Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Good Lessons from Bad Writing

This post was inspired by someone trying to pick a fight with me on the internet because I criticized what I feel is bad writing in the "Batman v. Superman" trailer.  Their comment wasn't worthy of a response, but at least now I have something to blog about this week.

Many years ago, I read a bad book, as one does.  One usually does this without meaning to, unless one is a glutton for punishment or runs a "watch me tear bad books apart" sort of blog or is planning to read said bad book dramatically out loud in front of an audience.  I ranted about the book on my old blog, and a friend pointed out two important things:

First, I could learn from this.  Second, those things I was ranting about - did I do them in my own writing?

It hadn't occurred to me at the time to learn from the experience.  The book started out very good, very interesting, with a character who was sympathetic and worked her way to a much better place in life through trickery and manipulation and generally being clever.  Over the course of the story, she lost everything that made her sympathetic and interesting, developing into a screeching jackal of a character who called everyone who disagreed with her stupid and treated everyone around her as horribly as she possibly could, including her own children.

So, if nothing else, this book was a valuable lesson in how to make your reader love a character and then hate them all over the course of the same book.  Looking back on it, I hope that was the author's intent, because it takes some skill to manipulate the reader like that.  If they didn't mean that, well. . . .  I'm not sure what to say about that.

But over the years, I've taken this to heart when I read something I don't like.  I try to figure out why I don't like it, what the author did that led me to feel that way, and how to avoid it in my own work.  I sometimes try to figure out how to replicate it, if I need to recreate something like that for a story.

I don't have any specific examples for this at the moment.  The last book I read that I consider bad, much of the reason I didn't like it was because the entire female cast were either whores, former whores, or whores-to-be, save for one who was a bastion of incorruptible pure pureness (and thus the main character's love interest).  I think all I could learn from that is the importance of complex and diverse woman characters, and I'd like to think I've got that down already.

Which brings me to the second point, one that's often harder to face.  Whenever I don't like something about a book, I ask myself if I do the same thing in my work.  Most of the time the answer is no, but when I can look at my writing and honestly say yes, well . . . it's not a good feeling.  But I think it's easier to accept my own writing flaws when I can see how they would look to someone reading my work.  This means I can work to correct them.

And if it helps make me a better writer, reading the occasional bad book is worth it.  Though I'm still not going to do it on purpose.

So, what about the rest of you?  Have you ever learned something from a book you didn't like, and if so, what?  And did you realize that you did the same thing?

10 comments:

  1. Those books sound. . .well. . .wow. And they got published ;) (Sorry, this is something a family member keeps reminding me to help push up my lack-o-publishing spirits).
    Since I review books too, I've had the opportunity to read some pretty hum-dingers. And that's great! Not from the reader side, obviously. But it does point out what does work and doesn't work when writing a story. It's almost a more valuable lesson than looking at those books which sweep us away. The problem comes in applying these lessons to our own writing. Although I see it in what others do and know what to watch out for, actually catching it in my own work is something that will need tons of practice.
    So we keep learning.

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    1. Yeah, I constantly remind myself that no matter how badly I think I'm doing, there are always books that are worse that have been published. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. -_- And I can look back on my older work and see where I was going bad, but it's harder with my newer stuff, probably because I'm closer to it.

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  2. And that's why reading, and reading in excess is the best exercise an author can make. (Even train wrecks.) I'm constantly learning from other people's writing--what to do, what not to do, why stories work or don't. Honestly, I'm astonished by the reviews on some of these books that I immediately want to burn, and some that I have nothing but praise for. It all comes down to the writing actually connecting with a reader, and that's terribly subjective. I suppose that's why I refrain from saying anything bad about books, even if I don't enjoy them. I just don't say anything at all.

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    1. It's true that so much of this is subjective - of the two books I discussed above, one is from a series that's apparently well-loved, and the author of the other seems to have a reasonable amount of success, as I've seen four or five of their books on the shelves. But you're right, reading as much as we can is so important. Even if some of it makes us cringe.

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  3. I don't know if technically it's always bad writing, or if it's personal preference. For instance, I've read a few books where the main character is a female, and has developed a tumultuous friendship with a male character who I have grown to know is actually a good guy underneath and then she turns around and is nasty and spiteful and all the while laments 'woe is me!' It bugs the heck out of me, and I get the urge to chuck the book across the room. Is that bad writing? I don't think so, because it's a trope that I've seen in more than one book and the books sell. Still, I absolutely hate it and I hate the character. Other people have posted positive reviews.

    I find, I can't judge if writing is good or not. I've seen bad writing, like the actual writing is bad with confusing structure and stuff. But as far as quality goes? I just know what does it for me and what doesn't.

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    1. A lot of it is subjective, yes; talking about "bad writing" here was easier (and shorter) than talking about writing I don't like for one reason or another. Probably not as diplomatic, though. >_<

      And I think I'd have trouble not throwing a book like you've described across the room. Characters don't always have to like each other, but that sounds like manufactured drama for the sake of dragging things out. Bah.

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  4. I do make note of what causes me to put abandon a book. A lot of times, it's just that the voice doesn't appeal to me, but there are also plenty of times I'm put off by info dumps or unrealistic actions of characters -- and I try to learn how to avoid those things in my own writing.

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    1. True, it's good to note that. What usually gets me is realizing that I don't care about the characters and/or the plot. If I don't want to know what's going to happen next, and never knowing wouldn't bother me, then I'm done with the book.

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  5. Bad books can teach us how to be better writers. And sometimes we have to ask ourselves if we make the same mistakes in our own writing.
    I know someone who delights in finishing a bad book just so he can rip it to shreds. Yeah, he's made a few enemies along the way...

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    1. See, that I don't get. Why read something you don't like, just to be mean about it in a review? That sounds petty and spiteful, and it's pointless in the end - if someone wants to read a book, they're going to no matter what any reviewer says. It's just being mean for the sake of being mean. -_-

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