What Makes a Story Good?
The Ten Essential Elements of Your Story
What essential elements make a story good?
Well, that is a complicated answer – one that if I knew, I would be a very rich ladychild. What I do know is that a successful novel is the amalgamation of many pieces. Think of it as a puzzle if you will, and together each piece is crucial for forming the finalized picture. But if you’re missing a piece, the image suffers. You have to pay attention to each individual piece in order to strengthen the overall quality of your story.
This may seem like common sense, especially when it comes to things like plot, characters, and conflict, but by the time you are halfway through your second draft and quickly losing track of you’re A, B, and C subplots, doing a pacing read through is probably not going to be your first thought. So, remember to cover all the essential elements of your story.
1. Plot
The unholy offspring of conflict and your overactive imagination -Your plot!
What happens in the novel? What’s the point of your story? These are all questions you are going to need to answer before you even pick up your pen (or more realistically put those Lil fingers anywhere near a keyboard).
Plot is important… it is!
But what many people fail to realize is that it isn’t the most important element. You don’t need the best or most imaginative plot for a novel to be successful. Sure, it will help if you have an intriguing idea, but the real deciding factor here is you. How much you are willing to put into it, and how well you piece together your puzzle.
The important thing to remember when you are piecing together your plot is to make sure it’s a solid one.
This does not mean it’s the most fantastic. Only that it makes sense. It’s compelling, structured, cohesive, and well thought out.
I can not stress the last one enough. You get a solid plot by putting the time in to fully understand it. It doesn’t matter if you are a pantser or a planner (referring to the method of story planning), as long as by the end of your first few drafts, you have a crystal-clear understanding of where your story is going.
2. Protagonists
This one goes without saying.
Your protagonist is the vantage point from which your audience will experience your story through. As such, you should take extra care when creating them.
It can be tempting to make them into perfect Mary Sues, or your ideal image of yourself, but I urge you to stay away from that.
Your main characters should be interesting, sympathetic, yet flawed individuals. I have written about it in depth Here, if you need more tips on writing characters.
Remember that while important (especially for character-driven stories), a strong protagonist is not necessarily mandatory. Several successful novels have kept their leading characters rather one-dimensional.
Bella Swan from Twilight has been noted to be a blank canvas that young readers can project themselves onto.
Many action novels are story-driven and authors often spend less time developing their cast, including the main character.
If you are finding it hard to dedicate time in your novel to character development, check in with your plot and asses your story’s direction.
3. Antagonists
They say a story is only as strong as its villain, but if Marvel and their parading cast of mustache-twirling anti-heroes proved anything, it’s that good stories prevail, even with weak villains.
Still, it never hurts to have an enticing foil to your character. The anti-them. Audiences love a good villain, sometimes more than a good hero. Every Batman needs a Joker, Every Sherlock a Moriarty, someone who challenges them, brings out the worst in your character, or the best.
When writing your antagonists, just remember- predictable is boring. Keep your readers guessing with their intentions and actions.
4. Supporting cast
So often do writers underestimate the importance of a good supporting character. Some of the best characters to date have been the supporting cast. Think about the Obi-wan Kenobi’s, the Seth Cohens, the Hermione Grangers, The Watsons, and the Stile Stilinski’s of the world.
Secondary characters are often used like construction materials in a story, they push the plot along when needed, instantly anger and forgive the protagonist when the story calls for it before going back into their box until they’re needed to spice up a love triangle or laugh at our witty hero’s jokes.
But the potential for your other characters is there. By giving them time to develop, you are making your world that much more believable, which will help readers suspend their disbelief, which in turn strengthens your novel.
So remember to give credit where credit is due- and give your side characters a little time in the spotlight.
5. Conflict
You got to have a problem. Unless you’re writing the epic sequel to the Carebears show, not everything can always be about cookies and hugs. You have to introduce some stakes. The bigger the stakes, the more suspense you can later build.
Ask yourself what disrupted the hero’s usual routine. How it affects them. Why do they care? (this one is important). Then what they are going to do about it?
Finally, throw a wrench into their plans at every possible turn. No one likes it when the hero finds a problem, builds a plan to execute said problem, and then has no further complications whatsoever.
No! Make them work for it!
The more intricate the conflict, the more room for intriguing plotlines to entice readers. Just remember that you don’t necessarily need a high fantasy conflict for it to be an interesting one. Depending on your story, a simple conflict can go a long way.
6. World (Setting)
Build a believable world. This is true regardless of if you craft yourself an elven empire in space, or if your character lives in Idaho. Your fictional world needs to feel real.
Think about it like building a movie set. You need an ambiance. You need multiple cohesive stages to build up to an entire set.
