An example of some very good writing

I got myself a copy of Dan Brown's latest book, The Lost Symbol. Though I have just finished some fifty pages of the book, one thing struck me right between the eyes. The book is an excellent example of how to write. I will not comment on the content, but the style is fantastic.

On all my research on how to write, I came across the following points

1. No adverbs
2. Show, not tell
3. No infodumps

1. No adverbs: I came across only one adverb in the first fifty pages. Even if we say that I missed nine or ten for the one I picked, that's still only one adverb per five pages, a brilliant ratio in my ledger. And it will be lesser than that.

2. Show, not tell. This requirement says that you don't tell that Jorge bought a new red car. You say Jorge opened the door of his scarlet Ferrari and took in the smell of the new leather seats. He slid in, still unfamiliar with the size of his new car, after the humongous SUV he drove, and took hold of the steering wheel. Even when the car was not running, its power made him come up in goosebumps.

I guess you get the point. Read Dan Brown's book, purely from the writer's perspective. It will be a lesson in how to do the above, page after page, line after line.

3. No infodumps: As my main genre will be fantasy/speculative fiction, I need to give the readers a large amount of information so that they can understand the entire system of the world I am putting them in. I have to do it, so there's no escaping that, but the tact is in how to do it. You have to make sure that the information is not boring and that it does not take the reader's mind off the story. So it needs to be presented as a part of the story.

Dan Brown also has to provide chunks and chunks of obscure information on his topics, and he does it well. He slips it into conversations, or puts in flashbacks of the protagonist's lectures, which somehow don't deter the reader from the story. He gives you information before he uses it, so you as the reader are already trying to join the dots on how the information would be used. Of course, the dots you join are never as exciting as the real story, but that is a different story.