This really confuses me: my favourite writer, Lee Childs, disobeys many of the basic rules of writing.
Over the last decade I've read a lot of books about writing novels. These book teach writing "patterns" and rules. Things like Show don't Tell (e.g. instead of writing "I felt embarrassed when my pants fell down", write "I felt my face redden all over as the entire room stopped and starred at my naked bottom."), Use Active Voice (instead of "The dog was kicked by the man" write "The man kicked the dog" or, if you prefer, "The dog bit the man") and the three act structure (keeping the reader interested by ensuring something big happens at the 25%, 50% and 75% points causing the plot to veer off in an unexpected direction).
I've learnt about these patterns and I try to apply them as much as I can. I'm not a great writer but I'm better now than I was 10 years ago. Better and faster. My spelling is no more reliably though.
But then, once a year, my favourite author, Lee Childs publishes his latest "Jack Reacher" book, I download it to my Kindle and then spend my evenings reading it as fast and as often as I can.
Trouble is, no matter how much I enjoy reading (and re-reading) his books I feel bad while I read them because - according to the books - they're poorly written. It bugs me: I know he uses the word "was" way too much. He writes things like "I saw this. I saw that. I saw something else" which just doesn't sound like good writing. And yet: I love his books.
I think I know his secret.
Childs writes short, snappy, active sentences.
I find writing difficult so I've deliberately tried to copy that part of his style.
It's easier to write and, if you write it right, , easier to read.
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You might enjoy this short blog post, written by a much better author than I, who had the same issue with Lee Childs' writing: http://theprosers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/thriller.html.
