What The Novel Writer Can Learn From Dan Brown's "Inferno"

 
 

If you are looking strictly for entertainment, then Dan Brown’s Inferno may work for you.  But, if you want to learn good writing, this is not the book.  Rebecca Donova, a reviewer for the Pitsburgh Post-Gazette, wrote this of Inferno:

In Dante's "Inferno," the first book in "The Divine Comedy," the gates of hell are inscribed with the now-famous phrase "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here." Readers of Dan Brown's "Inferno," the fourth book in his Robert Langdon series, should heed a similar warning: Abandon hope of even passable writing.

Ouch. But true. Many other reviews of Dan Brown’s books have been less than flattering.  James Kidd of  the UK’s Independent had this to say:

If, however, you subscribe to Brown's reputation as the worst prose stylist in the universe you will pore over sentences with the same care that Christopher Ricks reserves for Milton. Stylistic innovations include: a deluge of mixed metaphors ("A searing hot pain tore into his arm"); Brown's obsession with the word "ping"; an ability to make every character sound exactly the same; and enough adjectives and adverbs to drive Sesame Street mad. Almost as annoying are Brown's know-it-all's conflation of genius and factual knowledge and Langdon's ever-convenient eidetic memory. 

  

I’m not trying to pile on to the criticism already in abundance; I just think this is an opportunity to learn from someone else’s mistakes.  (Success should not always be measured in numbers of copies sold.)  And besides, Brown is not the only celebrity writer to break the rules.  The Twilight series had its moments too (i.e. telling and not showing, etc.)

Besides the overuse of adjectives and the paper-cut-out characters, Inferno has other issues that have been addressed like wordiness, branding and expository dialogue that gets a little preachy. 

Wordiness is something many writers struggle with.  So here is an example of a wordy sentence from Inferno:

He had always enjoyed the solitude and independence provided him by his chosen life of bachelorhood, although he had to admit, in his current situation, he’d prefer to have a familiar face at his side.

It should read something closer to this:

He had always enjoyed the solitude and independence of bachelorhood, but for now, he would welcome companionship.

The less the reader has to wade through the better.

It’s true, you want to be detailed in your descriptions, but make sure you aren’t providing free advertising.  What do I mean? Throughout Inferno, Brown drops a number of brand names including NetJet (a private jet company), Google, iPhone and Dubios SR52 Blackbird luxury cruiser to name a few.  Using brand names now and then is tolerable, but it can easily become too much. Besides that, your readers may wonder how much you were paid for product placement.  Use generic terms over brand names as much as possible.  For example, use search engine instead of Google.  

   

As you probably know, every novel or story has a theme.  One of the themes in Inferno is the problem of overpopulation.  He brings it out in the dialogue in such a way that it sounds forced and unnatural.  Don’t make it look like you are trying to push your views through your novel. Always look for ways to make your point subtlety.  

In the end, what carries Dan Brown's books are his intriguing plots, proving that an appealing plot can cover a multitude of writing blunders.