A famous author had once said: if you are writing a commercial novel then get straight to the point. I would add: get straight to the point and create a mirror ASAP.
I say mirror because I have come to realise that young people look out for themselves in the fiction that they choose to read. The ones with depth go a step further trying to find answers to questions plaguing them in life through the book.
Dogs and books are indeed man’s best friends because the former is loyal while the latter can tell you about yourself without any filters. Here I shall briefly talk about three things which, in my opinion, make or break a commercial book with young readers.
The Setting
As a fiction writer it is important to choose a milieu which may be exclusive to the protagonist, but is also universal in its appeal. For example in Marry Me, Stranger the setting is Mumbai, which happens to be a new city for the protagonist, with people who are new to her.
I wanted the first emotion which Rivanah Bannerjee faces in Mumbai to be something which the largest number of youngsters face in the country these days: the sense of a new city where they either come to work or study. This connection is important, because it makes readers feel that the protagonist is one of them.
Why is this important? Well, it is only when the the main character seems like themselves that readers judge him or her less, and thus understand the story better. A story is successful if one has the readers hooked throughout, but a truly memorable story is one in which whatever happens to the protagonist is basically a generalisation of what is happening to most of us.
It only means readers, one and all, identifiy with the protagonist. It is not easy to forge such a connection all the time in all stories, but an author must seek it nevertheless, so that the protagonist doesn’t just remain a character in a book, but becomes someone whom readers know they may see in their everyday environment.
The protagonist
Now comes the most important part of a book: the protagonist. He or she is the link for readers to the world that the author is trying to create. And for India’s young adults, the main character cannot just be someone they want to like. He or she can’t just be interesting or entertaining.
The author has a greater duty – to make the protagonist seem like an extension to the readers themselves. Whatever the protagonist does has to be in that delicate zone where the reader mustn’t question the plausibility of his or her actions.
There has to be an aspiration behind the protagonist’s choices and stance in the story. The catchword here is: make-belief. The better the make-believe, the lesser the risk that the reader will be indifferent towards the protagonist.
There is no good story or bad story. There’s either a story which one believes, or a story one doesn’t.
The protagonist’s journey
This is as important as creating the character, because it is in the journey that the readers often seek their answers. It’s the most potent aspect to making a story memorable.
For example, Rivanah’s first shocker in Marry Me, Stranger is that her long-time boyfriend from college is cheating on her. It seems like a simple matter, but it also talks about a grave relationship issue that plagues today’s youth: trust. The emotional state that Rivanah finds herself in after this discovery is one which a lot of readers connect to.
Novoneel Chakraborty is the author of romances and romantic thrillers that include That Kiss In The Rain, How About A Sin Tonight?, EX... A Twisted Love Story, Marry Me, Stranger, and All Yours, Stranger.
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I say mirror because I have come to realise that young people look out for themselves in the fiction that they choose to read. The ones with depth go a step further trying to find answers to questions plaguing them in life through the book.
Dogs and books are indeed man’s best friends because the former is loyal while the latter can tell you about yourself without any filters. Here I shall briefly talk about three things which, in my opinion, make or break a commercial book with young readers.
The Setting
As a fiction writer it is important to choose a milieu which may be exclusive to the protagonist, but is also universal in its appeal. For example in Marry Me, Stranger the setting is Mumbai, which happens to be a new city for the protagonist, with people who are new to her.
I wanted the first emotion which Rivanah Bannerjee faces in Mumbai to be something which the largest number of youngsters face in the country these days: the sense of a new city where they either come to work or study. This connection is important, because it makes readers feel that the protagonist is one of them.
Why is this important? Well, it is only when the the main character seems like themselves that readers judge him or her less, and thus understand the story better. A story is successful if one has the readers hooked throughout, but a truly memorable story is one in which whatever happens to the protagonist is basically a generalisation of what is happening to most of us.
It only means readers, one and all, identifiy with the protagonist. It is not easy to forge such a connection all the time in all stories, but an author must seek it nevertheless, so that the protagonist doesn’t just remain a character in a book, but becomes someone whom readers know they may see in their everyday environment.
The protagonist
Now comes the most important part of a book: the protagonist. He or she is the link for readers to the world that the author is trying to create. And for India’s young adults, the main character cannot just be someone they want to like. He or she can’t just be interesting or entertaining.
The author has a greater duty – to make the protagonist seem like an extension to the readers themselves. Whatever the protagonist does has to be in that delicate zone where the reader mustn’t question the plausibility of his or her actions.
There has to be an aspiration behind the protagonist’s choices and stance in the story. The catchword here is: make-belief. The better the make-believe, the lesser the risk that the reader will be indifferent towards the protagonist.
There is no good story or bad story. There’s either a story which one believes, or a story one doesn’t.
The protagonist’s journey
This is as important as creating the character, because it is in the journey that the readers often seek their answers. It’s the most potent aspect to making a story memorable.
For example, Rivanah’s first shocker in Marry Me, Stranger is that her long-time boyfriend from college is cheating on her. It seems like a simple matter, but it also talks about a grave relationship issue that plagues today’s youth: trust. The emotional state that Rivanah finds herself in after this discovery is one which a lot of readers connect to.
Novoneel Chakraborty is the author of romances and romantic thrillers that include That Kiss In The Rain, How About A Sin Tonight?, EX... A Twisted Love Story, Marry Me, Stranger, and All Yours, Stranger.
