"The master of the storytelling genre."
"Powerful!"
"Rip-roaring! Contemporary and compelling...The Author remains the master of the bestselling game!"
These are just a handful of the many excellent comments he received for his work. Popularly known as an “old master”, Sidney Sheldon’s works possess every element that will make you want to reach the climax as soon as you have started reading it. His novels are an amazing mixture of love, sex, revulsion, vengeance and power. Sheldon used simple tools to write his story, which reflect not only his thoughts but his success story as well.
Tool 1: Use the concept of the Back-Story
If you are a writer and if you are studying Sheldon, there is one thing you should focus on; the Back-Story. Each of Sheldon’s characters is backed by a compelling history of how he or she got to be that way. From that interesting history, Sheldon picks exciting parts, focuses on them and fast forwards the rest. For instance in The Sky is Falling, Sheldon focuses on Dana Evans’ encounter with the war and her adoption of a crippled child, so that he can make a connection with her strong-minded nature. However, he conveniently lets go of the history of her relationship with her mother.
Tool 2: Break clichés
Whether it is female protagonists or having higher authorities as criminals, Sheldon is known to create new rules for himself. It is widely accepted that if you want to succeed you must think out of the box. And that’s the vision that makes Sheldon successful. The secret is, think big and think different.
Tool 3: Leave cliffhangers
Sheldon keeps the pages packed with action, nail-biting suspense at the end of every chapter keeping the readers hanging. Whether it is the result of a medical report, or an important clue that leads you to the criminal, or getting to know the name of the husband’s secret lover, or getting to know the relationship of a loved one with the crime in question, it is always revealed in the beginning of a new chapter, a hint of which is dropped in the last paragraph of the previous chapter. It leaves the reader thinking of two questions. The one at the end of the chapter is, “who or what is it?” and at the beginning of the next chapter is “now why didn’t I see that coming?”
Tool 4: Live the character’s life
Why is it that you feel the emotion that the protagonist experiences? The answer to this is because when Sheldon writes about any emotion he is experiencing it himself. He relocates to the place where the story is set, he cries when his characters cry, he smiles when they are happy and he will keep himself aloof when they are isolated. It may not always be possible for writers to move to a location where the story takes place but it is possible for them to feel the emotion they write about.
Tool 5: Write for the audience
Some write for personal satisfaction and some to please their readers, though there can of course be a good blend of both motives. Sheldon re-read and edited his works for at least a year from their first drafts. Fiction writers have a varied audience, and to create a work which would leave them all happy is in itself an art. Sheldon knows the minds of his readers. He has mastered that art; and you should too.
Sheldon felt that he succeeded if he kept his readers awake all night. And these five tools combined in one work surely contribute to doing that. Like the philosopher Gurgief said, most books are written to keep you asleep so that you never wake up to the realities of life. Sidney Sheldon however, will keep you awake and bring to you the most gruesome realities of life, engulfed with action, adventure and enthralling power games.
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