Good vs Groundbreaking and General Pontificating

I've just read this blog by Chielozona Eze, 'New Rules for Writers..' http://africanliteraturenews.blogspot.com/.

This put a big smile on my face, for one thing, and got me thinking about what makes good literature.

Ground-breaking literature isn't necessarily good, or perhaps more often, enjoyable. Tolkien is dreary. I don't know anyone who has ever got through Ulysses. The only people I know of who have are abstract intellectual entities and Kate Bush.

But literature doesn't have to be ground-breaking to be good. There is lots of literature out there that talks about normal life, human conflicts, or nothing very much, but does so subtly, intelligently and with flashes of its own originality. Some of the best stories follow set formulae - e.g., likeable hero is screwed over by nasty antagonist, likeable hero mopes around, but then picks himself up from the depths of despair, defeats the nasty antagonist and still has the time to find true love. Sometimes a simple story, executed with a deft touch, can be just as powerful as the ground-breaking gut-busting head-hurting waffle we call 'art'.

So it's heartening to read things such as Eze's blog, celebrating the astonishing things we humans can come up with and exploring tjhe highest heights of our creativity, especially when you're trying and so far failing to get published. Even industry cannot limit our imaginations.

But equally, I know that not everyone (maybe not myself? We shall see) can write well, and even the people who can don't necessarily make it to publication. And what is good writing? Is it uniqueness we look for, or is it the well-written familiar? Why is it that The Adventures of Captain Underpants have been published and not the life's work of some poor impoverished writer with real, though hidden, talent? Big questions. I have no idea.

But I do know the kind of writing I like. Here is my checklist.

1. unpretentious and comprehensible, but still intelligent, thoughtfully observed and original


2. a feeling for the music of words


3. exotic characters or settings or ideas. Something has to be new to me and out of the ordinary


4. human-ness. Something or somebody I can sympathise with
5. Wit. It doesn't have to be laugh-out-loud funny, but I always appreciate a light touch and a little humour never goes amiss.
6. It has to be well-written. It doesn't even have to be plain English. It just has to not be Ben Elton-stylee.

Maybe, despite my last blog, The Bell actually is one for the bedside table; maybe learning to love it is my Everest and will make me a better reader and writer. Maybe it has been thrust into my unwilling hands for the sole purpose of my conquering it and learning from it. Maybe my teachers were just really desperate for a mid-century novel by a female writer. Who knows?