What is ‘Good’ writing?
Mr. Scribe here… Fiction Scribe is down & ill today, so I thought I’d contribute my 2c’s worth.
To me writing is about getting the idea in your head across to the reader. To do that, you first need to get their attention.
I’ve seen it quoted a number of times that an author has the title, the blurb on the rear cover (or inside the front cover for a hardback - either way it isn’t usually written by the author) and at most 3 paragraphs to grab the reader. If they haven’t been caught by then they put the book back on the shelf.
You may have the best thoughts of your generation, but if nobody reads them you go down into obscurity just like 99% of the rest of humanity - no-one will ever know who you were.
So there is the 1st point: good writing has to grab a reader and hold him from the start.
Good writing has to convey the ideas in understandable form. It could be sheer genius but if you require your readers to perform convolutions worthy of an eel on the end of a line to get to the meat of the idea, your thoughts are not going to transmit to a very wide audience.
Good writing needs to entertain. Yes, your work might be serious and needed to save humankind from destruction, but it also needs to keep the readers interested enough for them to spend the time reading it. Ideally it should entertain so well they stay out of bed to finish it.
To write well means to take a reader by the scruff, make her/him sit down & read your words, understand them well enough to assimilate them, & to engage them so well that even if they disagree with you, your words will inspire emotion in them and maybe cause a change in their lives.
Without that kind of response, your words fade rapidly and your book will not be the topic of conversation around the water cooler when they go to work. Money and fame may not be your personal goad for writing, but getting your words out there and having them talked about is something that an author needs to care about.
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On a personal note, FS is being looked after & hopefully will be back for you for the next post.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Get well soon, JM. (You caught what Mr. Scribe had, didn’t you…)
May 24th, 2007 at 3:08 am
Grins… Nope, I’d need to be female to have what she has…
I’ve got her feeling a little less pain today so hopefully…?
May 24th, 2007 at 8:50 am
i read this entry and thought to myself “all of this is true”.
meanwhile, i never think of any of that stuff when i write, at least not consciously. i think good writing includes those things, but it also includes emotional honesty. people can tell when a person is writing about experiences he or she has no knowledge of. like, if i’m writing about being in love when i’ve never even contemplated the emotion, my words are gonna sound hollow.
my question is this though…is writing good if the readers enjoys it or does a reader’s enjoyment have absolutely nothing to do with it?
May 27th, 2007 at 2:58 am
Mr. Scribe took what I was going to say!
Nikki - I don’t think about these things when writing, but I do when going back to edit. I’ll have the Mr. answer the question.
May 27th, 2007 at 6:30 am
Hey Nikki, I think the reader is paramount. It is the reader who makes the writing - the ‘best’ writing in the world remains only potential. It takes readers to make it good.
Whether it is world-changing philosophy or mind-boggling mystery or rivetting romance, the readers make it worthwhile or not.
Without readers, writing becomes a kind of masturbation - relief of pressure but hardly satisfying on a deeper level *grins*
May 27th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
That last comment was awesome, Mr Scribe
May 28th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
He’s a clever smarta$$ that way.