"Bad writing doesn't make the money you think it does.
Write as beautifully and wonderfully as you can."
--Robert McKee
It can be tempting, reading that bestseller, to think: "I can write better than this."
And perhaps we can. But even if the writing is mediocre, something else is compensating. The storytelling, for instance, may be compelling--something about the plot grabs readers and refuses to let go. The characters. The world they are in. . . .
When you're interested in a particular storyline or character and what might happen to him, it's easy to overlook elementary writing. The pages turn themselves anyway.
But books such as these (especially as bestsellers) are the exception rather than the rule.
Fact: the more we write, the better we will write.
This is why we shouldn't compare our first attempts to someone else's masterpiece.
But the idea that because a few "bad" writers made quite a bit of money we're allowed to write badly, too?
No.
There may seem to be exceptions to the rule, but 99 times out of 100 bad writing is bad writing, and bad writing gets trashed (or rejected, or poorly reviewed).
A better idea?
Tell your story and tell it as beautifully as you know how.
Be Brilliant!
~Katie~
