When it comes to literature, different writers enjoy the freedom to express their writing in any language using any features of style that they feel will best bring out their story. At the end of the day, literature is all about telling a story in a very compelling way in order to keep the reader or the listener engaged. With this in mind however, it’s important to note that there are still a number of rules of literature that writers will still have to adhere to in order for their literary works to fit the bill of good literature.
In this article, we are going to look at 5 essential qualities of good literature.
Literature should have a theme
When coming up with any literary work, it’s very essential to have a theme because this is what gives your writing direction. From start to finish, your work should be linked to the overall theme meaning that whatever different issues you choose to address through your work must all contribute towards the broad theme.
It should explain the relevance of the theme
As a writer, you are essentially like an artist looking to share your worldview with your audience therefore as you select a theme that you will go with, you must also creatively let the audience know what the relevance of the theme is to them. At the end of the day, audiences will only appreciate literary works that have some relevance to their day to day lives.
Literature should have a compelling idea
The only way to keep your readers or listeners glued to your literature is if it communicates a compelling idea that your audience can relate to. It doesn’t matter if the piece of literature is a work of fiction or reality, it’s the idea it’s communicating that will compel your audience to keep reading or listening as they keenly anticipate knowing what the conclusion is.
Literature should have good style and grammar
Your audience will stay glued to your literary works if it has a good sense of style and grammar. It’s however very important as you incorporate these features, you have a clear understanding of who your audience is. You don’t what to lose your audience through using too complex or too simple language.
Literature should sound genuine
Regardless of whether you are writing fiction or reality, there’s a certain level of genuineness that needs to be felt in your literary works. You must therefore ensure that your characters are not too exaggerated and the theme you are writing about is plausible.
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