I'm not interested in writing to a very specific formula, but it's interesting and informative to look at one (very educated) opinion on what people are after. As Kress summarizes, the characteristics of blockbuster novels, with notable exceptions, are:
- a clear protagonist, usually sympathetic, that we want to succeed
- characters who are not Everyman, but rather are "larger than life," by which he means driving hard to get whatever it is they're striving for, whatever that takes
- multiple point of view (despite having one main character) to "open up" the story and let the reader know more of what's going on than the protagonist does
- a "big" setting: the Civil War, international espionage, the world of the New York Mafia, the million-dollar art world, Mars
- very high stakes
- personal as well as professional relationships among characters on opposite sides of the struggle
- a lot of action, all building to a climax that changes everything for the characters
- usually, victory for the protagonist
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