Before we move towards the question of what makes a story engaging, let us take a short look to what is a story in the first place!
What is a story?
A story is a series of elements that can be imaginary or can be a real life experience. A story consists of characters that follow a journey as written by the story writer. The characters come through obstacles and they face many hardships on the way towards their journey. A story is a mode of transferring a piece of information, detail, etc. that engages the listener. Infact, we all are story tellers in our life. One important point to remember is that a story is a series of events through which the characters of the story go through. A story can be told literally about anything and everything. Not everything that is published in a book is a story. Stories are way beyond books and imagination!
Types of stories
Stories are divided into two broad sections i.e fiction and non-fiction. Fictional stories are unreal and imaginary. Some types of fiction stories are fairy tales, mythology, horror, drama, bedtime stories, science fiction, love stories, etc. Fictional stories are made up. On the other hand, non-fiction stories consist real life events or experiences. Non-fictional stories include war/survivor stories, biographies, autobiographies, history, etc.
What makes a story engaging?
There are a few points that need to be taken care of while writing a story to make sure that the readers get engaged while reading and their interest level does not drop while reading the story. To make a story engaging, it is important for the story writer to make sure that there is strong dramatic content included in the story, the story must have a proper flow as well as structure to make sure that the readers don’t feel that the story is distorted, include gripping and memorable characters, can divide the story into section/parts, have strong, interesting and powerful dialogues/conversations, can include mystery and suspense, include a setting that connects with the story, creation of conflict and tension, give out a splendid climax!
The above mentioned points are all that is needed to make a story engaging and keep the readers interested in the story that helps them in building curiosity to read and complete within the shortest span of time! No pressure!
The story writer must try to have an image of the story already prepared in its mind, then the writer shall see to it how would the story sound to a reader.
10 Questions that a story writer must ask itself after completing the story
- Does the story have a good start?
- Does it have a natural flow of events?
- Does the story feel rushed?
- Does the story feel slow?
- Does the story sound exciting?
- Does the story have a good amount of conversation?
- Does the story have strong and memorable characters?
- Does the story connect with its setting and the theme?
- Does the story have a good and a proper climax?
- Are all the questions of the story answered? If not, what questions can a reader have after reading the story?
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