The challenge of great writing is that it’s more than the story and the characters that populate it. It’s the writing, the specific language that you use, the pacing and sentence structure. It’s ideation, alliteration, and the vocabulary of this particular narrative. 

Which is important to specify. Each story has its own voice, its own way of speaking, which may not be your voice, necessarily, but the one that’s best suited to communicate this tale.

Great writing has a grasp of the tone and meaning of each word, each sentence, and the punctuation within it, to ensure that it remains true to the perspective through which we’re viewing it. 

Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” is a great example, a story that’s similar to McCarthy’s other works, but the language is more stark, evoking the bleak poetry of the end of days.

The language is as much a part of the story as the content itself, and it’s important to note the metaphors being used, the words and where they’re placed, and how they relate to the emotion that McCarthy is trying to evoke at any given time.

The same applies to your own work. Does the imagery of your language match the tenor of the scene? Should you be using shorter sentences to pick up the pace, or longer ones to draw out the emotion?

The rhythm and flow of your writing needs to press the emotional buttons that you’re working towards, and each element, every sentence, comma and verb, either builds upon this, or it doesn’t.