What Makes A Good Story?

I don't know.

...

Probably a bad intro, but it's really hard to make one. I know what a bad story looks like (I've written a ton of them) but you got a market in several media, that been told a lot of times, that millions of dollars have been invested, and a good amount of those projects make that money back. A part of me wants to start throwing garbage into the void, hoping that something we stick and make me oodles of money.

Sigh,but I don't want to do that. I cringe handing off stories to my friends that I don't think it worthy (and the typos, oh god the typos.) Sometimes they tell me its good. Most of the time they don't read it. That leaves me in a particular dilemma. How do I know if my stories are good?

The answer is you never know. Ever. You just write, grind, edit, revise and finish the project. That by itself is so hard. Getting to the editing part is a milestone. Getting to the place where you can say The End of a first draft is miracle.

I always had the opinion of that art is complete when the artist is sick of looking at it. Adding anymore makes them sick, like a demobilizing illness that impedes on a word count, or more revision, or more drafts to be written. I hate to say, this hasn't been tested (so it makes a bad theory.)

I've gotten close, but I'm still scared of calling it done. I use words like "this round" or "until the next draft." It's cowardly- yet it makes me feel better. It masks the taint of procrastination. It's my handy little bottle of Febreeze (why does it sound like that brand should have an extra r in it after the first e?)

This all could be wrong though- the answer could be as simple of letting the story stink a little.

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