Pick up a copy of Twilight and tell me that you'd want to be friends with Bella Swan in real life. Without lying! Better yet, tell me that you'd want to be friends with Stephenie Meyer. No? Ehh, didn't think so. People can say whatever they want about the writing of a novel, but the most frequent criticism people resort to will be either "Oh my gawwwwdd I hate X/Y/Z character" or "That author SUCKS". Few will pinpoint certain specific problems, as most allow one or two slip ups to pass by if they're engaged in the text. After all, Great Expectations could be retitled Great Bedtime Story because nine times out of ten the prose will just put you to sleep, but SOMEONE saw something in Dickens' story. The technique can be overlooked if what you're reading is compelling and interesting. My number one advice for good writing?
Don't let the readers know you suck.
Or, in SMeyer's case, don't let the readers know you AND your characters suck. Keep them interested and let them know you have something new or refreshing to tell them. If it's not new or refreshing, at least tell it to them in a way they've never heard before. People will use your writing as kindling for the fire within ten words if they don't give a damn what you're saying. Make them care by making them care about you or what you're writing about - or both, in the best case scenario. Keep the narrative moving forward into new and enlightening territories, because nobody wants to read the same thing over, and over, and over andoverandoverandoverandover again. Irritated? Thought so.
However, keeping an eye out for technical issues also helps. After all, if SMeyer used one more adjective in place of more exciting verb choice, I would've just sent her back to the eighth grade because that's where that sort of lazy writing belongs. Keeping it fresh means keeping the writing equally exciting. Of course, don't be pedantic and no, thesaurus.com is not your BFF. In fact, it wanted me to tell you that it feels abused and like it's putting way more into the relationship than you ever will. Don't patronize your reader; they'll get pissed off and stop reading or have to look up every word you use, THEN get pissed off and stop reading. Vary your sentence lengths so that they're not all mind-numbingly long nor staccato and flowless. Grammar should be checked once, twice, thrice even and if you're not sure where that apostrophe or semicolon goes, it doesn't kill to ask somebody. At the very least, google it - that website was made for the lazy, needy and ashamed, and at that point you should be all three. Don't sound too stupid, and it'll allow readers to focus on what's most important: your subject matter and yourself.
I wanted to gouge out Bella's eyes for being a stupid bitch. Edward deserved to be set on flames for his sketchy and mildly abusive over protection. Sparkling vampires is a dumb idea. However, while Meyer eagerly abused adjectives and synonyms, I would've been decently intrigued if the story was decently intriguing. After all, most of the time people know what sort of material they're picking up, whether it's a research paper, literary journal or guilty pleasure. Alas, even with my full knowledge that Twilight was the latter, it still couldn't meet my low expectations.
Moral of the story is, writer, take care of the minutiae so it's not distracting to readers. However, after that, make everybody at least think you and your subject matter rock. Your reader shouldn't know you found solar energy more boring than watching snails race. To them, reading about it should be just as exciting as getting tickets to the Beyonce concert. After all, how do tabloid magazines sell so much? Mediocre writing, enticing content. You could make millions, future EL James of the world.
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