What makes a story?
You know the feeling. You get it after reading a good book, watching a movie, or listening to a friend’s tale. It’s warm satisfying feeling - the feeling of a good story. We all know a story when we see one, but what is it about a sequence of words that makes it a story? What differentiates a story from a poem from an abstract word piece? It’s a question I’ve been pondering for a while now.
You can ask anyone this question and they’ll tell you what makes a good story. Depending on their personality, they’ll say that it’s interesting characters, a richly developed world, amazing events, or wonderful language. These do make a piece good, but do they make a story a story? A poem can paint an interesting portrait of a character or a fanciful world, yet have no action take place nor any problem resolved. Is it still a story? Then there’s the Iliad - a poem with enough stories to inspire most of western literature.
A few months back, I wrote a story about a writer struggling to get out of a rut (all authors write this story at some point). I showed it to several people and they all thought that, though it was hilarious, it was missing something. After reading it over, I realized that the problem was that there was no change. The character was interesting, the events enjoyable, but it never went anywhere. To make it feel like a complete story, I needed to have something change - either he gets back in the groove, or gives up and becomes an Amway salesman, or even in the last few moments of the story simply realizes he’s in a rut. Any change will do.
That’s the essential element that makes a story: change. Change in the protagonist, his environment, or the reader. The change can be overt - ridding the world of evil; or subtle - a change in the character’s perception (or even just the reader’s) like in It’s a Wonderful Life. Whatever it’s form, there needs to be some sort of change. Without it, the piece is just a portrait or chronology. While there are many great literary portraits, they feel different than stories. Right away, we know that there will be no change or resolution, so we can relax and enjoy the description. When a piece feels like a story, we wait anxiously for something to “happen”, and if there is no change, we feel empty.
Change alone won’t make the story good. It’s just the basic structure - sort of like a car that is only a frame and drivetrain. It’ll get you from place to place, but you’ll look weird and be a little sore afterwards. For a “good ride”, you do need all that great banter, believable characterizations, and the rest of the accessories. As a writer, I can change the blend of accessories to suit my intended audience. Some people like Mercedes, some like Volvo. Some like screwball comedy, some like Rambo (or so I’m told). It’s important to remember, though, that characterization, etc, are just accessories - you still need change to get the thing rolling.
