What Makes a Good Story?

Telling stories is something that is fundamental to human nature whether it is the parent telling their children a bed time story or a group sat around a camp fire, or a good book with your favourite beverage or more common sat on the sofa binging through Netflix. All of these are ways in which we keep ourselves entertained but also investing in a story. If its boring we'll flip over to the next film or tv show that may catch our interest, and it will soon be forgotten. Yet there are certain stories, that we keep coming back too, no matter how many times we have seen them. I myself have lost count of the times I have watched films like Jurassic Park and Star Wars. While there is other films we just won't even bother with for whatever reason, such as personal taste and that can account for a wide range of things such as genre, the actors or directors involved in the film, whether we have access to it e.g is it on a particular streaming site e.g Amazon. The question is though, what makes a good story.What is it that invests us in the first place? Especially since there is a multitude of options; divided by genre such as animated and cartoon, action, comedy, horror, thriller, or setting such as fantasy and science fiction. Even in that there's a sub-categories, and styles that come with each. Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones are both fantasy, and while they have some similarities, they have major differences between them. There's another aspect to it which these two stories illustrate--Plot driven stories (LOTR) and Character driven stories (GOT). Neither one is particularly superior to the other but both have massive followings often from the same people. For the purposes of this discussion, these will be the two that I will be analysing. Its important to note i can't look In film, and TV shows, a good plot and story structure is necessary to make people want to invest into it. The plot can be simple or as complicated as one desires, for instance Lord of the Rings has quite a simple plot with the task taking the ring to mount doom and destroy it while stopping Sauron from getting his hands on it again. Game of Thrones has a more complicated story with the war but also the threat from the white walkers and all these overlapping different stories. Both manage to get people invested however, and that is by having storylines that people want to get interested in. There has to be a sense of conflict and tension, LOTR does that straight away in the prologue by setting up the villain, Sauron, GOT does it straight away by the white walker appearing in the opening scenes with the Nightwatch. However, in that scene with the white walker it leaves the audience in suspense, as the creature is unknown, where it came from, are there more of them and so on. It leaves people wanting more and it will take seasons to unravel some of that. There can be just one main story arc as it is with Lord of the Rings, or it can have many like Game of Thrones, as long as the audience can understand each one to at least basic understanding, especially if its structured.

Setting is also important to keep viewers interested and this is by immersion. They both do a fantastic job of creating these fantasy worlds, whether it is the homely atmosphere of the shire, or the sense of cold dread in the North at Winterfell. Then you see the change when the characters leave the shire on their journey, it becomes more barren until they finally reach mordor which is the total opposite to the shire, it is desolate and it adds to that tension but also that world building. Immersion is being able to keep the viewer invested in that particular, there will be times where the viewer will have to suspend their disbelief as the main reason to watch it is to be entertained and not overly analayse everything. For instance the eagles, they only turn up once and the question could be asked why and how do they appear? why did they not just take the hobbits to mordor and end the film then and there? There were no laws or rules set up to explain why the eagles appear and not take them all the way. As long as it remains fairly consistent to the world was set up, it doesn't one hundred percent break the film or story. For instance if in the third film, they had Aragorn or Gimli casting fireballs from their finger tips when it had never appeared in the previous scenes or films would break the consistency of the rules built in the world. The world should remain consistent from beginning to end, so for instance magic in GOT and LOTR while neither have strict rules, it becomes clear what magic can do, how frequent it is, and the effects of using it are in the world. By the end of the story you would want some kind of conclusion, and LOTR stuck its landing while GOT failed in the TV show causing backlash. In the two final seasons of GOT by the ending a lot of the plot points that went nowhere such as; Bran's warging abilities, Daario Naharis (who did not appear in the final season at all) Gendry's claim to the throne, Gilly and her baby, Meera Reed and amny other minor plots that were just hanging in the air which brings me to the next crucial part of any story. Characters are just as important to the story as the world itself, as they are the eyes we see the world through. I mentioned above that Lord of the Rings is a plot driven story and Game of Thrones is a character driven story, and this is the big difference between the two of them. LOTR is a fairly clear cut, simple story of good vs bad, and the plot happens as the characters move through the world. From beginning to end there are no character arcs, nor do the characters change from beginning to end. For example Aragorn, Gandalf, Gimli, Legolas and even the Hobbits for the most part do not really change that much at all and they don't alter the plot that much. The only ones that really change a little are Frodo and Sam but apart from that, the rest are the same, though in different places. This is not to take away from LOTR because it is a masterpiece and people overlook it because all the actors performances across the films are outstanding. None of them feel out of place, or forced. The dialogue is great, always adds a little bit more to the story, the world or the characters, it never derives from it.

GOT is the total opposite, this is a character driven story where characters have agency and can impact or end other characters. Bran chose to climb the tower as he always did, but then stumbles upon Cersei and Jaime, with Jaime pushing him out the window altering his whole world in a matter of seconds. Characters go through arcs, make mistakes and some are able to wisen up and get stronger from it, others are killed because of their mistakes. The famous red wedding springs to mind when Robb and rest of his men are killed as well as his mother, Catelyn and it could have been avoided but instead they were all punished for those mistakes leaving viewers heartbroken watching it. In the world of Westeros there is a mixture of clear cut morally good characters, morally bad characters such as the Night King, but there is also a boat load of characters that have shifting allegiances like the Hound, Stannis, Theon Greyjoy and many others, that change depending on the situation. On top of that the characters are three-dimensional, they have their own strengths and weaknesses but also with their own needs and desires, that is a source of conflict and tension throughout the series. It is possible to have a three dimensional characters but in the mould of LOTR where there are clear good guys and bad guys but I will be talking about that in another piece.

Finally Style and tone are also important to the story. Both Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones set the tone in the opening scenes very quick, that make you realise that while both of them are fantasy, they are very different. LOTR opens with the prologue as I mentioned before that sets the scene, and then it shifts to the Shire, which is a homely, more laid back setting and the dialogue sets the scene of it being family friendly. GOT opens by setting up a tense scene with three men exiting the wall, with the soundtrack adding to that tension before making their way out into a snowy forest. For the first two or three minutes there's no dialogue and then a character views a number of dismembered corpses on screen letting the audience this a gritty, grim dark adult fantasy, and it sets the tone for the rest of the story. The tone does not change, in fact as it progresses, the sense of dread never really leaves the audience, while there are scenes of humour, it never detracts from the seriousness of the world. Too much humour and it would completely wreck the tone and break immersion. For instance if during the beheading of Ned Stark, Arya and Sansa just burst into fits of laughter it would break that tension, and it would not make any sense for it to be in that scene at all. It would pull you right out of the story and it would feel very forced but I am going to leave it there. I have not been able to cover everything, but these are just some of the things that makes a good, compelling story. I will do a follow up and look at what makes a good character.