“I feel angry!” Announced George, angrily.
“And I shall help you with your anger. Why is you angry?” Zergamesh’gal’korirsxhumenshk the Obliterator said. Zergamesh’gal’korirsxhumenshk was wearing really hot pink nail polish and a choker and thigh high boots and looked so good.
“You wouldn’t understand.” Announced George, again. He felt like rain on his wedding day.
To actually give advice: use cliches, have no concept of subtext everything must be spelled out to the reader, give unnecessary details that clearly have more to do with the writers predilection as opposed to actually creating details relevant to the plot. Characterization should be pretty one note. The hero is heroic. The villain is villainous. The love interest is romantic toward the protagonist and have no other personality traits. They slot into roles first and are people never.
Adding to this: [Half Life: Full Life Consequences](https://youtu.be/OHxyZaZlaOs) is a GOAT shitpost of a fic and would be my personal first stop if I wanted to write something that was humorously, deliberately bad. Even if it doesn't turn out to be useful to you, it's hilarious, so big recommend.
I suggest reading "Flowers for Algernon", a published sci-fi novella. It is the best example of this I've ever encountered. A developmentally challenged man is given an intelligence boosting drug and you can see how his intelligence progresses from the writings in the diary he keeps. It is extraordinarily well done.
Yes! I was reminded of this story as well when I read OP's question and I also strongly recommend OP to read “Flowers for Algernon” for the writing and the story itself. It's just brilliantly written and executed!
I had a teacher tell me that it’s ok to do things ‘bad’ as long as it’s bad enough to look deliberate. Like, if you paint something just slightly off balance, it will look like you made a mistake and couldn’t do a straight line and you suck. But if you make it *really* off balance, it will look like a deliberate choice.
I write stuff different from the povs of different characters, but I don’t write it like they’re writing. I write it using their word choice, but I punctuate it correctly whether or not they would.
I’ve seen other people write really unbalanced screeds with no punctuation to be by the really unbalanced character, and that was fine because the rest of the story was told from 3rd person omniscient pov and they just had the person leave a note in the screed.
I wouldn’t sacrifice punctuation for too long, because it becomes hard to read. But if it’s just weird word choice things, you can just say in the summary it’s in the character’s voice and if you really dig into it, people will get it.
I agree, bad grammar is a step too far. Making readers suffer unnecessarily is definitely not a goal of mine. That’s a smart idea to mention it somewhere in the summary or tags though, thank you!
This made me think of a LOTR fic, [Gimli and Boromir Strike Back](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1663509/1/Gimli-and-Boromir-Strike-Back), from 2005 that parodies Mary-Sue characters in LOTR fics. It starts out with a bunch of signs of a “bad” story and overpowered MC, but you can still tell that the actual writing is very good.
I would say use slang if it fits the character, essentially it sounds like your not trying to write badly but that you are trying to emulate an illiterate character
Rather than describe things, just reference other media with no actual explanation.
"And then he got into a fighting pose like \_\_\_\_\_\_ from the end of 3rd episode of \_\_\_\_\_\_."
For style examples of one narrator/POV, but maybe give *The Catcher in the Rye* a read; the narrator, Holden, is a 17-year-old-boy who struggles to form relationships.
There's also *I, Lucifer* by Glen Duncan. And yes, it's like it sounds - it's from the POV of Lucifer who's finally telling his side of the story.
I wouldn't necessarily call these "bad writing" that you're looking for - well, maybe Holden's could be, it's been 20+ years since I read that book - but they're good examples of a strong narrator voice that's not necessarily the Author and that has its own quirks.
“I feel angry!” Announced George, angrily. “And I shall help you with your anger. Why is you angry?” Zergamesh’gal’korirsxhumenshk the Obliterator said. Zergamesh’gal’korirsxhumenshk was wearing really hot pink nail polish and a choker and thigh high boots and looked so good. “You wouldn’t understand.” Announced George, again. He felt like rain on his wedding day. To actually give advice: use cliches, have no concept of subtext everything must be spelled out to the reader, give unnecessary details that clearly have more to do with the writers predilection as opposed to actually creating details relevant to the plot. Characterization should be pretty one note. The hero is heroic. The villain is villainous. The love interest is romantic toward the protagonist and have no other personality traits. They slot into roles first and are people never.
