The Five Basic Essentials For A Great Story

Hi Billy.... I will be keeping this one in the bookmark bin... excellent write and motivator... thank you my friend... say hello to your girl and thank her for loving you... then go out and cuddle the chickens...

Love you Bro

Thanks

Hi Bill,

What a great article with all the necessary ingredients for a great story to be told. I see MJ popped in and I am glad he let you know his decision to put his writing "on hold". I am sorry to see him depart for now as I have always had more belief in him than I think he has had. He has so much talent but not the same passion as I do. Thanks for another excellent account and I would love to write a story one of these days, truly. i think my imagination would take off and it would be so intriguing to see where it landed!

Great use of analogy.

You must have been marking down my short stories in your head when you have been reading them as I like using Media Res :)

A great article and useful as always.

They are always fresh and engaging and I never tire of reading your work. You deliver everytime on quality and on engagement.

Thank you Mr Holland :)

This was done wonderfully. I was impressed how you used making a pie to illustrate how to write a story.

Bill, great tips on the essentials of writing. Love all your references to "baking a pie," brilliant! I've never tried to write a book or novel, but if I would, I would reference to this information. Your a great teacher Bill, the way you explain everything makes your readers connect on an entire new level or perhaps you just have that ability. None the less, very useful and wise information my friend. Voted up, useful, interesting.

Your 'baking a pie' writing analogy is delicious, Bill, and so easy to digest. Hope your Sunday is ful-filling.

Thanks for the awesome tips, bill.

I read this with fascination as I just made a pie yesterday and find it all connected. A very useful article. Thanks for the tips.

Thanks Billy for such an entertaining class. I wish you have been my teacher in my school days. But, you know what? I am still a student, and I will always be.

I have learned so much with the pie as the concrete object to teach the abstract term, which writers need to deal with. Thanks brother.

Kids must have flourished in the classroom they shared with you, Bill.

Knowing how to get the job done is a huge part in the success of a writer. Thanks for keeping the focus on the important STUFF that comes together to produce fiction or nonfiction that holds the reader's attention.

Angels are on the way to you along with hugs too this evening. :) ps

shared

Amazing how you always come up with such great ideas for a hub and you are such a talented writer. Voted up and useful

Excellent advice and I have a book I am working on that needs to incorporate your suggestions a little more effectively. I am doing a re-write now. Awesome hub.

Great advice Bill. I've said it before, you continue to show us the way and lay the path at our feet. It is up to us to follow. Great tips as always. Have a great weekend.

This hub is very informative. I like the clever way you make us think of a recipe. Voted up.

Yes! All these are the essentials.....without build up, everything goes flat. Sharing!

Hi Bill,

Well, I thought I just left a comment, but it went away, so here it goes again : )

I love the analogy of baking a pie here! How clever and it really does provide a lot of insight. What is really great is knowing that you have expressed before how much you do not care for recipes hubs, which makes this even much more interesting.

Great points to ponder for sure!

Hugs, Faith Reaper

Really appreciate this advice Billy...motivates me to continue with my novel. Thanks for sharing.

Great lesson, Professor. I know if the protagonist doesn't have any qualities that will make him/her a real person, I quickly lost interest in the story. I once tried to watch 'The Wrestler' but gave up when I realised 30 minutes into it I didn't actually cared if the title character lived or died. I know it's supposed to be a really good film, but I just couldn't relate to the character.

Thank you for the tips.

Great hub. You presented valuable information for those who write stories. I voted up, useful, awesomeand interesting along with liking pinning and tweeting.

Very interesting. The most difficult task for me is the ending of a story, but i am learning. You are a great teacher. Thank you.

I would really like to be a good story teller/writer. Thank you for this clear outline. Always helpful!

Bill- I always save your writing tips for the end of the day so I could fully absorb them. (I try to read your motivational ones in the beginning of the day)! It's a good feeling when I can use your advice as it pertains to my own new book and say Check! for most of the tips. Thanks for sharing this!

