The sure sign of any really well-written story is that it is consistent and cohesive. Those who write crap novels and movie scripts and video game stories, etc., are those who don't pay attention to details and don't try to make everything work well together. The more cohesive and consistent the story is, the more real it feels and the more people can connect with it.
Boy, do we disagree about this!
Audiences connect with characters, not the internal consistency of the setting. The depth of motivations, desires and decisions make a story real. Focusing on the world-building is missing the point. The end of Titanic is about the sacrifice Jack makes for Rose, not the physics of the buoyancy of wooden panels.
There are plenty of great stories whose setting makes zero sense. Harry Potter has a great evil one kept secret from muggles, even though there are billions of us and we have drones. Batman would be found out in zero seconds if anyone cared to investigate. The story of Hamlet happens because he sees a ghost in a setting where ghosts don't exist. The Little Prince is all about the absurdity of the world. Waiting for Godot happens nowhere in particular. But the characters! The characters are so great they feel tangible. The audience identifies with the characters even if the backround details are a little fuzzy.
I'd argue those who write crap stories don't pay attention to their characters. There have been a bunch of movies lately that were made to set up multi-picture franchises. They
stunk. Why? Because they wanted to build a world first and tell a story about interesting characters second. But stories are nothing without characters. They drive the story with their flaws, desires, actions - in a word : their humanity. Remember that act breaks are defined by character actions - the very structure of stories is built around what characters do.
Interesting characters are the mark of a good story. I was so surprised that you thought otherwise, GM4Him, that I read some of your fan fiction. I have notes, if you want to hear them.
