Read Bad Books with Bad Writing

Posted byVanya Wryter ConsultingPosted inUncategorized, Writing and EditingTags:, , , , , , , ,

“Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.”  – Stephen King, a.k.a. “The King of Horror”

Today we have a few words of wisdom to share with you, someone who reads and writes. Yes, you are “someone who reads and writes.” Not specifically a reader or a writer, because usually we think of readers as people who like to read books and writers as people who write for a living or as a hobby. Here we mean anyone who reads anything and writes anything.

If you text your friends or write emails for work. If you read your friend’s texts, restaurant menus, or read emails at work. Anyone who reads or writes.

Take a moment to read some bad writing. Read an email full of grammar mistakes. Read a book that shouldn’t have been published. Why? Because you can learn a lot from reading something that is poorly written. Bad books can have just as important lessons to teach as good books.

Good communication is vital for everyone. If you write clearly, you can avoid misunderstandings from bad texts. If you write well, you are a good communicator. And that’s just the beginning.

Read a lot, and don’t just read the good stuff. When you read bad prose, you learn what not to write. If you want to write well, for blog posts or for your novel, then read a lot. Read good books and bad books. Be a critical reader and take lessons about what makes a piece of writing good, and what makes it bad. As author Stephen King once said, each book you read has valuable lessons to offer.

What lessons have you learned from something you’ve read?

37 thoughts on “Read Bad Books with Bad Writing”

  7. Your post gave me something to think about in a way I had not before. I come across a form of bad writing when it is too wordy. Sentences that are not written tight and take too long to explain the point. I find myself rewritting those sentences in my mind to make them shorter.

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  9. Now I understand why you read my work with interest 😛

    Btw, I do love reading, it gives me ideas. We can find ideas in every form on writing good or bad

    Like if it’s bad, we can think on how to improve it.

    And if it’s good, like yours, PG’s, few other great bloggers, I can learn to improve my work just like that.

    People need to be open about constructive criticism.

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  11. This is a really interesting way of improving your writing skills and I think you’re right. Even bad writing has a lot to offer us. I read a book I hated a few years back and it taught me a lot about what I don’t want my book to be like.

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