What Makes A Story Good?

Don’t look at me. I like crap. And I am capable of reading something really, really good (which I just did, Busiek’s “Secret Identity”) and still being ambivalent about it.

What makes a story good? If you care. If you care about the characters, if you care what happens next. Two separate things, one of which is necessary. Either one, but it’s rare to find them separate.

Think about a story you like. Nothing epic, tapestry narrative takes on a momentum of its own and the characters are either Joseph Campbell outlines or superficial plot-movers. No, think of something smaller, with a distinct beginning, middle and end. Doesn’t have to be fiction, but fiction is easier because it ends. Movies are fine, it can be anything. This isn’t rhetorical. I mean it, think of something.

Now, what do you like about it?

I bet it isn’t the gloriously lyrical descriptive passages, or scenic vistas if it’s a movie. It might be the way the ending comes together so perfectly--- but I doubt it.

My money is on the characters. Ford Prefect. The Dread Pirate Roberts. Nero Wolfe. Kiera the Thief. Eddi McCandry. Chiun. Simon Templar. Perry Mason (from TV, not the boring books). Our lists might overlap, they might not, it doesn’t matter.

What matters is that a good story is made up of at least one good character, someone who becomes real to us and makes us care. Otherwise the Happiest of Ever Afters is irrelevant.

Caveat: Discussing this at the gym today, I was given the example of Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” in which there is a gloriously descriptive active passage without significant characterization. Show of hands, how many of you thought of Dostoevsky for your example? I sure didn’t.