiny as rockstars just
like a mission ed so people wanted to
write those kind of stories globally it
was Harry Potter the young adult
sections were filled with magic young
protagonists so that is what worked at
that time but did it work for the people
who wanted to toe the line blindly we do
not know about that a few of them did
have success but then it didn’t work but
with my book personally talking I wrote
a book that was very different from what
was out there at that time it was Maya’s
new husband and it did something for me
it gave me a brand image at least it
told me like this was my groove that I
wanted to write on and it brought me
here to this stage so that is what
worked if you have a story try to write
it but make sure that your story is not
just inspired from someone else but it
is your own story something that you
have made don’t follow the trends that
go on so
let us go to the second point because we
have a limitation of time and the second
point we are all good storytellers we
tell stories to everyone we even if we
don’t write them we do narrate stories
and one aspect that we all know as
storytellers that we need to keep our
readers invested I believe that every
book is a promise when an author puts a
book out there on the bookshelf the
author is making a promise and that
promises that this book will be worth
your while my story will be worth your
while you will be entertained probably
you will be inspired and that is what
the readers also know though the readers
do not it is not spelled out to the
readers as such but when Aveda picks up
a book from a shelf you are all readers
so no one of us will ever pick a book to
read the intention that we want to hate
it we will always want to like that book
this starts from the first lines itself
when we read the books in the bookstores
in the first lines we get an idea of
what the book is going to be that is
where we decide whether we will buy the
book or not and if that author has sold
us those few lines of the book the
author has also sold us the next few
chapters but to keep that kind of
writing consistent the author has to
follow a particular path which we call
as the logline now those who are in the
technical world of storytelling will
know what a log line is a log line is a
one line idea on which the entire story
stands if you’re aware of Lord of the
Rings of course you are then you know
that the entire series can be boiled
down to a single core idea and that core
idea is of a subhuman creature trying to
destroy a highly tempting and dangerous
object and at the same time battling
against the forces who are trying to
acquire that object every scene every
dialogue every character in that story
is towards this end the story hardly
meanders from this one core idea it
would ring heights in Buddha ring
Heights
it is about two
machinations of a very evil man who is
prying to acquire the love of a woman
even at the cost of putting that woman
in grave peril that is the whole story
Cain and Abel the feud between two
people two estranged friends one of whom
is rich and powerful and the other
person is poor but he’s ambitious that
is the whole idea of the book books are
written based on this one-line idea this
log line and when the time comes to
pitch this book to anyone whether it be
to your readers or maybe to a production
house later on this is the log line that
people will be looking at and the author
who knows the log line very well is an
author who writes a very good book
popular book we then talk about
something known as protagonist centric
writing a protagonist is the main
character of your book there may be one
main character there may be two there
may be many as in Game of Thrones there
were so many protagonists but the thing
is the entire story is based on this one
protagonist we have always as readers we
have this very subtle emotion that we
want to connect with that protagonist we
want to connect with that main character
any book that you take when you read
about that main character you want to
identify with that characters joys and
sorrows we relate with it we want to
identify with how that character moves
ahead how the character solves the
conflicts that comes in the way and
finally when the character has the last
moment of triumph that is where we feel
that we have also triumphed in some way
this is where the inspiration of all
good books come from in fact the books
that you may probably talk about as
being your ideal books are books that
have inspired you probably because of
the protagonist and the way that we
authors do that is by keeping the story
protagonist eccentric for us the
protagonist is the epicenter of the
story your again let me give the example
of Harry Potter
four thousand page series long and the
book worked with young adults people who
are considered to be highly distracted
how did it work
Rowling did an intelligent thing thereby
keeping the story protagonist centric
the entire four thousand page series
boring a few chapters in the book are
all about Harry Potter it’s from the
point of view of Harry Potter it’s about
what Harry does it is about what her he
sees it is about the problems that Harry
faces and right from the first chapter
onwards we are given these nuggets of
Harry’s life we see his family we see
his parents we see what he is facing the
world that he’s entering into it’s all
seen through Harry’s eyes and this is
protagonist centric writing I have also
attempted this in my book gajini which
is the recent one where it is a story of
a girl who lives a life from the age of
13 to 31 13 is the age where she
realises that she is not who she thinks
she is she is growing rapidly a growth
spurt and first chapter is about the
conflict that she faces internally
because of that and then we go on to see
how family’s attitude towards it then we
see her friends how do you are looking
at her differently and then the
male-oriented society which is now
eyeing her with evil intentions and the
social norms that season everything is
radiating outside from her
it’s a saga it’s a long book but it
could manage to keep the Vedas hooked
because this story was protagonist
centric this also means that your
protagonist has to be a doer you cannot
have a passive protagonist in a story
people won’t like to read that I believe
that when you are having a protagonist
the protagonist should start at a
particular level and the conflict that
you are giving the protagonist should be
at a higher level this is what all the
stories are about in the beginning of
the story the protagonist can not
overcome that obstacle but through the
story through various actions and
whatever happens the protagonist has to
level up the protagonist has to reach
that level of conflict and that is the
point of ultimate showdown which is
where the book
Stewart’s climax it is said that we
cannot solve problems by remaining at
the same state as we were when the
problems arose we have to improve we
have to go ahead and that is what is the
inspiration when we read about
protagonists let me go over to the next
point and this is a very interesting
thing that we all like we remember the
movie baahubali right so everything the
way that the movie was sold the second
part of the movie was sold was through a
cliffhanger it was a part of the entire
marketing strategy of the movie and this
