Learning from Bad and Good Novels

King writes that “reading a bad novel is worth a semester at a good writing school, even with the superstar guest lecture thrown in, he is saying that a bad novel is as beneficial as a semester at a writing school. One can learn about writing by reading bad novels. One can also learn by reading a good novel.

Everyone has a different opinion about what they consider bad, but for me bad books often offer examples of poorly written work. For example bad novels may have fragments, run-on sentences and in some cases incorrect words. Bad novels can also be difficult to comprehend, because they’re not well organized. For example a story with multiple time periods may have details missing in 1972 that are necessary to understand 1993, or sometimes the details aren’t well placed for the time or section. Bad books sometimes have horrible transitions from one speaker to another, so it is not always clear which character is speaking. One can learn why runoff sentences are bad. Sometimes reader also learns how bad organization of writing can make a piece of writing difficult to understand. When someone cannot comprehend a book they view that book as a bad book. One could learn to identify all the small things that make the book a bad book for them. A person can learn about their dislikes, like a book may be too simple for them and the reason they find the book is too simple. Reading a bad novel can help with understanding style of writing. One can learn about diction and tone. Maybe in a bad book is a line like “John didn’t really even touch the picture but he still got in trouble with Ms. Betsy “when the writer was trying to be formal throughout the book. If that writer wanted to be formal the line should have been “Ms. Betsy scolded John when he slightly touched the picture frame one can learn about connotation. A bad book line may be “Kara was a notorious woman. She was known for volunteering at the nursing home and at the soup kitchen” that line does not add up. Notorious...