Character Development.
If you don’t have this, your characters are lifeless, two dimensional machines. You don’t want that, trust me.
Grammar/Sentence Structure.
If this isn’t good, you could sound unintelligent and uninteresting. If that’s how the story goes, it won’t be a good read.
The Dialogue.
Don’t make all your characters have the same speech pattern.
That’s not how it is in real life, it shouldn’t be that way in a story.
Description.
DESCRIBE where the characters are. If all you say is “they were in a city”, that’s not very interesting.
Now, if you were to say: “They were in a sprawling metropolis, with modern architecture and busy streets”, that’s interesting.
Characters must have a presence. The secondary main villain of my book, but a very, very important character to the main character’s mentor, always has a feel to him. He just feels like anger, like betrayal, like sheer hatred for everything that Crimson (the superhero title worn by the main character and the mentor) stands for. His appearance reflects that, and so does his dialogue. I write him that way, because I love to read and watch villains that way. Same goes for protagonists, of course. The comedic AI in my story (who is also the narrator) goes out of his way to insult his creator from time to time. He keeps the story grounded, and makes sure that the reader has someone to agree with whenever his creator does something stupid. Characters have to be likable, I guess that’s the short way to put it.
The most important thing is if I enjoyed reading the book or not. Reasons on why I enjoyed a book depends on the individual book I read at that time, since some books emphasis on different things and will have the capacity to be enjoyed because of the difference.
I’d say what matters is crafting an experience. It’s all really similar to making anything people consume, be it a movie, a game, or a piece of art. It’s how the intended audience interacts with, uses, and learns from whatever you’ve made.
When it comes to writing, it’s using the proper tools to evoke whatever experience you want to craft. There’s really no one right way. Even basic grammar can be twisted to reveal a character’s specific background or attitude, so you can’t really say good grammar is important for every story.
You can go either way, really. What’s important in a story is how you present it and what you’ve done to make it engaging.
Well, personally, I think characters are at least the second most important part of the story. If the characters all talk the same way, they aren’t going to bring me in or keep me interested. The Force Awakens is very similar to A New Hope, but the characters are very different, even though they do keep some old ones, and make it definitely a different experience. Bionicle’s plot is absolutely all over the place, but I genuinely find the characters endearing. That’s my two cents, anyways.
Climax, the characters, the setting, the plot, the conflict, and the resolution.
(Did you want specifics? )
/s Character development is the best thing, readers want to get to know the characters.
As a writer, I’ve found imagery to be the most important. If the reader can’t be immersed in the story, it isn’t worth their time reading it. Actually taking time to write out scenery, especially while still progressing the plotline, makes a story worthwhile.
Being in a creative writing class myself, I believe it all boils down to the true nature of the writer. One could say grammar and punctuation, while others argue setting and description. It’s different in everyone’s view. In my eyes, characters and the plot are the most important thing-since they are what drives the story forward-without them, a story would be an incohesive jumble of words.
Three things are important to the best written stories.
Never ever ever try to explain a background or backstory through one character talking to another. Almost every time, it comes out as forced and illogical. For example, in It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey’s brother reminds everyone that he’s going to the school dance because he’ll be in college in a few days. But… wouldn’t his own family know that? Like, have they really just been oblivious to their son’s academic career this WHOLE TIME?
Develop your characters. Well. Without great character development, your story will be boring as dirt. And dirt is pretty boring. You want an example? Check out the Self-MOC Roleplay Topic here on the boards.
You know, on second thought, don’t. It’s about 15,000 posts to scroll through.
Finally, quips and witty dialogue are king. Now this is truly my own personal belief, but whenever I write a story, my witty quippage meter must be on full and ready to go. From Spider-Man to Percy Jackson, many literary characters have shown us that when you have good, witty, smart quips and one-liners, your character becomes infinitely more likeable. So, yeah. Jokey jokes are important people. No need to be all super-serious.
Insert joke here, I guess.
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