Post by Radrook Admin on May 17, 2021 7:54:32 GMT -5
Why I don't agree that Some Stories are Awesome
Have you ever seen a bunch of people showering accolades of admiration on something written that you know is seriously flawed? Many years ago, my composition at a job site was greatly admired in that way by fellow workers. At that time I believed that I deserved the accolades. However, after adding on considerably to my formal education, today I know that it was seriously flawed, and that the people who were admiring it were doing so out of ignorance. Unfortunately, I see this same thing happening at some websites where writers receive feedback from readers. The work is seriously flawed, yet they rate it as awesome.
Now, since reader educational levels vary, they will employ different criteria for judging the stories and legitimate junk might be classified as awesome and awesome stories might be tagged as junk. Great stories might be tagged as fair and fair stories as great. It is merely a matter of each individual's criteria and such criteria can be extremely flawed and even biased based on race, ethnicity or political opinion which encourages MAGA against any writer deemed a foreigner to the USA.
Me? Well, I judge a story based on factors that have absolutely nothing to do with the things I just mentioned. Instead, I evaluate it based on the following criteria.
Does it hold a reader's interest?
Ever decide to read a novel or short story and were forced to put it down? The theme was interesting-right? The title was intriguing? Correct? Yet you decided not to struggle with the way it was written.
Now, please note that if an adult reader, who usually enjoys reading, adventure, comedy, Sci FI, romance, horror, etc. has to struggle to maintain interest in a certain story, then obviously, the writer is very probably not doing his job right. Loss of interest can be due to many reasons.
One is excessive narration in a tongue-in-cheek manner at the cost of dialogue.
Another is characterization substituted by the use of proper nouns such as Bill, Joe Margareta, Jane, and pronouns such him, he, she, her, I, me, for characters who have not been properly described, but who are referred to for the rest of the story as if they have been.
Excessive repetition of the same rare innovative phrase or word in order to impress at the cost of time, tempo and drama is yet another. The reader will notice the repetition and wonder why.
Then there are these extended dialogues over trivial or unnecessary things designed to show how much the author knows about the intricacies of a certain scientific matter, in order to demonstrate how diversely fertile his imagination is.
There are also concepts which are too ridiculously absurd to be believable, such as people being easily duped into trusting aliens. Or a person behaving casually or calmly when threatened with torture or death. Or glibly attempting to make the obviously impossible appear possible by simply saying that eventually science did it because, well, eventually science can do the impossible if given enough time.
Too Many Names
Too many names of too many people in a short story or Flash fiction, can result in reader confusion and makes the characters referred to just cartoonish additions for whom the reader doesn't care or isn't persuaded to care. So they just killed Joe? Who was Joe anyway? I once tried to read a Story by the late great Paul Anderson in which the first page had about 25 aliens with intricate names. After ten years of trying, I gave up and threw the book away.
Does it accomplish its purpose?
Every story has a purpose. So if the story is supposed to be funny, yet lacks humor, or is intended to horrify, yet leaves the reader unmoved or laughing, then it has failed its intended goal. That applies to stories that are written to elicit amazement, determination, pity, adoration, admiration, contempt, pride, outrage, whatever. If they don't accomplish what was intended, then they have miserably failed. In such a case, regardless of the convoluted data involved, there is no way on Earth that I will give that story a Great or an Awesome vote.
Is it grammatically sound?
Don't get me wrong, a few typographical mistakes are expected, since we are human and make mistakes. However, when a story is shot through with lack of essential punctuation, or contains inappropriate punctuation, or run-on sentences, or ungrammatical expressions making no sense, and dozens of misspelled words, then there is no justifiable reason to encourage this type of work by classifying it as good. After all, why didn't the writer use a spellchecker? I mean, that's the least that can be expected.
Is the idea believable?
True, sci fi and fantasy do provide a writer with a certain amount of leeway. However, there are just some things that if proposed as being common to all humans, or to the majority, will elicit the BS alarm and cause the reader to lose the suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy the story as being feasible.
For example, suggesting that extraterrestrials would choose a reptile as an avatar in order to gain human trust is ridiculous since humans are generally averse to reptiles. This same flaw can be made by choosing a mammal that is the author's ideal pet, yet but is not the ideal pet for the majority of mankind. Asking a reader to accept this as fact is a mistake. It only serves to distract from the story and cause the reader wonder why the writer thinks that everyone should agree with such a proposition. Because of this, I would probably categorize the story as fair, and I am being kind.
So having hundreds of awesome votes means nothing if these flaws are evident and yet are being totally ignored.