Writing seems like one of those things that’s so subjective, so idiosyncratic to taste, background, and preference as to elude all categorization. Until you encounter bad writing. Bad writing leaps at you like dirty water splashed by a passing car, like a feral beast enraged with rabies, or like a lonely aunt’s obligatory kiss at the family reunion.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I watch this, but I’m certainly intrigued.

Happy Friday!

Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson is the CEO of RedLink and RedLink Network, a past-President of SSP, and the founder of the Scholarly Kitchen. He has worked as Publisher at AAAS/Science, CEO/Publisher of JBJS, Inc., a publishing executive at the Massachusetts Medical Society, Publishing Director of the New England Journal of Medicine, and Director of Medical Journals at the American Academy of Pediatrics. Opinions on social media or blogs are his own.

Discussion

4 Thoughts on "The Upcoming Must-See Documentary — Bad Writing"

A great way to start a Friday. Thanks, Kent. Are you sure this movie is real and not a put-on? Anyway, the poetry in the movie trailer sounds suspiciously like the lyrics to early Paul Simon songs. So some people do grow.

What a fabulous idea! A documentary about bad writing makes so much more sense than one about good writing. (Boring!) I’ve already reserved it on netflix. I hope the movie lives up to the title. LOL

Jerry
Memory Writers Network

OMG, this is SO funny! I love Margaret Atwood’s line “There’s no rule that says you get steadily better.”

Lee Gutkind’s line “You’re not writing for yourself — you are writing for everybody else in the world” reminds me that there are alternate ways of viewing writing.

In memoir and other life writing, you write for YOURSELF first, and then clean it up for the rest of the world. In that case, there is no bad writing.

Viva memoir!

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