BAD BEGETS GOOD!

So you pick up a book and start reading. A few pages in you decide, it’s just not doing it for you. But you persevere and get to the end of the second chapter. Still tempted to add this tragic-excuse-for-literary-accomplishment to landfill?

Don’t do it!

Okay, you’re probably wondering why I want you to hold on to a book that makes you cringe in sheer embarrassment for the author. The fact is, there is much to learn from books we can’t stand to read.

Here’s what I recommend for you to do: look back through your bookshelf and pick out a book you have previously rejected. Start from the beginning, and read. No matter how much you want to put it back, keep reading. And while you’re reading, pay close attention to what it is about the book that turns your stomach.

This is how you teach yourself what doesn’t work. We all know what does work, and we try our best to emulate it in our own writing. But to be truly great we have to know both sides of the story, so to speak.

You’re not going to get in a car for the first time and just hit the throttle, you’re going to learn the dangers of hitting it too hard.

You don’t take your new baby home with the knowledge of how to change a nappy, but no clue that it’s a bad idea to feed him coffee.

I know, my metaphors need some work, but you get the idea.

You know the do’s, now you must learn the don’t’s.

Don’t dismiss the crap. Learn from it. It’s another weapon in your ever-expanding arsenal of literary knowledge.

Bad writing can teach us just as much as genius can. So read the rubbish and uncover the reason you put it down the first time. Therein lies the lesson.