What a snob!

[bboyminn]

---  "zanooda2" <zanooda2 at ...> wrote:
>
> ---  "dumbledore11214" <dumbledore11214@> wrote:
> 
> 
> > I do not care much for Dan Brown, you know? Liked Da Vinci 
> > and all that, but I am not going back to reread it ever, 
> > and did not buy Lost symbol (this is the name, right?)
>  
> > I think Stephenie Meyer tells a good romance story, but I think 
> > she is a pretty bad writer.
>  
> > JKR? Well, I love the books, but again I know her limitations 
> > as well, even  though I certainly think she is the strongest 
> > one of the three.
> 
> 
> zanooda:
> 
> I finally got to this thread today and realized that I'm not sure what exactly "bad writing" means :-). Is it *just* about the language, like poor vocabulary, for example? Or is there more? I remember how Steven King said that Stephenie Meyer can't write, and how she said that she is not a writer but a storyteller. I'm not sure though that I know the difference. I mean, if someone came up with a fascinating story but then wrote it down sooo badly that no one can get through it, would it still be a good story :-)?
> 
> ...
>


bboyminn:

Fan Fiction is probably the best example of a good story 
written badly; or at least, I have experienced it many times in
fan fiction.

The underlying story might be interesting, but the mechanics
of writing it is so horrible you can hardly slog through it. 

So, in this sense, grammar, punctuation, construction, and
similar more formal and technical aspects come into play.
Without that basic level of techincal application, the story
become so tedious as to be unreadable. 

However, a story can be technically correct and still be as 
dry as week old toast. Technically correct or not, the writer
has to stimulate the reader imagination. Something I think
JKR does with stunning ability. 

Look at the tradition of oral story telling. A good example 
of this would be Garrison Keillor's "Tales of Lake Wobegon".
Keillor talks very slow, and tells rambling tales of small 
town life. Though through his words, his voice, and his pace, he
is able to hold audiences spell bound.

Other oral storytellers might speak in the vernacular; in the
voice and speech patterns of some local dialect. What they
do, oral story tellers, would never really work if it were
written down. But they still manage to captivate audiences.

So, a good story well told can overlook a lack of technical
correctness, as long as it is consistent within its framework.
But a technically correct story poorly told will never hold up.

I feel this way about "Classic" literature, again to me it is
as dry as week old toast. It is just too slow and plodding, 
and usually about people I couldn't care less about. But, it
seems to have endured for many many many years, and sometimes
centuries. But it is just too dull and slow for me.

Will I say JKR is a technically perfect writer? No, probably 
not, but she is a masterful storyteller. She write just enough
to ignite the imagination to fill in the details, and when 
your imagination is so engaged, the world becomes very real to
you. 

I also don't think that JKR modifies her vocabulary. She
doesn't dumb it down for kids, nor does she use hyper 
intellectual vocabulary. I think she says what she needs to 
say, in the words she needs to say it in, and if you run into
something you don't understand, you either infer if from 
context, or you go look it up. 

I've not read Dan Brown or Meyers and have little interest in
them, though I do enjoy the movies. 

So, if the technique is poor, the read become laborious. If 
sufficient technique is there, then the story must still be
well told. I think that has more to due with structure than
technique. You have to be able to say things in an engaging
way without over doing it. 

A great first line or first paragraph lays the whole foundation
for the book. If you haven't captivated your readers by the
first paragraph, then likely they are not going to continue.

First, you must have something to say, then you must say it
well, in an engaging captivating way. 

Just a few random thoughts.

Steve/bboyminn