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Date Posted: 08:46:34 02/27/07 Tue
Author: TK
Subject: Inside for my musings.
In reply to: Pixie 's message, "Building off my last post..." on 19:08:39 02/26/07 Mon

A good story isn’t about genre. Good mechanics are very important but they aren’t enough to make a good story (I don’t think I would include pacing as part of mechanics, but that’s just me). A good story also includes good characterization. The established characters sound and act in a manner that is consistent with my understanding of them. That’s not to say that a character might not do something unexpected or ‘out of character’, but there should be some explanation within the story to shed light on that kind of behavior. Sometimes a good story includes a plot, sometimes not. If there is a plot, it needs to be well thought out, without deus ex machine resolutions. A good story needs to have spark, the ‘it’ factor. It gels in some way, so that the whole is greater than the sum of good mechanics, good characterization, good dialogue, and good plot.

Unreadable: bad mechanics tops my list. Non-American English spoken by American characters and other out of character language (teenage slang spoken regularly by an adult) are also quick turn offs. Very occasionally I have been able to enjoy stories written with British English, but not very often. Plots that seem thrown together because the author thought the story needed a plot will stop my reading. When a story not only doesn’t have a spark, but instead feels like a cold bucket of water, when it feels like it was laborious to produce and equally laborious to read, then I generally stop reading

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Replies:

  • The best story ideas--inside -- highplainswoman, 16:11:11 02/27/07 Tue

  • don't have any real thoughts on the dark side of Harm - but the entire premiss of story writing is character : goal- motivation- and conflict. So you've got the conflict part right. Then we need inner and external conflict - I suppose with Harm it would be internal conflict of being unwilling to commit for fear of losing the loved won (thanks to dad) and external conflict would be UCMJ. (NT) -- chris k, 08:35:00 02/28/07 Wed

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