Your Own Language, 2: Writing vs. Storytelling

Here is a confession. I’ve never read Harry Potter. I’ve tried, but I could never get through the first book; the writing was too dull for me. It would have been fine for a romance, or a modern slice-of-life, or even a western, but fantasies need to sing. At least in my universe.

A Potterfanatic friend of mine tells me that the movies follow the books extremely well, and I find the movies superb. Whatever I think of Rowling’s writing style, she is a first-class storyteller.

We have to judge Homer entirely on his storytelling, since no one has ever heard his original delivery.

Shakespeare is noted for both language and storytelling, and I don’t dispute it. But just between us, if you took one of his comedies with its misunderstandings and cross-dressing disguises, and stripped it of its beautiful language, wouldn’t it look at home on I Love Lucy?

Pavane, by Keith Roberts, is one of my favorites for beauty of writing. If you read the reviews on Goodreads, you will find a strong division between those who praise the beauty of his writing and those who find him confusing, disorganized, and sometimes lacking in believability. I can’t buy that, because his writing trumps any weaknesses in storytelling – for me.

In my own writing, if I had to choose I would take beauty of writing over storytelling. But we don’t choose; we strive for both.

Of course, it’s all artificial. Analysis always is, but analysis is a useful tool if you don’t let it get in the way of creativity. Critics use analysis to tell us how we screwed up, and rarely, what we did right. We use analysis to try to catch our faults before they can.

What about you? This series of posts are meant for would-be writers, not casual onlookers. Which side of the writing vs. storytelling dichotomy do you come down on?

Try this experiment. Choose a favorite novel, then look it up in Goodreads and read at least thirty reviews. You might want to beware of the respondents who are young readers just getting their wings, but you will probably find most of them to be mature and intelligent. It can be eye opening to see how many different ways readers react to the same work.

There are masterpieces that everybody loves and dogs that can’t find a friend, but I find the mid-rated books most instructive. They tend to have their advocates and detractors arrayed around the notion of beauty of writing vs. strong storytelling. I can usually see both viewpoints even when they are trouncing one of my favorites. Or praising something I find unreadable.

Here is another experiment. Try it if you dare. Take the twenty books you most love, the ones which have changed your life. Look them up in Goodreads. If everybody hates what you most love, you may not be destined to be the next Stephen King.

Or not; you never know.