What Makes a Great Story?

Zoom is a wonderful thing. This last week I was able to sit down with my former student teacher and chat about story. We talked about what makes a great story and the conversation brought up some great thoughts about what authors need to consider when writing that next great novel, short story, or screenplay.

What follows is a gleaning of our conversation and the ideas we discussed. If you want to listen to the podcast episode, you can find it .

It turns out, a good story…

1. Expresses Imagination — The storyteller should have a knack for expressing their imagination in a way that the average person doesn’t have the ability to convey. Most people struggle with writing down their imagination in a way that is compelling and interesting. The storyteller can adequately engage the reader and inject that thing they imagined into the minds of those reading the story
2. Great Characters — You have to have some wonderful characters. The characters should be morally ambiguous. They should have human flaws, but the reader should know what kind of person they are at heart. Heroes are not born, but they are made. There must be a logical reason the character is motivated to do the things they do.
3. Has to Be Believable — The story, whether set in the real world or a fantasy world, has to be believable in the world in…