[ SECRET POST #2161 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2161 ⌋

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

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________



11.


__________________________________________________



12.


__________________________________________________



13.


__________________________________________________



14.


__________________________________________________



15.


__________________________________________________



16.


__________________________________________________



17.


__________________________________________________



18.


__________________________________________________















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 098 secrets from Secret Submission Post #309.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Good writing

[(Anonymous)]

All right, f!s. I have a question for you. What do you, personally, consider to be good writing? I've heard and read much about what constitutes bad writing (the overuse of certain words; poor characterization; the presence of adverbs; apparent contrivances in plot), but much of it is contradictory (some people will tell you to avoid epithets at all costs, while others maintain that their use is sometimes necessary), and it seems as if it's more difficult to quality what makes something good. So, let's give it a try.

To me, good writing is concise and maintains a flow. Exposition is kept to a minimum; we learn about the world, the characters, and the situation as we go. The plot is logical and consistent, and the principle characters are well-defined and compelling.

Re: Good writing

[(Anonymous)]

Your definition sounds pretty solid to me, although I'd also like to add "contains a beginning, middle, and end." So often a story has a plot that is left unfinished, and what I considered to be a great story found itself with only an "okay" label based on loose threads.

I'm not asking for everything to be explained in detail and I'm not criticizing open endings, but when you start a plot, finish it.

Re: Good writing

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, that's a good point. It seems so obvious a thing that it didn't even occur to me, but there are definitely stories that lack that basic structure. And, well, they tend to read as rambling and pointless.

Re: Good writing

[intrigueing]

To paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart "I shall not attempt to define good writing, but I know it when I see it."

I can illustrate what I believe good writing is by comparing/contrasting and analyses of specific examples, but IDK how to actually explain it in a vacuum. However, one specific thing that I think is essential - it has to feel natural, the stuff that happens should feel like it occurs naturally, not because the writer wills it to be so.

Re: Good writing

[(Anonymous)]

Elements I would say are a must: Consistent characterization; a logical chain of reactions for each event; appropriate pacing; characters reacting as humans (or demons, or angels, or werewolves or whatever) would in real life, instead of wooden marionettes; a theme providing the backbone for the plot(s); a good balance of detail vs non-specifics; that kind of thing.

Plus, proper sentence structure and concatenation; good punctuation, grammar and spelling. (Yeah, I know I'm not doing any of those very well in this comment OTL)

This is not to be a dead horse, but I've found that this blog goes over some very good pieces of advice by way of correcting the first Twilight book:

http://reasoningwithvampires.tumblr.com/

If anyone's interested. I know I found out things that I had never ever heard in any lesson or tutorial about writing, but that explained a lot of that "I will know it when I see it" feeling.

The water cooler forums seem to be good for that too.

Re: Good writing

[morieris]

I'm not totally paying attention to writing, oddly enough. All I have to do is understand what's happening. I have to understand why so and so cast that spell when something else nearby suggests that wasn't a good idea.

To me, good writing is concise and maintains a flow.

Imagery is good to me too.

Re: Good writing

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think there's any objective 'good writing'. There's good technique with spelling and grammar but you can't even argue for coherence because there are people out there who enjoy abstract work.

Basically, good writing is whatever "I" (whoever that I may be in that sentence) thinks it is. Opinion can't be considered fact.

Re: Good writing

[stainless]

Either story or characterization that makes what happens matter to me.

Re: Good writing

[therangerking]

Good writing happens when a writer is good enough to fuck with all definitions of good writing and stop their readers from having to think about whether the writing is good or not because they are so immersed in it. If I'm wondering if the writing is good or not, it's not good.

That's basically it.

Re: Good writing

[(Anonymous)]

THIS. If I'm immerse, they're doing a good job, one way or another.

And so I don't believe "good" vs "bad" writing is all that objective. There are some obvious points that can make one kind better than another (like proper grammar, lack of repetition, etc), but seeing as the entire purpose of writing is to engage a reader, if it does that... then it's good, imo.

[therangerking]

Actually, I've seen repetition done very well (Allen Ginsberg, for example) and I've done it myself. I've also seen amazing books in which grammar is utter crap (the first bits of Flowers for Algernon, anyone?). I have read incredibly choppy, jarring writing that seems to make no sense (James Joyce, William S. Burrough, even Terry Pratchett's footnotes) that's still very, very good. There is literally nothing that defines good writing, because every single thing within a text is the tool of the writer. It really comes down to a writer's skill in using any of it, really. 8D

[(Anonymous)]

Now here's a comment I can get behind!