DaVinci Code Trailer

[Kesh]

I never understood this, about the "wrong" way to write a book. If millions of people read it then something must be right. Just because it won't be dissected in some snooty Engilsh Lit class in college doesn't mean you did something wrong.

*sigh* Why is it when I write that, people assume I'm talking about "snooty" things? I'm talking basic stuff like not ending a chapter with the protagonist going, "This is it. This answers everything!"... and then not telling us anything about whatever it was they found for several chapters. He literally just goes on like nothing happened, only to 'reveal' the secret in a throwaway comment later.

There's a difference between building suspense and simply frustrating the reader by not showing what the protagonist sees at all.

This is compounded in mysteries, because the reader ends up with a reveal that makes no sense. The protagonist solves the mystery out of the blue, because he/she had information the reader never had. It winds up being a deus ex machina.

 

[Mark Chance]

I never understood this, about the "wrong" way to write a book. If millions of people read it then something must be right.

Appealing to the lowest common denominator?