I think that modern writers especially cough Sally Rooney cough should definitely take a leaf from Charles Bukowski’s book. So many writers genuinely are boring, these days in their prose. So many people want to just push an agenda, plan their agenda, and reinforce their agenda, but they never even make their points and agendas interesting.
They should honestly all just become politicians. Or stay on Twitter and slobber all day. So many proses are just rants, and it’s genuinely boring.
The other thing is that people try to force the main structures onto people’s stories and say that they aren’t good based on the structure itself. Yes, you need some sort of structure, but X structure isn’t a one size fits all method. You can take several structures, and combine them, or heavily edit one.
I am experimenting with 3 Act and Fichtean Curve for my basic plan. You can make it as detailed, or as undetailed as you want. I find the less detailed, the better. More flexibility helps. For me anyway.
Omg Sally definitely hits you in the head with her continuous message, but she kept me reading despite how much I hated every single character in that freaking book. As long as something happens in every chapter and the story’s moving forward, that’s really all the structure you need, methinks. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
NGL, when I was reading a teenfic I about these teens being charged for murder, the format and their voices made me stay. Even if the message was repetitive. I fell for the characters more than the actual mystery, and the messsage. Occasionally, they can be interesting but mostly aren’t.
I find people who think up weird/out there/bizarre stories done in a way that many people don’t think about, but write it in an unique but engaging way is wonderful.
What about a hero’s journey where it delves deeper into the hero’s mindset only for the story to end with the hero dying as a villain, since he never truly wanted to be the hero everyone wanted him to be?
I don’t remember who, but some famous writer has said, “The first duty of fiction writing is to entertain.” Then you can add in whatever messages you want
I can’t read bios or autobios, historical fictions etc. because they hold no interest for me. That’s completely a me thing, no matter how interesting the author makes it. Not my sphere of influence.
I get what you guys are saying about craft, but “boring” isn’t always driven by poor craft or agenda touting writers. Some of it has to be personal preference.