Good story/bad writer: (Was: What a snob!)

[dumbledore11214]

Carol:
<SNIP>
So maybe the writer in question (Stephenie Meyer, whose name I always feel that
I'm misspelling) knows how to invent a good love story, with events and
characters that would work well in more skillful hands but just can't tell the
story in a compelling way. (I haven't read her books, so I don't know.<SNIP>

Alla:

See, no to me that's not it. The story of the first book does not have much action, but typical romance plot is there, two people falling in love. And as I also mentioned to me, one of the main things of what I am looking for in romance genre is there – tension, undeniable (IMO) chemistry between two leads. But something pretty big is missing and I wish I could articulate what that something is. As I mentioned before I would not mind more diverse vocabulary, but again if she makes her point with the vocabulary she uses, if she can show the chemistry, the love (or obsession) come alive on the page, does it even matter that she does not use many different words?

Can I really call her a bad writer? There is also quite a lot of eye roll from me when I think about main character and after book four I plain out despise her, but again whether we find character likeable or not does not really matter if we are talking about writer's skill, right? Unless of course we know that writer wanted to portray something drastically different than what a lot of readers got out of the books I suppose.

Carol:
<SNIP>
Anyway, my guess is that someone like Stephenie Meyer (whose books, again, I
haven't read) can come up with the elements or makings of a good story (what
happens to whom) but can't put them together in a readable, compelling way.<SNIP>

Alla:

No, I would not say that, I could not put the first book down till I finish it, thus I found it pretty compelling. I do not want to reread it, but this has a lot to do with the events in the last book. I just cannot muster any sympathy for the characters anymore.

I wonder if it really just a technical skill, when we say bad writer, but then I am back where I started, if writing is horrible, I am really not sure how we can appreciate story.

Carol:
<SNIP>
Imagine a love story (not necessarily Meyer's) that leaves out key elements
(such as how the lovers keep their trysts secret from their friends and
families), that passes moral judgments on the characters instead of letting the
reader make or withhold her own judgments, and has no plot to speak of--things
happen, such as midnight trysts and walks on the beach, but one event does not
lead to another. The story ("and then... and then...") is there; but the plot
isn't. The characters are not compelling; the events are not believable. A
copyeditor could, in theory, make the style more readable and natural and
correct the mechanical errors, but nothing except a complete rewrite can make
this hypothetical manuscript into a good book. <SNIP>

Alla:

Well, no I did not feel it leaves out key elements either, I mean it begins as love from the first sight, which usually I have tremendous trouble buying in the books and she even sold me on that.


Carol, feeling that she's added to the confusion rather than clearing it up.


Alla:

Could you give an example of the book which you would apply the expression "bad writer, good storyteller" to?