Sky here! Today's blog content is brought to you by a talented writer, fabulous blogger, and all-around sweet and caring person, Christine Smith! Christine blogs at Musings of an Elf, and I'm so glad she's able to come share her insight with us!

As you may know, I've wanted to talk about what makes good stories great on this blog for a while now, and this post is a continuation of that. I asked Christine to come share about a show that I'm not very familiar with: Once Upon a Time. In a comment on my Breaking Bad post, Christine wrote about how complicated and beautifully written OUAT is, which seemed like a perfect storyline to cover on my blog. Unfortunately, I didn't know much about OUAT, and it just so happened I'd be taking a week off from blogging, too. So voila, a guest post was born! I'm incredibly grateful to Christine for her assistance and for blog-sitting for me! (Seriously, thank you so much, Christine!)

To sum it all up, here's what's happening: I like to analyze stories and what makes them tick, and I've dragged a guest poster into it with me. *quiet evil laughter* This post is a discussion starter, with seven great points about a well-told story. The purpose of these types of posts is so that we might figure out what makes it well-told and then incorporate what we've learned into our own writing. So sit back, relax, and take in the magic!

The basic premise of the show is about a woman, Emma Swan, who is dragged to a little town in Maine by her supposedly estranged son claiming the whole town, Storybrooke, is made up of fairytale characters. The show goes back and forth from flashbacks in the "Enchanted Forest" to current events in our world, slowly revealing the stories of these characters and how they ended up in modern day Earth.

If there is any show with a convoluted plotline it's Once Upon a Time. My brother and I like to watch it together, which is convenient, because it takes multiple brains just to make sense of the thing. There is many a time where we have to pause and figure out what this character has to do with that character, or why this storyline connects with that other one, and what does that magical item do again? It's like if you took three spools of thread and twisted them all together you'd have a map of the OUAT storylines.

Yep. Now we have a surprise, even moreconvoluted plottery, and these stories all connect. That's one of my favorite things in OUAT, and actually any story. When two characters who have seemingly nothing to do with each other actually connect in some way or another. This seems to be OUAT's favorite plot twist. The biggest joke us Oncers make is how every single person in the show is related. It's really just a show about one REALLY big family.

Yes, that was a real thing.

Firstly, they never give us anyone perfect. Even the sweet, supposedly flawless Snow White ends up having a dark side. She's human. Even though she always has good intentions and tries her very best to do the right thing, she's still human and stumbles. And while it was a very heartbreaking moment to see her stumble, I think it was good for us viewers. Sometimes I felt as if Snow White was a little too flawless, and, honestly, it got kind of annoying. When we got to see she struggled doing the right thing just as any other human does, I saw her in a whole new light and she became so much more real and even more loveable after that moment. But she still tries to be good, and I think that's the key right there.

I mentioned earlier that one of the most beloved characters is a villain. Rumpelstiltskin causes a whole lot of trouble for our characters, most of the trouble, to be perfectly honest. He's not an easy guy to get along with—selfish, greedy, only ever does anything to benefit himself.

 By rights, we should all hate this guy. And yet he's probably the most popular character out of them all.

I promised no spoilers, so I'll try to be careful, but let's just say this guy isn't evil just to be evil. None of the villains are. Rumpelstiltskin had a breaking moment in his life that caused him to be the dastardly fellow he reveals himself to be. He didn't just wake up one day and think, "Hey, I think I want to be evil." His life was tragic and led him to his dark deeds.

Like any show, Once Upon a Time isn't perfect, but those writers still know their stuff. You can tell they pour their hearts into making the best story they can, and have fun doing it. And that is the real key to storytelling. Don't take shortcuts, pour your heart and soul into your story, make it deep and meaningful, but don't forget to HAVE FUN. If you love writing your story, others will love reading it.