10 Common New Writer Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

People have a frustrating habit of quitting before they start. I hear it most often with art. They will say: "I am terrible at drawing," even though they have drawn two things in their entire life. As a professional editor and

writer

, I've noticed that the same thing happens with writing: Writers are saddled with the expectation of producing a publishable novel on their first try. Writing may be an innate talent, but it is also a skill that must be cultivated through deliberate practice, patience, and perseverance. That's why I want to give you ways to overcome these ten

common

mistakes

I've seen new

writer

s make. 1.

Treat written advice as if it were written in stone. Some writers take all writing tips to the extreme and over-edit. “Oh, adverbs are bad? Then I will never use an adverb in my writing again, and when I criticize other people's stories, I will make sure to eliminate all adverbs.” At the other extreme, some writers get angry and say, "This advice doesn't work for me, so it's garbage!" Saying that all written advice is bad is like giving a one-star review to a dry cleaner you've never visited because you prefer to do your own laundry. Experienced writers understand that almost all writing “rules” are actually guidelines that can be adjusted depending on the writer's goals.

They also realize that just because certain writing tips don't apply to

them

doesn't mean they won't be useful to someone else. All written advice is more nuanced than it appears on the surface. Much of the rejection of

common

writing advice is due to a lack of understanding of the original intention of the advice. Adverbs are generally disliked because they are redundant or wordy, such as writing "walked arrogantly" instead of "walked." However, I have seen people change sentences like “he walked arrogantly” to “he walked arrogantly” because they think all adverbs should be avoided; They fail to realize that it is the elimination of weak phrases, not adverbs, that justifies the advice. targeting.

Many acclaimed authors use adverbs for poetic effect. Most writing advice exists for a reason, but you need to understand the underlying problem the advice is trying to solve in order to determine if it applies to you. Likewise, everyone's writing path is different and there is no single "right" way to be a writer. Key takeaway: Writing advice is ALWAYS subjective. There are no absolutes, only options. 2. Failing to convey a coherent story concept. Stories that have stood the test of time can often be summed up in a single sentence. A scientist creates an artificial man, but then wants to destroy his creation.

A colony of rabbits escapes their doomed burrow and struggles to find a new home. It is easy to grasp the essence of the book. New writers sometimes have a hard time articulating what their novel is about, but learning to grasp the central idea of ​​the story is an important skill. If the concept sounds too unfocused, vague, or boring, it probably means that the draft itself has the same flaws. The story need not be a “high concept” epic; it can be calm and character-focused, like the example of The Watership Down. You only need to point to a star in the broader constellation of history, showing what shines brightest in your novel.

When someone asks you the dreaded question, "Well, what's your book about?", you can confidently say, "It's about a pair of identical twins in a small town and one of

them

gets murdered," or "It's a story. about a coming-of-age poet fighting racism in 1960s Los Angeles.” You can practice writing these elevator speeches for your favorite books or movies and then apply the same distillation strategy to your own stories. Key takeaway: Know how to summarize what your character wants in one sentence. 3. Writing a novel like a bad movie The story reads like an amateur screenplay: it's mostly dialogue with lifeless prose The characters are based on archetypes that everyone.

We've seen it before, like the tough detective or the femme fatale. And the plot seems like a melodrama recycled from various blockbusters. This problem usually occurs when the writer hasn't read much fiction, so he has no idea how to style it. Writing can shape the reader's experience or how to pace a scene at the sentence level. Writers don't need dense, description-filled prose to tell a good story. Still, it's helpful to know the different effects that certain word choices and sentence structures can create, rather than treating prose as a means to an end. Writing style is the equivalent of a movie's cinematography: it contributes to tone and atmosphere.

When reading a good novel, try analyzing a page at the sentence level to see what techniques other authors have used. Certain genres of fiction, such as action, mystery, or conversation-based literary novels, may have more dialogue. But if you have a scene that is primarily dialogue, have the characters perform some other task while they talk or incorporate an interesting setting so that the conversation doesn't seem like it's taking place in a white room between talking heads. Films have the advantage of already being a visual medium; In books, writers can add more sensory layers, as well as the characters' thoughts and feelings.

If the characters and plot seem drawn from overused Hollywood tropes, it can dilute the credibility and originality of the story. So, dive into real human psychology and brainstorm beyond what you're used to seeing in fictional media, and you'll be less likely to get a watered-down story. Key takeaways for preventing “bad movie” novels: • Study the sentence-level writing style of authors you admire. • Add actions, sensory details, or internal commentary to dialogue-heavy scenes. • Get inspired by real-life characters, not common roles. 4. Create inconsistent or undefined characters. Particularly main characters. One second she's brave; the next, she's a coward. He is described as talkative, but does not have much dialogue.