Liz

I love the comparison to baking a pie! I will bookmark this, because it is very useful!

Have a great weekend, and thanks for sharing this with us.

~ Kathryn

...and the plot thickens! Sensei you continue to enlighten us with your wisdom. Would this be a simile or metaphor - pie and writing that is? Either way along with protagonist development there's going to be a lot of pie eating going on this weekend, not to mention bookmarks flying about as we all keep track of your pearls of wisdom.

Voted up, useful, awesome, interesting and as always shared.

Enjoy the weekend.

Bill, this one is very tasty!...So much so, I'll be sharing and saving some for later :). Another masterpiece.

Great advice for writers, as always, Bill. Thanks for sharing your useful suggestions.

Great advice for fiction writers, Bill, and the pie-baking analogy is very apt. The problems that besiege a story's protagonist are critical to the plot's success. It's that crisis and how it's overcome (or not) that keeps the reader interested until the end. As writers, we ignore this rule to the peril of our stories.

M-m-mmm....Reading this hub made me hungry. I wonder why?

Voted Up+++

Jaye

My mom doesn't let me touch the oven....Do you have a microwave version?

Just kidding, your ideas are excellent. And now I'm really hungry for pie!

Again, a hub chock full of great information.

So many things to keep in mind while we write.

In time, hopefully, it will come naturally.

Until then, I shall keep reading your great suggestions and practice applying them.

For now, I'd loved of piece of that pie with vanilla ice cream.

No cheese on pie for this Southern Belle!

Thanks, Bill.

DJ.

Yum, I gobbled this hub up! Great stuff as usual.

We live in the mountain area..and it is a lot cooler and cools off every night. Phoenix is very hot...Set the timer for the cake, and don't open the oven until done.

Another one to add to my "Bill's Writing Tips" file. Great advice! Now, I'm a pretty good baker - what's your favorite pie?

Enjoy your day and have a peaceful, sunny weekend my friend.

Love this and I applied the rules to my favorite mysteries..and you are so right. Good ingredients, blend well and bake just long enough.

Billy, this is most definitely a 'keeper', which I am adding to my Billybuc writer's guide bookmark! This is something I can really sink my teeth into. Thank you for sharing so generously this essential information, my friend ;)

Voted Up++++

This recipe looks tasty and delicious.

This is good advice. The problem with too many stories now is the writer does not make the reader care about the protagonist. In some books and movies, eventually I even start to hope for the protagonist's demise. That probably does not say much for the story. I like how you mention we need to make people give a damn about the protagonist. More writers should keep that in mind.

Hi Sir Bill & Bye Sir Bill

I've succumb to my own advice and decided that I'm definitely a scribbler and not by any stretch a writer.

I'm much better at fixing things and I've lots to fix so that's where I'll be, in the shed. Besides since writing and cooking seem to have lots in common then that just confirms my choice since ingredients are not parts then I've got no chance.

Since there is already one great talent in the household I'll simply support Suzie as she seems to be going in the right direction.

I may pop in from time to time just to give you some Bad Manners and Keep You Real.

Great job here and more excellent advice from the great guru for those aspiring writers.

It's been a blast.

MJ.

A rush of ideas flowed into my head like a gangbustin' tsunami as I read your article. What great timing on your part to reserve this motivational and instructional piece for the last day of the week. Like a good farmer, you've planted your crop(s), and now we wait to watch the splendid show of orientation, crisis, escalation, discovery, and change.

Mahalo, Bill, for effectively capsulizing the making of a good book pie. I'm joining the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Betty Crocker--just as you've done with them, you make me proud, my friend!

Aloha!

~Joe

Loved how you started this one with baking. Seriously, another one of my favorite past-times and to relate it to writing a book just perfect. I have pinned to refer to if I ever get time to go back to my novel editing. thank you so much Bill and wishing you a wonderful Friday now.