I’ve been searching for various blogging and writing jobs lately and I came across the question of what makes a good story in more than one job application. Apparently, some people who’d like to hire a writer base their decision on whether the applicant can provide an answer to this. I’m afraid I am not able to do it and I don’t think anyone is.

Scientists have already tried to come up with the answer to what makes a song popular. To some degree, they are even able to predict its commercial success using a certain algorithm. Objectivity and rationality are hallmarks of science and so the researchers were not as bold as to ask what makes a song good. Personal preferences and taste exist and thus good is a category that can hardly be measured objectively. What can be measured, though, is popularity and for this purpose instruments such as sales reports and music charts exist.

We face a similar problem when it comes to any other form of art. For some people, certain examples of modern art could not even remotely be considered good, while these same pieces are widely accepted and appreciated by the art community. So is there any sense in asking what makes art good? I don’t think so, for this is a matter of personal taste, culture, education, and individual preferences.

What baffled me most, however, is what’s the point of asking such questions on a job application?

I mean, these people were looking for bloggers for a startup website that is not even devoted to anything deep and art like. They were looking for writers who can write decent blog posts and were offering only symbolic payment and the foggy prospects of ‘exposure’ in return. One would think that samples of one’s work would be more than enough for the purpose. But no, in order to get the job, applicants would have to answer the question that in all probability even the Sphinx would consider unfair.

And what do you think would happen if we actually knew the answer? J.K. Rowling’s work would not have been rejected by so many publishers. Instead, they would have instantly recognized how marvelous Harry Potter’s story was and then fight each other to death for the rights. Has anything of the sort ever happened to unknown and previously unpublished authors? Not that I’ve ever heard of it. Strange isn’t it when everyone who applied was expected to come up with the answer.

If I knew what exactly the mysterious ingredient that makes a story good (or shall I say popular) is, I’d be rich beyond measure since every writer in the world would crave my advice on how to write. And so by being completely honest, I wrote “x-factor” as an answer because that’s exactly what makes a story good — a wonderful combination of things that cannot be pinpointed and written down as a recipe everyone could adhere to and achieve the same magical results.

Next followed another incredibly original question — what is your weakness? To which I again responded in all honesty by admitting that I hate stupid questions. Needless to say, I’ve never received a word back (and didn’t feel too bad about it either).

You see, writers and bloggers can be talented just like musicians and artists can be talented. For the most part, they have no clue how they came up with a certain idea and no wish to analyze how exactly they created that wonderful piece. They also do not know how and why it became so popular. For all they know, it was a combination of good timing, publicity, luck, years of experience (often but not necessarily), and a spark of divine inspiration during the creative process. What’s worse, trying to rationalize and dissect it might just kill the spark.