Unlocking Story Sense: The Differentiator Between Good and Great Authors

Story sense is the ultimate differentiator between good and great writers, and it can be actively cultivated by telling stories aloud. This practice trains the brain to instinctively focus on core narrative essentials. Without it, manuscripts often suffer from "local boredom"—clunky chapters in otherwise great books—or rambling, over-extended Minimal Complete Story (MCS) outlines. Writers can overcome these linear traps by recentering on conflict and practicing reader empathy. Using tools like a 90-second spoken MCS ensures every chapter delivers immediate emotional value while keeping readers hooked.

We at Bardsy have had the opportunity to talk to hundreds of authors (and counting) about their stories. These individual meetings allow us to reflect on writers' trajectories and what it takes to succeed. One still elusive factor has emerged from this examination, an almost magical factor that seems to separate top performers from the rest. We call it "story sense." Today's post begins an exploration of this capacity by focusing on two issues suggesting its importance: overly long MCS (Minimal Complete Story) tellings and "local" boredom in novel chapters. We then explain where these issues come from and how applying story sense resolves them.

Story sense is a magical differentiator. Our observations show a clear connection: the more story sense you possess, the better an author you will be. Writers with a well-developed story sense exhibit a cluster of valuable abilities. To name three: first, they leap from the germ of an idea almost directly into a complete yet parsimonious story. Next, they offer peers holistic comments that often pinpoint the revision with the maximum leverage on improving a chapter. Finally, they explore story alternatives very quickly, writing drafts for testing quickly, as well. This agility allows them to assess many versions of a given story, in the time it takes some authors to develop one, and select the best.

If this sounds like wishful thinking to you, don't despair! We've puzzled over this skill's origin: why authors come to us with more or less story sense. Some surprising data has recently come to light. Suffice to say that one of our most successful authors faces challenges with reading, raising the question: how is that possible? They produce amazing work in the face of this difficulty. The answer may be found in an inordinate amount of time devoted to telling stories in childhood. Other authors with heightened story sense report similar childhood experiences. As a consequence of early practice, these writers had a head start on the ability to think in stories. We conclude that story sense is not set in stone. You can actively cultivate it by telling stories aloud.

One way to start using story sense is to address two issues we encounter regularly.

One pervasive issue plaguing even the most promising manuscripts can be labeled local boredom. To illustrate, authors sometimes present bad chapters from fundamentally good projects. Here, good means the project has resonant characters, imaginative world, fruitful conflict and so on.

These clunky chapters detract from the overall experience. Too many will ruin word of mouth and repeat business. Further, their failure rarely stems from problems with the writing. The boredom comes from a misallocation of story across chapters. Authors must remember the cardinal rule of chapter design: satisfy readers, but leave them wanting more. These two goals exist in tension. On one hand, a satisfyingly relevant thing has to happen— a complete situation with genre appropriate stakes—while on the other hand, the door must be left open to encourage more reading.

Applying story sense rescues these lemons. We use an extrusion analogy to show how to properly break your novel into chapters. Think of your story as a stream of Play-Doh, sausage meat, or pasta dough, whichever sounds most appealing. Creating satisfying chapters calls for cutting the stream at the right points to ensure each chapter has the right amount of substance, not too little or too much. When your story is divided into chapters correctly, every reading session offers a distinct tasty nugget.

Issue two takes more effort, as well as story sense, to address. Initial Minimum Complete Story (MCS) tellings are often hard for authors. Recall, the MCS is our primary tool for developing your story. The idea is to tell your entire story aloud -- that's vital for story sense practice and other reasons -- in roughly 90 seconds. Some authors start this process with an excruciating chronology of a story's events, like "this happened, then this and that." While telling it, they also patch in necessary details haphazardly, as they come to mind: "by the way, the main character is a psychologist, the murder weapon is a knife, and it takes place on a planet with magic," for example. This suboptimal telling is too long and, more importantly, does not accumulate into a compelling story, one with rising tension and a defined peak.

Because they are related to story sense, these two issues share the same three causes:

When starting a new project, writers may not have created every story element or explored how they fit together. So, the MCS may include some placeholders even as it helps development by identifying gaps and forging linkages.

Too many authors focus on pleasing themselves, sometimes subconsciously, rather than delivering value to the audience. So they spend too much time on long descriptions, including characters and world-building, in place of situations that build narrative momentum.

Inexperienced writers sometimes fall into an overly linear process. They approach writing as detailing a series of consecutive events, one after another. Then, when they reach a preordained word count, they begin a new chapter. This approach fails to build a compelling story in the reader's imagination.

Addressing these issues requires using story sense to dissect and rebuild your chapters or MCS. Keep in mind this is easier said than done. A prerequisite is to avoid seeing your story as inviolate or otherwise immune to examination. Here are three aspects on which to concentrate:

Isolate the central struggle of the book, then put this opposition at or near the top of your MCS and in each chapter. Story sense, then, automatically integrates any events into this driver.

Imagine yourself listening to the narrative. Most authors possess ample latent empathy, allowing them to sense when the MCS or chapters become tedious. After locating problem areas, that empathy can also guide adjustments.

Whether you are pitching an agent or writing a chapter, treat the process as an interaction designed to provoke an emotional response, not a passive recitation from memory. When you tell stories aloud, your brain both isolates and interweaves the tale's essentials, transforming disparate elements into a compelling narrative.

It wouldn't be Bardsy if we didn't discuss testing. Here are three ways to make sure you are on the right track:

When you tell your 90-second MCS aloud, the listener should respond with a visible reaction, like gasp, sigh, or a demand to know more. A flat response generally means your conflict requires more energy.

Every chapter must deliver on its narrative promise and advance the story. Our primary tool for this is the Continuity and Value Delivery Sheet (CVDS). It helps track whether or not individual chapters contain enough story while examining whether the chapters seamlessly build into an impactful experience.

The ultimate validation of your work is the reader retelling test. It's especially useful if you're having doubts about your writing's effectiveness. In addition to the volunteer reader accurately recounting a chapter's key situation, the selection must provoke a genuine smile.

Let us know if you have any thoughts regarding story sense and the issues we think it addresses. And remember, telling stories aloud offers multiple benefits, especially if they are your own.