: Re: Is it true that "Any story can be great in the hands of the right storyteller"? Presumably, like all trite sayings, it's a bit of an exaggeration since a story has to be at least interesting.

@Ann1701686

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No, it is very difficult to make any story great. And there is a ton of thought and intention that goes into picking even the right story to tell, from the right vantage point. It is not uncommon for a writer to get to the end of the story and throw out characters, plot points, and settings whole only to reconstruct them from the ground up. And that means that the original story they were writing died to the editor/reviser's red pen.

Good writers know* how to find good stories, and they know how to change what they have until it fits what they are writing. (*) And by know; I mean they or their team sometimes spots problems that points them in another direction.

I think it is less likely that a good author can make any story great than that good author's are just better at sticking to the things that work.

The average number of books it takes to get published (among those who make it) is supposedly 10 [cite anecdotal podcast evidence]). That means they found at least 10 long stories that were no good, revising the last one into something else. And it is not uncommon to work on a project and fail, even after you are published. Failed books go in a spot that gives them their name: the trunk. Trunks are full of stories that good authors couldn't make work. Because ultimately there are foundational elements that allow stories to work their magic and some stories don't do those things, even in the right hands.

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