Escapism is the basic fundamental quality of every good fictional story, for the writer at the time of writing and the reader at the time of reading.
A good fictional story makes the writer and readers live the events therein, to experience the narrative as if one is right there when the events unfold. Mostly written in âshowâ and seldom in âtellâ helps bring that quality to a good fictional story.
You become the tenth member of the fellowship of the ring. You become the bird that soars above the hobbits as they march to win back their homeland. You sit with the rest in anticipation of Hari Seldonâs next epistle from the past. You swing a mighty axe in the battlefields of Hyboria, and quaff sour ale with the pirates as Belit does the dance of death to ensnare her man. You ride hard with the Rohirrim, you slay Orcs and Uruks. You hide from the Nazgul under the trees with the boys. You cheer with the crowd as Elizabeth scores the winning point. You revel with Moonface in the lands atop the Faraway Tree. You run alongside Roy Race as he unleashes the fabled Raceyâs Rocket. You revel in Sheev Palpatineâs malice as he manipulates his way up in life.
Thatâs Escapism. That which takes you away from the humdrum of reality for a while and makes life worth living. That is the motivating factor (the one word the OP asks for) that drives me to read stories, and to write stories. To write from the ambient perspective of every character in the story, regardless of how big the role is, as the story matters more than the sum of its characters.
Of the two novelized stories that I have on this website, I do precisely that. Escape to another dimension of make believe and fantasy for a while, and hope that readers have the same experience while reading my works as I have had writing them.
Disclaimer â Stated above is in entirety my opinion from personal experience and execution.