Bad Guys who are Good, Backstories, and Love Triangles: Things that Make a Good Story
What makes a good story? All stories have the same elements; a plot, characters, a climax, a theme, but yet some make a reader want to put the book down after the first chapter and others keep the reader up at night trying to finish it. Certain aspects that are apart of stories will hook the reader and make it a good story. Elements like making a bad guy have the appeal of the good guy in the story, keeping the reader guessing, or putting a twist on the love story keeps a reader intrigued and makes a story into a good story.
One aspect of a story that makes it good is when the reader is drawn to the bad guy or villain of the story. Normally in a story …show more content…
In some stories a character’s past is the driving force of the plot and in many good stories the author either keeps the backstory hidden until the end or leaves it up to the reader to figure out themselves. In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the reader is spending most of the book wondering who Jay Gatsby really is along with the narrator and other characters of the book. Gatsby is this suddenly wealthy man who throws wild parties and most people have never even seen him. He is talked about by almost all the characters and there are countless rumors about him. The readers are constantly given little hints as to who this character is and where he came from but it isn’t until close to the end that you finally get the real answers. This really captures a reader and makes them continue to read to find out things like why Gatsby is so wealthy or why he throws these parties. Books like “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by
Stephen Chbosky never bluntly answers the questions the reader has. The author never explains what happened between Charlie and his aunt or explains why he writes these letters and who …show more content…
In the book “Little Women” by
Louisa May Alcott, the reader is introduced to a friendship between Jo and Laurie, and the reader assumes they will end up together in the end. Even though Laurie proposes to Jo, she turns him down there is still a little hope they will be together. In the end Laurie ends up with Amy instead.
Again in “The Great Gatsby,” like Gatsby, the reader is expecting him and daisy to live happily ever after. As the summer goes on through the book the reader is convinced that daisy will leave her husband and be with Jay Gatsby but to the reader’s dismay Gatsby is killed. Daisy doesn’t even attend Gatsby’s funeral. To a reader both cases are disappointing, but it is an unusual plot twist that makes the story less humdrum and more interesting to read because they didn’t expect it. What makes a good story is when the storyteller does something a little unexpected.
When the author makes the reader side with the villain or keeps you guessing the whole way through or adds and different twist on the happily ever after of a love story, it keeps the reader intrigued and makes it a good story to
What makes a good story? All stories have the same elements; a plot, characters, a climax, a theme, but yet some make a reader want to put the book down after the first chapter and others keep the reader up at night trying to finish it. Certain aspects that are apart of stories will hook the reader and make it a good story. Elements like making a bad guy have the appeal of the good guy in the story, keeping the reader guessing, or putting a twist on the love story keeps a reader intrigued and makes a story into a good story.
One aspect of a story that makes it good is when the reader is drawn to the bad guy or villain of the story. Normally in a story …show more content…
In some stories a character’s past is the driving force of the plot and in many good stories the author either keeps the backstory hidden until the end or leaves it up to the reader to figure out themselves. In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the reader is spending most of the book wondering who Jay Gatsby really is along with the narrator and other characters of the book. Gatsby is this suddenly wealthy man who throws wild parties and most people have never even seen him. He is talked about by almost all the characters and there are countless rumors about him. The readers are constantly given little hints as to who this character is and where he came from but it isn’t until close to the end that you finally get the real answers. This really captures a reader and makes them continue to read to find out things like why Gatsby is so wealthy or why he throws these parties. Books like “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by
Stephen Chbosky never bluntly answers the questions the reader has. The author never explains what happened between Charlie and his aunt or explains why he writes these letters and who …show more content…
In the book “Little Women” by
Louisa May Alcott, the reader is introduced to a friendship between Jo and Laurie, and the reader assumes they will end up together in the end. Even though Laurie proposes to Jo, she turns him down there is still a little hope they will be together. In the end Laurie ends up with Amy instead.
Again in “The Great Gatsby,” like Gatsby, the reader is expecting him and daisy to live happily ever after. As the summer goes on through the book the reader is convinced that daisy will leave her husband and be with Jay Gatsby but to the reader’s dismay Gatsby is killed. Daisy doesn’t even attend Gatsby’s funeral. To a reader both cases are disappointing, but it is an unusual plot twist that makes the story less humdrum and more interesting to read because they didn’t expect it. What makes a good story is when the storyteller does something a little unexpected.
When the author makes the reader side with the villain or keeps you guessing the whole way through or adds and different twist on the happily ever after of a love story, it keeps the reader intrigued and makes it a good story to