Telling a story is an easy thing, but telling a good story is not. To tell a good story you need to come up with something interesting; a unique or compelling idea. There's nothing more in this world that I hate in a book or movie than when the characters or plot are obviously unoriginal or not well thought out. You're not doing yourself any favours by doing this.
Once you've come up with this (hopefully good) idea, you're gonna need to research everything from names and locations to dialect and symbolism. All of these things contribute to the quality of your story and the hard work will pay off in the end. Once these things are gathered and you're satisfied, you can begin to write the story.
Possibly the most important step would be to make an outline following some sort of dramatic structure such as Freytag's Pyramid. Your story must start off with introducing the main character and the main problem. After this, the rising action begins. At the height of the rising action is the climax. Once the climax is finished, there's falling action and then the denouement/resolution.
Once you've gotten the basic story down, you need to hash out the characters, setting, and a more detailed plot. Make sure they're realistic to the world it's set in! Having a blue haired, small town girl who can see the future when wind blows and has a vampire boyfriend, is NOT original and is extremely annoying.
Following simple steps and actually thinking through your characters, plot and settings will drastically change your story for the better.
More information can be found here.
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