Stories Vs Writing
If you were to ask a majority of people what a story was, it’s likely that the words ‘book’ or ‘writing’ would find their way into the explanation. Whilst certainly not incorrect, it’s not the entire truth, either. For one, a story doesn’t have to be written down at all, and it certainly doesn’t impact upon the standard of just how it’s written if it is put to paper.
I don’t know whether it’s because my English degree has drilled the importance of correct grammar and good writing into my brain, but I know that when I read a book, I immediately notice when a particular sentence seems disjointed, or when a character decides to do something…well…uncharacteristic. On the other side of the coin, I don’t need any sort of qualifications to know when the storyline of a book isn’t to my taste.
So, from these two short musings, we have come to a dead-halt in the middle of a rather interesting debate. What is more important…the story arc that is being written, or the way in which the story is being portrayed through the writing itself? Well, if we’re going to be honest…it seems as though all you need is for one of them to be great, and the second can just be borderline average and you’ll still manage to have a bestseller.
Granted, most of the time both elements have ‘this is great, read me!’ markers all over them, but just occasionally…
It is of my humble opinion that I can offer you, dear reader, an example of both of the lacking elements mentioned above. And I can even do it with two book series that you will actually have heard of. Now, before we go any further, these are indeed my own opinions…and I do not want to take anything away from the time and dedication that these authors had to throw into these works. They’re just not to my taste. Right…with that little safety net put up, let’s continue shall we?
A book series that I will always say has a great storyline to but is slightly waffly and disjointed (and this in itself is more or less only from book 5 onwards) when it comes to the actual writing (unless it was up for an award for writing about teenage angst) is Harry Potter…alright, there are a number of plot twists that were as subtle as a dinosaur wearing skinny jeans, but apart from that, it really captures the imagination. The other series I’m going to use is Stephanie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’, because although the storyline concept makes the English student in me die a little inside, I took out a few lines from the book and tried to re-write them with little success…adjectives excluded.
At the end of the day, it’s up to the individual reader to figure out which of these two elements is the most important to their reading enjoyment. As I’ve said before, it certainly isn’t uncommon for a piece of literature to be able to have both, but in my experience one is usually stronger than the other.
The thing to remember however, is that although I’ve been talking about ‘Stories Vs Writing’ as though the two are constantly engaging in some epic battle to outdo the other, the reality is that when the two actually manage to form a strong cohesion, the piece of literature in question by far excels something which can only boast to one of them.