The reader cannot get an idea of ​​which adjectives best fit the character. Contradictions give characters depth and complexity, but if their personality isn't anchored in a single core quality, it can make them feel flat. Inconsistent characterization arises from situations in which characters do what the plot requires of them rather than directing the plot with their own personal desires. This is how stories end with characters making stupid decisions that don't fit their personality; They are taking risks not because of their risk-taking personality but because the author wanted to introduce some conflict into the story. In the same vein, undefined characters are the result of the author not knowing enough about his literary children.

Each person in the story feels interchangeable because their reactions, emotions, and interests are completely predictable, like the hero who always sacrifices himself or the villain who kills for fun. This also connects to the problem of characters who can do no wrong, often called Mary Sues or Gary Stus, who easily overcome all obstacles. Often, they have no internal “lack,” meaning they have no opportunities to grow or change throughout the novel. Readers cannot relate to perfection. Writing character profiles can help shape them into distinct figures rather than generic molds: you can write a page of backstory about their family, friends and relationships, their deepest insecurities, their guilty pleasures, what they would do during a robbery. a bank or with an annoying Salesperson, anything that makes you interesting as a person.

Not all of these details will appear in the story, but they will influence how you write about the characters. Interviewing your characters can also be a fun exercise that will help you delve deeper into their thought process. Ask them tough questions like "What's a memory you wish you could erase from your mind?" Write down your answers to get a sense of your voice. I often keep a snippet of “sample dialogue” on hand for each character to use as a guide for their distinctive style of speaking throughout the story. Meet people in real life. Read memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies.

Analyze the contradictions that form a person's identity. What makes them feel like real people? Give your characters that same level of depth. Key Takeaways for Creating Three-Dimensional Characters: • Make your goals and desires guide the plot. • Write a mini biography of each character. • Interview your characters and ask them difficult questions. • Use a dialogue sample to identify your voice. 5. Failing to make the reader feel the emotions of the story. This problem connects to many different issues, namely the lack of detail, characterization, and narrative voice. The reason "show, don't tell" is such common writing advice is because "showing" helps readers feel what the characters feel.

In early drafts, writers might rely on emotional shorthand like "Her sister was scared of her." We see the narrator's conclusion about how to label the emotion, but not the evidence of what proves it to be true. Maybe her sister is shaking so hard that her skinny knees knock together, or her sister says outright, "It's too scary." The writer must provide the reader with information that allows them to reach their own conclusions. Author and YouTuber Shaelin Bishop has called this “describe, don't explain,” which I think is a great alternative to “show, don't tell” as a principle. New writers also tend to write in general terms rather than using specific details, missing opportunities to generate stronger emotions.

Instead of being a teenager just listening to music on his headphones, he could be listening to old-school jazz, which tells us something about his personality: maybe he's an "old soul." Narrative voice is about painting the scene in a way that exudes a particular feeling. In her fantasy novel The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern builds an atmosphere of magic and mystery around a door painted on a wall: “A golden knob, seemingly three-dimensional, shines despite the lack of light. Beneath it is a painted keyhole, so dark that it looks like a void waiting for a key instead of a few strokes of black paint.” Identify the emotions you want readers to feel and use your word choices, sentence structure, and pacing to create that effect.

How you say it matters almost as much as what you say. Key Takeaways for Conveying Emotions: • Show feelings through the characters' words and actions. • Use carefully selected details rather than generic descriptions. • Employ a strong narrative voice that evokes a specific emotion. 6. Jumping in head first or not understanding the difference between omniscient third person point of view and limited third person point of view. Head-jumping is when the writer reveals the thoughts and feelings of various characters in a scene in a way that is jarring to the reader. I call this "unintentional third-person omniscient" because new writers often don't realize what's wrong with this approach, and there's a fine line between "jumping in headfirst" and "omniscient point of view." Jumping heads can be a useful literary technique, but it takes skill to pull off: if you do it right, the reader won't even notice, but if you do it wrong, it can take them out of the story and hurt the flow.

A quick refresher on point of view: First and third person points of view are essentially the perspective of the character you're using to tell the story. In first person, you would use the pronouns "I, I, and my" to show what the main character is doing: "I kicked down my door." In the third person, you would use the pronouns "he," "she," or "they" when describing the main character's actions: "She kicked the door down." The second person, which is not frequently used, includes the pronouns "you" and "yours": "You kicked down your door." Third-person point of view is further divided into limited and omniscient, where "limited" closely follows ONE character per scene or chapter and "omniscient" uses a distant narrator who is generally not an active character in the story.

