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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 7 KB, 300x348, michael-crichton-2.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1178142 No.1178142 [Reply] [Original]

ITT: writers who can come up a good story but have the worst writing style

Pic related. Michael Crichton could think up some cool stories but his syntax was just awful.

>> No.1178153
File: 20 KB, 250x296, Lovecraft3.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1178153

Haters, commence your primary function.

>> No.1178161

You-know-who.

>> No.1178163
File: 40 KB, 428x560, borges.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1178163

His ideas are amazing, but goddamnit his matter-of-fact fictional essay-style has a habit of draining the emotion from his stories.

>> No.1178165

>>1178161
Ayn Rand never made up a good story, what are you talking about.

>> No.1178168
File: 32 KB, 524x720, George Orwell.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1178168

>>1178163

Seriously? I think that's one of the best things about Borges.

Here's a writing style I never liked, though. I'm not even trolling.

>> No.1178172
File: 24 KB, 248x248, moot.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1178172

>>1178153

Does anyone else think that moot looks a little bit like Lovecraft?

>> No.1178175

>>1178168
Get me right - when it works, it makes it amazingly (Tlön & Uqbar, is a good example), but often, as in the Library of Babel, it kills the story.

>> No.1178220

>>1178163
>>1178168
neither of these writers have bad writing styles, idiots

>> No.1178495
File: 181 KB, 480x465, charles-dickens.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1178495

he made his books long because it paid more

>> No.1178508

>>1178153
couldn't agree more.

>> No.1178520

>>1178168
Agreed, don't like his writing style.

>> No.1178529
File: 18 KB, 296x391, tolkien.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1178529

>> No.1178536

>>1178529
Haha

Go choke.

>> No.1178588

ITT: hating on writers who actually write well

>> No.1178600

>>1178153
He has almost a....preternatural ability to do this.

>> No.1178613

This is what eventually turned me off of science fiction. Great ideas, shit writers.

>> No.1178623

>>1178613
This is what eventually turned me off of humanity. Negative samefags who hate on sf in every thread.

>> No.1178626
File: 7 KB, 242x267, lowriderhaggard.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1178626

>> No.1178642

Frank Herbert. There, I said it.

>> No.1178670

Stephen Baxter.

All kinds of awesome Big Dumb Object books, time travel that explores concepts other SF authors just aren't brave or smart enough to tackle, and based around just enough real-world physics to make the absurdity seem plausible.

If only the guy could write even TWO dimensional characters to go with the 10-dimensional physics he'd be a top-tier SF author.

>> No.1178676
File: 26 KB, 319x400, vonnegut.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1178676

>> No.1178682
File: 19 KB, 305x333, faec.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1178682

>>1178163
mfw judging a writer's style you only know from translations

>> No.1178685
File: 9 KB, 200x227, 200px-Brian_Herbert.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1178685

>> No.1178687

>>1178142
his syntax? can you clarify and/or give an example? crichton's writing style has never bothered me.

>> No.1178801

>>1178687
He's very poor at describing things or setting a scene. It's in every book of his. Noticed a lot of it in Rising Sun

>> No.1178902

>>1178495
You're simplifying that a bit too much. Dickens wrote long novels and some short ones. Yes, he expected to get paid, but that wasn't the only reason he wrote, and it certainly wasn't the only reason most of his novels are long.

>> No.1178974

>>1178801
the art of editing michael crichton
http://www.sarahweinman.com/confessions/2008/11/the-art-of-edit.html