Good Morning!
How is everyone doing? Well I hope. This is my first day back to work since Thursday, so I’ve got quite a lot to catch up on, but at least it’s going to be a short week.
Following up on last week’s post Why Do You Read, I wanted to take things a bit further with another great question.
To you, what makes a good story?
I’m hoping to hear your opinion as I’m sure there are lots of great diverse answers to this one!
For me, a couple things immediately came to mind.
An exciting first page or chapter
I’m a picky reader, and if I’m not excited by the first page or even the first paragraph, I will drop a book pretty quickly. Readers need to be drawn into a story, not the other way around. A first page doesn’t have to be action-packed, it could simply be beautifully written or intriguing to catch my attention.
Interesting, three-dimensional characters
Nothing is worse than flat, two-dimensional characters, so if the characters aren’t interesting with their own quirks, I won’t be fully happy with my reading experience. Lately I have a thing for snarky, outspoken characters, but there’s also something to be said about more introverted characters as well.
A high stakes plot
Nothing gets me more interested in a book than a high-stakes plot. You should be able to tell the scope/severity of a book’s plot in its blurb, and I tend to go for insanely high stakes. Is the world going to end? Sign me up. Is world domination on the rise by an evil magic-infused overlord? Love it. These are the types of books I am obsessed with finding.
All right, those are my first thoughts on what makes a good story, but what about you? What makes an instant page-turner?
Feel free to share, I’d love to hear your opinion!
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