What works in a story

AP Photo: Texas

One important thing I’ve learned from reading books is identifying what does and what does not work in a story. This can be subjective, of course, as many books have been published and hit the New York Times Bestseller list when I’ve been completely underwhelmed by the writing and wondered how the author was published in the first place. Rather than highlight the books themselves, let’s examine some factors that don’t work in a story and a couple that do.

Doesn’t work:

1. Unbelievable characters: An author spends a lot of time crafting characters in their stories, giving them history and depth, showing their innermost thoughts and feelings to the reader and hopefully forging a bond between the audience and the character. So when an author goes to all this work and then mid-way through the book makes the character act out in a way that is completely contrary to everything they’ve constructed thus far, it leaves the reader confused and disconnected from the story. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve paused and verbally said, “No, she wouldn’t have done that!” Characters need to be believable to keep a reader connected to the story.

2. Unbelievable events: Even when writing science fiction or fantasy, the author still needs to craft events that are believable in the imagined world. Readers want to be excited and surprised by a book, but they don’t want to be taken for a ride. Imagine if characters all of a sudden started easily making the leap across the impassible desert in The Wizard of Oz after Baum has gone to all the trouble of forging the improbability of this event in the reader’s mind. The reader might start wondering what else the author is keeping from them. Events should fit in the story, not the story fitting into the event.

Does work:

1. Logical consequences: Have you ever read a book where a character commits numerous crimes and gets away scot free in the end, with no consequences to him or anyone remotely related to him? Not very believable, even if you like the character. Actions have consequences – period. In The Count of Monte Cristo, the actions of Fernand Mondego, Baron Danglars and Gerard de Villefort go unpunished for many years while Edmond Dantes is rotting away in the Château d’If, but eventually their sin is found out and each man is slowly destroyed by the man they sought to destroy. And even Dantes is not untouched. His acts of revenge completely isolate him from his first love Mercedes, and send her and her son into a humble new life away from all they know and love. It’s not the happiest of endings, but it’s logical and believable.

2. Using setting as a character: Setting can play an integral role in a book, and the best authors know how to develop the setting almost as if it were another character telling its story. Try reading James Michener’s Texas without his descriptions of the land and without the land’s effect on characters. Or how about Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book being told on a farm in Missouri? It wouldn’t have the same effect, because the jungle is its own character, telling its own tale throughout the collection of short stories. Learning to use setting as a character in your writing can give your story impact in ways nothing else can.

Books provide a road map to your success as a writer. Many twists and turns occur as you follow unmarked paths and winding rivers. But the journey is rewarding and can be traveled again and again.