"Your writing about writing in this a.m. email set me to thinking about what makes good writing. So often at our book club the hostess/leader comments that a book is well-written and that always sets me to thinking about what they mean when they say that. Are they really dealing with the style, vocabulary, turns of phrase, uses of figures of speech, etc. or do they simply mean it is a good plot?
I would be interested in your views on what is meant when someone says a work is well written." Jane M.
Yes, lets talk about that.
For me, I enjoy falling in love with the characters, or the place and enjoy the story unfolding for me. So now, how is that done?
I would say with lots of "good writing" by placement and timing of information. Style and timing are critical for a fiction. Correctness is critical for a non-fiction.
What do you think? Comments please.
June
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- June
- We only go around once, but if we do it right, once is enough~
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6 comments:
From Jane M.
I think what I am trying to probe is simply what we mean by a
well-written book (the form, the actual writing) as opposed to the
story itself or are they inseparable?
From Janis A.
In his book about writing, (appropriately called On Writing) fiction writer Steven King says, "it's the language." His main resource when writing is "The Elements of Style," by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. He says every aspiring writer should read it. He also says trust the editor, reinforcing what Jane says one of her Chapel Hill professors told her. "Omit needless words."
Good writers put together words in a book the way a chef blends ingredients in a recipe.
Another book, "Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within"
by Natalie Goldberg is the second book recommended by the Washington Writers Center. I liked that book reading here and there in the book many times.
June
Final conclusion from Jane M.
we must have spent
hours dealing with that question. I usually came back to "I know what
is good when I see it or hear it, but I can't define it." Another
mystery that can't be explained, just appreciated.
June: Why don't you leave a message on Steven King's message board and encourage him to post a response here. This is his url:
http://www.stephenking.com/messageboard.php
WV Janis
Well written could be the reader lives in each page with the writer. Gail D., Bham, Al
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