(September 2, 2015 at 8:36 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: What then makes a writer good? I find I can't go by popularity, even though most writers who write for publication want that name recognition and big advances. Take Stephen King. He has a big name. I read just one of his novels and for the life of me could not figure out what the hype was all about. Commercial fiction has no excuse for being that bad.What did you read by Stephen King? He's got an a pretty extensive body of work. I would agree that some of more recent stuff is pretty cruddy....they can't all be hits! He's still one of my favorite writers. The guy is a master when it comes to short fiction, in my opinion anyway.
As a writer, I want to write quality stuff that does not disappoint even the most discriminant read. If some big house wants to give me a 5 million dollar advanced royalty, I wouldn't turn it down, but I won't write junk just because that's what the publishers are looking for.
Stephen King offers a great deal of insight into what makes a good writer in Stephen King On Writing.
