Good Stories

What makes a good story?

Is it the characters? Is it the setting? Is it the plot itself? Is it simply the ability of the author to masterfully and beautifully tie everything together. The way the author can realistically but at the same time unbelievably weave their characters through the plot...

Is it the language, the beautiful, descriptive words used to describe even the simplest object? The words used to describe love, heartbreak, pain and sorrow...

What is it that pulls a reader in? What keeps their eyes glued to the pages, constantly craving more? What makes a person continue reading into the wee hours of the morning, never feeling fatigue, only feeling what the characters feel?

Or is it simply our desire, the readers' desire, to read a really good story, one so magical and captivating that it can completely pull us into a different world?

Maybe it's the escape. A tantilizing story allows us to escape reality, if only for a short period. A good story has the ability to fill the reader with unbearable pain, despair, heartbreak, loneliness and utter darkness.

Above all, a really good story has the ability to fill us with undying, unfaltering hope.