Love vs Loathe

Siew Leng Lee, I agree with stories being easy to understand. A teacher told me years back regarding creaitve writing. 'It doesn't matter if you use the most basic words or the fanciest words using a thesaurus, you're still writing the same thing, with the exact same meaning. Just fancier.' I hate it when writers go overboard with 'fancy' words, it's so pretentious. Plus making stories easier to read hits a larger audience, the story just has to be good that's all really. With regards to 'trash talk' I completely agree with this. Too many modern books have trashy language and even trashy plots and characters. I think swear words are acceptible on a minimum. Like Debbie-Ellen Carr says, there can be good books with swears. Like the moment Molly Weasley called Bellatrix a B-word. They can be powerful if used appropriately and at a time that is okay to do so. And typos! typos in published books make me crazy! How in the world do they get published? Chic Lit is the worst genre for them. I once read a book (chit lit, blocked the title out of my memory as it was so bad.) were there were so many typos I couldn't count. As for Tolkien Sarah Dyne, I shouldn't think it's compulsory to read it, I haven't, It's not really my taste, too many male characters. And I've been told by many who have read it, that it's boring in places and sometimes a struggle to complete it. Although, I do really believe that reading the old classics is so important for a budding writer. You can learn a lot more from old writers than new writers. That is where most of the trash comes from after all, modern books.