Some novels blur the line between limited and omniscient, so it's totally normal to feel confused by the distinction. So what does head jumping usually look like? Here's a quick example: Hailey wanted nothing more than to talk some sense into her hapless sister. In fact, this was too much trouble. "What are you doing?" Kaylee shuddered. Why was Hailey so angry? It wasn't a big deal. At first, it seems like we're in Hailey's limited third-person perspective because the narrative is couched in her voice with the phrase, "Actually, this was one more bother." But then we dive into Kaylee's thoughts on the line "Why was Hailey so angry?"The problem is that the story doesn't seem to have a distinct narrative voice.

The change in levels of closeness between characters seems accidental, unintentional. When writing in third person limited, it can be helpful to imagine that you are writing in first person and that you can only see and know the character's point of view. If you want to write in third-person omniscient, establish the external narrator from the beginning and give an overview of the story; This will indicate to the reader that the narrative is using a broader lens. Simply changing your character's point of view after scene or chapter breaks can also help you avoid accusations of bad head jumps.

Key takeaways for avoiding unintentional head-jumping: • Study novels labeled as omniscient or limited third-person narratives. • Develop a strong sense of your narrative voice. • Stick to one character's perspective per scene or chapter if you're still unsure of your writing. 7. Unintentionally repeating plot points or phrases. Our brains are lazy: they're constantly looking for shortcuts to save energy, and that means drawing from the same well of ideas over and over instead of digging deeper. A story probably doesn't need five different scenes in which the protagonist runs away or argues with her father. Eliminating repetitive scenes will make the story feel more focused and less predictable.

The vital element of storytelling is change. Repetition can work if it is intentional and the result is different from previous occasions, as in a trial-failure cycle. This is when the protagonist fails to hit the target multiple times under different circumstances. But once they have gained more experience, they try again and succeed. The characters fail and succeed in unpredictable ways, which keeps the story fresh and interesting. Involuntary repetition also occurs at the sentence level. The language becomes too predictable, like in this terrible description I wrote just for you: “Her words hit him like a ton of bricks and he slammed his fist into the wall.

His hand hurt and he tried not to grimace at the blood on his hand.” Clichés like "hit him like a ton of bricks" are basically repetitions of common phrases, and you probably predicted how the phrase would end before he even finished saying it. “Blow” and “hand” are also repeated in the same sentences. The syntax (the structure of the sentence itself) is also identical, joining two clauses with "and." Readers crave variety, and it's that feeling of not knowing what's coming next, even at the line level, that drives them to keep reading. To eliminate repetition, you could use more creative verbal choices, along with different syntax for the second part: “His words took away all meaning and he hit the wall with his fist.

Although his knuckles hurt and blood ran down his fingers, he did not wince in pain.” That description is four words shorter than my original version, despite providing more information. As with repeated scenes, repetition of language can be powerful and poetic when it is intentional. Repeating a certain phrase at the beginning of a sentence is a rhetorical device called "anaphora" and is often used in poetry and speeches, but is also popular in fiction. Editor Louise Harnby gives a great example: “See that pile of bodies in there? That's why I do this job. That's why I come home late.

That's why I forget birthdays and anniversaries. Those people's lives were stolen from them and my job is to get justice for them,” Grimes said. The writer attempts to add emphasis and emotional weight through repetition. He learns to identify patterns in his own writing. If it repeats itself, make sure you have a reason for doing so. You can summarize each scene in a one-sentence summary and see if any seem repetitive on the surface. Reading aloud as if you have an audience will help you catch unintentionally repeated words or phrases. Push your brain harder instead of taking the easy way out.

Key takeaways for detecting accidental repetitions: • Examine each scene at a general level to see if any are too similar. • Replace clichés with new language. • Read your story aloud to check for repeated words and phrases. 8. Not knowing enough about the genre or audience of the story. Some writers hand me their manuscript and say something like "here's my young adult horror novel," but when I read the book, I see that the main character is ten years old and the "horror" involves a friendly ghost, so I really It is a middle grade fantasy novel, since the young adult novel features teenage protagonists and the presence of a ghost does not mean it is horror.

Sometimes writers insist that their book is a mix of several different genres and will appeal to readers of all ages. That may be true, but most readers want to have a general idea of ​​what to expect, and literary agents need to know the specific genre and audience in order to successfully pitch the book to publishers. Therefore, choose the main genre of the book and the age range of readers who will most enjoy the story. If the book features magic, its main genre is probably fantasy. If you feature a twenty-nine-year-old protagonist, the target audience is likely to be adult readers.

