What makes a good novel?
- witty dialogue
- bright and lively, strong and clever characters
- a dash of romance
- mystery
- satisfying ending (not necessarily happy – but right)
- happy endings too
- beautiful description
- background that is clear, easily imagined and defined
- adventure
- sci-fi
- magic
- a thriller
- a point
- beautiful, evocative descriptions
- surprising or unexpected description
- unexpected plot twists
- consistent and effective point of view
- daring symbols
- real people/real characterization
- a story that gives hope, even if it ends badly
- language that inspires
- quotations effectively used
- something that is a minor detail or a poem or line that seems like nothing but turns out to have a powerful impact
- campy and cheesy but witty
Magna Carta II – The Evil Twin
Things that are just horrible in a novel.
- uneven or ineffective use of point of view changes – this drives me NUTS
- depressing or unredeemed endings
- that impending sense of doom, when you just know it’s going to end up in a disaster...and it does
- clunky dialogue
- bad description
- purple prose
- campy and cheesy without the wit so the work is just plain dumb
- dysfunctional families who don’t know they are
- dysfunctional main character with no redeeming value
- being adventurous in prose or plot while having no real reason or need to
- not knowing that, sometimes, simple really is the way to go
- excessively graphic horror
- self-aggrandizing main characters
- a lack of compassion in the main character
- un-wrapped-up plot points
No comments:
Post a Comment