Ingredients for a Good Story

I’m still writing the third book in my time travel series that began with Resonance and Dissonance. This week, I’ve written another 25,000 words between Monday and today. It’s been fun to work through the problems time travel could bring. This will be the last book in that series for now, at least. I’ve got a another book idea I’ll be outlining soon.

As I write my books and stories, I find myself thinking about the various ingredients to make a good story. I like science fiction and fantasy stories because they take me to other worlds and times. The scenery, technology, or magic sometimes breathe life into the story. Sometimes, a good story is built around characters or events. Seeing those characters react to events that I have never experienced can give me that release from my own stresses.

A good story, like life, has its ups and downs. The protagonist will have to struggle, because if they didn’t, the story wouldn’t be as much of an escape. In my own life, I’ve realized that I don’t notice the good around me as easily when things are smooth. Just like a character in a good story, I don’t notice what I have until some of it is threatened or taken away. It’s in those moments, when the protagonist of a story is struggling to hold onto or reclaim or get the things they want, that they see who they really are.

Just like a good book needs a struggle to really be enjoyed, the struggles in my own life help me appreciate what I have. Life after 2020 is certainly different. I think we could all use a good escape. I’ve found mine through writing and reading novels.

That doesn’t mean I have to always struggle. Sometimes, my most creative times come when I laugh a little. A little humor goes a long way. Being able to laugh at myself, especially in hard times, helps. Humor is another ingredient for a good story and a happier life.

Beyond my books Resonance and Dissonance, check out my other books.

My fantasy, A Map, a Mage, and a Sacrifice, was a fun book to write. It is set in a world with limited technology, but where sacrifice is a necessary element to magical power. The greater the pain and suffering, the greater the magical power generated. The few mages in power use voluntary sacrifice of the citizens to generate power they use to protect and defend the empire. But their rule may be coming to a close.

If you’re looking for a science fiction story, try my book The Promise of Dust, which takes place in a cloud city floating in the atmosphere of Venus. Or Progenitor’s Legacy: Deceit, which takes place many years in the future on a tidally locked world that orbits a red dwarf and has been reached by humanity in their search for the alien progenitors who seeded the galaxy with nano machines.

If a young adult science fiction is more to your liking, check out my series This New Earth, that starts with Demons of a Dead World and Secrets of a Dead World.

If you are looking for a young adult fantasy, check out my book The Threads Unbound.