Good Writing

How do you define good writing? Well, there are lots of ways to go when answering this question. Some will define good writing as stories written about subjects that people want to read. Others will say that good writing is performed by someone who writes well. Someone who uses proper grammar and has no spelling or punctuation errors.

For me, good writing is composed by someone who simply has a deep seeded passion to write. Genre doesn’t matter as long as the story being told has the author’s sweat equity attached to it. The words flow from brain, to fingertips, to paper in such a way that even if the reader does not normally enjoy the genre or subject matter, there is an appreciation that cannot be denied. The passion the writer has for the subject transfers to the person reading the story.

I’ve experienced this effect recently. My genres of choice when reading are Mystery, PI Detective, Suspense, and Adventure. However, lately, I have dipped my toe in a few other genres and was pleasantly surprised.

Not long ago, I read a book titled, Broken Pieces of Tomorrow, by Soulla Christodoulou. At its core it is Women’s Fiction. It is also a coming of age story, a novel about strength, relationships, and family. This book took me to a place I’d never been before… and I found that I liked where it took me.

I recently read a short story by Stefan Angelina McElvain. Twelve Nights is an erotic tale that took me by surprise. I had always stayed away from Erotica as a genre because I had the idea that it was mostly raw sex that lacked quality storylines. Yes, people are drawn to Erotica because of the tantalizing, escapism sex, but these books also have substance and storylines that make them a good solid reading experience.

I’ve never been real big on science fiction stuff, and usually stay away from that genre and all its sub-genres. However, I took a chance on a collection of short stories by Claire Buss, titled, The Blue Serpent. This collection was much more than I had originally (pre-reading) gave it credit for. I thought it was going to be all Sci-Fi, Dystopian type of stories, but after I finished the book, I was impressed enough to give her two-book, Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian Sci-Fi series, The Gaia Collection, a spot on my TBR (to be read) shelf.

I’ve read several cozies by Kathi Daley, Lucy Quinn, Tonya Kappes, and Ritter Ames. This I find the most amazing as I’ve always thought of the Cozy genre as straight up female targeted writing. Surprise, surprise, I find myself really liking these stories and have gone back to the well several times. It has become my dirty little reading secret.

Of course, I have not been ignoring my first love; Adventure, Detective, PI, and Mystery. I have enjoyed, On the Hook, by Cindy Davis, which is a newer Cozy-style Mystery series. This is a light-hearted series where the mysteries are theft, and caper style plots rather than murder mysteries. The Justinia Wright, Private Investigator Mysteries, by CW Hawes, gives a nod to the traditional detective stories like Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe. I enjoyed the first in the series, Festival of Death, so much that I immediately bought the entire series after I’d finished the book.

There are many others, too numerous to mention. But there are a couple of threads that tie all of these books together for me. One; they were all written by independently published authors whose passion for writing was evident in every story, and two; although all are vastly different in genre and style, all are considered, in my opinion, to be good writing. The authors left it all out on the field. They held nothing back as they crafted the words that best fit their ideas. In some cases, the books I’ve listed were the author’s first born, and in others, it was perhaps the first in a new series. But whether it was the first or the twenty-first book written, never did I feel like I was reading something that the author simply phoned in.

I’m glad I decided to travel to these other worlds I’d not visited before. I’ve had a great time exploring different genres and discovering new stories by talented writers I’ve overlooked in the past, simply because of the genre they work within. It has definitely helped me to become a better writer, and what I've found is that there is simply just too much good writing out there to be ignored.

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Click on the author's names above to see their Amazon page

And for the specific books I mentioned above, just click on the links below and you will be able to discover these great reads for yourself!        

Broken Pieces of Tomorrow by Soulla Christodoulou
Twelve Nights by Stefan Angelina McElvain
The Blue Serpent by Claire Buss
On the Hook by Cindy Davis
Festival Of Death by CW Hawes

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