What do you love about stories?

[Rachel Swirsky]

I started a discussion on my livejournal that I would like to invite y'all to weigh in on.

My post reads:

"Tell me what you love about stories."

No objectivity, just what it is that you love. We touched on this in another topic, I think, but we were talking meta there -- here, I'd like to invite you to discuss your tastes as private, personal, and important. What do you love about stories?

Reply here, if you'd like, or feel free to hop over to my livejournal. The post is here: http://velourmane.livejournal.com/122993.html

[FNH]

Action. Excitement. Consistency.

[lowky]

One word Escapism.

There's a reason people talk about the generally viewed as better stories pulling them in.  That I think is part of what made me decide to check out escape pod.  The implication that I could escape into the stories.

[Rachel Swirsky]

Fair enough. But what elements allow you to escape into a story?

[lowky]

engaging plausible plot/storyline (or enough so to suspend disbelief)
likeable/able to be empathized with characters
Personally I prefer my sci-fi and fantasy to both have a sense of adventure.
*Edit--To Clarify the last sentence more star wars and Conan than Asimov for example. 
Humor helps too.*Edit

[Heradel]

It's almost easier to name the things that'll shock you out of the story.

To get me interested can be eventually boiled down to two things: Good Characters and Premise. I can suffer through one if the other's there, but if neither are than I'm not going to read it.

[ClintMemo]

Escapism - give my brain something fun to think about.

[Bdoomed]

I love, and i see this more in Escape Pod than other places, new ideas.  I love new ideas presented in stories, the different views that everyone has on the universe.  i love the different ways stories are told, for example Mr. Derego's Union Dues presents a wholly different view of the superhero genre. (at least I havent read a view similar to it)

another example would be The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  That book has one of the most interesting views and "what ifs" on the universe.  Governed by phone numbers? Improbability drive?  Adams's backwards engineering is brilliant, and he is also very very skilled at presenting the best view of the universe i have ever read.

I also enjoy a good laugh out of a story, surprise, action... 7th Son does a good job of surprising me, also Pseudopod really gets me sometimes (Fetal Position and Flat Dianne were pretty scary)

[Alasdair5000]

   Slight of hand.  There's nothing that makes me smile more than a plot twist I never saw coming but that makes perfect sense, or a joke that comes out of nowhere, or a moment of writing that's so pure, so perfect that it just hits you like a freight train.  Although the only examples I can think of at the moment are, embarassingly, all from movies:

-The last five minutes of Little Miss Sunshine.
-The moment in The Village where the characters run out of world and, conversely, how much more sense everything you've seen prior to that makes.
-This exchange from Paul Anderson (Not the MAGNOLIA guy)'s first movie, SHOPPING:

'I know my rights, I've seen LA LAW!'
'Is that supposed to be funny?'
'Actually it's more of a comedy drama.'

[Thaurismunths]

I second Bdoomed's love of new ideas. Even a mediocre story that explores a new concept will get good marks with me.
I'm reading to do something, or go somewhere, that I haven't before. I want to meet new people, see new things, and do something different. I think the most unique ideas, for me, come from faerie tales. They aren't bound by logic or common sense, but in their own weird way it all works.