How do we define “good” writing?

Photo by on — as always thank you to the photographer for making the image available.

I guess all of us who make a stab at blogging have some faith in our ability to write. Of course, the fact that the folk who taught me when I was at primary school liked my essays or stories way back when does not guarantee that the man or woman on the Clapham Omnibus[1] — or the “average Joe” [2](or Jane) will find what I write now to be riveting and absorbing.

What constitutes “good” writing will always be subjective. I do not intend to name the actual writer involved so let’s say that when I was studying A Level[3] English Literature I studied a novel by Ethelbert Flopkins[4] and decided after reading it that I never wanted to read another word of his as long as I lived. Yet there would have to have been a sufficient number of people in existence to have deemed the book in question worthy of study by students. In fact there might be folk with a “What, you don’t like Ethelbert Flopkins?” point of view.

Then, what will make for a picture storybook to intrigue pre-schoolers is different to what defines excellence in penning a meritorious textbook which varies again from what might be deemed accomplishment in scripting an outstanding play or film — or to what is skilled craftsmanship in producing fruitful copywriting to persuade a purchaser to put his/her hot little hand into her pocket and buy an item.