Message Board Topic For 5/26

[Comsie]

Often, when reading online stories as somewhat of a 'habit'...you come across a story or two tha really strikes a nerve with you. Whether it relates to you and your particular life in a truly powerful way, or if it was just an exceptionally written tale that you connected to for the pure entertainment value of it. And that can be an amazing feeling.

 

But what is it about certain stories that make readers 'save' them and keep them close by to read again at another time? What is that magic element that gives certain stories the blessing of being that one tale that you can read over and over again and never get tired of it?

 

I've read a lot of stories online, and there are many that I thought were EXTREMELY good, but I don't go back and read them a second or third time. And then there are some that, for some reason I can't explain, I want to read over from beginning to end every now and then, just because I enjoyed them so much. What separates the two? What makes a story enjoyable for you to personally pick it up again later and read it multiple times? What connects you to some stories in that way and not others? Let me know, because I'm actually kinda stumped myself on this one!

[Comsie]

Hehehe, wow...crickets on this one, huh?

 

Like I said in my post, I'm not really sure what it is either, that makes me want to re-read certain stories that I've read before, and not others. It's not a 'good story/bad story' kind of thing. Not at all. Because I could read two stories that are equally fascinating, but only go back to re-read one of them over and over again.

 

It think it's just a matter of moments. Little moments, or exchanges of dialogue, that really affect me. I think about those moments in a story whenever I'm feeling a certain way, and it'll take me right back to the first time I read it It's almost as if the memory from the story is a memory from my life. It's weird, but true. So some stories just touch something in me that makes me think of them when I'm in a certain frame of mind or dealing with a situation...and that keeps the story close to my heart.

[Ar Pharazon]

Hehehe! All of your stories are re-reads, Comsie!

 

For me there's two main things (but certainly not the only reasons that could be possible):

 

The story just submerges you into it so much that you feel like you're literally IN the story itself, and it's like watching a movie, so you wanna read it again and again to get that experience over and over.

 

The other reason is that the story is so big, so detailed and so long that reading it one time through will never be enough unless you're some kinda memory hyper genius or something. I've read a few books like that, and of course Gone From Daylight!

 

(I bug sprayed the crickets, sorry)

Erick