A Good Story -- what makes it?

photo by One zone Studio on Unsplash

Written in response to another subscriber/writer question—

What makes a good story?

A great question… seriously. Both this question, and the questions that you ask to spark the story into being.

A typical list of what makes for a great story might look like this:

TENSION and conflict aka Drama

In class I’ve asked people to embody these ideas—or absorb them on cellular level. So for “conflict” I ask people to turn to their neighbour and SCOWL. Look absolutely miserable. Hold eye contact… and see how long you can do so. After not too long, your face starts to ache! That is “conflict,” and it can last only so long—it’s exhausting.

A story needs it, but not so much that it’s constant. “Tension” on the other hand is, or can be, an ongoing state, and for this I ask people to stand up (get outta those seats!) and pretend to hold between them an enormous swathe of elastic, each person holding two corners in their hands. We all know what happens when you’re holding a giant elastic and someone lets go! Someone gets it in the eye. And it smarts.

So… hold on to the tension. Establish, escalate, (take breathers), and revisit, the conflict.

Rich and MEMORABLE characters

These are critical. For a short story you might need only one or two (see below, and the story I’ll talk about). But even secondary characters should be memorable, even if not rich, or deep.

Setting

Setting can be both character and plot! And memorable. (Not asking for much here!) See my post on setting; it is one part of the trinity of plot/story, character, and setting.

Beginning and Ending

Should cause the reader to want to enter, and give them something with which to leave. Much like those birthday party treat bags you always liked and couldn’t wait to open in the car ride home—something to unpack later.

Dialogue

Not every story has this. And some stories are all dialogue. Dialogue can be the turning points; dialogue can seem to be about something else altogether. Sometimes people never say what they mean.

On the mechanical end, you might opt to place dialogue as text without punctuation.

Dialogue has its elements of Content and Form. PLAY. Check out the post on dialogue.

And dialogue should go under “memorable characters”—it’s what can make them so. Or not. Listen to your characters. How they say and when is as important as what they say.

Prose

Last and not least for this list. Some stories, especially short ones, are all about style. Form can override content. Even for novels. (Though always: how does the content and form connect?)

What are you doing with your sentences? Your paragraphs? What words are you using? Sounds? Do you read aloud as you work? (This should be its own post!)

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What would you add to this “fictional devices” list? Please share in the comments!

These are the basics of the thing.

What else? What make a story More? And resonate?

Think about the stories you’ve read that you remember. You’ve read more than that number, but think about those that stay with you: what was it that caught you, that you recall?

Decades ago, I read a story by Colette, set on a wedding night, post-love-making. In the story, the husband has fallen asleep with his arm around her, and the spouse is describing his hand, as she is noticing it, seeing it, scrutinizing it… moving from love, to question, and ending up in a completely different—and chilling—space. Such a simple short story. But it has stayed with me.

What was it about that story?