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The Sunday before last, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mnemex and I went to Books of Wonder, missing a reading, but getting to hear a lot of cool authors talking. Afterwards, I asked one of them, blackholly, what she'd recommend as fiction to read for writers who wanted to learn how to put a story or novel together.
"Bad books," she said. "No, really."
She explained that, in good books, the structure is often hard to spot, because the writer makes it all look so smooth and so easy. But, in bad books, the bones of the structure are hanging out all over the place.
We agreed that Fanthorpe might be a bit too bad for these purposes.
We also saw thatellen_kushner had an advance reading copy of Privilege of the Sword. Waycool.
mnemex and I went to Books of Wonder, missing a reading, but getting to hear a lot of cool authors talking. Afterwards, I asked one of them, blackholly, what she'd recommend as fiction to read for writers who wanted to learn how to put a story or novel together."Bad books," she said. "No, really."
She explained that, in good books, the structure is often hard to spot, because the writer makes it all look so smooth and so easy. But, in bad books, the bones of the structure are hanging out all over the place.
We agreed that Fanthorpe might be a bit too bad for these purposes.
We also saw that
ellen_kushner had an advance reading copy of Privilege of the Sword. Waycool.
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no subject
Mind, sometimes I've found that reading bad books hilights why other books are better -- "it didn't work as well a X. X does Z, which must be important!"