I once beta’d for a girl who was still early on in her writing journey (i.e. her story was a wee bit silly), but her world-building was beautiful. To match her astronomy, plot her entire novel was littered with interstellar imagery from the night sky, to her love interest’s glasses twinkling like stars, this girl wrote herself a setting that was really beautiful.
I always like to sketch out my character’s rooms, and even their house/ fort/school ect. Even if it will never ever be relevant in the story, it goes a long way toward getting you into your character’s headspace.
You can design rooms and houses Here for free. Something I have gotten far too wrapped up in doing. But, honestly, it’s great for ideas.
7. Dialogue
Depending on the type of novel you are writing, dialogue can make or break your entire story. So if you are aiming for a character-centric story- this is your weapon of choice.
If you are writing a quick-paced action with a stoic detective named John Smith, whose personality is being a detective names John Smith, then it’s probably okay to prioritize pacing and plot over John’s less than zippy responses. Think Geralt in the Witcher series. amazing character, always great when he decides to be sassy, but ultimately no one expects an epic ballad from him on the regular.
Pro-tip. Listen to a compilation of dialogue from shows whose themes match your own. For example, I learned how to write snappy comedy from listening to the funny moments of sitcoms. I did this over and over for years and it showed up in my writing.
8. Suspension of disbelief
The world does not revolve around your character. Your character should not be bending the world around them just because they have protagonist powers. The opposite, really, your character’s wants and desires should be constantly thrown off course by the distraction of the outside world. Unless they are the most special, prophesied chosen one, or King Arthur or something, then the world is an inconvenience that affects us all.
Make your audience believe that the protagonist is a small part of the world- thus their impact on the world will be all that more impressive.
Your readers already know the ending. Most likely your character is going to triumph over adversity. The trick is getting them to forget that, even for a moment. The key to doing that is by making your characters struggle for it.
Remember challenge = an intriguing read.
9. Pacing
This one is important. I once read an amazing story that was basically unreadable simply because the concept of pacing was something the author had never considered before.
DO Not let your novel be too slow!
DO Not let your novel be too quick!
Often times you hear of stories suffering from the first, but I learned recently that the second can happen, with the same negative effect on your story.
Remember these rules for proper pacing:
A) Every scene should work towards pushing your plot forwards – even if it doesn’t feel like it. If you have a scene that is of no consequence to your overall plot, cut it. (There are always acceptations, but if you have several scenes that are of no consequence to your novel, that’s not great.)
B) Let your characters breathe. This novel I mentioned was an action and the characters jumped from one life-changing chase to another. At one point, three separate unrelated fight scenes were crammed into one chapter. It gave me a headache to read and at no point was I certain what was going on.
Even if you are against outlines, I would suggest the quadrant model for your stories. Take a piece of paper and divide it into four parts. These are your story acts.
1) Introduction: one of the slower parts of your novel where you introduce characters, the world, and the creeping conflict on the horizon
2) Rising action: Set up your cast, and start to ramp up the conflict and tension as the crisis is now upon them
3) The fight: Have this be one of your most intense action-packed sections. Ordinary life is interrupted. All plots and subplots come to a head here as your characters have to deal with this or face the consequences.
4) Climax and resolution: The tension of the last three parts is handled here. Immediately after the climax is the falling action where your character deals with the consequences and settles into a new normal that parallels the start of your story, but they are ultimately changed by the journey.
10. The Umph (X factor) Your own interest
This depends on you. I have heard several people criticize novels that on paper are very good, but find that something is missing. It can be said that very special novels have something about them- a heart and soul. And while it’s impossible for even the most skilled of writers to crack the formula to the X factor. The only thing you can do is put everything you have into the pages.
So for all intents and purposes, think of this as your own interest and dedication. To write a solid novel, you have to write a little of yourself into it. You need to care about these characters and connect with them. You have to care enough about your story to finish it! And once you are done you have to care enough to deal with your less than stellar writing and improve it, over and over again. You have to believe that the novel you just wrote is worth the rejection you are going to face.
When the agents turn you down, you have to believe, against all logic, that they are wrong.
If I ever discover the perfect recipe for an instant New York Times Best Seller, I promise to share. But until then, all you can do is remember to pay your respects to the essential elements of a good story, especially if you want to end up with a completed picture of your puzzle.
You should have a strong understanding of what each of these parts means to your story specifically. No two stories are going to manifest these the same. Sometimes a strong story looks like dedicating pages and pages to world-building. Sometimes character-building should be prioritized above plot.
Whatever you do with your puzzle pieces, do it intentionally, and your readers will thank you.
To see what mistakes to avoid check out the posts Here