By Mindy Lawrence
Instructors and other professionals always tell us to read the best books and the best writers to learn from their examples. We need to find out how stories and articles are constructed by those who write them well.
Not so fast. We can learn from failures, too.
Bad writing is a bore. It takes the reader out of the story and makes them cringe. Yet, if you are writing yourself, those bad stories can be a training tool to keep your work from sharing the same fate. When you read bad writing you will see:
Overuse of adverbs
Using the same word over and over again
Underdeveloped characters
Point of view shifts
Writing descriptive passages that have no end
Lack of effort in writing the story
Lack of editing
Using cliches
There are many more examples, but you get the idea. Learning where others go wrong can keep YOU from straying down the same path. Mistakes gives writers a heads-up about what NOT to do. Don’t throw adverbs around like confetti. Don’t use the term “road” only but also use “highway and “path.” Don’t write two paragraphs instead of a three-sentence word-picture to describe something small. For HEAVEN’S SAKE EDIT!
Do some research on bad writing and read a bad story. You’ll learn what NOT to do.
Links for additional information:
Can We Learn from Bad Writing?
https://jamigold.com/2015/08/can-we-learn-from-reading-bad-writing/
Why I Like to Read Bad Writing, Paul Sterlini
https://writingcooperative.com/why-i-like-to-read-bad-writing-1f8df55390c9
4 Ways Reading “Bad Writing” Can Actually Make You a Stronger Writer, Dana Sitar
https://thewritelife.com/reading-bad-writing-can-make-you-a-better-writer/
3 Good Lessons to Learn from Bad Writing, Daphne Gray-Grant
https://painepublishing.com/measurementadvisor/3-good-lessons-to-learn-from-bad-writing/
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Mindy Lawrence is a writer, ghost blogger, and artist based in Farmington, Missouri. She worked for the State of Missouri for over 24 years and moved to Farmington in 2020. She proofread the Sharing with Writers newsletter by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and wrote “An Itty-Bitty Column on Writing” there for ten years. She has been published in Writers' Digest magazine and interviewed by NPR’s All Things Considered.
