How to Write an Interesting Story

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Laura Turner, and today we're going to talk about how to write an interesting story. Now there are many things I could tell you about this but I just want to hit a few bullet points with this one today. In order to write an interesting story you have to have all the components of a great story. You first have to have interesting characters. And in order to make your characters interesting they must be as specific as possible. You could even go so far as to write a detailed back story of your characters in order to make them specific and real to yourself. For example answering questions about their past and things that aren't in the story itself as your back story. Also in order to make characters interesting they also have to have a specific drive. They have to want something and they have to sort of stand up to whatever obstacle you put in front of them. So make sure your characters are strong-willed characters and characters who are dynamic rather than just static and sort of reactive. Okay. Second, you should contain an interesting plot in your story. Stories needs to be entertaining, which means that they need to string us along and make us want to know more about what's going to happen. So you need to make it interesting, as far as the plot goes. And a very good way to do this is to hook us into the story. If you're writing a longer novel, you can have hooks at the ends of your chapters, so for example, if you think of a hook as a commercial break on television, you know, some big information is revealed at the end of your chapter. And you're waiting until the next chapter to see how it pays off. Maybe even a few pages into the next chapter to see how it pays off. So hook your audience into needing to read until the next chapter to find out what happens to the characters. And also, your plot is going to stem out of your characters in this regard because you're going to want to know more about the plot because you care about the characters. Okay. Next, create an interesting world or a very specific world. If you're writing fantasy you can make your own world and its own rules, so make sure that the world that you're creating is something that is interesting, something that we want to see and to partake in. Next you can actually incorporate an interesting writing style or a different writing style, for example, William Faulkner wrote without punctuation or capitalization many times in his novels which made it an interesting style, interesting to read because all the sentences run together but also interesting to look at and interesting as far as how the sentences all flowed together. Okay. And then finally create an interesting theme or symbolism in your story. What does the story really mean? What is the story saying about society? What are you trying to tell your audience or your readers by telling them this story? And good luck with your interesting story."