Creating the Perfect Story

‘Large oak trees covered the autumn road. Their leaves danced across the ground. Swirls of gold, orange, red, and brown covered the earth like the jumbled thoughts of a bemused painter. The road was peaceful and winding. Leaves rolling across the asphalt made it sound as though it were flowing, like a dry river. A torrent of the harmonic leaves followed the car as it sped down the sheltered path. The tires glided down the road generating a raging rapid as it took him to his liberation.

Unrelenting, the haunting memories of his life would not relinquish their ghoulish hold. He could see the faces of those he loved in the spaces between the oak trees. April looked out the window at the falling leaves, oblivious to the visages her father saw. Her innocent mind was on the memory of her mother and her last words to her.’

Creating a character that is both understandable and complex is very complicated. I’ve found that to make the character affable to the reader, the character needs to be a sympathetic one. By which I mean the reader needs to associate themselves to the character or sympathetic to their plight. If the reader doesn’t find an emotional connection to a character the story has less of an effect. A reader needs to feel for a character and the situation they’re in.

If you were to read a story where the character and the plot are completely superficial you would find it dull and unappealing. But, add history, along with a little mystery, to the character and they become more of a real person and someone you can relate to. When the plot becomes convoluted and more intricate it also becomes more interesting. However, there are also limits. If things become too complex and too intricate the story can become unpleasant and will turn the reader away.

As you can see it is very difficult to create a great story. Everything has defined lines, but blurred edges. You can push the limits of course. A story has to be different. There are millions of books published in the world. If your story sounds like all of the others it will be lost.

So as you can see creating a story is very difficult. It has been a process to create this story. Trying to find my style and create something that will be appealing in today’s market has been a challenge. But, I really think I have succeeded with this story. Hopefully the end product will be as I have envisioned it and will be successful.