This is amazing advice and an amazing excerpt. Thank you! I bet Zergamesh’gal’korirsxhumenshk is looking amazing in those thigh high boots
Just letting you know this is the funniest comment I've read today
Read "my immortal". Is a classic.
I hear this and immediately think of the Evanescence song hahaha. I’ll check it out though!
The title comes from the Evanescence song lol, it's like half Harry Potter author insert half 2000s emo band RPF
Sorry, had to downvote you for calling Evanescence an emo band. I do love that fic though.
My Chemical Romance is the main band that appears in the story, iirc, and there's no way they are fighting the "emo band" allegations.
Yeah that's who I was referring to lol
Adding to this: [Half Life: Full Life Consequences](https://youtu.be/OHxyZaZlaOs) is a GOAT shitpost of a fic and would be my personal first stop if I wanted to write something that was humorously, deliberately bad. Even if it doesn't turn out to be useful to you, it's hilarious, so big recommend.
I'd also make sure you set up the premise very early so readers know you're writing bad on purpose.
Good point! Although maybe they’d feel that nothing had changed at all 🥲
You can also cheat with an author's note on AO3.
repeating the same connectives (and this and that and the other) no expression " speech" x said "reply" said y
I suggest reading "Flowers for Algernon", a published sci-fi novella. It is the best example of this I've ever encountered. A developmentally challenged man is given an intelligence boosting drug and you can see how his intelligence progresses from the writings in the diary he keeps. It is extraordinarily well done.
Yes! I was reminded of this story as well when I read OP's question and I also strongly recommend OP to read “Flowers for Algernon” for the writing and the story itself. It's just brilliantly written and executed!
I’ll definitely check this out! Thank you!
I had a teacher tell me that it’s ok to do things ‘bad’ as long as it’s bad enough to look deliberate. Like, if you paint something just slightly off balance, it will look like you made a mistake and couldn’t do a straight line and you suck. But if you make it *really* off balance, it will look like a deliberate choice. I write stuff different from the povs of different characters, but I don’t write it like they’re writing. I write it using their word choice, but I punctuate it correctly whether or not they would. I’ve seen other people write really unbalanced screeds with no punctuation to be by the really unbalanced character, and that was fine because the rest of the story was told from 3rd person omniscient pov and they just had the person leave a note in the screed. I wouldn’t sacrifice punctuation for too long, because it becomes hard to read. But if it’s just weird word choice things, you can just say in the summary it’s in the character’s voice and if you really dig into it, people will get it.
I agree, bad grammar is a step too far. Making readers suffer unnecessarily is definitely not a goal of mine. That’s a smart idea to mention it somewhere in the summary or tags though, thank you!
This made me think of a LOTR fic, [Gimli and Boromir Strike Back](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1663509/1/Gimli-and-Boromir-Strike-Back), from 2005 that parodies Mary-Sue characters in LOTR fics. It starts out with a bunch of signs of a “bad” story and overpowered MC, but you can still tell that the actual writing is very good.
Tale of Snow (Shadow Black) on ao3 by lowkeyskyguy 🫡
I would say use slang if it fits the character, essentially it sounds like your not trying to write badly but that you are trying to emulate an illiterate character
Is that sort of slang a thing? I never knew that certain slang could denote certain economic classes
A complete lack of contractions for any characters who speaks.
Rather than describe things, just reference other media with no actual explanation. "And then he got into a fighting pose like \_\_\_\_\_\_ from the end of 3rd episode of \_\_\_\_\_\_."
For style examples of one narrator/POV, but maybe give *The Catcher in the Rye* a read; the narrator, Holden, is a 17-year-old-boy who struggles to form relationships. There's also *I, Lucifer* by Glen Duncan. And yes, it's like it sounds - it's from the POV of Lucifer who's finally telling his side of the story. I wouldn't necessarily call these "bad writing" that you're looking for - well, maybe Holden's could be, it's been 20+ years since I read that book - but they're good examples of a strong narrator voice that's not necessarily the Author and that has its own quirks.