"Of all the arts in which the wise excel, Nature''s chief masterpiece is writing well"—John Sheffield
Many writerswrotewell and their books became commercial successes. But at the opposite end of the divide are countless failed authors.
Consider the Oxford dropout and lexicographer Samuel Johnson. Not that he was a failed writer. But he is not read partly because of the incomprehensibility of his writings. Says his biographer, James Boswell: "He writes like a teacher
to his students from an academic chair." Oliver Goldsmith, the poet, playwright, and novelist and one of Johnson''s good fellows, puts it humorously: "His little fishes talked like whales."
But we are not going to talk about the failures. Rather, we will be discussing writers who dazzled the literary world in a blaze of glory. So I have presented a selection of writers of both sexes, from diverse lands and of various time periods that wrote in different genres. This is not meant to be a detailed study of the authors. But the purpose is for you to see what made them stand out from the rest—why they wrote best- sellers--so that you too can learn from them and write your masterpiece.
When you read, give attention to their style of writing because that is the important thing--the reason why readers enjoyed their works. Your style therefore does the magic. Because as Logan Pearsall Smith the American writer said, "Style is a magic wand, and turns everything to gold that it touches." If that is true, you will write blockbusters like these writers.
Archer, Jeffrey
Jeffrey Howard Archer was born on April 15, 1940 in Western Super Mare, England. He became a politician after his education at Oxford, and decided to write himself out of debt when his business collapsed. This gave birth to the instant successful novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less. Other masterpieces followed among which are First Among Equals, Shall We Tell the President?, Kane and Abel and A Matter of Honor. He became so rich and held his readers spell- bound for over two decades. Why?
He used familiar topics—politics, crime, and sex. His characters also seem real—ambitious and fighting people
He also used known people in international politics as characters, which gave his story more visibility. They included Margaret Thatcher, Ted Kennedy, Saddam Hussein, and Rupert Murdock.
Archer is also very descriptive and likes to put his readers in suspense.
The beloved writer who is married with children got a four-year jail term for perjury. Ever since, it seems he is no longer first among equals.
Bronte, Emily
Born on July 30th 1818 at Thornton, Bradford in bleak Yorkshire moors, and fifth child of six children, Emily Bronte and her family members had a poor, harsh beginning—being reared under the tyranny of their pastor-father. In order to escape their unhappy lives, the children took to writing, with Emily and Anne writing poetry and stories for their imaginary world of Gondal.
Of all the three sisters who wrote books—Emily, Charlotte, and Anne—Emily stands out as the best, though her work did not gain equal recognition as Charlotte’s autobiographical Jane Eyre, in her life time. The works of the Bronte sisters cannot be compared to any other work in English literature because they arose out of personal emotion.
But by far, the greatest of them all is Emily’s Wuthering Heights, her only novel. This novel, the violent tale of love and revenge, has been dubbed the most imaginative novel in English literature. What was it that made it so?
Emily Bronte had rich imagination and this is a great asset for any aspiring writer. And what else? She wrote on romance, and stories of love and revenge make best-sellers any day.
She died on December 19, 1848 at 30 and was buried on December 22 in the family vault in Haworth Church.
Excerted from HOW TO WRITE A BEST-SELLER by Arthur Zulu.
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