Good Writers / Bad Readers

Reader shaming! Oh no! Yes, it could be you: are you a Bad Reader of good writers? Now you may just not give a blip and that's fine too, we all read in our own way. And I'll leave bad writers and Good Readers for another day. But if you want to read better, read better books, become a Good Reader, this could be for you. Or maybe I'm the only Bad Reader around.  A Bad Reader has certain characteristics. First, he can't read a book and recognize its quality if he doesn't get on with it. That is, because a reader doesn't enjoy a book, that means it's a bad book. For a Bad Reader, personal taste is the only or most important criterion, and he makes no allowances for his personal preferences. A Bad Reader will happily read a book by Austen, Dostoyevsky, Fitzgerald, Dickens, Hemingway, or Tolstoy and pronounce it terrible and incompetently written, because he didn't like it. Sound like anyone you know?

Here are a few of the techniques good writers use that frustrate Bad Readers: (1) Changing the point of view, switching narrators, jumping from one head to another; (2) Bouncing around in time, we're in the past, the future, the present, no, the past again, flashback, is this the same book, flash forward, help me! (3) Creating unlikable characters: is our heroine a spoiled, snobby brat? Does a character make disgusting racist or sexist statements? Is our protagonist kind of too stupid to live? Is the bad guy a violent, sadistic troll? (4) Throwing in so many big and odd words that your phone is always on the dictionary app; (5) Long, slow stretches where nothing seems to happen. Any of these sound familiar? Bad writers could be guilty of all these infractions, absolving you as a Good Reader of all blame, but here I'm talking about good writers.

Let's look at those first two troubling techniques, changing narrators or writing without a linear chronology. Both of these require the reader to put a little work in, primarily to focus and pay attention. A good writer will put in enough little clues, signposts, to let the reader know who's talking or where we are in the story's overall timeline. Look for the clues, get to know the signposts, get deeper into the book. If you're a younger reader, you may want to come back to books like these in a few years. Unlikable characters? You're just not going to like everybody. Is Snape your buddy? Who likes Mr. Wickham? But, you say, what if there are no likable characters? At first no one likes coffee (more cream! more sugar!), but then it becomes an acquired taste. Same with unlikable characters. A good writer will make her characters interesting, even if unlikable, and draw the reader in that way. There should be tension, friction, anticipation. Will this unlikable character be punished (this is where the word "comeuppance" arrives)? A good writer can fill a book with unlikable characters, because life can be just like that. Not everything is unicorns, rainbows, and pixie dust. When you can read a book in which you don't fully identify with any of the characters, you'll know you're ready to drink coffee. Next, too many big words. Here I tend to agree with critics of writers who show off too much, and for me it's a thin line between education and pretension. You may have to make your own decision whether the writer is throwing out words that perfectly describe the situation, or are just throwing the reader out of the story for no good reason. But it's also good to learn, and good to increase your vocabulary. I just don't like books that are too much like medicine. Again, it can be a fine line. Finally, long, slow, and boring. If it is a good writer, the reader has to be alert for subtlety, and ask questions. Is the story going inside a character's mind, is the writer explaining a motivation, setting up a future scene? Perhaps the writer is sharing her philosophy, and especially in older books this was a widely accepted practice. Hint, try skimming. In Moby Dick, Melville included long non-fiction sections on the nuts and bolts of whaling. Some readers love those parts, for the rest, skimming. It won't affect the story. And you'll still be a Good Reader. 🐢