Quote:
Originally Posted by Laserworm
I think Occam's Razor is kind of dumb for mystery. I searched it and this is what I found it meant for writing. Occam's razor has been recommended as a measure of how good the plot of a novel is. Simple and logical plots are easy to explain and this enhances the experience of the reader. The writer is also less likely to make an error while explaining the plot to the reader.
That is stupid.. it basically means a mystery can't have a complex answer for it to be good. I hate easy answer mysteries... I want them to be hard...
|
This is not what it means. It means the best kind of plot is a simply complicated plot. You can have red herrings and secret metaphors and other things that can confuse and confound your readers, but in the end, they must be able to understand what you were trying to get across. Whether it means giving a solution to a mystery which has readers slapping their foreheads lamenting on how they could've missed something so obvious, or having every little detail of your complicated story brought to light in an understandable manner, depends on the genre.
A bad story is a story which is too simple, since it cannot enthrall intelligent readers.
A bad story is a story which is too complicated, since it cannot keep the readers interested or entertained in the convoluted plot.
A good story is a story which is simply complicated, since it enthralls and is understandable.
Simple and logical does not mean easy. Logic is the hardest thing to understand in this world sometimes.