When I started reading TG stories on the web many years ago every story I read was interesting since I had never read stories with TG protagonists before. Finally someone I could identify with who was dealing with things that mattered to me.

After a decade or so this identification is still important so I still read TG stories but now the story has to provide something beyond the mere basics - the tropes of TG fiction such as self-discovery, the process of acquiring the clothes and paraphernalia, the salon experience, the shopping trip, the talk with the parents, the visit to the shrink... You know the list.

I now believe that in order to please long-time readers such as myself there are three main ways to make a TG story interesting.