What makes a great story?

We normally like just about the same things, which accounts for the reason why some stories can remain popular for decades and perhaps even centuries.

Have you tried to examine what makes a story universally interesting and worthy of being read or watched decades after it has been finished and published?

 

I think it comes down to these three things. One the plot moves quickly but with enough description of the environment in which the plot takes place to immerse the reader in a world, an escapist world

Two I think that the plot has to be complex enough to engage the readers intellect

three I think that the reader must believe the work could be a true story and that even if its packaged as fiction, it might happen or could have happened or is happening

 

if its funny, that always makes a great story. you make people smile, so everyones happy.

 

a great story must contain these three elements:
things that people can relate to
things that stimulate the imaginition
writing that keeps the reader's attention
and elements that bring the reader into the story

of course there are all kinds of other factors that can diminish or amplify a story's quality, but those are the key elements every great story must have (though if really examined, I'm sure that I could find more)

 

#1 fast moving
#2 complex
#3 believeable

I have to agree with those.

When a story leaves you with the sense that 'this really happenned' I feel something like experience has been added to my life.

When it is fast moving I can keep watching or reading just because of that.

Complex as long as it is not confusing. Suspenful, yes.

I'll add:

#4- Informative: (reveals areas of lifestyles or people and objects we know nothing about)

#5-Unpredictable (to the point that we are always being moved out of our basic assumptions, even about what is actually going on.

This is a skill rarely seen even with the best movies.

Good example "crash", or The sopranos .

#6--- Original-(ideas, situation, new character never seen,completly new concept.

#7--Redemption--( a chracter that is normally seen as irredimeable, a cancer to society, 'the bad guy', made to look good.

Examples; "hero", "The fisher king", "The big Lebowsky" "sex lies and videotape".

 

A good story is one that comes with the name White Scorpion attached to it. Failing that, a bit of characterization, some scenery, and a bit of plot put together does the trick.

 

while your list is all elements found in great stories
not all of them are required to make a great story
least that's what I think

 

I was thinking of, 1984, To Kill A Mocking Bird, The Grapes of Wrath, The Excorcist, 2001 a space oddessey, The Story of JFK (one of the best fiction books ever - If only there could have been a president of the USA like that in real life). Dads Army the series

 

Also, I like stories with things attached to them, like KFC buckets, or tickets to the Steven Segal concert at the Hammersmith Palais.

 

Hey WS where did you get your photo of stephen hawkings

 

I googled it and found it on

http://gallifreyanembassy.org/portal/mediagallery/mediaobjects/disp/d/d2a44638eed34e9f84391d771a32fcef.jpg

A big thank you to the Embassy of Gallifrey. I'm not sure "who" their current ambassador is, but I've heard that he's also a doctor.

 

I gave those examples only related to the redemtion of well- hated character
not movies that have all good elements, if that how you interpreted it?

#7--Redemption--( a chracter that is normally seen as irredimeable, a cancer to society, 'the bad guy', made to look good.

Examples; "hero", "The fisher king", "The big Lebowsky" "sex lies and videotape". __________________

 

Hari, are you referring to "anti-heroes"?

 

I guess you can call them that; archvilians would not be proper...

 

It's a strange genre that. Most protagonists tend to be good guys, but I think that the anti-hero can be traced back as far as Ancient Greece with examples like Oedipus Rex. The latest example of an anti-hero can be seen to great effect in the film "Other People's Lives" which won the Oscar for best foreign film this year.

Alex, the narrator of "A Clockwork Orange" is also one of the greatest examples of an anti-hero in modern literature. Although the story expands around young Alex, we see that he is not a very nice person at all. Indeed, some readers may wonder whether he deserves everything he gets. Antony Burgess's culmnation of the "anti-hero" places the reader firmly in the seat of the magistrate. We cast our own judgment on society. Isn't that what happens anyway?

 

I believe that the intention behind this is to make the public at large identify with this misfits of society and have a peek into their lives, even if its in play or a movie. They are exposed briefly into a world that otherwise they could not be invited to, and they would be condemed to merely speculate about its nature, or worst live in fear of them.

People love movies that do that because later they can say: "yes, I know what hippies are, I saw "hair".

 

Anthony Burgess tends to use anti-heroes, or everyday people as protagonists in his work

this way it gives the novel a grittier, real-life feel to it
the book I am reading for class right now, Native Son, has one of the best examples of an anti-hero I can think of
especially seeing how it was written back in the 30s and the anti-hero I speak of is black

 

Indeed, Hari. One of the recurring comedies of life in Hipforums is reading people's interpretations of what being a "hippy" means.

Duck also gives a good example of an anti-hero, and even my own Fortress Europa sci-fi series is narrated by someone who belongs to the police state.

One of the theories that I have on the matter, and possibly a direct relation to the title of this thread, is that we create anti-heroes so that the reader will reach a catharsis after the alienation process of having to identify with somebody they detest on ethical grounds.

 

actually, yeah, one of the stories I am working on the protagonist is quite the anti-hero

so much so that I felt the need to balance him out with other characters :tonuge:

I always thought of the anti-hero approach so effective not only beacuse of how it contrasts with the reeader's morals, but through the general break away from society
even a realistic story with an anti-hero becomes somewhat fantasy-like, like the world with a different lens, so to speak

and that new lens opens up the writer's freedom to shape the world to his own liking, that much more

the absolute most disappointing moment for a reader is when the story takes a turn that they disagree with, however, when they are looking through that strange new lens, they are just that much more likely to go along with whatever

 

Since this is derailing into a much more interesting topic, I'll make a thread of that.

Still post here what you think are great elements in a story. Something I have been doing for a long time, instead of jumping in to write.