Learning Curves

12 May 2010 | Filed Under Book Reviews 

Good books can be an inspiration for your own writing; bad books can teach you what not to do.

The Once Upon a Time series, where various authors re-tell fairy tales, is a good idea. But it falls flat in execution. I read several of these books a few years ago, and wasn’t impressed. But I decided to try it again.

No offense to Cameron Dokey, but her writing was not my cup of tea. Below are some of the lessons I learned from reading two of her books.

Belle

  • Don’t spend more than half the book leading up to the main plot. The main plot is Beauty and the Beast, but the Beast doesn’t show up until about 2/3 of the way through.
  • Don’t hammer the theme into the readers. We got it the first time Ms. Dokey. Stop filling up pages with the same two ideas.
  • Don’t squash all of the character development at the end of the book. Belle freaks out, runs home, suddenly realizes she’s in love with the Beast, runs back. Her realization should not be so cramped.
  • Don’t squander a good premise. Belle says she’s not pretty, that her name is a contradiction. Keep it that way, see how it changes everything! Don’t go back on it and make her pretty anyway.

Wild Orchid

  • Don’t make your main character awesome at everything. I could not name one flaw Mulan has, unless you count her unwillingness to follow traditional gender roles. That may be a flaw in her society, but not in the story; here it’s a strength.
  • Don’t make your characters centuries ahead of their time. The prince was way too forward-thinking. It shot me right out of the story (not a good thing).
  • Don’t make it too easy for your main character. The tension from Mulan comes from her disguise as a man and the fear she might be caught. When every other person knows she’s a girl (her nurse, her best friend, a general), and helps her get through the day, you lose all of that.

I never finished Wild Orchid. I love Mulan and her story, but this was too difficult to get through and enjoy.

What have you learned from bad writing?

Comments

3 Responses to “Learning Curves”

  1. Sara S on May 12th, 2010 8:55 pm

    Proofread!! Aside from the other major errors, even a well written book can be ruined by poor editing and proofreading. Books shouldn’t be littered with misspellings, tense errors, grammatical errors and so forth.

  2. Jenn on May 12th, 2010 10:09 pm

    Oh, so true! Nothing pulls you out of a story faster than a typo!

  3. Apologies | A Single Bell on July 8th, 2011 7:14 pm

    [...] I just started reading Robin McKinley’s Beauty and if you remember one of my complaints from a different Beauty and the Beast adaptation: [...]

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    Hi, I'm Jenn, new grad student and old YA fantasy writer. I've long dreamed of being a novelist, and I bet you have too. I hope you find my blog helpful, inspiring, and maybe just a little bit fun. (But not too much fun. Writing is serious business, you know.)

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