R is for Real
In creative writing your story still has to have some realism to it. Your characters have to be relate-able and three dimension. The scenery needs to feel real to the reader. The more real the characters, scenery, and story, the reader is pulled into and becomes apart of the story. They either relate to a certain character or the story line is so captivating they just can't put it down.
For real characters they need personality, show emotion, fear, strength, loyalty, an imagination of their own. In other words they have to read like a real person, which is the key to being relate-able to the reader and even to yourself as the writer.
With the scenery it can be much easier because you have lots of options, descriptions of smells, sounds, textures, and images. Depending on the scenery you are using will determine the words you use to describe it. Every location has a mixture of all the senses.
The story line can either be easy or hard depending on what you are choosing to create. But as with the characters and scenery you have to create a world with your words. There has to be a smooth flow but even with fictional stories there has to be feel of being real. Even the far fetched stories have things which have a realism at some point.
I find when I am writing if the story feels real to me, then it is going to feel real to the reader. The more I get into the writing the better the story becomes. So when writing keep it real even if you are writing science fiction. A touch of real is always a good thing in any story.