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Story Preferences [message #58286]

Wed, 12 August 2009 01:21

Macky

Really getting into it

Location: USA
Registered: November 2008
Messages: 973

The more I read from the Story Shelf here, the more I think that creating good characters is the most important thing about writing a story. I can totally enjoy a story if the plot is trite, but it has good characterizations. I want to love the hero and hate the villain. The stuff that they do need only be the means of showing us who they are.

Besides that, I like first person narrative. It adds another character to the story; the author or a personna that he adopts.

I've developed some stylistic preferences in my reading too. I like simple sentences. I like active verbs, although passive is OK if used sparsely. And I like short paragraphs.

Now romance and sex is what the Story Shelf is all about. I feel that the longer that the author can dwell on the characteristics of the relationship, the better. I want to hear how these guys want to give to each other. Of course there absolutely has to be sex, but I'd happily read a story that gave 90% to romance and just 10% to physical sex.

What makes a story good for you?
Macky

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Ps 133:1 NASB

Re: Story Preferences [message #58287 is a reply to message #58286]

Wed, 12 August 2009 06:40

timmy

Has no life at all

Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796

Rarely, very rarely, a story can work with shallow characterisation. This is when the story itself is more important than the characters, who are then simply passengers. In such a story simply anyone would do as a passenger.

In the film La Gloire de mon Père the characters are all, and the story is negligible.

The difference in first vs third person depends on the author. With some you never notice the point of view until immersed in the tale. That's when it doesn't matter at all.

Third person is harder to write. In third person the author knows all, and has to choose what to reveal. In first person the author only knows what the lead character knows, and the perspective is narrower.

What I need most is a well crafted poem in prose that carries me with it, and makes me want to read the next word. I just read a very good story indeed, except for the side plot which was boring. I learned to skip the side plot and only read the main part. That annoyed me, but I read on because I liked the two main characters. And I wished the author had lost the side plot which seemed to be there to show the depth of his knowledge of an all but irrelevant (to the tale) skill because that part lived by itself.

In general we need to identify with at least one of the characters enough to care about what happens. If I don't care about them, why would I be interested in their hopes and fears?

[Updated on: Wed, 12 August 2009 11:39]

Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School

Re: Story Preferences [message #58333 is a reply to message #58287]

Thu, 13 August 2009 23:32

ray2x

Really getting into it

Location: USA
Registered: April 2009
Messages: 430

Macky, to go outside of the box, I delve into the world of Victor Hugo and his Hunchback. This character made me cry. I identify with the character because he is of outside of society and I work with developmentally disabled adults who unfortunately are often considered outside of society. AS far as the story shelf selections, I feel for one of Josh's characters in the story 'The Least of These' who was a slow developed boy but made realistic progress with his developmental stages. I don't always find delayed or disabled characters believable or enjoyable. Both these stories were above the mark.
I'm currently enjoying stories by D'Artagnon because these take me to quite believable places and situations. I love well crafted alternate world/parallel universes.

Raymundo

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