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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36965
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36965
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

At the heart of every story there is a moral choice -- a choice about values. The hero will be brought by some means to a point where they must choose between two things that they love. They may choose well or ill. The consequences may be for good (comedy) or ill (tragedy), but there must be a choice and that choice must matter, both to the character and to the reader.

To sustain the reader's interest, they must perceive early on that the hero cares about something, that they have values that may be challenged, that may be brought into conflict with each other, and that events may bring them, are starting bring them, to the point where they will be forced to choose.

In this sense, there is some darkness at the heart of every story, some sacrifice, some loss. But just as a light story cannot be entire light, a dark story cannot be entirely dark, for in an entirely dark world, there is no love and therefore no values to choose between. Find that spark of light, however, even if you intend to extinguish it at the end, and you will find a way through the darkness.

This theme, following a spark of light into the darkness, is one of the great theme of human art. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...

If there is something that the hero loves, and some choice of values they will eventually be forced to make, and if the reader can feel the story moving towards that moment of choice, then the audience has something to care about and will stick around. A deep darkness can make that spot of light shine all the brighter, but if the light is not there, there is nothing to see and that audience will wander away.

Original score: 2