Signs of good writing (in no particular order)---
1. Life is a Donner party. When you get right down to it, it's all about survival. You survive at someone else's expense.
2. Assholes are erotic. The badasses get the girls. The bad girls put out.
3. Torture always works. If they don't change their story, now you know they were telling the truth!
4. It's personal. Well-written characters are personally invested because nobody does anything for any other than selfish reasons.
5. Plots don't make sense. The world doesn't make sense, so plots that make sense a Big Fat Lie.
6. No exposition. People don't have reasons for what they do, and they don't listen to reason. Shit happens, and talking doesn't deal with it.
7. People's emotions make them unique. Nobody, but nobody, feels like I do!
8. The Human Condition is eternal. Other cultures, past or future, it's all really the same.
9. Not having a viewpoint is brave. Only sheep follow ideologies!
10. Nature is irrelevant. This is Hollywood!
My advice is, if you see any of these symptoms, to close the book or change the channel. I generally avoid good writing from the Twentieth Century, which has contributed greatly to maintaining a cheerful temperament in the face of dismal reality!
Favorite signs of bad writing---
1. In the long run, morality is how people survive.
2. Nice people are the ones you want to have sex with.
3. Torture only works as an instrument of terror.
4. Characters will do things because it's their job, it's their habit or because they decide it's right or because it might give them what they want.
5. Plots make sense. The characters have reason for what they do, and the action could fit into the real world, as it is, was or might be. Things that happen are the product of events and forces that can be comprehended, although it may be difficult.
6. Exposition is the truest test of writing talent. Dones well, it is a learning experience. Learning is fun. "Ignorance is bliss" is irony.
7. Emotions are what we have in common. It is what we think that makes us different. This is sad news for people who can't or won't think, but there it is.
8. Other times and places are different.
9. The writer can have a strong viewpoint. The goal is for the characters to have their own viewpoints, like real people do. If the characters are written honestly, the writer's viewpoint is not being forced upon the reader/viewer.
10. Nature still matters and it is ridiculous to think otherwise. A cynic thinks there's no happily ever after because people are too sorry to be happy. A realist knows there's no happily ever after because there's no ever after.
1. Life is a Donner party. When you get right down to it, it's all about survival. You survive at someone else's expense.
2. Assholes are erotic. The badasses get the girls. The bad girls put out.
3. Torture always works. If they don't change their story, now you know they were telling the truth!
4. It's personal. Well-written characters are personally invested because nobody does anything for any other than selfish reasons.
5. Plots don't make sense. The world doesn't make sense, so plots that make sense a Big Fat Lie.
6. No exposition. People don't have reasons for what they do, and they don't listen to reason. Shit happens, and talking doesn't deal with it.
7. People's emotions make them unique. Nobody, but nobody, feels like I do!
8. The Human Condition is eternal. Other cultures, past or future, it's all really the same.
9. Not having a viewpoint is brave. Only sheep follow ideologies!
10. Nature is irrelevant. This is Hollywood!
My advice is, if you see any of these symptoms, to close the book or change the channel. I generally avoid good writing from the Twentieth Century, which has contributed greatly to maintaining a cheerful temperament in the face of dismal reality!
Favorite signs of bad writing---
1. In the long run, morality is how people survive.
2. Nice people are the ones you want to have sex with.
3. Torture only works as an instrument of terror.
4. Characters will do things because it's their job, it's their habit or because they decide it's right or because it might give them what they want.
5. Plots make sense. The characters have reason for what they do, and the action could fit into the real world, as it is, was or might be. Things that happen are the product of events and forces that can be comprehended, although it may be difficult.
6. Exposition is the truest test of writing talent. Dones well, it is a learning experience. Learning is fun. "Ignorance is bliss" is irony.
7. Emotions are what we have in common. It is what we think that makes us different. This is sad news for people who can't or won't think, but there it is.
8. Other times and places are different.
9. The writer can have a strong viewpoint. The goal is for the characters to have their own viewpoints, like real people do. If the characters are written honestly, the writer's viewpoint is not being forced upon the reader/viewer.
10. Nature still matters and it is ridiculous to think otherwise. A cynic thinks there's no happily ever after because people are too sorry to be happy. A realist knows there's no happily ever after because there's no ever after.
