August's First Friday Thread: How to Make a Story Work

What makes a story work? What makes a reader prefer The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre, let’s say, to The Paris Secret? Why do some stories grip us and keep us fixed in the world of the book and others make us close the covers and find something else to do?

I wish I knew!

I’m both a reader and a writer and I still can’t precisely say what magical ingredient makes me revel in a book, or if it’s a combination of several magical ingredients or if it’s nothing to do with magic, but just comes down to r...