[ SECRET POST #3715 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3715 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 39 secrets from Secret Submission Post #531.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

02. http://i66.tinypic.com/kugyd.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

I will fight you on Dan Brown's stuff. I haven't read Eragon in years though I heard the last book was a huge improvement over his first 3.

I have no idea who the othes are and I only read The Vampire Diaries when there were only 4 books waaaaay back when I was in middle school.

[(Anonymous)]

Dan Brown is a big idiot who is also pretty bad at writing novels

[(Anonymous)]

DA. And I'll fight you right back. It's pretentious, badly written tripe.

[(Anonymous)]

I've read all the books in the secret, and I think Dan Brown is objectively the best writer out of the lot. His writing may not be fantastic, but it's certainly not comparable to Eragon or The Vampire Diaries.

[(Anonymous)]

Yep, this. He's not perfect, no, but he makes as much sense as he can and his stories work well, of predictable.

He does do some good research, but also chooses to make some of them fantastival (like the priory in Da Vinci Code to be more than they actually are irl).

[feotakahari]

Dan Brown's skill is that he is really, really good at modulating tension, making you feel just the right amount of tension at just the right times. He seems to care more about this than about any other aspect of good writing.

[vethica]

Jesus Christ. Let's try the Kanji.

[(Anonymous)]

Dan Brown's ideas are really interesting, albeit not original. But his actual writing skills are solidly mediocre.

[philstar22]

This. Plus, I admit, I can't get past the whole "symbologist" thing. Petty, but it is such a stupid mistake to make. He should have done more research.

[(Anonymous)]

I really like Dan Brown's writing but I haven't read the other books written by the other authors listed here.

To the OP: really like this secret since it gives me hope about my own writing!

[(Anonymous)]

I literally got through less than two pages of The Da Vinci Code before I had to abandon it. The prose was too clunky and terrible for me to handle.

[philstar22]

I would argue Paolini improved. The last book was decent.

[sabotabby]

I read stuff like that on occasion for the exact same reason.

The most inspiring thing for my writing is how Cassandra Clare lives in a steampunk mansion and has a ridiculous tour bus with her name in 1000 pt type on the side. Whenever I have writer's block, I think about that.

[(Anonymous)]

Seriously? I had no idea. I couldn't even make it through the first book of her Mortal Instruments, it was just so bad.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I get that. But there are tons of poorly written books wallowing in obscurity and low sales, too. Some of the books you listed (I haven't read them all and couldn't say) just got lucky. You can't guarantee that you'll get the same lucky opportunity when your turn comes.

[diet_poison]

I think what most consumers look for in a book is different from what most people here would consider "good writing". Being talented isn't going to make you money; appealing to what entertains people is.

I'm not saying you should stop writing or that good writing isn't appreciated, and I'm also not saying good writing never becomes popular (and I also think "good writing" is not an entirely objective term which some people will probably disagree with), but it may be a different kind of success if you make it. Books that are really really well-written stick with me more, though!

[feotakahari]

I'm pretty certain Matthew Reilly writes like that on purpose. He clearly understands themes, structure, and character development. He just likes to write in a dumb, loud version of reality that's full of conspiracies and cool technology.

[(Anonymous)]

OMG, I fucking love Matthew Reilly. Everything he writes is just so ridiculously over the top. I'm not entirely sure he's got a solid grasp on character development, although his characters are certainly very consistent, and I would say his grasp of theme lacks nuance. That having been said, his books are such a guilty pleasure - dumb, loud, and full of cool shit.

[nightscale]

I actually enjoyed reading Eragon, it wasn't a masterpiece by any means but it charmed me enough to keep reading for like two books before I gave up.

I've not read the others though so I can't comment on that.

(I will agree however that I thought the Eragon books kind of got worse as they went on because they got bogged down in their own not-terribly-well-thought-out mythology too much, but the books were certainly better than the movie at any rate. Good god).

[randomdrops]

Funny, I was just thinking something very similar the other night. If these no talent assholes* can get published, then surely I can lessen the perfectionism and self pressure and finish my damn book already. Or write on my blog.

*I don't actually know many of these authors, but I was thinking about Cassandra Claire and Stephanie Meyers as my own examples of shitty writing.

[(Anonymous)]

I'll be honest and say I actually enjoyed Angels & Demons, and the Da Vinci Code to a lesser extent. I mean, they're hilariously far from reality and whatever the exact opposite of historically accurate is, but they had good pacing, fun puzzles and a nice sense of suspense. A&D went a bit far over the top in the last stretch and TDVC fizzled out a bit, but they were fairly solid fun, provided you did not at any point take them seriously. They're not bad books. I've read so much worse.

I also didn't mind Eragon so much. The first one, anyway. It's paint-by-numbers fantasy, but I spent my teenage years reading nothing but paint-by-numbers fantasy. It was only the later books where Paolini's severe lack of characterisation skills started to really grate on me.

Honestly, things don't really need to be great works of art for me to read them. They just need to be solid and engaging enough for me to pass a couple of hours. I think a lot of people are probably like that as well.

[ketita]

Ha. I think the same things upon occasion.

Though I'm mostly kind of surprised to see Ice Station on the list! I remember reading it years ago, and it was stupid but entertaining. Idk, maybe today it would piss me off more, but I've read other things on the list here, and I remember liking that one more than the others.

[feotakahari]

I've commented on this before, but Matthew Reilly does this weird thing where his villains and only his villains are stereotypes. If a hero and a villain come from the same country, the hero will be a complex and interesting character and the villain will be a stereotype. He'll stereotype people of any national origin, from America to Japan to Saudi Arabia, so I don't think he's racist. He just seems to think that's how you write villains.

[(Anonymous)]

Having read WAY too many comments from jealous and bitter authors, I think this is a much better and healthier attitude for dealing with that disconnect between what one views as "good writing" and what one sees is making people into millionaires. (Albeit a lucky few.)

The conversation will ultimately boil down to "an entertaining read is more powerful than perfect prose/plotting/characterization" if people are honest.

And yes, it can be comforting to realize that popular authors aren't always much/any better than you (although I do think it's hard to judge the quality of one's own work).

I know I'm not the best writer out there personally, but I'm earning money from my work and I'm trying to do as best I can. It's really all I can do.