Slouching toward a point

[elementalv]

With my near-constant trawling of 852prospect.org’s archive lately, I’ve started to think about the difference between well written and well told, because believe it or not, it’s possible find incredibly well written stories that are completely ass.

Comments

[mireille719]

I was torn between the two, but crappy writing usually means I don't even stick around to find out if the plot sucks.

Most of the crap!fic I've read and enjoyed--well, yes, there was an *original* plot, but it was handled just as crappily as everything else in the story.

[elementalv]

Yes, the plots are handled crappily, but at least they exist. When I read a well written story with no plot or a plot that's ass, I want to demand my time back from the author. At least with crap!fic, I know going in that the quality will be orders of magnitude lower than even my most pessimistic predictions.

[isiscolo]

I read neither! Whee! I hit the backbutton on both of the above, and find a well-written and interesting story!

[elementalv]

That's all very fine and well, but I've been sucked into stories that seemed like they would offer resolution and/or motivation, and then didn't. It sucks getting to the three-quarters point of a long fic and come to the depressing realization that I've been had.

[antennapedia]

I think it has to have something that's obviously neat, some thing going on in the writer's head that is interesting enough to suck me in. Take Poof. The sentences are ... well, less said the better. But it's hilarious in the best way. I laugh my head off every time I read it. Love it to pieces. And it has the engine a story needs: The characters want something. Are they gonna get it or not? How?

Then I've read some lovely-sentences perfect-language stuff that leaves me totally confused about who's where and who's fluttering their eyelashes at whom. What do these people want and why do I care, again?

Cookies go to writers who get it all working.

[elementalv]

I love Poof right up until she tries to make it serious, and then I stop reading, but yes. Hilarious and desperately in need of a beta. And this is my point, because if I stuck with a strictly perfect read, I never would have read Poof, which has beautiful cariactures of the characters and manages to turn the B/G dynamic on its ear.

But god, what I wouldn't give to take an editor's pen to it.

[antennapedia]

Total agreement on all points.

"Oh yes," Giles responded, throwing both the text and his glasses on the table glaring back down at Buffy. "I'm aching for you. I yearn for you. I think of you with my every waking moment. I dream of you. When I'm with Olivia, I think of you. I see no other women but you."

And that's the upside and the downside on display.

[elementalv]

In a nutshell. Wonderful gags and not-so-wonderful delivery at times.

[janedavitt]

I just don't know! ::vibrates on the spot unable to pick::

Damn. Hard choice.

[elementalv]

My preference is to read a story that's both well written and has a plot, but if I have to choose one over the other, I'll go for plot every time.

[ultra_chrome]

Give me crappy writing with a plot any day!

Well, on days I can't have it all, anyway.

I've read a few things that I actually feel guilty for liking and some that I've felt guilty for not liking.

I think I love you for admitting to this weakness. I don't feel so alone now.

Maybe we should start a self help group. Call ourselves something really stupid and share links to crappily written stories with awesome plots. Oh, hang on...are we supposed to be quitting it, or feeding our habit? *Is confuzzled*

[elementalv]

Meh. It is what it is, and I'm not going to feel guilty for actually liking a plot, you know? I say just go with the flow, grasshopper.