Most students don’t necessarily know what is good writing. Good writing can be displayed in many different ways. Though this is a difficult question to answer when looking at writer’s text, it is an even tougher question to apply to your own writing. So what is good writing? Good writing can be defined as well put together, organized, a piece of text that is fully developed, but it all depends on the quality this text has, I think good writing breaks expectations. By breaking expectation I mean, as writer you should be able to create tension, violate the genre, and create something that has never been seen before in your text.
Game of Thrones is an excellent example of how good writing breaks expectations. The writer begins his series in Westeros, which is the land of the Seven Kingdoms. In this universe, there is only two seasons that can last for years, either summer bounty or winter hardship. Realistically there are four seasons, and each season last three months. In the Game of Thrones world there this is not the case. As you read the books you come to realize these seasons do not last three months, or four, or five. They last years. This makes the reader think about if the writer was imagining a different world, or if the people back then only thought there was two seasons. As well as the reader it makes me imagine if there could possibly be only two seasons because after all fall and winter are similar as too spring and summer. I feel like his writing creates dimension to me as reader making me imagine all these things that may or may not exist.
The story line then continues, with everybody, and I mean, literally everybody, is fighting everyone else to gain control of the entire landmass of Kings Landing. In the North, after thousands of years of disappearance, the "White Walkers" are back. This creates something new and unseen. Typically we don’t see something written in like these “White Walkers” who are mythological creatures who kill anyone who’s in there way basically for fun or when they are commanded to. Basically they were created by converting live humans. By doing this the writer created suspense because what if the “White Walkers’ end up killing someone who was close to our hearts or if one “White Walker” would some how end up being the main character. I feel like the writer includes the “White Walkers” to make the story line suspenseful.
In the East of Kings Landing, Daenerys Targaryen is using her dragons and amassing an army to return to Kings Landing and reclaim her throne. As the reader this violates the genre because Daenerys basically got sold by her brother to some tribe know for there strength. The man she got sold to by her brother is described as careless and only wanting Daenerys for sexual intercourses. I feel like this violates the genre because as a reader it makes you question the loyalty her brother has for family. Typically in text the family members look out for family members, but the writer for Game of Thrones came up with a different series of events. As well as violating the genre the writer is again creating something new and unseen. A woman who is the Mother of Dragons is basically portraying that this woman is powerful, this doesn’t happen often in text. Men are usually the figures in the books who portray to have all this power and he who should be the Father of the Dragons. That is why her bother sold her because he, a man, was portraying to be the Father of Dragons but the writer created suspense and transitioned for a woman to portray this role.
The text of Games of Thrones breaks expectations again by the dwarf Tyrion Lannister. In the beginning of the book he is a terrible person who only cares about getting a blow job and making sure he has a lot of alcohol in his system. As the story plot continues we as readers are interested in this dwarf who only use to care about prostitutes to now caring about people and now falling in love with a woman he encountered along his journey. Another example of this violate of genre is Aria. Aria is one of the two daughters or Ned, who is king of the North. Aria is a girl who is better at everything that has to do with being masculine. She is faster, stronger, and can shoot an arrow better than her little brother Bran. This is a great example of how writing violates the genre because most text will not describe an eight year old been more masculine and into masculine things. As the story line continues when then realize more ahead that Aria is now being mistaken by a farm boy because she cut her hair and started acting like a boy.
I feel like the biggest way the writer of Games of Thrones breaks expectation is the form he uses his words. He writes in a from of way that makes us as readers appeal to our emotions and then he just take it all away like nothing. The writer breaks our expectations by creating tension and writing off most of the characters we are the readers felt still had a part in the story, which is what makes his writing good writing. As readers we can not just say I will stop reading his text because they way he writes off the character makes the story line even more suspenseful. Surprisingly, every character and every characters death has a purpose that fits all together. To me in order to be a good text, your text has to break expectations. As the writer, you should be able to appeal to your audience by having to create tension between characters and between the story line as will as being able to violate the genre and lastly the piece of text has to be able to create something new and unseen.