Day 2: What Makes Your Story Good?

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Question.

Do you love stories?

I know your answer would be Yes.

Why?

Your answers would vary, because of one reason or the other.

So, I can say, while all of us love stories, the stories of love, romance, sacrifice, pain, adventure, hope and many other themes, the intensity of reading, writing, listening and sharing them with others, would differ from one person to another.

Question.

What makes a story good?

The five essential elements, which are: the characters, the settings, the plot, the conflict, and the resolution.

Now what happens in a story is this, the characters are introduced, the writer builds up the setting and environment which makes us feel the story real ( imagine your favourite fiction here). The story moves on the plot and then something happens, the protagonist of the story and the rest of the characters confront a crisis, unknown to them and that brings the suspense. The writer just throws different characters with different perspectives and personalities and when the time of crisis comes, these characters respond and react to the crisis which reveal what these characters are made up of, what they think and how differently they all think, why they all do what they do and what their motives and intentions are and what instigates them to do that? And then one among them becomes our favourite character.

Now try to remove the element of conflict  and crisis from the plot of the story.

Questions.

Would the story be same? Would it still appeal to us? Would we like the characters? Would the story be able to create that level of suspense that we expected? Would we still be hooked to the story till the end?

The answers of all these question we know.

Questions.

Now share with me who is your favourite character or hero? And would you love that character had he/she not faced any crisis.

Answer will be NO.

The point that I want to highlight in today’s post is simple.

Conflict refers to challenge. And challenge, be it external or internal, gives momentum to the story and shapes the character. What happens to the character and how he/she deals in that moment of crisis is the crux of the story.

And as Seneca says, “As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”

So, what matters is, how good the story is, and that is determined by level of crisis and challenge dealt by the characters.

Likewise the story, we all are the lead characters in the stories of our lives. The stories of our lives have the beginning, the middle and the end. We all live at different places, have our families and live in environments, which constitute the setting of our story. The plot is created by the supreme power. But how we all face the crisis, conflicts and challenges in our life determines our future and reveals our own values and principles to us. It is in the moments of crisis and challenge that we decide what are the things which are of paramount importance to us, what all matters most to us and then we move towards the resolution. After resolving one issue, we get ready for the next crisis.

Questions.

Do you find the element of crisis in your life? Do you think that dealing with the crisis will make you a stronger and a better person? How would you like to deal with that crisis and how would like your story to end? And how would you like to be remembered as a character?

Find answers.

Now it’s your turn to ask.

Ask.

Question.