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Q&A How can I add depth to my story or how do I determine if my story already has depth?

+1 Galastel; I would say one way to approach an answer to her question, "What is the meaning of your story", is to ask yourself What do my characters learn? Deep stories, at least by my definition...

posted 5y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:47Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45594
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:02:30Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45594
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T12:02:30Z (almost 5 years ago)
+1 Galastel; I would say one way to approach an answer to her question, _"What is the meaning of your story"_, is to ask yourself _What do my characters learn?_

Deep stories, at least by my definition, have characters learning something about the world (our real world, not their fantasy world), how it works, what is important in life, what is not that important.

I certainly don't want to slap readers in the face with life lessons; but my characters always learn something I personally think is important about life.

For me, the definition of "shallow" is characters that prevail but haven't changed by becoming any better. That might be a fun read, an adventure with imagination and clever plot twists, and I'm willing to have a shallow good time. But those stories are not deep. I'm not going to read them a second time. I don't fall in love with the characters, or feel like they are real people. I don't feel compelled to keep the book, it is something I'll donate to a school.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-05-30T22:01:45Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 2