Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.
What would you define as a classic story? Do you define it by age or by how often it can stand being re-read? Or do you define it by its word count where you have a story where you can’t imagine another word being added and/or words being taken out of it?).
Of course, your answer can be any of the above, maybe all of them! For me, though, the age of a story is irrelevant. If it is classic, it is because it is a fabulous tale, not because of its antiquity (or lack of same).
Realistic or Not?
I love the works of P.G. Wodehouse but I think it is fair comment to say realism is not applicable here. Doesn’t stop them being classic tales though. At the opposite end of the scale is Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings, which does make it clear it is fantasy from the outset. What both have in common though are characters you can sympathise with (Bertie Wooster and Frodo Baggins, both of whom you want to be successful) and that good “will out” in the end.
Classic stories often have themes behind them – good overcoming evil (and the fairytales cover a lot of ground here too) and always look out for the unexpected hero. They’re likely to change the mood of the story as things progress.
So a classic story draws you in then with a powerful hook, characters you care for, and a situation which needs resolving. Only way to find out how it is resolved is to read the story. Job done by the writer!
Knowing the Storyline Is No Barrier to Classic Status
Knowing the storyline well doesn’t prevent a story from being a classic either. I can happily re-read Agatha Christie despite knowing the stories well. (Still think Murder on the Orient Express and The ABC Murders are her finest Poirot ones and Nemesis and 4.50 From Paddington are her finest Miss Marple books).
Stories like these appeal to our wish to see justice done especially since we know it so often doesn’t happen in life. Fiction can be a great comfort here at times.
Then there are the tales which have stood the test of time and continue to do so – Aesop’s Fables (The Hare and the Tortoise especially I’d say) and the parables of Jesus (especially The Good Samaritan). It is so often the theme behind these which turn these tales into classics.
Quality is Everything
Classic stories don’t have to be any particular length either. A point I often make in flash fiction workshops I run is that less is more and Aesop and Jesus’s parables prove my point here. Most of these stories are not especially long. Yet equally you can have a fully fledged fantasy trilogy (Tolkien) which is an outstanding classic.
So the quality of the story is by far much more important here than its word count or genre.
Naturally what someone describes as quality will vary depending on personal tastes but I think the underlying important thing is having those characters you care enough about so you must find out what happens to them. That for me is the acid test of whether a story works at all, yet alone whether it becomes a classic.
Inspirational Stories
Then there are the classics which started a genre. Think Frankenstein by Mary Shelley here. Think The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe, which is recognised as the first detective story. Think of the early women novelists including Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters for breaking new ground by showing women were just as capable of coming up with great books as the men.
Stories which inspire other stories can count as classics too. A Christmas Carol by Dickens is a fabulous tale of redemption and that theme is a classic one to write for in short and long fiction. It is also a novel idea to have a ghost try to help a living person. (Later television shows such as Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) play on that idea too).
And as for Shakespeare, where to start there? Is there anyone who doesn’t know the broad outline of Romeo and Juliet? It took me a long time to get into the Bard’s work at all (National Theatre Live has been marvellous here) but even I know this plot line from things I’ve picked up from media comments, other stories based on the plot line etc, ages before I started watching him. (And I remain convinced Shakespeare is meant to be watched rather than read – the plays, anyway).
Some stories can kind of sink into your subconscious and even the national consciousness).
Learning From Classic Stories
For me, characters make or break a story so when I read other writers’ works, I’m looking to see how they build their characters up and develop them. All writers learn from others in this way. You realise what makes something work for you in a story and then try and replicate that in your own tales with your own characters.
We all build on what has gone before. You can also learn the classic themes writers work with time and time again. There are always good reasons for writers to do this. There will never be a shortage of love, crime, history stories etc because these things have always appealed to people.
Sometimes you come across characters who would work well in our modern age too. Wouldn’t Sherlock Holmes have a field day with forensic science? (I suspect poor Poirot might be suspected of having a very bad case of OCD, mind you!). But for that kind of character, you can work out what would still make them appeal to us today and again try and replicate that in your own characters. Readers need to understand where characters come from. They don’t necessarily need to like them.
We all have our own ideas as to what makes a story work. I want strong characters put in interesting situations they have to get out of – there has to be a conflict and resolution and the conflict must be over something vital. The characters have to be “earn” their “win” or deserve their loss.
Ambiguous characters are harder to make work. There is no doubt Ebenezer Scrooge is a nasty bit of work at the start of his tale and very different by the end of it. Readers also want to see the right kind of changes, apt for the characters, happening too.
And the classic tales have all of the right ingredients to reach out to audiences far beyond the ones the writers would have been writing for. It is why Shakespeare, Dickens et al still “work”. Make us care about your creations. Get that done and, for me, that will always make a classic story.
Conclusion
No writer can dictate their work will be a classic – rightly so, too. That’s for readers to decide but we can serve up characters they’ll root for. And this is why, for me, knowing my character is my way into working out what their story should be. I am on the side of character in the old character -v- plot debate. I like to know what makes characters tick, whether I read them or write them.
Shortly I’ll be off to see The Chameleon Theatre Group perform Pinocchio. Now there’s a classic tale based on a classic theme – one of acceptance and that topic never dates. (The Ugly Duckling is my favourite for this theme but I’m looking forward to seeing Pinocchio. One lovely thing about pantomime? The audience will show they’re getting behind the characters all right! Review to come soon).
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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