What Makes a Good Story?

My grandmother, pictured here, was my first inspiration for telling and writing stories; my other grandmother was a poet and musician who loved to read and encouraged me to do so, so it would have been surprising if story didn't mean a lot to me.

What makes a good story?

Grandma (the one shown here) told a good story by including just enough details to make you feel like you were there (in the one about meeting Judy Garland, details included an account of Judy pinching her when they sang a song together at the old AA club in St. Louis). Other factors: conflict (Grandpa didn't like to dance and she did, and when she danced, they stood back to watch) and surprising plot twists (like the fact that her father with the long black hair didn't live past her fifth year).

What else? I think we have to care about the characters, and, of course, when she told a story, that was a given.

This photo, of course, is not my work. I have a good excuse: I wasn't born yet.

Travel Writing

I just listened to a teleconference on travel writing sponsored by a group called American Writers and Artists. I would say, guardedly, that it was worthwhile. There was quite a sales pitch for the group's weekend conference coming up, which is beyond my budget for that sort of thing at present. There were some good tips, though, too.

The tip I remember most applies to any kind of writing, not just travel writing: delete adjectives whenever possible (a slightly more focused version of "be concise").

Question that's come up as I'm working on the novel: how do things in our memories intertwine with purely figments of our imagination to weave what is fiction? I find that bits and pieces come to me as I write, mixing with "real life" experiences, sort of like a dream.

But I must also have RIGOR.

Beginnings

I've written fiction since I was seven years old and wrote my first story, "Miricle [sic] at Porter's Airport," a seven- or eight-page masterpiece :) that was fully illustrated with photos of various rescue scenes, islands, airplane landings, etc. A theme was "rescue." Today I've dedicated this blog to telling my story of starting up with fiction writing once again, for "real" this time, at age 40. I have taught writing, I've edited countless papers, I've written many articles, and I'll continue to work on nonfiction.
But this space is mostly just for fiction. I'd love to hear comments from any other fiction afficionados and/or writers out there.

My work in progress is a novel for preteens. I wrote three pages today, bringing the grand total up to 8!

A few weeks ago, I joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

This week, I'm listening in on a teleconference on travel writing and going to a workshop on freelance writing.

I even got some wonderful design software lately, the whole Adobe Design Premium Suite. I've done plenty of desktop design, so I'm looking forward to using all the new Adobe tools.

Any advice is welcome as I take on these challenges!

In fact, HELP!!!