On Reading & Writing: What Do You Enjoy?

Day 3

I recently read a 23-point list entitled How to Write Good. For the most part, I agree where principles of writing technique are concerned. It’s the other part that bothers me. The fun part.

Reading and writing are about what you and I enjoy. We’ve all read books that break so-called Writer’s Rules and are bestsellers, too. To use a cliché, some manuscripts are ‘picture perfect’ as far as the manual of style but the content is a bore. This includes novels and non-fiction works, and it’s not always because of the subject matter or storyline.

It’s the K.I.S.S. style. Keep. It. Simple. Stupid. Plain language has its place. So does poetic expression. Each style has its own beauty. However, it’s stupid not to blend the two or make allowances for each. Some rules are just screaming to be broken.

So again I find myself swimming upstream, writing and liking-horror of horrors-mixed metaphors and purple prose. In romance writing, I find it particularly appealing. I also like and use foreign language phrases. It’s colorful, and to me the writer has done some extra homework. It’s a love of language on my part.

What’s more, writers today create languages for use in their tales. Don’t you love the creativity? The public obviously does. The Lord of the Rings is a tremendous example. Need I say more?

If some classic authors tried to get published today, their work would probably end up in the slush pile, guilty of HTWG. And somewhere out there, some misguided junior editor might even dish out a big sloppy K.I.S.S. to J.R.R. Tolkien. Imagine.