Audiences are harder to please if you’re just giving them effects, but they’re easy to please if it’s a good story.
~Steven Spielberg

Most unforgettable stories go like this….

An interesting, three-dimensional protagonist is prompted by an outside force to intensely pursue a goal. Along the way the protagonist runs into a non-stop series of obstacles that steadily complicates the path to their objective. Yet the hero stays true to achieving their goal no matter what gets in the way, even as the world changes, becoming ever more challenging right before their very eyes. Even in the face of ultimate defeat, the hero must will himself/herself onward until they reach a final confrontation in the way of resolving the established goal. In the end, that goal will either be achieved or not, but either way the hero he or she (or we, the audience) will have grown and/or learned something significant about themselves or their world, ideally both.

What Unforgettable Stories are NOT About

Unforgettable stories are never about objects, places, or events. Such things are just background items for the real story, which always focuses on the interactions of humans, or human surrogates (typically anthropomorphic creatures such as Wall-E, C-3PO, or HAL). That intense World War II story that you so deeply love will really be about characters in the middle of the war, not about the war itself. The story about WWII that you watched on the History Channel is called a documentary—and it, too, will almost always be about people dealing with a place or events taking place in that location, not merely the place or the event.

Places, events and objects are the background against which the characters are set. This in no way diminishes the importance of settings, events, or objects, for those are essential elements of any story’s structure. But remember that worthy stories are always about the struggles of a character or characters reaching for a powerful goal.

Write What You Know (In Your Heart)

Many writing teachers tell their students to write about what they know. Does this mean you should only write about your personal knowledge and experience? Did the writers of Alien ever meet or fight an actual alien creature? Doubtful. Did James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd ever know an actual cybernetic being from the future before writing The Terminator? Not likely.

Certainly, the more knowledgeable you are about the details of the world and characters of which you write, the more verisimilitude your story will have. So, it helps to know a little about a lot, and maybe a whole lot about a little. If you write about a real place or event then getting your facts straight will make a huge difference to how the story will be received – especially by experts in such matters – so perform your due diligence and know your subject. However, “write what you know” means to write what you understand, especially what you understand to be true in your heart and soul. Audiences are pretty good at figuring out when a writer is clueless about his subjects or what his subjects feel, so concentrate on bringing the ring of truth to how a character, especially the protagonist, perceives the world. That is how unforgettable stories are made.

“Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.”
~Howard Nemerov

What’s the most unforgettable story you’ve experienced, and what made it so impactful for you? Comment below!