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What do you like in a story?
15 years ago
General
I'm kinda inspired/in the mood to write a real story. The music I've been listening to has been sparking a lot of separate ideas that I've just kinda viewed as different visualized scenes in my mind's eye and just now considered actually putting them together. I also just beat Aquaria yesterday and thought "hey, I could totally write something better than that", so I'm kinda telling myself to put my money where my mouth is XD But then I also thought about how I tend to make things in a box (like my DnD campaigns), so this time I thought I'd ask you guys, the readers/gamers/video watchers, what kinds of stuff you find most appealing in stories.
1. Fantasy or Sci Fi or a mixture of the two? Both can have very beautiful environments to be mussed around with, and I myself love some books that have combined the two elements together (sci-fi general setting with fantasy details on specific planets). So do others prefer to have pure fantasy, pure sci-fi, or like the mixture of both?
2. Which do you prefer: a telescopic or microscopic setting? These are terms I just made as I finished this journal XP A telescopic setting is one that starts out with a small scope, but grows to encompass more and more environments as the story explores it (like starting out on a single continent, growing to include the whole world, growing to include other planets, growing to encompass the whole galaxy). A microscopic setting is one that starts out with a big scope, but delves deeper into the details of different things about it (like starting out with a planet as the setting and then learns more and more about its inhabitants, history, etc.). I hope that makes sense ^^
3. Do you "connect" better with a female or male lead role? The protagonist is someone you're going to be observing most of the time, so I feel it's key that it be someone you want to read more about. That being said, would you be more likely to continue reading if it the protagonist is one gender or the other?
4. Quirky or plain protagonist? Ie, do you latch on more quickly if the lead role has some interesting superpower/ability or if they're a more relatable "human" (who's power is simply either being at the wrong place at the wrong time or simply has the desire to continue onward)?
5. Male or female secondary role? As 2, but with the people that accompany the lead role. Do you like the female tag-along more than the male one?
6. Do you find a story more interesting if it goes into rather sexual matters? Not actually to the point where the story has pornographic elements, but rather that the book isn't afraid to include what is a big part of our lives. For instance, one of the books I read had a female supporting role that was a girl who had been genetically modified to be a genius but was later further modified (by another party) to be a practical fertility goddess, basically going into heat and having to be constantly pregnant to make her genetically superior mind become more widespread across the galaxy. Or does including sexual matters turn you off from an otherwise sci-fi/fantasy story?
7. Does a lack of action for the benefit of more intrigue turn you off from a sci-fi/fantasy story? As in, if there was more thinking put into the story and things that make you go "wow, that's really interesting" in the stead of adrenaline-rushing, magic-casting, laser-pew-pewing, would you be less apt to continue reading?
8. Do you like stories more if they take unexpected twists and turns? I know sometimes a poorly-placed plot twist has turned me off from stories before ("that's just dumb"), whereas other times I remember stories more fondly because they just grew bigger and bigger after several plot twists (like my first Final Fantasy or many fantasy novels).
9. How often do you fall in love with a character from a story? Can you provide specific instances of such? Does a story stick out in your memory more if you did fall in love with a character from the story? In a good or bad way?
Feel free to emphasize any of your reasons for answering and even giving examples =3 And you don't have to answer them all, just whatever ones pique your interest, since those are the things you would pay more attention to anyways ^^
1. Fantasy or Sci Fi or a mixture of the two? Both can have very beautiful environments to be mussed around with, and I myself love some books that have combined the two elements together (sci-fi general setting with fantasy details on specific planets). So do others prefer to have pure fantasy, pure sci-fi, or like the mixture of both?
2. Which do you prefer: a telescopic or microscopic setting? These are terms I just made as I finished this journal XP A telescopic setting is one that starts out with a small scope, but grows to encompass more and more environments as the story explores it (like starting out on a single continent, growing to include the whole world, growing to include other planets, growing to encompass the whole galaxy). A microscopic setting is one that starts out with a big scope, but delves deeper into the details of different things about it (like starting out with a planet as the setting and then learns more and more about its inhabitants, history, etc.). I hope that makes sense ^^
3. Do you "connect" better with a female or male lead role? The protagonist is someone you're going to be observing most of the time, so I feel it's key that it be someone you want to read more about. That being said, would you be more likely to continue reading if it the protagonist is one gender or the other?
4. Quirky or plain protagonist? Ie, do you latch on more quickly if the lead role has some interesting superpower/ability or if they're a more relatable "human" (who's power is simply either being at the wrong place at the wrong time or simply has the desire to continue onward)?
5. Male or female secondary role? As 2, but with the people that accompany the lead role. Do you like the female tag-along more than the male one?
6. Do you find a story more interesting if it goes into rather sexual matters? Not actually to the point where the story has pornographic elements, but rather that the book isn't afraid to include what is a big part of our lives. For instance, one of the books I read had a female supporting role that was a girl who had been genetically modified to be a genius but was later further modified (by another party) to be a practical fertility goddess, basically going into heat and having to be constantly pregnant to make her genetically superior mind become more widespread across the galaxy. Or does including sexual matters turn you off from an otherwise sci-fi/fantasy story?
