What's in a Story?

What's in a Story? Does it require a masters in English Literature to write one? Increasingly I'm reading the book jacket to find that the author has a masters or P.H.D. from one school or another, all to write to me about fantasy. What about the author Christopher Paolini who started writing Eragon at age 15? Certainly he's not receiving as much praise for the eloquence of his novels, but he found a great deal of success for such uneducated writing. So what is it about a story that drives readers to it? Is it the prose, the exposition, the character development! Or, perhaps it's the landscape, creatures, and characters themselves? It is likely, a combination of both, as with most things in life. A good balance, or a managing to combine them all into one book, will likely find you success with some sort of audience.

I started this blog because I felt I needed practice writing, and what better way to force yourself to write than to attempt to write about things you do on a daily basis because you enjoy. Well that has failed, playing games is one thing, but writing about playing those games is an entirely different sort of ordeal. I've decided to re-approach the blog from a different angle. I've had a world in my head for many years, and I've a number of notebooks filled with details which no doubt contradict themselves eventually. I'm going to share them with you, along with the barest ideas of plots I've scribbled out in my idle thoughts. I am no writer, no author, but I am a person with an imagination, I will share it with you.