How to Write a Story Audiences will Love: 6 Key Elements to Consider
- Jul 12
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 20
Why write a story?
Our need for story is a deeply instinctual thing.
From the charcoal and dirt paintings scratched on cave walls 40,000 years ago to the latest trend on social media, stories help our brains interpret the world around us. It's how we make sense of the illogical and irrational, create cohesion from chaos.
Stories help us understand who we are and who we’d like to be.
Even though storytelling is etched in our DNA we've been doing it so long, it can still seem a daunting task. How to create or write a story without feeling overwhelmed by the process?
How to Start a Story?
Create characters that are multi-dimensional
It all starts with a protagonist.
But we need to do more than give them a name, a job and a quirky hobby. Our characters should be properly fleshed-out in terms of their internal and external characteristics, wants, needs and backstory.
The key is to be credible. For example, if your protagonist has a profession or comes from a world that you're not really familiar with, do the research. And if you go the extra mile and find actual people to interview, I promise it will not only add authenticity to your character and set-up, but also a few gems for the storyline itself.
Build an emotional bond with the audience through relatability
Constructing characters with relatable flaws, situations, or goals will help elicit that holy grail of creators everywhere—an emotional response from an audience.
A crucial factor in storytelling is building an emotional bond with the audience.
It's safe to say that the most successful and enduring stories have one thing in common: they make the audience feel something. An emotional response stems from well-crafted characters and situations that the audience can relate to. Regardless of how niche the story or its setting, universal themes often resonate with everyone. That's why stories centred around love, loss, grief, redemption, and survival are so popular.
3. Lead with a Hook That Grabs Attention (and Keep Them Coming)
What's your hook?
Unless there's something that stops an audience in their tracks at the start, they're not going to hang around long enough to get to know your main character and all their adorable foibles. You need a really good hook to grab interest. It's a moment that stands out from a sea of content vying for attention.
A good hook often involves something unexpected. Maybe it's pairing a couple of incongruous elements together. The key is that it creates a question in the audience's mind. There's something intriguing or compelling that encourages the viewer or reader to hang around another minute and find out what happens next.
Think about the impact you want to make and the genre you're working in. Does your opening image or words in some way deliver expectations associated with your chosen genre but simultaneously stop an audience in their tracks and make them want to know more?
Beyond that, hooks will need to keep coming to maintain audience attention. There's nothing more satisfying than the predictable unpredictability of a story as it unfolds.
Ensure there's drama and something at stake
Although story involves drama and conflict, that doesn't mean people need to constantly be fighting. However, there must be some kind of inherent tension in the story you're telling.
Stakes don't necessarily have to be about life and death. Once you've created a multi-faceted character with complex desires and goals—often at cross-purposes—the stakes will be clear to the audience. We should understand why a certain goal is important to the protagonist and what will happen if they're not successful. They might not actually die, but there should be a metaphorical death of some kind if things go wrong.
5. Empathize with Pretty Much Everyone to Ensure Authenticity
This needs a three-pronged approach.
Firstly, it goes without saying that you'll need to empathize with your characters (even your antagonists!) to create believable ones. If they don't seem real, why would we care? You need solid grounding for their motivations at every turn. This means they'll probably make very different choices than you would in the same situation.
Secondly, your audience needs a helping hand in empathizing with your characters. Give your viewers or readers a snapshot into the psyche: moments alone with the character, a behind-the-scenes look, or a flashback, which will help them understand the characters' behaviour.
And thirdly, you'll also need empathy for your audience. What are they thinking and feeling while they watch or read your story? Remember, you should be the one in control. They are in your hands emotionally (hopefully) for the duration of the story. Construct your scenes accordingly!
Take the audience on a journey where something changes
Change is another essential component.
The story and the characters have to evolve in some way. At the start of the narrative, an inciting incident will act as a trigger sending our protagonist on two types of journey. There's usually an internal, emotional journey (referred to as the character arc) as well as an external one out in the story world (which is more plot-focussed).
Look at social media gurus espousing how to be successful on different platforms and they'll say similar things. Whether it's watching a 'get ready with me' video or following the rise and fall of our favourite TV series or film character, we're fully invested as we witness the magic of change happening before our eyes.
The universality of this classic "Hero's Journey" resonates deeply with all of us. After all, aren't we all on a journey of some kind or another? It's nice to catch a ride on someone else's for a while.
To Sum Up: Six Key Elements of How to Write a Story:
Create characters that are multi-dimensional.
Build an emotional bond with the audience through relatability.
Lead with a hook that grabs attention (and keep them coming).
Ensure there's drama and something at stake.
Empathise with pretty much everyone to ensure authenticity.
Take the audience on a journey where something changes.
Story Inkubator was founded by writer, scriptwriter, and teacher Kristina Jilly, an Australian living in Central Europe. She has written for HBO Europe and RTL Television. As a teacher at the University of Applied Sciences in Upper Austria, Kristina also writes online content about the art of storytelling and topics that inspire creativity.
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