7. Does a lack of action for the benefit of more intrigue turn you off from a sci-fi/fantasy story? As in, if there was more thinking put into the story and things that make you go "wow, that's really interesting" in the stead of adrenaline-rushing, magic-casting, laser-pew-pewing, would you be less apt to continue reading?
8. Do you like stories more if they take unexpected twists and turns? I know sometimes a poorly-placed plot twist has turned me off from stories before ("that's just dumb"), whereas other times I remember stories more fondly because they just grew bigger and bigger after several plot twists (like my first Final Fantasy or many fantasy novels).
9. How often do you fall in love with a character from a story? Can you provide specific instances of such? Does a story stick out in your memory more if you did fall in love with a character from the story? In a good or bad way?
Feel free to emphasize any of your reasons for answering and even giving examples =3 And you don't have to answer them all, just whatever ones pique your interest, since those are the things you would pay more attention to anyways ^^
2. Telescopic is great, but I find it works better in short stories where you've been in a extra small setting for a while, and then almost as an epilogue it pans out and shows how events had impact on a larger scale. Likewise microscopic settings a great way to prologue, or preface a longer story, it helps set up a big picture, and allows you to understand why character feel certain ways or have certain motives....
3. I don't think I really have much of a bias as to the gender of the main character... Each gender tends to work best in a book dealing with certain views or scenarios (not trying to be sexist in this next bit really I'm not DX). For books involving a character the writer wants you to empathize with a female character can be easier to invoke emotions with, while a character who is driven, and seems to have well defined quest or goal, Males seem to work better.... My two favorite series have the protagonist as a female in one of them (InkHeart Series, truly love those books) while the other has a male protagonist (Ender's Game series, great books!). Looking back though I find that it is my own gender (male) that matches most of the protagonists from my favorite literature. (Artemis Fowl, Phantom of the Opera, Timeline, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, etc.)
4. I think the protagonist who regardless of ability or appearance, reacts like a real person would (ie figures out that you can randomly teleport, then character either freaks out because they can't control it, or they abuse said ability for personal gain, most people wouldn't think; crime fighting time oh yeah....)
5. I think the tag along really doesn't matter in terms of gender, they need to have a fleshed out personality, and reason for tagging along, not just a simple relationship to the protagonist, but a common goal, or a well thought out deep connection to the protagonist. However at times like these a foil for the character's strengths and weaknesses can greatly enhance a story... Case and point, the popular Artemis Fowl books, Artemis is the genius mastermind, and Butler is the unstoppable, seemingly impossibly skilled fighter/bodyguard, now the foil goes deeper than that but I'm sure you know what I mean ^^ So maybe a tag along with the opposite gender is best...
6. Sexual matters can bring a huge chunk of interest and plot development into a story. Mind you have to keep in mind whether the story is meant to arouse, or is meant to be more innocent... A great combination of innocent naughtiness and fantasy is found in the Xanth novels by Piers Anthony, if you've never read any of them, I highly recommend them as some light hearted and fun reads
7. I think intrigue is absolutely necessary! It helps build up to the final point where suddenly it all clicks, or there is a rush of emotion. The meaning of french term, Denouement, is a great way to establish your writing as something that people will look back on with fond memories, and also drive readers on until they reach the end, and experience it...
8. It's the stories that can tie everything back in that are really great! For instance having a character's stop at an inn is ok, having something happen to the inn (like a fire or something...) is an attention getter, having something 5 chapters later about a the inn keep, or an altercation that occurred in the inn coming back to affect the character's is a story line, having renaldo, the evil twin of the main character appear is a Deus Ex Machina and takes away from the plot, but having it subtly hinted how the inn keep has lots of similarities to the main character, the character has an argument with the inn keep's son, etc etc. leading up to a future meeting is a great plot twist, it's hinted, but not random etc... (Rambled on this one, it may not make as much sense as the others....)
9. Let's see, main characters I fell in love with are easily from my favorite books, of all time, and each story whose character I fell in love with is well remembered and cherished... Yomiko Readman from the manga Read Or Die is easily my favorite character ever, however from more serious literature, Maggie from Inkheart, Ender from Ender's Game, Artemis from the series bearing his name, Mrs. Frisby from the Rats of NIMH, Frankenstein's monster from the original and unabridged version of Frankenstein, THE Phantom of the Opera from the unabridged version of the book with the same title, Erik from the book Epic by Connor Kostick, are my main literary loves. I mainly fall for characters that feel real enough to be woven into realty, so it's not often I fall for a character, but when I do, they are truly amazing...
Hope that helps ^^
The gender thing does tend to whittle down to simple stereotyping, so you're not being sexist. And attempting to defy that stereotyping can be just as bad, since it's easy to spot and makes the story feel cheap. I suppose the best way is to simply make the character how I feel and use the gender for aesthetics X3
By the by, I happen to be a fan of your more naughty stories, but I look forward to whatever you come up with^^