The question came up on one of my writer’s loops, “What makes a story a page-turner?” It’s a good question that sparked one of my own. “What makes a great story?”

As with anything, people are inclined to disagree on this question because writing is a subjective art. What one person loves, another finds boring. What one person hates, another can’t put down. In subjective art like this, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

However, there are some elements to a story that must be there, in my humble opinion, in order for a story to pass from mediocre or even good, to great. Here are the things I would look for in a story that I consider great.

First, I would look for characters that are as real as my best friend. People, whose lives are filled with all of the quirks and qualities we face as human beings, complete with stellar characteristics mingled with sometimes glaring, sometime subtle flaws. When I finish the story, I want to remember those characters by name, and if the book has really good characterization, those characters will become friends, to the point I might wish I could meet them in person.

Second, those characters must face impossible dilemmas. While their world might start out in seemingly pleasant circumstances, within the first chapter or shortly thereafter, they should come up again a catastrophe so large that they can see no possible way out. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they must look death in the face and realize that they have lost everything. The character carries a sense of hopelessness and sees no solution.

Third, the story must carry an underlying element of hope. While they go after every means available to them to fix this terrible problem, they must believe that there is indeed a solution. The best stories, in my opinion, are those where the character tries to solve the problem on their own, but they finally come to a place where they realize they are not an island, they need help. But the one who would help them must sacrifice something precious to do so. Or the characters themselves must sacrifice something in order to save someone else. There must be a redemptive quality to the story, something that shows that hope is not without sacrifice. Relief and redemption are not without cost.

A great story does not necessarily have to have a happy ending. But in most cases it will, or at the very least it will hold the promise of happier tomorrows. Again, that element of hope. To leave a reader hope-less, is to write a story that is forgettable – or at the very least the reader will wish they could forget it.

To write a great story a writer works long and hard. It takes time to get to know those imaginary people floating in our heads. And whether we write by a detailed plot or seat of the pants, we must spend time thinking of impossible dilemmas to place in the paths of those characters. But I think the thing that will make any book stand out above the rest, is that element of deep, abiding hope, and passionate, sacrificial redemption.

The greatest Story ever told has both, and it will never be forgotten.