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“What do you believe is one of the most important elements of a good story?”
For me, it’s characters. A book can have the most interesting, plot-twisty, and exciting story, but if the characters aren’t any good… I’m out. And vise versa, if a story is pretty basic and cliche, but it has awesome, well-developed, and life-filled characters, I’m hooked. Not that all the other elements to story-telling aren’t important of course, like plot, theme, and such, it’s just that characters are what make stories worthwhile for me. Characters are like the peanut butter in PB&J. Without them the story is just some soggy bread and jam. Not terrible, but not good either.(So if you have any book recommendations with great characters I’d love to hear them).
What is the number one thing that determines whether or not you enjoy a book? Theme? Beautiful prose? Fast-paced plot? Unique premise? Something else?
Let’s discuss! 😀
@kathleenramm East of Eden by John Steinbeck has some great characters. And Dickens also has many memorable characters as well.
For me, it has to have a good ending. Not a happy ending, necessarily, but a good ending. I judge a whole work based off of the ending. For the ending to Inkdeath, I was so dissatisfied with it that I hated the whole book, regardless of anything else in it. Something cliched or with hateable characters and plot doesn’t matter as long as the ending is mastered well.
Which is why, I suppose, I hold to myself to make good endings. If I butcher it, I am down for days.
Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into daysFor me, I agree that high-quality characters are a greatly integral part of my enjoyment.
For me, an extremely important thing for me is perhaps the level of darkness in a book. If the story is so heavily dark that it leeches into my daily life and messes me up, then I’m out. I want to read stories with great redeeming qualities that highlight the good in the world while still allowing darkness to happen. Our world is depressing as it is, I would rather pick up a book that showcases beauty, goodness and good’s ultimate triumph over evil rather than darkness and depression.
Another majorly important thing to me is the style of prose. I recently re-read part of a middle-grade novel I had gotten at a book sale, there were constant repeats of “two puzzle-pieces clicked together” and such as the main character tried ot solve the mysteries surrounding her.. It felt dumbed down even though the story was interesting and the character as well, I still have never finished the book, it just begins to feel so DRY.
As far as high-quality characters are concerned, I definitely recommend The Wingfeather Saga By Andrew Peterson, The first three books of The Hawk and The Dove Series by Penelope Wilcock (there are sexual references but no real scenes of it, nudity that is for medical purposes, and a French curse word that a character uses often after a stroke (felt like I should just inform y’all before you read it, but it is all tactful and respectful)), Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, anything by C.S. Lewis, and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
We crazy people are the normal ones.
@kathleenramm What is the most important element? Ooh…that’s a tough one. I would say characters right off the bat, but you’ve made quite the point about them already. The balance of light and dark…that’s definitely a kicker too, but I tend to stick to Christian fiction (and lighthearted romances), so that’s never been an “issue” for me. Prose is super important for sure. I need a good balance of description, emotion, action, internal monologue, dialogue, etc., to keep me in the book. I also need a little bit of action and adventure or intrigue and suspense, because sometimes just romance or historical facts don’t hold my attention.
But no matter what I’m reading, be it romantic or historical, dramatic or boring, light or dark, real or fantasy, what I’ll walk away from a book thinking about is how much God is in it. That’s probably the obvious choice, but I’ve read a lot of “Christian” books that lack a spirituality that I can connect with. When I close the book, I want to feel like I read something written by the Holy Spirit. And that doesn’t just apply to what I read, but what I write. My prayer is that God will not only write through me and use my books to touch people, but that He would write for me–especially when my human knowledge and expertise falls short.
Apart from spirituality, I have a pet peeve about voice. Said peeve drives me bananas with my own writing and others’. I love to read a book that’s not just unique because of the plot or the characters, but because of how it’s written, how each sentence is phrased, how I read the book. Sometimes voices jump out to me, be they the character’s or the author’s, so much so that I could identify that book/author/character from a proverbial mile away. I love how stories come to life–even if they’re cliched or boring–because of how unique and interesting the character’s voice is. So, when I read a book that sounds exactly like another one–even if the story itself was totally different–I get a little irritated. I’ve read two books that had the EXACT SAME plot (it was really strange, btw, how similar they were), but the authors’ and characters’ voices (they were both first-person) were so different that I can differentiate them easily. (And, to be honest, the second one was better.)
the resident romance ghost; last seen within the pages of a gothic novel
Oof. Yes. Disappointing endings are no stranger to me.
There’s actually a Korean expression to describe stories that start out really awesome but end badly. The literal translation is, “the head of a dragon and a tail of a snake.” My siblings and I use this expression a lot unfortunately. XD
I can tell that you really care about endings, the ending to your web-novel was my favorite part. It was really well done.
Totally get what your saying about stories being too dark. I personally enjoy intense, dark, and emotional books, but if the WHOLE book is just that, it’s really draining, and I will probably have nightmares. Not because I’m scared, but because of all the emotional stress.
