15 February 2011

a great story?

I gave myself a little homework assignment over the holidays. I tried to find out what makes a short speculative fiction story great. I probably read over a hundred stories from those "Best of" anthologies. What did I conclude? Every great story is different, there are no hard and fast rules. Okay, in hindsight, this may be obvious. :) Another obvious thing: opinions about stories are subjective.

Here's what I took away from the exercise...

  • an excellent story engages the reader's emotions. Note, too, serious emotions such as poignancy, sorrow, or joy are more effective than humor.
  • an excellent story really tortures (figuratively, not necessarily literally) the protagonist. Often the protagonist is an underdog, starting the story behind the 8-ball (or whatever metaphor you prefer).
  • many great stories have empathetic, and even sympathetic, protagonists. Interestingly, this is one of Donald Maass' instructions in Writing the Breakout Novel.
  • many very good stories have unique voices
  • most excellent spec fic stories have fully fleshed-out worlds. The reader feels like they are actually in another place and/or time
  • most excellent stories follow the standard plot arc: the protag has a problem and acts to solve it
  • most great/excellent stories are about more than one thing and these things are interrelated. Often this involves an external and internal plot arc.
  • most great stories involve some kind of originality--a new twist on an old idea, or ideally, a totally new idea

I will continue to study the issue...

Anyone out there have any insights? What do you think makes a story great?

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5 comments:

  1. Martin Willoughby7:55 AM

    Torturing your MC works for comedy too. Think how much Terry Pratchett's characters are put through. If that happened in real life would we be laughing?

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  2. Betsy Dornbusch8:20 AM

    Humor is risky in that it's very very subjective.

    Of course, all taste is subjective. But I see different tastes in humor come up most often in our production meetings.

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  3. lesleylsmith10:34 AM

    I agree with Editor B. Subjectivity is a problem with humor.

    Often I select a humorous story for the 'zine and the other editors don't like it, so it gets voted down. :(

    Another example, I took a class in which we studied one of Pratchett's books...I thought it was hilarious--but most of the class thought it was stupid. :(

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  4. Charity Bradford11:47 AM

    Great Post! Do you mind if I link to this on my blog? I'm currently hosting a short story blogfest with a friend and we are trying to post encouraging and informational posts on how to write short stories.

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  5. lesleylsmith9:34 AM

    Go for it, Charity!

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