Learn From the Less-Than-Perfect

One of my writing professors in college told the class that we could learn more from a poorly written book than from the classics of literature. I’m pretty sure he was quoting someone (E M Forster’s Aspects of the Novel or maybe Brenda Ueland’s If You Want to Write…college was a long time ago). I believe the thought behind the instruction was that if as aspiring writers we read some less than expertly written fictions, we would be able to see how the authors did what they did & do them one (or more) better. If you want to improve your writing, you can read those two great books of instruction mentioned above…and then read some bad fiction.

Wait…before you relax with a bad book here are a few more good books of writing instruction: John Gardner’s Art of Fiction, Anne Bernays’s What If?, Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, Stephen King’s On Writing, and Dorthea Brande’s Becoming a Writer (available through MORE).

OK, with that solid foundation, you’re ready for some fiction with flaws. Some titles that make the NYT Bestseller’s list qualify—just because everyone’s reading it doesn’t make it good—and I’ll suggest a couple of books, but first 1) these are books I found wanting, others might like them; 2) not every book by these authors is bad, everyone has off days; and 3) please, no ankle kicking if you have read them and liked them: Robin Cook’s Abduction, James Patterson’s Daniel X: Alien Hunter (graphic novel), Kate DiCamillo’s Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Dean Koontz’s The Mask or Dragon Tears, Patricia Cornwell’s At Risk…there are more out there, I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding them.


Tim C. - Main Library