Writing Exercise: Good Writing Is ...

[rowyn]

Good writing engages both reader and writer. It entertains you and, while you're not looking, informs you. It doesn't just make you think: it makes you want to think. Good writing pulls you into the story until you think of the characters as your friends, and makes you miss them when the book is over. Good writing is internally consistent. It lets you know what its assumptions are, and sticks to them. Good writing is fun.

Comments

[lady-anne.livejournal.com]

Good reading is fun, too.

You're so right about the relationship between reader and character - at the end of some books I get an empty feeling - as though a very good friend has moved and I can't find their forwarding address.

I'd write more but I have to go find my anti-grav, anti-friction boots. They should be ......

Be good - The Lady, Anne

[rowyn]

I have almost a hard time starting a new Diana Wynne Jones novel. It's like making a bunch of new friends when you know you'll soon never see them again.

I'd write more but I have to go find my anti-grav, anti-friction boots. They should be ......

Would you mind looking for mine, too, while you're at it? I thought I just had them, the other day, but ....

Repeat After Me

[barbx.livejournal.com]

***** INCOMING MESSAGE *****

It is by will alone I set my mind in motion; it is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning; it is by will alone I set my mind in motion....

***** END MESSAGE *****

I prefer chocolate, myself

[rowyn]

I must not sleep. Sleep is the mindkiller. Sleep is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my weariness. I will permit it to pass
over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see sleep's path. Where sleep has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.