NO SUCH THING AS GOOD WRITING OR BAD WRITING

There is no such thing as good writing or bad writing. Only writing that does what you want, and writing that doesn't.

If what you want is to write something you're happy with, then the only good writing is when you are pleased with the result. (Personally, I've never written anything I've been 100% happy with, but a girl can dream, right?)

If what you want is to get published, then the only good writing is writing that pleases the person who makes the decision about whether or not you get published. How you feel about it is irrelevant. I've had books that I thought were made better by an editor's suggestions, and I've had ones where I've felt they've actually either diluted what I meant to say or hammered the point home too heavy-handedly. Irrelevant. My objective was to sell the book, article, short story. So I made the changes they asked for, and the book, article, short story sold. That made it good writing.

If what you want is to get readers then, once again, the only good writing is writing that readers like. That's what I'm working on now.

Instead of thinking about pleasing myself or an editor, I'm running an experiment wherein I write my next book solely to please the reader.

At http://alinaadamsmedia.com/live/, I am creating my next book live on the web, right in front of the readers' eyes, and asking for real-time feedback. If you like something, tell me. If you don't like something, tell me. If you have a suggestion for what should happen next, I'm listening.

After exactly twenty years of writing professionally (my first book, a Regency romance called "The Fictitious Marquis" was published the summer of 1994 by AVON), and eight years before that of writing to please high-school English teachers and college professors (none of whom were exactly fans of genre fiction), I am not thinking about pleasing anyone but the readers.

It's all in your hands now. You tell me what's good writing and what's bad.

Because now, you're the only opinion that matters.