The image of being a successful writer has so much glory and aspiration that everyone dreams of it at some point. Besides, when you don’t dive too deep into it, it seems like writing a bestseller isn’t a very difficult job.

Yet, there’s more to it than it seems. Professional writers have to deal with things like writer’s block, countless rewrites and even something as trivial as a lack of inspiration. As a result, not every writer ends up writing a bestseller.

So, what constitutes a bestseller?

This question is always a subject of heated debates. Thus, there are many answers to it, each of which is true to some extent. Some textbooks on the theory of literature state that the main components of every story are characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution. However, with a bestseller, you’ll need to take these components a step further:

• Compelling and complex characters. Remember A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin? The way he treats main and secondary characters as equal contributors to the storyline has not only turned the books into bestsellers but also made them into an award-winning TV show. Every character, even a secondary one, must be well-written. Moreover, each character bears something in them, which every one of us can relate to. They rarely possess unearthly and embellished qualities, but rather are also flawed and make mistakes.
• A vivid setting. When I think about setting, my mind immediately goes to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Remember, how much time J.R.R. Tolkien spent describing various settings as the characters travel through Middle Earth? The setting contributes a lot to the story, not to mention that little details can tell even more than characters do in their dialogue.
• A puzzle of a plot. The events in your story, should gradually unveil and be related to each other. They are like pieces of a puzzle that you should collect to get the final picture. A good story should also have consistency to it, meaning that there should be a clear beginning, a climax, and an end. However, you can play with different parts of the plot, creating foreshadowing and employing different techniques to bring a twist to your story.
• Consistent conflict. Conflicts can be scattered around the story. It can be an inner conflict (like the one Frodo has when he hesitates to throw the One Ring into Mount Doom) or an external conflict (between the race of men and elves, and the orcs of Mordor). However, placing a conflict into a story and not connecting it to other conflicts can make the whole narrative messy. It’s all about consistency.
• A creative resolution. Eventually, a story should come to an end. However, the way it ends should always be in line with the events that lead to it. Ideally, a bestseller should not just have a logical ending, but also one that evokes certain emotions.

For instance, the first book of The Hunger Games trilogy ends with the main characters ready to sacrifice their lives for each other, which shocks the readers. You can also leave it for the reader to decide how the story ends by creating an open ending (like in Charlotte Bronte’s “Villette”). This engages the reader’s imagination, as they paint a picture of a farewell with the characters and the story.

While working on each of these aspects, a writer can easily get stuck. Luckily, you can also pump up your writing with writing prompts. Here’s how.

1) Step-by-Step character description

When working on creating characters for your book, prompts can serve as step-by-step guides.

You can use a simple prompt, answering questions about their age, occupation, position in society, marital status, prominent character traits, etc. However, it’s even more effective to place a character in a situation and develop their character traits through a story. Karen Miller, the chief blog editor at Flatfy, shares a few such writing prompts, which they use to train their writers:

• Write about a character who gets in a jungle to research untouched societies. Describe how the character would behave in life-threatening situations and how they will find a solution.
• Describe a character that suddenly obtains magic powers. Talk about the emotions they experience and the decisions they make on using these powers.
• Describe a character that was a part of an ancient society. Then, this character suddenly gets to the future and finds themselves in our modern society. How will they acclimate to the changes?

See how each of these prompts is aimed at creating a complex character? You can create your own prompts for character development that would fit your story.

2) Short stories for setting

Ray Bradbury once recommended beginning and intermediate writers to write as many short stories a week as possible. Short stories are a kind of writing prompts that help you train your writing.

However, you can use short stories to work on a particular aspect of your book, for instance, setting. If you want to create a vast description of a particular setting in your book, start with a series of short stories. Tell how this setting was brought to existence, who lived there and how its inhabitants impacted the way this setting looks in your book. The more detailed your short stories are, the better.

3) Journaling prompts for plot

You’d be surprised to find out that many bestselling writers have a habit of carrying around a journal for sudden creative ideas. Not only can they keep track of curious things that happen to them on a daily basis, but it also allows them to observe the life around them, which may serve as the foundation for the plot of their future books.

Journaling, i.e. keeping track of life around you and how it impacts your life, is very helpful for developing a plot of a successful story. This is a good way to practice taking a deeper look into issues you want to touch upon in your story. If you’re wondering what conflicts to include in your story, the analysis of events you write in a journal (observations, life events, and conflicts you experienced yourself) might give you useful hints on what conflicts can shape your story.

After all, life events helped many authors find inspiration for their stories. For instance, The Lord of the Rings was largely influenced by Tolkien’s experiences during World War I, and his son’s life during World War II. Great stories are always around us, you just have to take a deeper look.

4) Deep dive into self in search for conflict

Journaling and using writing prompts in a form of questions can also help you come up with conflicts that the characters of your story will have to deal with. A deep-dive into your own personal life may serve as inspiration for your future bestseller.

Ask yourself the following questions.

