# So, what is good fiction writing?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-good-fiction-writing/353828>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 23, 2006, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-good-fiction-writing/353828 "2006-04-23T04:09:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-good-fiction-writing/353828/21 "2006-04-24T03:00:52Z")

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> [@Krokodil](#):
>
> Wow, that was going to be my example of _bad_ writing!
> 
> Good writing is good because it’s believable, a really convincing and entertaining lie.
> 
> Some of the best characters–Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Dracula, Conan–are from the worst writers. Great characters tend to be archetypes, and great writers avoid those. Archetypes are pure. Great writing is complex.

“The worst writers”—do you think that’s fair?

I’m not familiar enough with the others to judge, but Arthur Conan Doyle’s a pretty good writer. If you want to say he isn’t one of the greats because he lacks depth or complexity or his prose style isn’t carefully wrought, okay. But what he attempted to do, he did well, and purely as an entertainer, he’s one of the best.  
To the OP: I think there are at least three distinct levels to writing. (1) There’s the **creation** or imagination phase, where you come up with a story to tell, and people to tell it about and maybe even a place to set it in. (2) There’s the **storytelling** —actually telling the story you have so that your audience can understand it, appreciate it, become involved in it. (3) There’s the actual **writing** , the style, the actual picking out words and crafting sentences and paragraphs. Some successful writers are good at one or two of these but not so hot at another; and different parts matter more to different people.

On preview…

> [@Krokodil](#):
>
> Put it this way: It’s bad writing if the movie version was actually better.

Bad writing in my 2nd and 3rd senses above, but good writing in the 1st sense if a good movie could be made from it.

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**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-is-good-fiction-writing/353828/22 "2006-04-24T03:16:47Z")

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> [@even sven](#):
>
> Good writing has characters. Characters that have life outside of the plot of the book. If you can’t picture what the character will be doing ten years from now, or have some ideas of what their childhood was like, or if you can ever just switch people’s lines around without it being really wierd, you know thats not good writing.

I like this description of good characterization. You wonder what the characters’ lives were like after you finished the book.

Or you pick up something that’s been in the TBR pile for years – the characters come to life and you feel bad for having ignored them.

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