Good Stories...

So what makes a good story?  I am no expert but I can tell you at least from my experience what might.  First, you must have the main protagonist.  The one who the story centers around.  The main protagonist always has something to overcome providing an invaluable lesson at triumph.  Then you have those that contribute to the story.  Usually these are just fillers providing exposition at times but I prefer my stories to have more meat so I believe that the other characters should not just serve as backdrops to the story but instead be interesting enough to serve as main protagonists to their own.  Their roads meeting in interesting ways as a result creating everlasting connections that are either strained or collaborative but each advancing a greater picture.  

I know where mine began but I honestly don't know it's end and as for those that are in my story?  They are all deserving of their own.  All amazing in their own right.  They just don't last very long in mine and it's something I've both come to accept and live with.  You might think it sad and some of it is but it's all part of life.  So yeah, it can be sad.  That is of course, until you start reading the new chapters.  Replete with new characters and some old characters making an appearance with intersecting arcs.  So indulge me a bit...  

Allow me tell you a story:

It's about 3 AM and a man is in bed with his wife.  Outside his wife hears a couple fighting across the street from their second story window.  She gets up to investigate waking him up.  She opens the window and he follows behind her to see what the problem is.  They witness a man physically manhandling his woman as they are actively arguing.  He and his wife begin shouting at him to stop yet they continue arguing.  The man, after repeated attempts at stopping what could turn ugly says that he would be calling the police.  To his disgust, the woman in distress finally shouted back "mind your own fucking business!!!".  The man, deflated and annoyed said "ok", closed the window and had a bit of trouble going back to sleep.  All he could think about was how this woman would either one day become the heavy bag to a fighter's constant barrage or wind up dead because of course "she could handle it".  As for her so-called man?  He'd most likely wind up somebody's bitch in cell block D or dead after beating up on the wrong woman.  So as the man lay there in bed, he thought he did all he could do and felt satisfied with his efforts yet found himself disappointed none-the-less.  You see, he did his part with an extended hand but his hand was not just rejected, it was struck away.  He learned a valuable lesson that night that he would take with him in every other similar human interaction:

You can't save everybody and you can never force anyone to do what's in their better interest.  That sometimes, you have to let people fail and find out certain things for themselves without your input or safety net.  Only problem is...it's a gamble.  Depending on the circumstances, their lesson might lead to damaging scars or worse...death.  Yet because you did your part, rejected or not, you can sleep a bit easier.  So what ever happened to the arguing couple?  Who the hell knows but I can only hope that the lessons that were learned, if any, brought them a better life.  Honestly?  I sincerely doubt it.  Good story?  Yeah...true story.

You see as soon as the woman shouted at me telling me to mind my business, the part she played ended in my life's book.  Yet there are some in my life's book that have not found their conclusion and are currently living out their own until theirs and mine intersect again.  You just have to know when to accept their resignation and when it comes, you must learn how to continue forward without them.  If it ends, it ends.  Yet if it is to continue at a later date, then it must remain loosely open-ended.  Like the abused woman, some decide it's done but there are others that choose not to close you off in finite terms so they can come in and out of your chapters.  It is in these circumstances where it is up to you to decide if they contribute enough to your story justifying their back and forth.  Me? I'm easy in that regard but I am no fool either.  I know when to write them out of the story.  I allow them to make the choice either by word or deed and as much as it may pain me to watch them leave, when it's time...it's time.

Always remember this my beautiful people.  The very best tales are the ones that have their good and bads and ups and downs.  Yet one thing is certain about my book.  If they were ever in it, they must have been characters of substance having their own storylines to live out so who am I to deny them such a thing?  I'm out...

~Moses