What Makes a Good Story?
Stories have been used to pacify and correct the society from generation to generation. Tales are like a rod to instill good morals to younger generations, and its wisdom oozing out from the older generation.
Stories have been written in form novels, novella and poetry. They are written to pass information, teach a lesson, correct a mistake or uplift someone who is down. In the end a writer connects with their audience in form of a story and communicates their thoughts to them.
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What Makes a Good Story?
Many have written stories and many people continue to write today. However, are all writers following the rules of a good story?. Everyone gets an idea of writing in their life but many do not follow it through. This is because many feel that writing is cumbersome while others feel it is a waste of time. They are right depending on how they perceive it.
Stories have changed people and how they live. Stories have motivated those who had lost hope in life to hope once again. Stories have changed people who had strayed from the righteous paths and put them in the right track again. Good stories have inspired people to take up roles of fighting good causes and bringing prosperity and posterity to the society.
Every story should have a flow. Just like a river flowing to the ocean, a story also should have a good flow from introduction to conclusion. It should also communicate the flow of thoughts from the writer’s mind to that of the reader.
A good flow will keep the reader glued to every line,sentence,paragraph and page. Their minds will wander to the lives of the characters and live their lives.
While the world is big enough to accommodate every story, its not every type of the story that should finds its way into the world. Only good stories should. Good stories gives good lessons, change bad people to be good people. Good stories also inspire and uplift people. Good stories have impacted positively on people and the society.
However putting up a good story together is not a walk in the park. It takes time, lot of thinking and sometimes one reaches a point of giving up. But as they say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. So one has to keep on pressing because finally the universe will smile at them. The best way to start is writing down every idea you think of and in the end you will have a story.
So what makes a good story?. No matter if you are telling a story based on real life situation or fiction, you must give it life so that it rejuvenates the mind of the reader. When telling or writing a story, one has to follow certain rules to make it a good story. So what makes a good story?
- Topic. Choose a topic that you understand well. A theme gives the preview of the entire story and seeks to capture the attention of the reader.
- Introduction. The first paragraph should tell what story is about. The best way to do it is by
way of a dialogue between the characters. - Plot. The setting should relate to real life situations. What a reader wants is to relate the story to their life, and learn lessons from the story.
- Characters. Always make sure to have a hero and a villain. The hero and villain spices up the story and gives it life. The villain will bring the challenges and hiccups while the hero will try to solve them.
- Conflict. Having a challenge where the hero is trying to solve makes a story good. For a story to have a moral lesson, there must be a real conflict in life of the characters involved.
- Mystery. There should be a hidden agenda the hero wants to solve. Creating a mystery will keep the reader guessing and yearning to see to the end of the story.
- Revelation. The end should reveal the mystery. The mystery being revealed will give the lesson to the reader and satisfy their curiosity.
- Resolution. The characters should be able to find closure to their problems. Every challenged once resolved, every character will be satisfied and find closure.
- Emotion. The audience feelings and characters feelings should intertwine. For any story to stick to the mind of the reader,then he or she should be emotionally attached to the story.
- Imagination. Capture the imagination of the reader. Let the reader’s mind walk side by side with the characters in the story.
- Audience. Understand the audience. Before putting it down on paper,begin with the audience point of view in mind. By understanding them and putting yourself in their shoes,you will feel what they feel and write their thoughts.
- The age bracket. While writing a story, understand the minds of different age groups. Not every story is fit for every age group.
The rules are not exhaustive as there might be more. However, the listed above are vital to make a good story. The most important thing in a story is the audience. When the story teller or writer look at things from the audience point of view, then they will tell or write a good story. There is no other magic since the value of the story is determined by the audience.
Stories have been told from generations to generations. Others have been written down for people to read long after the writers have gone. Either orally or written, a good story always triggers something in the minds of the audience.
The world is always yearning for good stories and there is always space for more writers to get out there and write good stories.
In the end, there is power in the tongue and the pen. But what is passed orally can be altered, but what is written cannot be erased. Just like an engineer building a house and has to begin with the foundations. So a writer too has to follow rules of the pen. While writing a story, follow the rules above and you will have a good story.