As each story forms, authors must think about what is in the story that will, in a classical sense, bring recognition or reversal of existing thought. A story loses life without that, and becomes a hollow description of a happening that is too fatalistic and predictable. A good story leaves us with the sense that we know more than we did when we began reading, a sense of fulfillment brought about by involvement with others in a fictional environment.
Stories also entertain us. For all of us, there are few things better than a good story well told. We read stories to discover memorable characters struggling for all the things we want in life—love, happiness and longevity—and to see an exciting plot unfold; we crave to see how things will work out.
Stories also succeed by involving the reader. A reader becomes a part of the story through emotional involvement with the characters and with the drama of the story, and the reading of the story becomes uniquely his or her own reading. This literary process is different than auditory and visual means of storytelling; readers interpret the written words, translate meaning, and recreate their own story, one that is unique to their own experience and intelligence. Therefore, the writing must be clear and must be created with meticulous attention to providing the reader with as effortless a reading experience as possible.
Not every reader achieves this experience of immersion in a fictional story—with pleasure and reflection—that continues long after the story has ended. Many readers prefer the familiarity of recognizable story forms in which the detective solves the murder, a person loses love and regains love, or the monster threatens Gotham City and a flying hero saves the populace. In fact, some readers never devote the time or develop the experience to read literary stories capable of this type of reader involvement.
Great storytelling is not just clever description of objects, people and happenings. No adjective, no adverb, no alarmingly disjunctive position of words and phrases will ever have more than a transient effect on the reader and will never create a memorable story. Great stories are about characters doing things that change their lives. The action is not just what happens from scene to scene, it’s what emotions inside a character (inner story) drive him or her to the unique actions on the page (outer story).
A story must be worthy of the reader’s involvement. The author must make the ideas, emotions and action of the story inevitably force recognition or reversal in the character, and must make the story a significant stimulus to the reader’s emotions so that the story will be remembered.
