Why Stories Need Heart

Have you ever read a book that was well put together, with everything done right, and yet you couldn't connect to it? Or watched a dorky movie and loved it, even though it had major flaws? The reason (most of the time, anyway) for that is what we are going to discuss today. A story's heart.

What is story heart?

A story's heart is the thing at a story's core that makes you love it (or not). It's a combination of the love that the creator put into the story and how that translates into their project. It can't really be put into words, but if you've ever fallen in love with a story, then you probably know what I'm talking about. That's why something that's technically perfect can fall flat and something that's flawed can be your favorite thing ever.

Why is it important?

The heart of any story is just as integral as good plot or character arcs. Without it, like I said before, people won't connect to your story, and isn't that the whole point of writing? It's like if you had two cookies. One is made by some person famous for their cookies. It's one of the most amazing things you've ever had. But the other one is made by your grandmother. And that one tastes even better because you can taste the love that went into making that one. A story created with love is way better than any other.

That's not to say that you can't enjoy stories with less heart or maybe even no heart. They are just as enjoyable, you just might not connect to them like you would other. You may even like stories that other people don't and vise versa, because people are all different and enjoy different things. But something that speaks to you will be much more lovable and stick with you longer than other books/movies/TV shows.

Take for example a Netflix show my sister and I are watching right now. It's called The New Legends of Monkey and definitely has flaws. It's kind of dorky and not always the best, but every time we watch an episode or two, we're captured for the whole twenty-five minutes. Despite it's technical flaws, we adore it. And that's a sign that a show has heart.

Tips to give your story heart

A story's heart is ambiguous and not something you can easily purposely write into your novel. But if you want some ideas on how to do so, here are a few.

• Love your story. If you don't love, or at least like, the story you're writing, why are you writing it? Because you think people will like it? That's okay to do, but only if you like it too. The stories that have the most heart are the ones authors loved telling. (But it's okay if you don't love the whole process. Everyone has their hard parts.)

• Put some of you in it. Another thing that often makes a story have heart is if you put a piece of yourself into it. Those are the ones that really pop. You don't have to do this for every novel, but your passion projects will most likely do this. In my novel, Out of the Shadows: Hero by Night, the main character is lightly based off myself, and I hope that when people read it, they'll really connect to Hana.

• Write the best story you can. It's totally okay to say to yourself "that's not good enough" and try again on something. (To a point, of course.) The reason Pixar movies are so good is because their directors never go with anything less than stellar (except the Good Dinosaur). Heck, they scrapped all their original ideas for Toy Story 2 and started from scratch when it wasn't working. Re-write that scene that's not working a million times if you have to, just get it to the point where you love it.

• Create good characters. Characters are often closely tied into a story's heart. They are most often the thing we love or hate about a novel, so they need to be great. Readers need to connect to them, and through them, to the heart. Like in the example I said about Monkey before. Monkey is arrogant and can be dumb, but he's also insecure and adorable and our favorite part of the show.

What are your thoughts on this subject? What's something really dorky that you love despite its flaws? Tell me in the comments.

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