Thursday, November 4, 2010

Booking through Good or Bad

btt button

I’ve seen many bloggers say that what draws them to certain books or authors is good writing, and what causes them to stop reading a certain book or author is bad writing. What constitutes good writing and bad writing to you?

This is a multi-layered question.  What is good for many might be bad for some and vice versa...What is good writing for me? It depends on the genre. If I am reading say Crime Fiction, I like it be able to keep my suspense till the end. Writing has to be edged, fast paced and engrossing. For literary fiction, background descriptions are important. For poetry, I like crisp also imaginative writing. And so on... for the fiction part, I would say good character development and plots are a must. Having said that, it also has to follow the norms of the language. Grammar, punctuations and sentence formations are very important...

Bad writing? Which is too flowery, bad language, repetitive, loose ends, and lack of character development, no plot to speak off. However, many a times, a badly written book gets to be bestseller!

What about you?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never understand how badly-written books become best-sellers. Then again, I can never understand how badly-written books get published in he first place - LOL!

Mine is here: http://wp.me/sFyoG-1437

bermudaonion said...

I agree - what's good for some isn't for others. Good writing is writing that keeps me engaged as a reader.

DawnTreader said...

I basically agree with you...

Here is mine

Alayne said...

All very good details for bad writing. Great answer.

Check out my What Were They Thinking?! post this week at The Crowded Leaf.

Trish said...

It's interesting how many people would separate their answers by genre - that's a really good point!

Here's my BTT.

Barbara H. said...

true, some points of "good" or "bad" writing would vary by genre or personal tastes, but some elements carry over, I think. You brought up some good points.

Unknown said...

I agree with all you said! LOL!

Anonymous said...

Good writing is not boring, and peaks your interest, throughout the book.

Bad writing is when a book doesn't have substance & doesn't appeal to the reader in many ways.

Alyce said...

Bad writing to me is writing that pulls your focus away from the story so much that all you see is the bad writing. I like to get lost in a story, to me when the writing keeps that from happening it's not good.

haisley said...

Good or bad is in the eye of the beholder!!!