Quote:
Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom
I don't think a popular novel can be badly written, if you mean gramatical errors, holes in the plot, etc. There are certainly a lot of popular novelists whose writing style I don't care for, but their grammar is fine and their plots are good. Scott Turow comes to mind. I haven't read a book of his in years, because the last one I read, I felt the style was overly lyrical. Obviously, that is just me, because he is hugely popular.
I read a lot of books with not great writing, where the plot doesn't depend on reading every word. I just skip the boring parts.
Last book read "The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas
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To answer your second point first: I don't read Scott Turow, either; though as it's been about 20 years since I picked up one of his books I couldn't make a judgment on how well or poorly he writes. I do remember that the last book of his I picked up was in present tense, which I rarely like, but that really is a personal judgment.
As for your first point, I think one of the problems that's come up in this thread is just what does badly written mean? Clearly it means different things to different people, and some do use it simply to mean not to their taste. On an objective level, it generally refers to one of two things, either errors in basic grammar and spelling, or issues of technique directly related to the craft of fiction. The first kind of objective error is very rare in commercially published books, and when it does occur it's often a clearly deliberate choice to represent a relatively uneducated point-of-view character. The second is more common, as quality of craft is not usually the main determining factor in the success of a book.
When I talk of poor writing in popular novels, I'm specifically referring to the second case; many popular novels do show a lower than average level of craft. They become popular because they compensate with a much higher than average level of some other factor, and that's what drives sales.