The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe

This story is an example of In media res, a Latin term used to described story that start in the middle.

Its introduction sets up the upcoming events though some could argue that the wordiness seems to digress from the story.

In reality, all stories work by digressions. They're always necessary and essential to plot progression, although you may not be able to tell what is and what isn't a digression until the end of the story.

The digressions found in Poe's story serve as pieces of a puzzle where the reader needs to bring together and solve the puzzle before the end of the story. Filmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch also employ this puzzle-piece technique to tell their stories.

With narratives like this, Poe single handedly launched the popularity of crime stories.The story's main characters, the inquisitive genius and his narrating sidekick, are common archetypes found in current crime stories (e.g. Sherlock Homes). He was also the first to use urban settings in his stories and reuse main characters.

The interactivity of the story is rather low in comparison to newer forms of storytelling but is still effective.

A Medieval Romance by Mark Twain

Mark Twain violates readers' expectations of what is modernly considered a traditional story.

This short story demonstrates elements of a good story; it has good pacing and is just long enough to be interesting but not so long that the reader is angered by the ending. The humor in the story actually hinges on the assumption that the reader is familiar with the traditional narratives that Twain is poking fun at; anyone who is not familiar would likely find the story a waste of his time.

This story also includes a level of interactivity with its inconclusive ending; by doing so, readers can take the initiative and create their own ending.

Ironically, the nuance of analysis so emphasized in The Murders in the Rue Morgue does not engage the reader as effectively as A Medieval Romance, which can be greatly attributed to the concise and interactive nature of the story.

Elements of a story

Generally speaking, successful stories have:

• good pacing
• progression and regression
• causality
• a certain degree of digression, red-herring
• a payoff

A good story should produce more stories and discussion; ideally, it should transcend into popular culture amongst other media, ex. "I see dead people" and "Why so serious?", which are two quotes that originated from very well composed films and have been commonly referred to in news articles and television.

Examples of good stories, films, etc. include: Memento, Final Fantasy VII, Sixth Sense, 1984, Dark Knight

Generally speaking good stories avoid:

• an ending that doesn't make sense
• no character development
• illogical plot
• no pay-offs*

Examples of terrible stories, films, etc. include: Four Christmases, The Spirit, The Happening, Marley & Me

*Some current media, such as the television show, Law & Order, successfully operate on including no pay-off in order to maintain audience investment and create depth to the narrative; with Law & Order, for example, an unexpected "Not guilty" verdict in a sea of expected "Guilty" verdicts keeps the story unpredictable and intriguing to viewers.

While scholars traditionally learn about and designate narrative structure by means of Freytag's Pyramid, comprehending a story does not need to rely upon strict labeling of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement; a reader should moreso consider the explicit elements of the story, what the author does and does not include, as well as inferences and implicit meanings that can be revealed. In fact, the story of Kate Modern would have constant pyramids, rather than just one.  As you uncover new parts of a story, you constantly take them into account both independently and in relation to the other pieces you've read (regression).

The lack of resolution can be demonstrative to a story's culmination in the end, making 'what's not being done' most significant. As Ursual K. LeGuin said, "It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."