I stole this from Books & Such Literary Management's blog...and it's still true...
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
While we readers are constantly on the hunt for the penultimate book that satisfies to the core, we spend a lot of time reading books of a lesser nature. I wonder if we’re garnering as much benefit from such books as we could.
The book club I’m a part of has taught me that sometimes books I think I won’t like surprise me. I’ll stick with a book longer if it’s a club pick out of loyalty to the club as well as because I feel a responsibility to explain to the group why I didn’t like the book. I contend you should read bad books to learn good writing techniques.
Taking the time to think about why you would label a book as bad can offer insights into what makes a book good. You might find yourself thinking,
It was so hard to get into
There wasn’t enough dialogue
It was nothing but dialogue
I didn’t like the protagonist
The ending was disappointing
The plot was unbelievable
The research was inadequate
The writing was flat
The structure never made sense to me
It didn’t move fast enough
The middle slumped
All of these observations are your first step to benefiting from reading a book:
Step 1: Analyze what was wrong with the book.
Step 2: Ask yourself, How could the author have fixed the problem(s)?
One title we read in our book club was Gone Girl. Several members thought the ending was all wrong. Of course they didn’t like; it’s not a likeable ending.
But I asked them how they would suggest it end. They had a long list of ideas, which, we realized as we took a hard look at each one, would have been the wrong ending for this book. By the time we finished debating, everyone reluctantly agreed that the ending the author chose was just right. But we all learned a lot as we looked at the possibilities rather than just proclaiming it “wrong.”
Step 3: Apply your findings to your own writing. Might a reader end up complaining about the same flaws in your WIP that you found in the bad book?
Go through the analysis steps with your manuscript, asking yourself such questions as, Is my ending right? Why or why not? What else could it be? How are readers likely to view it? and on down through the list of possible missteps.
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
While we readers are constantly on the hunt for the penultimate book that satisfies to the core, we spend a lot of time reading books of a lesser nature. I wonder if we’re garnering as much benefit from such books as we could.
The book club I’m a part of has taught me that sometimes books I think I won’t like surprise me. I’ll stick with a book longer if it’s a club pick out of loyalty to the club as well as because I feel a responsibility to explain to the group why I didn’t like the book. I contend you should read bad books to learn good writing techniques.
Taking the time to think about why you would label a book as bad can offer insights into what makes a book good. You might find yourself thinking,
It was so hard to get into
There wasn’t enough dialogue
It was nothing but dialogue
I didn’t like the protagonist
The ending was disappointing
The plot was unbelievable
The research was inadequate
The writing was flat
The structure never made sense to me
It didn’t move fast enough
The middle slumped
All of these observations are your first step to benefiting from reading a book:
Step 1: Analyze what was wrong with the book.
Step 2: Ask yourself, How could the author have fixed the problem(s)?
One title we read in our book club was Gone Girl. Several members thought the ending was all wrong. Of course they didn’t like; it’s not a likeable ending.
But I asked them how they would suggest it end. They had a long list of ideas, which, we realized as we took a hard look at each one, would have been the wrong ending for this book. By the time we finished debating, everyone reluctantly agreed that the ending the author chose was just right. But we all learned a lot as we looked at the possibilities rather than just proclaiming it “wrong.”
Step 3: Apply your findings to your own writing. Might a reader end up complaining about the same flaws in your WIP that you found in the bad book?
Go through the analysis steps with your manuscript, asking yourself such questions as, Is my ending right? Why or why not? What else could it be? How are readers likely to view it? and on down through the list of possible missteps.
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