Writing a good story

Writing a good story

While reading a story, we tend to feel as if the events in the story are real. We cannot say this is exactly true, because I the hero is in a dangerous situation, you don’t feel “shocked” or “scared” the same way you would feel when it were real. But, you will know “How it feels” to be in that situation and be shocked or scared. Now let’s go on to the part where we actually write our story.

Fixing the plot:

“Plot” is the most important part of the story. It is the logical sequence which is adapted in getting our main storyline. If you observe, most stories have an unrealistic plot, with many ups and downs. And also might involve unnatural luck of unluckiness. But still, these stories seem interesting. Remember, your story need not be realistic, but should only be interesting. Choosing or not choosing a moral for you story is totally up to you.

What happens if the plot is not defined properly?

If the plot is not defined properly, the writer would face multiple issues, in synchronising events that took place earlier in the story and the events that took place later in the story. The writer who proceeded without a solid plot would find that he’ll have to add many new storylines within the same storyline and drag the story along a confused path. Finally when the story concludes in the end, the readers wouldn’t have a clue how they ended up there.

How should we define the plot?

The writer has full freedom in determining the plot, and how it should proceed over time. But the knowledge on how the story would end, what would cause the story to end and which parts are to be discovered by the readers, and which outcomes the readers can suspect is required to be known (probably while writing the story or after writing it). The plot should answer three major questions. What is the “problem” the hero is going to solve or what major situation is the hero going to face, or what stuffs he would discover/learn as the story progresses. The second question is, how should the story conclude? The third question, which is a very important one, and every story writer should emphasise on is, how is the reader going to feel when he reads the story? I am not asking that the story has to be written and given to reviewers and ask them questions regarding how they felt, rather authors must know how they felt when they thought about the plot or how they  want people to feel reading specific parts of the story. This is very important. There is a general opinion out there, which says, poets and authors don’t “think” rather they “feel”. And as they “feel” they write down their work, and if they don’t feel, they get nothing out of it.

I personally believe that this is terribly wrong. We must not force ourselves to feel anything. And moreover, sometimes while reading our stories ourselves, we would not feel exactly what readers would feel. It is because, we might have thought over the story, so the effect of “reading it for the first time” would be lost.  

Defining the instances

This is the phase, where you elaborate the plot further by including various instances you want to include in your story. We are human. We don’t always get “brilliant” thoughts. But occasionally, we do. Fixing a “work hour” for story writing and thinking it out during that time is not going to help. We may get ideas any time. We may get ideas, while travelling, while waiting for the bus or while watching a movie! It is important to note them down so that they could be included in your story in the future. Suppose your story is going to have a war in its end, and you just got a great idea on how it’s supposed to happen. Write it down immediately, and try to include it in your main story line, when you specifically write that part.

We human are too imaginary. Suddenly we get an idea, and we tend to think that it’s the perfect idea and no one else on this world could have got it. But unfortunately we may be wrong (we would be right about the part that no one on this world could have got it). It’s just our brain plays trick on us, over exaggerating how the plot would feel. But after a while, we ourselves would tend to think that “it wasn’t such a unique idea after all!”

‘I believe this is the reason why we get tricked: our brain is constantly changing and the stuff we have recently seen and places we have recently visited along our belief system tend to temporarily makes us feel exceptionally good looking at our ideas. But as time pass, it either gets faded away (because of boredom) or the change in our belief system would cause it to not look as good as it originally seemed.‘

 Writing the story

In this phase, the instances are clubbed up and a sequence of events are linked together and finally written down. This is the phase where the author has utmost freedom, in modifying, rewriting, and re-modifying until the plot and the story becomes perfect. It is advisable to not modify these plots quite often, as they are bound to mess up the entire story and eventually destroy the sequence. A good story is simple, with sufficient twists and seem realistic while viewing is generally.