Oh, yeah it’s super annoying when an author has a certain phrase that they use way too much in their writing. An example that comes to my head is, “his heart leapt to his throat”. An author used that phrase like three times in one chapter. I don’t think I ever finished that book. XD The good thing about that is that now I’m always on the lookout for that in my own writing. It’s a very easy mistake to make.
And thanks for the recommendations! I’m currently making my reading list for 2021.
Yeah, I feel like some Christian books just shove in a message with God just to check it off some list or something. But C.S. Lewis does a really great job at interweaving the Holy Spirit throughout his stories in meaningful ways.
I didn’t even think of voice, but man, that’s so important! There’s one author I know who in each of her books the main character has the exact same voice. Even if the characters are different genders and time periods. I read the books and I’m like, “This is just the girl version of the MC in her last book”, or “This is just the same character from her last book, just with a different name and occupation.” I kinda feel bad for the author’s lack of creativity when it comes to characters.
That’s interesting. What two books had the exact same plot?
@kathleenramm That is an interesting expression! We have the same one in Chinese too XD
Thank you for your compliment – it means a lot to me.
Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into days@kathleenramm Ah, yes. If only everyone were like C. S. Lewis. *sigh* I’ve had some rough experiences that have turned me off to “decent” authors before–and what makes that so upsetting for me is that I don’t read a lot of fantasy, so it’s not difficult at all to include God in your everyday-life boring old romance novel, you know? And, yes, they really do check off a box, I think. It’s all about marketable material–too spiritual and you’ll hurt feelings; nothing “Godly” at all and you’ll be branded secular, ABA, or *gasps in horror* Harlequin!
I’ve read excerpts from many books just like that–and, needless to say, I’ve never purchased the books or read any more of them! It seems most contemporary/fantasy books coming out these days are all alike, particularly in the YA category. That’s probably why I do stick to historical–not that it’s much better. That’s why I have so many issues with my own writing (and take so darn long), because I write from so many different, unique POVs (some of which are fifty-year-old guys’), so I never want my male villain to sound just like my snarky teenage girl.
I’ll be honest…the two books I read were both Robin Hood retellings–and more than likely based off the Kevin Costner movie more so than the actual legends. After watching the movie, I realized that both of the books were drawing their material from that, which led to their plot lines coinciding. But they were A Daring Sacrifice by Jody Hedlund and Dauntless by Dina L. Sleiman. Dauntless was much better, as it deviated from the movie more so than the other one (although they were both about a girl Robin Hood) and had a very interesting heroine and voice. I’d actually recommend Dina L. Sleiman’s books–she’s a fantastic writer and so well-researched.
For movie/legend/fairy-tale retellings, I really wish authors would focus more on their story and characters (or even the original basis for the story itself…fairy-tales have some really dark origins, you know) than what Disney or whoever else did, you know? But…that’s a complaint for another day.
Which author so lacks creativity, if you don’t mind my asking?
the resident romance ghost; last seen within the pages of a gothic novel
For me it’s character and settings. The character bit is pretty obvious I think, I get invested in the characters and they’re the ones that make me really enjoy the story. But next to that, I really love settings and worlds! It’s an amazing feeling reading a book that really delves into the worldbuilding, whether that be fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary, whatever.
INFP Queen of the Kingdom commander of an army of origami cranes and a sabre from Babylon.
Well, the saying did come from Chinese characters so that makes sense.
Now it makes a bit more sense that the plots were the same. XD
Just curious, if you had to write a fairytale retelling which fairytale would you choose?
Oh, the author is Jennifer A. Neilson. Her most popular book is The False Prince, which is a pretty good book if you want to read it. Not AMAZING, but definitely worthwhile.
You’d think it would be obvious, but I know quite a few people who don’t care much about the characters and instead care more about a interesting plot. And I feel like so many authors don’t take the time to develop compelling, deep, and meaningful characters. Finding good characters in stories kinda feels like finding a rare gem.
Oooh, yes! Whenever I read or watch something that has great worldbuilding the whole story feels so much more real. What story has your favorite world-building?
@kathleenramm Yeah, it wasn’t until after I’d watched the movie that I realize just why they were so similar, but still. Some uniqueness wouldn’t hurt. Or maybe don’t use a popular ’90’s movie as the basis of your novel.
Ooh…good question! I’ve got a lot of ideas for fairytale retellings (Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, the classics) and ballet retellings–because, yes, that’s a thing. I’m super excited about putting a spin on Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, but as for fairytales… Out of all of them, I really like Beauty and the Beast, simply because I love the beastly hero–but that one has been done so many times that there’s nothing original about it. I’d probably pick The Little Mermaid, since there’s a lot in the original Andersen story that isn’t used in modern-day retellings to make it original and interesting. Plus, who doesn’t love mermaids?
What about you? Which fairytale would you pick?
the resident romance ghost; last seen within the pages of a gothic novel
Definitely characters!! I have read tons of books without a particular plot, but AMAZING characters, and that makes me love it sooo much. Characters stay with us forever.
"It's easy to be caught up in stardust and whispers when reality is so dark and loud."
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