Bad Writing
I’m a literature snob. I don’t mean to be one, but I was late to the reading game, and by the time I figured out how amazing books could be, I decided to only read the best. Over the years, I’ve broadened my concept of “the best” and now read beyond the classics, Toni Morrison, and Margaret Atwood. I’ve fallen in love with science fiction, much of which is brilliantly constructed, and have also started to read some “bad writing”. In his book On Writing, Stephen King says it’s a good idea to read everything – even the stuff that’s not very good, because you can learn from it. I think he’s right, but I’m not sure I can bring myself to read novel-length mediocre prose. When the a certain YA fantasy series was popular awhile back, I kept trying to give it a go, but just couldn’t get past the clunky sentences. I’m starting with short stories from new writers instead. There are many literary magazines out there – so many of them! Some of these magazines have amazing material. Others struggle to get the really good stuff. I’ve decided that this is my best bet for figuring out how NOT to write, identifying what I think is “good”, even if it’s not “the best”.
It always feels a little uncomfortable to say that anyone’s writing is not good; but I used to teach undergrads and I know for a fact that some writing is just bad. With students, bad writing is usually the result of not giving a shit, though not always. Sometimes their sloppiness is a result of an insufficient writing education, and maybe also from not reading enough. With published works, bad writing is more difficult to classify. It’s certainly not limited to one genre. When I went to Kenya for the first time in 2006 for a summer archaeology field school, I took The DaVinci Code with me. I liked the idea of the book and thought it would be a fun, thrilling read. I would spend my days learning about East African fauna and flora, and how to properly excavate a fossil, while my nights would be filled with ancient intrigue. I was so distracted by the writing that I struggled to enjoy the book. I don’t think it qualifies as “good” writing, but it’s not quite “bad” either. However you classify it, there’s a place for writing like this, otherwise it wouldn’t sell. It’s a compelling story, and the writing is okay, but it’s not for me.
That’s really what it comes down to – am I distracted by the prose? Or is it easy to read? Easy to read actually means it’s well written. That’s the funny thing about prose – it doesn’t have to be complicated to be good. And easy doesn’t mean simplistic. Easy to read, in my opinion, just means that it flows nicely. Granted, this is fairly subjective, but if it doesn’t have speed bumps where you have to slow down or re-read a phrase several times, then it flows well. Of course, sometimes I have to re-read something because my mind wanders, but that’s another topic.
As I am learning about myself as a writer, I am also widening my view of what I think is “good”, and not just “best”. I doubt I will ever be able to put myself in the category of “best” so I should become more familiar with what is “good” and what (to me) is “bad”. I’m still a little bit of a lit snob, but I’m softening. Writing is fun. It’s also hard. It’s important to acknowledge that.