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A good story doesn't just happen. It's purposefully crafted and bestowed with the certain elements required to make it so.
In this post, I'll discuss what those elements are, and how you can make sure to account for them in the planning stage of your story (if you plan), so you can know your outline is solid before you write a single word.
What is a Good Story?
A good story captivates you. In a book form, it's one that you can't put down. A good story has a solid plot that unfolds beautifully and is paced well; it has believable characters that you love or hate; it surprises and thrills you, and it makes you feel like a part of the story. You can't wait to finish the story because you simply must know what happens, but you dread it at the same time because you never want the experience of reading it to be over.
Elements of a Good Story
This list is not exhaustive and it is not ordered by importance.
1. Plot
The plot of a story is the sequence of events within the story. When planning your story, a clear plot outline is important so you don't write yourself into a corner. The plot of a story can be classified by what drives it forward. In this post, I focus on two types of narratives.
Plot-Driven Narrative
Plot-driven is where the emphasis is on the structure and sequence of the events within the story, and less on other elements like character development, for example. Most genre fiction falls into this category because most genre fiction is formulaic.
Character-Driven Narrative
Character-driven is when the story is more focused on character development than a richly developed plot. It's more about seeing how individual characters grow and change as well as how they interact with each other, and this is what drives the story forward. Most literary fiction falls into this category because it's often about examining the world through the experiences of the characters.
2. Inciting Incident
As an author, how you choose to begin a story is very important. It's very of then the difference between getting a reader hooked enough to read the entire book or having them abandon it after a few chapters or even pages.
Why? Because attention spans are short and getting ever shorter. An audience expects to be grabbed from the very first word and a good way to accomplish this is by opening your story with an inciting incident. An inciting incident can be understood as an urgent interruption to a character's life. The character is forced to react, and away we go.
3. Pace
Pacing determines the rate at which the action unfolds within a story, or how quickly or slowly a reader gets through the material. To understand pace as an author is to actively dictate this pace, it's to slow down or speed up how somebody reads the material, and that is a certain kind of artistic power. Used well, it ensures that the reader has the storytelling experience the author intended.
In this post, I discuss story pacing in more detail, specifically The pace of Unfolding (Story Arc) and the Pace of Reading.
4. Plot Twist
A plot twist is a literary technique that introduces a sudden and dramatic change to the expected plot beats/ outline. It's an interruption to the natural flow of events. A plot twist can be introduced at any point in the story, but it is most associated with the ending, where (if executed well) it has the most effect.
In this post, I discuss what makes a plot twist work as well as the different types of plot twists, namely, the classic twist, the mid-twist, and the double twist.
Chekhov's gun
'Chekhov's gun' is a dramatic principle that explains the concept of setup and payoff. It states that if a gun is seen in the first act, then it must be fired in the third act.
The principle behind it can be summarized as that every element in a story must be necessary, and all those that are irrelevant must be removed. Correct use of Chekhov's gun and the principle behind it is a good way to create a clean and neat story that doesn't have any loose ends.
Red Herrings
A red herring can be described as a subversion of 'Chekhov's gun'. It is a misleading clue designed to lead an audience to a false conclusion
5. Character Development
There is nothing worst than reading dialogue between characters that feel flat or following a character that feels manufactured. This can be because they are too perfect (because real people aren't), or so well calculated that they feel predictable in a way that makes reading about them extremely boring.
The very things that make a person real are the same things you'll need to focus on in the creation of your characters. In this post, I discuss how and why to base your characters on real people. I also describe a process of identifying the characteristics (strengths, weaknesses, quirks, etc.) necessary to make the characters feel real and consistent.
Encouragement: Just Get Through the First Draft
In this post, I've outlined a lot of information and pointed to further reading that will help you in your quest to write a good book. My goal is to help by proving resources, not to make you feel so overwhelmed you don't even start. So, if you're getting the feeling that maybe writing a book isn't for you, after all - Stop, take a deep breath, and listen to me.
You can do this. Writing a book is not as difficult as you think. It's not easy, but it's absolutely something that you (yes, you) can do. I've often had to remind myself of that very fact when I was in the trenches of a first draft. Often, just reminding myself that all I have to do is complete my word count for the day made all the difference.
So, I want you to do the same thing. All you have to do is complete your first draft. Get the story out of you- then you can spin it into gold. Don't lose sight of the goal and don't let it feel out of reach.
Conclusion
A good story doesn't just happen. It has a certain alchemy to it. This post is designed to act as a guide for you to make sure you know all the elements you'll need to write a book you'll be proud of. I don't claim to know it all (I do not), but I've made enough mistakes to collect some gems I wanted to share with anyone on a similar journey.
I hope this is useful. Don't give up.
Happy writing,
Nonjabulo
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