cliffhanger is what the authors usually
use in our books to keep our Vedas
invested I believe that bestsellers are
built on anticipation they have to keep
the reader turn the pages page turners
unputdownable these are the words that
we use when we talk about bestsellers
and the way to do it one of the ways to
do it is to use cliffhangers we define
cliffhangers as points of suspense
that’s it they are points where
something is taken to a very high level
and left a dangling there the reader now
wants to know what happens next when I
use cliffhangers
I keep four things in mind number one
the cliffhanger has to happen to the
protagonist because if it doesn’t happen
to the protagonist readers won’t care
second the protect the cliffhanger has
to dramatically increase the stakes of
the equation something has to happen
which is quite huge in scope third I
believe that a cliffhanger should not
have a single predictable path when you
use a cliffhanger there should be
multiple possible outcomes and they
should have an equal probability because
that is where the readers will keep
guessing as to what is going to happen
next and the fourth the cliffhangers
should be an end in itself we call this
as a structured end because if
want we can stop the book at the
cliffhanger this is where the chapter
gets over the scene gets over or the
entire book gets over for this next
sequel and that is what we do and the
readers are sold so that is how
cliffhangers work now the question from
some our new authors is how many
cliffhangers do we use the thing is you
can use as many as you want in fact if
you can develop a style where cliff
angles can be used at the end of every
scene then you have a very popular book
in your hands the cliff angles are also
used in different ways in hooks if we
see some legendary books or even movies
the eye loops also follow a hook line
like everything said by a character is a
prompt for the next thing that somebody
else says oh this is a hook so it keeps
the conversation organic and it keeps us
invested in the story also atmosphere
can be used as a cliffhanger like in a
lone room there is a white curtain
suddenly it begins to flutter or the day
suddenly turns dark or there’s a siren
of a vehicle coming from somewhere and
you cannot see the vehicle these are the
things that are atmospheric cliffhangers
you do not know what is happening what
is going to happen and the reader wants
to know what will happen in the build-up
of this scene so that is what keeps us
hooked even to the movies and books are
nothing about writing visually that is
what I believe in fact I believe that
writing is not just about plain writing
putting words together writing or
telling stories rather is an art and
it’s a performance it’s a performance
with words you have to use the words to
create visual images and that is what we
do when we tell stories to youngsters or
to friends we will try to include noises
and sounds these are all things to build
the anticipation of the story that is
what of laughter’s do next point that I
will make is about creating conflicts I
think about it every story that you have
read every story even the stories that
you would me as examples if I were to
ask you other stories that have a strong
conscience
all of us have read Alice in Wonderland
now we were fascinated when we read it
for the first time I’m very sure
it started with Alice in this very
different kind of environment or it’s a
world of fantasy and magic and different
characters and they were ex interesting
exchanges with all those characters and
once we know the world then we want to
know what is going to happen we are
introduced to the struggle that exists
in that world the conflict and the
conflict is that Alice is perhaps there
was an evil queen and now Alice has to
get out of that world and go back into
her own world now this is the conflict
and if that conflict was not dead just
if it was a world of fantasy then it
would not have been a story it would
have been just a premise
our romance stories Bollywood or books
now if the boy loves the girl and the
girl loves a boy and there is nothing
else everything is hunky-dory there is
no story so in order to make a story we
have to build a conflict and of course
our Indian cinema is quite an expert at
that the conflict is built in the form
of religious defenses or financial
defenses or the family feud or whatever
and that is how the story is sold it’s a
conflict we all have inspired by a
protagonist sighs I just mentioned and
we want to see how they will overcome
that conflict if the conflict is
relatively we see some part of ourselves
in every story and if that conflict is
relatable we also want to see how the
characters will overcome that conflict
and go beyond and I come to the last
point which is about over time all the
books that have created some kind of
global buzz have been those books that
have ruffled some feathers they have
challenged social norms let us talk
about Shakespeare’s plays duty
compulsory reading in schools and
colleges but in those days Shakespeare’s
plays were vulgar they were considered
to be vulgar
rather they were body they went against
the senses of the society at that time
Charles Dickens
his stories were considered to be
lacking in emotional quotient to dis
imagine okay there were these kinds of
critics reviews that he used to get Jane
Austen
she was believed to be against family
values with her books coming to India we
had Ravindranath Tagore classic stories
but in those days his portrayal of women
was not something that society wanted to
accept Munchie preemption attacked
social customs Weiss’s intelligently
certainly but the messages were taken
but then his stories were entertaining
so he could feel himself with that
coming even lower down Khushwant Singh
this man has written some of the most
erotic stories ever which India had
never seen and though he has written
very thought-provoking books as well but
those were the things that became a
brand image for him he ruffled feathers
but Khushwant Singh sells even today we
have so many examples there is Lolita
Satanic Verses
Midnight’s Children The Kite Runner
Memoirs of a Geisha all these books even
our three mistakes of a life Chetan
Bhagat it was about to Gujarat riots
right he wanted to write these stops
these books worked because the authors
did not dilute their pen they wanted to
write this these hard-hitting concepts
and I voted in a way that they wanted to
write they did not play to the gallery
by diluting it new authors some of them
that I have come across are afraid to
take this plunge they want to tell
stories that are hard but then they act
conservative they do not want to tell
everything like they should have told
and these are the books these
watered-down books are the ones that are
mostly rejected because they do not
drive home the message in the way they
should so I will end my talk by saying
that there is a storyteller in all of us
we all have that storyteller in us we
all have that fascination to tell
stories but the thing is we have to
learn and there is an art to telling
stories and once we hone this up
that is the time when we will be putting
out beautiful stories that can make this
world a better place to live in thank
you [Applause]
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