• At what age did you experience a certain conflicting event?
• What were your initial emotions when you had to deal with this conflict?
• What is your opinion of this event now?
• Looking from this perspective, how has this conflict influenced your life?
• What are the lessons you’ve learned from this conflict?

Answering these questions and then transferring this conflict to your characters can be very helpful for character development as well as for the dynamics of your story.

5) Mind map to find resolution

If you’re writing your book for a long time, you might find it hard to come up with a proper ending for your story. This is common. George R.R. Martin, for instance, in his latest interview to Vox, admits that he has an idea of how his books would end, but he doesn’t know exactly and he wants to see how the story unfolds.

Although you might have an ending ready once you start writing a story, it may change in the process. If you are hesitant about which ending is the most suitable, you can use mind maps as writing prompts. A mind map will help derive several possible options and, as you work your way through each ending, you’ll be able to see, which one suits your story the best.

Although all these tips may help you find inspiration to write a great story, the aspects that define a bestseller will also depend on the time, the culture and society.

Nevertheless, practice plays a very important role, too. Writing is a skill that requires constant training. The more you exercise, the better you become. Ray Bradbury wrote around 50 short stories a week to finally get his skill to the level that allowed him to create timeless bestsellers.

Using writing prompts can serve as a great exercise to work on creating an engaging story. Hopefully, these ideas will inspire you to use writing prompts that will train you to become a bestselling writer.

Kate Khom is a passionate writer who likes sharing her thoughts and experiences with the readers. Currently, she works as a managing editor, you can check out her website here. She likes everything related to traveling and new countries.

The post #5onFri: Five Ways to Use Writing Prompts to Craft Your Best Book appeared first on DIY MFA.

1) What Happened Before This Story Started?

One of my favorite threads in the Harry Potter books is the story of the Marauders–Harry’s dad, and his three best friends, Sirius, Remus and Peter. They have a harrowed history with Harry’s potions professor, Severus Snape, and were having adventures at Hogwarts long before Harry was born. However, we learn about them slowly, over the course of several books. Rowling doesn’t even introduce the Marauders until the third book, but she nods to them earlier–in fact, Hagrid mentions Sirius in the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone. As a reader, it’s delightful to realize there is a whole story before the story, one the author knows and is planning to tell you more about.

No world exists just in the timeline of the story (unless it’s some very specific science-fiction-y universe, or you’re writing about the beginning of Time). Take an afternoon and think about what happened before the inciting incident of your story. What was your protagonist’s childhood like? What about his parents? His grandparents? Now, ask the same for your secondary characters. Meriadoc Brandybuck isn’t the hero of The Lord of the Rings, but Tolkien had a deep knowledge of his family history, one that pops up in small ways throughout the book, creating a richer experience for the reader.

2) What are the Legends of Your World?

This might sound like it only applies to certain types of stories, but it can apply to any of them. Myths, legends and heroes create and shape the culture of a place, whether it’s a high school still obsessed with the beauty queen who graduated last year or a fantasy world that worships a hero who once slew a dragon. Knowing what these stories are–regardless of if they make it into the final book–will make the world richer and more believable. It also helps you dig into what makes your characters tick.

For example, take Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. Although Hobbits are known for–and celebrate–being predictable, simple and not doing anything unexpected, Bilbo’s mother was a Took. The Tooks have a legend that one of their ancestors married a fairy, which made them less Hobbit-like. Tolkien refers to this part of Bilbo’s ancestry as being key to his reckless decision to follow Gandalf on an adventure. In one stroke, he deepened the world and his main character in a delightful and interesting way that didn’t bog down the book.

What are the stories the people in your book tell? What kind of stories appeal to your protagonist? What about the secondary characters? Do these stories influence their decisions? How?

3) How Does Your World Celebrate and Commemorate?

Some of the most famous scenes in books center around weddings, parties, ceremonies or funerals. The way a culture commemorates these milestones in a person’s life says a lot about that culture, and often without words. It’s a concrete way to show how the world of your book is unique. Who doesn’t remember the scene in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when all the students at Hogwarts raise their wands in homage to a fallen character? Or the first time the people of District Twelve raise their hands in the three-fingered salute to Katniss?

Do you have a moment in your book where a character dies, says goodbye or celebrates a huge milestone? Ask yourself how your specific characters would commemorate this. Repetition, here, can be incredibly powerful, so it can be useful to seed these symbols or sayings in early. For example, look at the salute in The Hunger Games. By the third book, that gesture means something powerful to the reader, not just Katniss. The same goes for Arya’s tutor in Game of Thrones. He asks her, “What do we say to the God of Death?” and she repeats, “Not today.” It’s a simple training tactic, until they’re in a life-or-death situation. Then the words, “Not today” take on a greater meaning for Arya and the reader.

There are so many more techniques to level up your world-building, and it can be a fun and useful exercise to explore them. Have fun with it! Dive deep. And remember–none of this information has to be in the book. In fact, you don’t want to load the narrative with backstory or details. But having a working knowledge of what else is going on in your world will inform your writing and strengthen your story.

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