Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28351
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28351
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

To appeal to a broad audience, write simply and directly about things of interest to a great many people. Nothing in this formula stands in the way of creating great literature. Greatness in literature depends on creating a rich and enduring experience that is deeply true and exceedingly vivid, not in complexity of language or in complex narrative techniques or stylistic innovation.

And while there clearly examples of narrative and stylistic experimentation in works commonly acknowledged to be great -- Dickens, Joyce, Cormac McCarthy for just a few examples -- this kind of experimental technique is often a substitute for having something to say. And the fact remains that the basic techniques of narrative fiction always seem to return more or less to the norm. Give or take a few flourishes Cervantes narrative technique is not fundamentally different from what is being published today. Over the history of the novel we find significant variation of theme and diction and even point of view, but the basic narrative technique is remarkable consistent. Some experiments may work in individual books -- may perhaps achieve something that could not have been achieved with standard techniques -- but they don't change the way the mainstream operates.

If the greats sometimes seem obscure today it is because they were written years ago with a narrative style that we are not used to and relying on references to events and practices that modern audiences are no longer familiar with. This is why it is often the more educated that read the greats today -- they simply have the historical knowledge and the research skills to figure this stuff out. But in its day, most of what we now consider great (in novels at least) was written for the general reading public.

When it comes to appreciating the experience provided by a great story, there is no elite and no base. There is an effete class that only likes what others do not understand (whether they understand it themselves or not), but you should never confuse the effete with the elite.

Original score: 5