Novel Reading & Writing: Popular Bad Writers
I'm still in the fiction reading phase of my fiction writing plan. Today I realized the benefit of reading badly written fiction.
I hadn't realized just how respectable the writing has been on all the self-published novels I've been reading the last month. There are pluses and minuses when it comes to plot between them, but in all, characters have been easy enough to distinguish from each other, punctuation and diction have been good enough to go by unnoticed, and in general the writing skill itself has been fine. Only storytelling ability has varied.
When you start reading books written by people who may be fine storytellers, but who simply don't know the craft of writing, you start appreciating the actual craft of writing.
Makes me grateful to all my English and English Composition teachers over the years.
Also makes me appreciative of publishing houses, with their gatekeepers and professional editors. There is sometimes a great benefit to a little centralization. Perhaps if forced to publish in the more traditional manner this same writer would have developed further as a writer. Instead he has all these 4.5 star review averages on books in a series making him lots of money. With such low standards for marketable writing among readers, why work harder at improving one's craft?
Thankfully he's an exception. Among all the self-published novels I've been reading, this is the first that irritated me so much I stopped reading it even though I was intrigued by the story/plot itself. I wish someone else had written a book with these basic ideas, someone who knows how to write.
Impact on My Writing?
Oddly, it makes me feel a bit more encouraged about writing a novel myself. Apparently I don't have to work too hard on craft before I can develop quite a readership if I simply start with an enticing enough story idea and deliver an entertaining plot within a genre with insatiable readers.
No matter how many times people have to re-read a sentence to have any idea what I just wrote, they will without complaint!
No matter how repetitive I am, how indistinguishable one character is from the next, how poor my word choice, how inconsistent my cadence.... whatever.
Alas, I will not allow myself to publish something I would be ashamed to have my high school English teacher read.
When you are reading fiction, do you only care about the story? Does the writing skill (or lack thereof) mean nothing to you so long as the story is interesting?
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That is an awesome idea! Any idea what kind of novel it would/will be?
Of course I care about the writing style, it can stop me from continuing reading!
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I'm still in the phase of choosing my genre. I've probably got at least a couple more months of reading before I'll be clear enough to start writing. I'm leaning toward fantasy fiction, simply because it's what I most gravitate toward when it comes to reading. But I was educated on literary fiction (the art of writing itself) which doesn't tend to overlap that genre. I'm enjoying the exploration and not feeling I have to rush toward the next phase. I encourage you to give it a go. It really is a very different experience of reading with the intent to clarify your own way of writing.
A former co-worker of mine decided he was going to write a fantasy novel. This was about ten years ago or so and I don't recall exactly what route he went as far as publication but I think he found a small publisher though the books were printed on demand. While he was no Tolkien I found his book to be far better than many more popular books that I have read. I think coming up with a good story is the hardest part. I think most people can write competently if they put their minds to it. Well, a great many people anyway. The writing itself doesn't have to be perfect is long as it isn't so bad as to be distracting. Of course, a professional writer or English professor might find a great deal more that is distracting than your average reader...
Yes, the writing really just has to be good enough to not be distracting if the story is good enough. This is the first time I encountered one where I just couldn't keep laboring so hard to know what I was reading. What really twists my brain about it though is how high the review rating is! Clearly there is zero consideration being given to these types of flaws.
I'm of course really grateful for so many self-published authors, which is why that's mostly what I read. But good grief, how is it the review rating is doing no filtering whatsoever?
I must say my views on this are almost the inverse of yours. Except for Trudy Canavan, I stopped reading any tradpub fiction published this millennium. The reason: tradpub has become too much play it safe from both the publisher and the authors perspective. Crappy unexciting mostly templated style fiction with little to no original world building. No awful stuff, but no superb stuf either
In contrast, indie published work, while often rough on the edges when it comes to writing craft still has the full spectrum of many important qualities that tradpub seems to have given up on these days. Pretty sure a new Frank Herbert or Doris Lessing would have a hard time getting any top tradpub publisher to publish his/her work. In indie publishing you will find horrific works but you will also find pure the genius, often rough around the edges, but there for the trained eyes to recognize.
I think tradpub authors tend to be one sided these days, good wordsmiths, good at character building, half decent on plot and story flow, but way too templated for my taste, and above all, the weak world building and unwavering adherence to the "never tell" paradigm of the last few decades makes me feel like I'm watching episode 1384 of The Bold And The Beautiful in book form.
I would go so far that for enjoyment of reading, If the world building is solid and the characters are solid, I can forgive poor plot, gramar mistakes and even poor craftsmanship. If the world building, the plot, the wordsmith skills and the editing are great, I would forgive poor character building. But if the world building feels like a template, is inconsistent, or lacks credibility, as is too often the case in 21st century trad pub work, nothing can salvage it.
Or to prioritize things, a rough sketch of how I would rate the importance of different aspects of writing.
As this is how I prioritize in my reading, I try to apply the same strategy to my own skill development. 75% of my time currently goes into world building. I know my wordsmith skills as a result aren't up to par with many other authors, but I hope to attract readers who feel as strongly about solid world building as I do. Readers who (for now) will forgive my shortcomings on some of the aspects that I haven't developed as deeply.
In trad pub, I feel the list is pretty much inverted.
" I'm watching episode 1384 of The Bold And The Beautiful in book form." ROFL!
I would normally think that I also would put your 9 and 10 where you have them, but to me that's thinking when those things are done well. The reality is, if they are done poorly enough, the reading itself is a more a chore than an entertainment. I don't want to have to keep re-reading sentences to know what on earth was just said, and have to figure out myself what they were trying to say. I think you simply cannot call yourself a writer if you don't know how to write. Maybe there needs to be more opportunity for the oral story telling tradition.
I can't really say anything about what you're saying about the trades. I don't know that world. I basically went from studying literary fiction (in school), to reading only non-fiction (working years), to now rediscovering fiction. I'm mostly reading self-published stuff because I got Kindle Unlimited so I can consume a lot and remind myself of what novel writing requires.
It's helpful to both see examples of people getting it wrong and people getting it right.
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@indigoocean your writing skills are well developed as is the case with every single thing you post. When you do publish a book, I'm sure it would be top shelf.
You go girl.
Hahaha. Thanks so much. Nice to see your name pop up, dear friend.
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Good and bad are relative, I do hope people find my words to be beautiful, but I prioritize story. I guess I can do this because I can be pretty good with words when I’m in the right mood. But I Awaya wonder how people feel when they read my work
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That’s the funny thing. People, or At least I, don’t think about the writing itself until it’s either remarkably good or remarkably bad.
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“Good with words” I brag, as my typos splatter across the blockchain!
Hahahahhaa
You are right though
Interesting approach. I can tell you that a month of forced writing, last November, reall taught me a lot of things about my writing and writing in general. Stuff I could only learning by doing loads of writing.
As a film lover and someone who studied film, I can really appreciate so called 'Bad' movies or B movies for showing me that a film can be enjoyable / entertaining even when it is far from a good movie. I also know, from experience ( as a shoestring budget filmmaker ) how hard it is to even make a 'bad' movie.
I know filmmaking isn't the same as writing but still, a matter of perspective and reading and watching a variety of stories - quality wise - is never a bad thing.
And yes, those 'bad' movies and mediocre stories give me hope, make me believe that I can definitely write something decent myself.
Thank you for sharing this with us :>)
P.S. The writing shouldn't be so poorly that it distracts me from the content. I am a perfectionist ( on the inside ). In film, if a story is intriguing enough, I can forgive the filmmakers for mediocre camera work, editing, directing and so on though. I find it harder to forgive a multi million dollar production for lack of story though ;>)