Thursday 19 February 2009

The stylistics

More on style, this time from Hal Duncan, author of Vellum.

There's a lot of sense in there, but I don't agree with everything he says. I guess in some ways, I see structure as an important factor in my fiction, sometimes more than plot, but I would rather read a good story told straightforwardly, than a bad story in the right style and written with a brilliant structure. Then again, I'd go with reading a bad story brilliantly written, than a good story badly written.

5 comments:

no said...

I don't think I really believe there's such a thing as a bad story. What's a bad story?

Unknown said...

One that's not any good.

no said...

Oh, you purist.

David Isaak said...

I have to quote the following dialogue from "Throw Mama From the Train" from memory, as they don't seem to have a copy at Script-O-Rama:

OWEN: Did you like my story?

TEACHER: Frankly, Owen, no, I didn't.

OWEN: How come?

TEACHER: Well, it's supposed to be a murder mystery. But you only have two characters, and by page three one of them is dead.

OWEN: You don't understand. You see, the guy in the hat killed the other guy in the hat.
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That might be an example of a bad story.

no said...

I bet Jim Crace could make that work.