What makes a great story? – It’s a powerful emotional experience

Before starting to work on a story, think of some of your favorite books. What made them special? What made you stay up until 3 am, turning their pages, although you knew perfectly well you had to get up at 6 am and get ready for work? It was the story! It was what you felt and how you felt while reading it.

A great book delivers a powerful emotional experience. It makes you lose yourself completely in its world. You are not just reading about random characters. You feel what they feel. You feel their sheer joy, their soul crashing despair, or their utter terror. Their hopes become your hopes. Their quest for true love becomes your quest. Their puzzles and mysteries are yours to solve now. Their adrenaline rushes make you high also. High enough to stay up all night reading and show up to work the next day looking like a zombie from The Walking Dead.

If you want to write a story, write one good enough to make your readers not want to put it down. Write a story that would me you cry, laugh, or be freaked out. Chances are, your readers will feel what you feel.

Give your readers that powerful emotional experience most people expect from their books, and you’ll earn fans for life. Soon enough, you’ll be the one people are telling stories about. Not bad, right?

I’ll end with this post with one of my favorite quotes. It comes from Maya Angelou.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

– Maya Angelou

Remember: make your readers feel! Here’s one more good one.

P.S. This post is based on Writing Fiction For Dummies by Randy Ingermanson. It’s a good book. Very good start for someone who wants to learn the craft of writing good fiction.