Last week, I got to hear two good friends talking over how very much they loved the novel Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. From which point their conversation shifted to trying to understand why they loved it so much, and why some books generally rock one’s reading world, while another on the same or a similar topic may not work the same magic.

Well, I thought, if I not only had the answer to that but could bottle it, I would never have to fear being a writer starving in a garret (aka Mr Gates, look out! 😉 )

Yet alas, I do not have either an answer or a formula, inclining more toward the view, as expressed in the film Shakespeare In Love, that “It’s a mystery …”

I suspect, too, that one could spend a great deal of time analyzing bestsellers and looking for their elements in common, deriving a formula — and then writing something completely soulless.

So “heart”and “soul” probably lie at the heart of what makes stories resonate with readers — but it has to derive from the passion of the writer, and as every author is different, it follows that it’s unlikely there can ever be a formula as to “which” passion, and expressed in “what” way.

Not to mention the reality implied by famous US editor Gordon Lish, in the quote I shared the other week. To paraphrase, that an important part of any book is the juxtaposition of the words and action on the page with the hearts and minds of readers. By implication, a successful work will “speak” to matters of concern to a wide cross section of the reading population — and who can foretell what that may be at any given time? Or what it is that sparks that reaction?

For example, my Eleanor Oliphant–reading friends could not pinpoint what it was that made them like the book and its title character so much, just that they did.

Similarly, it is difficult to say, exactly and precisely, what made a story about an orphan wizard who goes to wizarding school and ends saving the school and eventually the world, resonate quite so powerfully with a generation of readers of all ages, and across many different continents and cultures.

Very often it does seem to be a mystery. So all we, as writers, can do (imho) is write a story we feel passionate about, out of our “heart” and “soul”, and make it the very best we possibly can — because the rest is, in fact, completely out of our hands. O-o