5 Elements a Great Story Should Have - Tips for young authors

Young authors have so much imagination and creativity to share with all of us, however it can be hard for them to structure all their ideas into a cohesive and engaging story. This is why it’s important to help guide them in a way that allows them to be creative but also provides them with some sort of structure to follow.

Here are 5 important elements a great story should have!

1. Start with a BANG

Opening a story with an exciting event helps to grab the reader’s attention right at the start. This gives the reader a reason to care about the story and will get them excited to continue reading. Starting with a bang also helps to set the characters and action of the story into motion.

2. The Hero (protagonist):

This is probably the most important part of a story. Your story needs to have a hero or protagonist (the “main character”) who the reader can easily relate to and finds respectable. This person or group needs to engage your readers throughout the story to keep them wanting to find out what will happen to them later into the story.

3. The Villain (antagonist):

If there is no danger then there is no excitement in the story! What will your hero be up against? There doesn’t necessarily need to be a villain, but there does need to be an element that causes an issue for your hero. This can be issues like lack of education, family problems or environmental hazards.

4. An “Aha!” Moment:

There should be a moment in your story where people learn something important. This can be something your hero learned about your villain or vice versa. Think about what other issues this moment might cause later into your story.

5. Transformation:

Ask yourself “what has changed as a result of the story you told?”. This doesn’t have to be something crazy, but it does need to be obvious. Also keep in mind what type of emotions this transformation evokes. Did your hero solve world hunger and now everyone in the world are happy?