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[juliakstone]

I am in some ways a huge snob about what I'm willing to bother with reading. Not to deny that I am a reading addict and will read the back of the cereal box if that's all there is. But given a choice, I have priorities

Comments

[khnemet_ankhet]

..."what is this thing called good writing of which they speak? How can I learn to recognize this thing and learn how to not give badly written things to my friends who notice, just because they have charmed me with some luscious idea?", and also thinking "No, spare me from understanding this thing, lest the badly written vehicles of lovely ideas become distatsefull to me and the ideas lost to me."

And then another tells me I sould bloody welll learn because I want to write so it would probably be a good idea to learn what it means to write well...

Well, there's writing well and there's writing well. As long as your story holds together, get a proofreader to handle some of the other stuff, and an editor with the rest (who will also help with making sure it holds together).

Now are you confused? Really though, it's truly about what speaks to you. I have a (pseudo) degree in commercial fiction and that's really what it's all about. On the other hand, while going through the courses for the commercial fiction gig, I attended some "

[intralimina]

As long as your story holds together, get a proofreader to handle some of the other stuff, and an editor with the rest (who will also help with making sure it holds together)...

Your voice and the voice of the editor don't mesh. Somewhere out there is an editor who resonates with you.

I'd like to talk to you about these things. I am vacant and clueless about how to approach publishers, editors, etc., how the process works. I've done some on-line research, but still feel very sketchy about it. Would you be willing to discuss with me someday in the next few months? I'll feed you steamy tea and cookies :-)

[intralimina]

Since my for-pay job involves an extreme degree of anal-ness with words (technical manuals can't be wrong or hard to understand), I am likely more sensitive to certain things than others. That is the grain of salt my opinions on this topic must be taken with.

For me to enjoy a book, it must fulfill these requirements: 1. the ideas must be interesting to me; 2. the writing must be well done enough so that the voice of the Editor in my head does not become louder than the voice of the Reader.

Things that make the Editor scream: typos, poor grammar, confusing shifts, long tedious exposition, off-pacing, science/world-building that doesn't check out (loss of willing suspension of disbelief), over use of adjectives and other overly (unnecessarily) dramatic verbiage, crafting of story that contradicts story's intention.

I just read Ursula LeGuin's style guide _Steering the Craft_, and she gives a very beautifully written (heh) breakdown on the technical aspects of story-telling.

I think one of the things that makes critique of any art