what's a sentence like you doing in a story like this?

[schmerica]

There's something faintly vexing about reading a mediocre story and coming across something really good in it. It's more annoying than just reading a not-great story, definitely. The witty line or perfect snatch of dialogue or beautiful characterization description isn't enough to make it a good story, most of the time, so you're just left with a faint sense of frustration.

What a waste, you think, being stuck in the middle of an unremarkable story like that. They could have done real things with that, bringing the rest of the prose up to its level.

Of course, at least part of that reaction is probably annoyance at not having thought of that piece yourself. My jealousy is much less profound when those perfect moments are in excellent stories, somehow; those authors know what to do with their lines, I suppose.

Comments

[farwing.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean- it's like, wow, this idea is excellent, but the execution is flawed and that makes me cry. But I hardly ever put that in a comment, because I'm not quite that evil. Plus, it's not terribly constructive criticism.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*grins* A lot of the time it's not even the "good underlying idea, bad execution" thing, I find -- that can be a whole different situation. Sometimes it's just one little tiny piece of writing that's so much better than the rest of the story that it's kind of bizarre.

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

Titles. I *hate* it when a bad or mediocre story in a fandom I write in uses a great title. Even though it's completely unfair, so I would never say anything.

[qe2.livejournal.com]

Maybe you're encountering folks in medias learning-how-to-write who simply haven't learned to self-winnow?