Story Must-Haves

Hello again. Guess what? I'm not dead. Hooray for that. As NaNo draws ever nearer, most of us are either frantically finishing their plot and character sheets, desperately hoping they can wing their novel in April, or sitting back in their chairs, all done with their planning and relieved that they get a few days of peace before it begins. I'm now among the latter. Hooray for that, too!

To return to the title of the post, there are some things I just can't seem to write a novel without. They are by no means required for a good story, but for me, writing becomes exceedingly boring without some or all of the below. Laugh if you want. I have weird tastes sometimes. For me, a story should preferably have:

• A morbid prophecy. Do I ever love morbid prophecies! Not only is it terribly fun to prophesy doom and destruction for your characters, they're pretty easy to write and help set the tone as well. I'll take a morbid prophecy over a love poem or rhyming legend any day. (However, it isn't possible at the moment to include one of these prophecies in Legends of Light, so I'm settling for the rhyming legend.)
• A funny character. Many of the stories I write have some dark themes and plots to them, and they'd be just plain depressing without this essential element. Everybody loves reading witty dialogue or the hilarious antics of their favorite trickster, and they're also great fun to write!
• A creepy ambush scene. I don't know about you, but I like to write confrontations that will send chills up the reader's back! And nothing says chills like a container of ice cream creepy ambush. Have your characters get shocked by their mortal enemy's sudden appearance. Not only does it give you a great start to an intense fight scene, it acts as the perfect hook so your readers just can't stop reading!
• Two characters who hate each other. This makes the perfect subplot to add several thousand words to your story without having to insert fluff. It's also so much more interesting to have two characters on the same side despise each other than get along perfectly. Bonus points if they still don't like each other by the end. MORE bonus points if they do without a cheesy I-suddenly-like-you scene!
• A magical creature of some sort. Unicorns work fine. Elves are good. Dragons are even better! (This is my own personal preference. Despite being a theurgist at heart, dragons are hands down the best fantasy creatures ever. Sorry, unicorns.)

What are your story "must-haves"?

~ Sophia-Rose