Feature and Follow Friday: How important is good writing to you?

Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.


This weeks question is: How important is good writing to you? In an ideal world, a book would be beautifully written AND have great character development, plot, etc. But in the real world, which do you prefer: (1) Great characters and plot with lousy writing or (2) Middling character development and plot but gorgeous writing?

Being an English graduate I've had the importance of good spelling and grammar drilled into me for as long as I can remember! For this reason I'm inclined to choose the second option. As much as I try to enjoy books that have a good plot but are badly written I just can't, and many a potentially great story has been ruined for me through lack of editing/proofreading. That said, I can overlook the odd error if I really like the characters or if the plot is really exciting. I've also been known to put down books that were beautifully written because I simply couldn't get into them. I think my answer to this question is different for every book that I read!

How about you? Are you  a stickler for grammar or does the writing not matter if the plot is good?

Comments

  1. Jazmen ThisGirlReadsAlot30 May 2014 at 08:13

    This question was pretty hard but I went with writing over a good story. I just find i pretty difficult to enjoy a book that's written poorly!
    New GFC Follower :)
    MY F&F

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Vicki W30 May 2014 at 08:21

      I completely agree; no matter how good a plot is, if the writing is poor then I just can't enjoy it as much! Thanks for stopping by, following you back :)

      Delete
  2. Liezl Ruiz31 May 2014 at 02:19

    If the plot is good and the characters promising (they need not be great at the beginning; there's a thing called character development), I wouldn't mind a few errors across the page (so long as the books not bombarded with them).

    We share the same view.

    New google+, GFC & bloglovin follower. Follow me back via my ff.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jessica @ a GREAT read31 May 2014 at 05:10

    Yeah I'd say the answer could change book by book as well!

    Thanks for visiting and following my blog! Returning the follow!

    Have a GREAT weekend!

    NEW Follower :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. barmybex31 May 2014 at 13:59

    Thanks for stopping by my blog. :)

    I think you've hit the nail on the head there - it really is different for every book and we should take them all as they come.
    But I do hate to find silly mistakes, it really disrupts the flow of the book.

    Enjoy the rest of your weekend

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thea Wilson31 May 2014 at 15:04

    Very difficult question and so hard to answer but I agreed with you, gorgeous writing all the way!

    Thea @ Gizzimomo's Book Shelf

    ReplyDelete
  6. greg31 May 2014 at 19:43

    I agree. I guess I spent too many years teaching...New follower via Bloglovin'.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Keeley Reads2 June 2014 at 04:29

    Completely agree, good writing is very important to me :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Diane Subsits Lynch5 June 2014 at 17:23

    Good answer to a hard question. I'm an existing follower.
    Diane @ Diane's Book Blog

    ReplyDelete

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