Writing from the heart and for the heart

I recently organised a talk for local writers and students by Script Developer Katie Boyles and Film Producer Christine Cheung in which they explored what they look for in a good script.  It was a fascinating talk and many of the observations were so relevant to novel and short story writing that I had to share a few key points.  All of these are questions we should be asking ourselves when we write a story. 

• What is the story?
• Whose story is it?
• Do we care about the protagonist's journey?
• Is the story event led or character driven?
• At the end of the story, does it stay with us?
• Do we care? 

In summary we need to be writing from the heart and for the heart.