What Makes Great Writing? A Novice Writer’s Perspective…

When I think about great writing, two storytellers come to mind that are on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

I enjoy Jane Austen’s work for a more light-hearted feel. It’s witty and clever. She tells a story from the writer’s perspective. Some writers, while doing this, use an all-knowing narrator. Austen says things like “it would seem…” She is telling you about the characters, but it’s also like she is observing them with you.

Then there is Edgar Allen Poe who is dark, which is not normally my thing, but the writing is brilliant. The Raven is poetic genius! The Tell Tale Heart and The Mask of Red Death, it’s like you are there. You feel the fear.

Then, I adore authors that can tell a story that is a nice story on the surface, but leaves this deep lesson about life. One of my favorite books is Lois Lowry’s The Giver. It is such an easy read, but there is a profound message about joy and sorrow. That you cannot feel one without the other. That not to be able to feel deep pain, also means you are stripped of feeling exuberant joy.

Great Writing, Who Decides?

Like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what makes great writing is really up to the writer and the reader. We’re moved by different pieces depending on our life’s path and where we are on it. You can read the exact same piece at two distinctly different times and have enormously different experiences with it.

Words are magic.

As I write this, I’m still awake at 4 am on a stormy night. Listening to the raindrops hit the terracotta rooftop and reminiscing about my college English class. Remembering the short stories, we read, like the ones I mentioned above by Poe. Remembering the effect, they had on me. How they made me feel. What they stirred inside of me. And college was a decade ago.

Stories have power.

And no matter the accolades or lack thereof that you receive for your writing, writers must write. It may not be award winning pose always or even ever. It could simply be, I’m up a 4 am having only slept 4 hours in the last 20 hours and don’t know what else to do with my wandering mind. It could be I’m having a really hard time dealing with the feels right now and have to get them out of my heart and onto paper. It could be like that saying, “I write because I don’t know what I think until I see what I say.”

I have been writing for a living for 4 years now and yet I shall call myself a novice. Writing is a craft to be ever honed. After all, from apprentice to journeyman to teacher was once a 10-year process with hours upon hours of practice.

But do you have to have years of practice to produce great writing?

Let me get to the point of this rambling at such an “I should totally be asleep” kind of hour…

Great writing is simply the writing you need to write. That makes it great for you. And, no one is more importantly affected by your writing then you. Great writing is the writing that soothes your soul. The writing that happens when you can do nothing else. When your heart and mind require it. It may not be the right fit for every reader, but if it serves you it is great indeed.

Keep writing my friend. Even if it’s just rambling like this.