Writing a good story takes more than stringing a few characters and words together. An author is responsible for the characters, rhythm, story building, scene structure, formatting, and more. WGA Screenwriter, author, and MFA educator Michael Tabb says there are lots of ways an author can fall short when writing a story. The first step to writing a good story is to accomplish the basics of writing well. Even if you write well, you may still have a subpar story, but at least you will have the reader’s faith in your writing abilities.