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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9540988" data-attributes="member: 6790260">I'd say there are a few--but they're all going to have things in common.For some folks, &quot;story&quot; has extremely hard requirements: it must be pre-plotted, it must have a definite beginning/middle/end structure, it must have rising and falling action, etc., etc. My main issue with doing this is that it makes it a lot harder to talk about things that aren't SO rigidly, perfectly pre-defined.For other folks, &quot;story&quot; is extremely loosely defined, as basically anything that produces the feeling of experiencing or telling a story. I'm pretty sympathetic to this position, though I do think it can verge into turning &quot;story&quot; into a meaningless nothing, which should be avoided.For me, &quot;story&quot; means there's a sense of reasonable flow between events. It doesn't have to be strictly &quot;rising and falling action&quot; patterns nor &quot;beginning, middle, and end&quot; cleanly laid out--serialized works often are not so cleanly divisible, for example--but it does need to have some kind of sense of &quot;protagonism&quot; and a reasonable degree of thematic and chronological cohesion. It doesn't need any plotting in advance, but it does need continuity and prepared ideas that get expressed through the world and its inhabitants.I fully understand that the above has some amount of &quot;I know it when I see it&quot;, but I think there's enough substance to at least recognize some things that definitely aren't story and some things that definitely are.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9540988, member: 6790260"] I'd say there are a few--but they're all going to have things in common. For some folks, "story" has extremely hard requirements: it [I]must[/I] be pre-plotted, it [I]must[/I] have a definite beginning/middle/end structure, it [I]must[/I] have rising and falling action, etc., etc. My main issue with doing this is that it makes it a lot harder to talk about things that aren't SO rigidly, perfectly pre-defined. For other folks, "story" is extremely loosely defined, as basically anything that produces the feeling of experiencing or telling a story. I'm pretty sympathetic to this position, though I do think it can verge into turning "story" into a meaningless nothing, which should be avoided. For me, "story" means there's a sense of reasonable [I]flow[/I] between events. It doesn't have to be strictly "rising and falling action" patterns nor "beginning, middle, and end" cleanly laid out--serialized works often are not so cleanly divisible, for example--but it does need to have some kind of sense of "protagonism" and a reasonable degree of thematic and chronological cohesion. It doesn't need any plotting in advance, but it does need continuity and prepared [I]ideas[/I] that get expressed through the world and its inhabitants. I fully understand that the above has some amount of "I know it when I see it", but I think there's [I]enough[/I] substance to at least recognize some things that definitely aren't story and some things that definitely are. [/QUOTE]

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