The story part of fiction isn't about beautiful writing, or great ideas, or even fascinating characters.
The worst insult I can imagine is: it's beautifully written
- why? Because a good story isn't about being beautifully written. Being beautifully written is the writer showing off, feeling smug about what they've done and how, and it distances the reader from the story by the crowing of a cocky writer.
That's not why people pick up a story to read.
What is it then? It's about the right reader picking it up and getting that connection (resonance, as above, as spake by
@Katie-Ellen ).
The best response I can get from a reader is (along the lines of):
She's just like me
That's my problem
I know that feeling
How dare they treat her like that
I'd love to do what she's doing
I wish I could do that
I want to see her overcome this
I hope she gets past this
What would I do in her situation
They'd better not do that again - if it were me, I'd fix 'em
She'd better ... [get, do, become] to get out of this fix.
Notice the difference? It's the reader speaking about the story character's life, problem, or actions. It's the reader's reactions to the problems that the character endures, struggles against, overcomes - as the reader wants to do in their lives (I understand what she's going through, they think). They want to learn how to deal with life through the connection to this character and how the character deals with a problem/s the reader has in their own lives. They want a mirror that shows them what they could be if ... and the safety of doing it through a story, without the same risks or stakes - but with the reminder that the stakes are there in the real world, too.
The best stories are the ones that show the reader what they need to confront in their own lives, and how to take that first tentative step - through the safety net of someone else doing it first (imagining something has the same effect on a brain as the doing of the thing).
Create a connection between character and reader that rings those bells. It may sound easy, but writing a character's emotions isn't the same as writing in a way that makes the reader feel and empathise with the emotions.
For writers, it needs to be method acting in a story, but deeper because we're in the head, heart, body, and soul of the character. It needs to be so much more personal and revealing. In a way, it's running naked down the road in peak hour, and everyone you know is taking note and making fun of every wart, hair, and scar. That's how deep the writing has to be. That's how real it has to be to the reader. The writer has to be prepared to flay themselves bloody to show the truth of the story emotions.
It doesn't matter whether it's a slow start or a jump right into the action. If there's nothing to attach the story to the reader like a tick to their blood-sucking life problem (whether done through subtext or context, resonance or reflection), it's not going to move the reader enough for them to pick it up.
Take off the armoured protections of clothing, society, social stigmas, rules, etc. and make that character in the story be whatever it is that the reader needs in their life right now.
And that's my opinion, one among millions, I'm sure.
) Love, desire, fear, angst, growing up, growing old - the interplay of those things between humans.