Additionally, it's important to know the average word count for your genre, especially if you go the traditional publishing route. Some new writers make the mistake of submitting a 300,000-word epic that scares off literary agents, or writing “the ending” in a 20,000-word book and calling it a novel. Most editors prefer debut novels to be over 40,000 words and under 100,000 words, but it really depends on the genre and target audience. Books for middle grade and young adult readers, for example, will generally be shorter, and certain genres like epic fantasy and historical fiction may exceed that word count. It's important to remember that established authors are governed by different rules than new authors and don't have the same word count limitations because they've already proven that their books will sell.

Additionally, these word count guidelines may change over time, so look at the length of recently published debut novels in your genre and market. Most of us would like to simply write a book and have someone else handle the marketing and sales aspects. But the reality is that if you want to be successful in publishing, you need to be as well-versed in the business side of writing as you are in the craft side. This means learning the industry jargon and understanding how the publishing process works, whether you follow the traditional route, a small publisher, or self-publishing, and knowing what defines those paths is an important starting point.

Even if you publish yourself, you should be aware of readers' expectations. Authors can and should subvert familiar tropes, but if you advertise your book as a romance and there aren't many kissing moments, your readers may be disappointed. Your cover and blurb should also convey the correct genre so that you can attract the readers who will most enjoy your book. Book marketing is always a balancing act between fitting in and standing out: familiarity and novelty. Consuming recently published works in your genre can help you understand current trends and reader expectations for that genre. Trends come and go and often what you're reading doesn't reflect where the market is going, but it will give you a general idea of ​​what's selling and what ideas have been hyped.

I like to study positive and negative book reviews of the genres I'm editing or writing about so I can identify readers' favorite elements and things that bother me. You can also stay on top of popular titles by subscribing to newsletters from bibliophile havens like Publishers Weekly, Shelf Awareness, Book Riot, Literary Hub, and Goodreads. Being familiar with the books currently on sale (and how they are categorized in terms of genre and audience) can help you determine where your book fits. Key takeaways for categorizing your novel: • Decide on the genre and primary audience of your book. • Understand what readers generally expect from a novel of that genre. • Read books published in the last five years. • See what readers like and don't like in your reviews. • Sign up for book-related newsletters. 9.

Being impatient and underestimating how much revision a publishable novel requires. Too many new writers revise their book twice, put a cover on it and call it a day because they want to move on to the next thing, and end up submitting or publishing poor work when they could have done much better. Countless authors have told me that they rushed to self-publish their first novel and then regretted it a few years after working on other projects and learning more about writing. Getting feedback from other writers and waiting a few months before revising them are crucial steps in creating a professional-level story.

There are two specific strategies I use to overcome that mental resistance to waiting and checking. The first is "don't compare your first draft to someone else's final draft." All those books you see on the shelves? They have been edited by various people and probably went through several rewrites. I often count the number of names mentioned in the acknowledgments section of a book, and sometimes there are more than twenty people who read, edited, consulted, or discussed the book before its publication. It really takes a village to create a novel. This leads to the second strategy: "find other people who give a damn about you." Some writers seem to think that if their book does not come entirely from them, it will somehow be tarnished or contaminated by outside influences.

But the truth is, often the difference between a mediocre novel and a good one is whether the writer used the feedback to hone their craft. Professional editors can be great teachers, but you can also find help from critique partners and beta readers. Create a support group of like-minded writers and readers who critique your work regularly. These are people who will see the potential in your writing and encourage you to continue improving. In fact, they understand your genre and style and what you are trying to achieve with them. You can trust them with your first drafts before sending them to strangers who don't mind demolishing your feelings.

The more practice you have with receiving criticism, the better you will know how to differentiate between comments that enhance your view of the story and comments that detract from it. Critiquing other writers will also improve your writing and self-editing skills. Few writers lose gold on the first try, so check, check, check. Key takeaways for being a more patient and successful writer: • Don't submit or publish your first drafts. • Wait a few weeks or months between edits. • Find friendly, trustworthy critique partners and beta readers. • Trust your own vision of history. • Develop a review process. 10. Having unrealistic expectations about how publishing works.

Most of us dream of our novel making six figures and being adapted into a hit television series. But let's say you polish a manuscript and send it to literary agents. You receive hundreds of rejections, until finally, an agent wants to represent you! You'll then present it to publishers' acquisitions editors, but they may not want the manuscript. Even if the book is published, it could be a complete failure and you may not “earn” your advance (the money paid in advance), which means you didn't sell enough copies and your publisher could fire you. Success is not an escalator: it is pushing a stone uphill over and over again.

Only a small fraction of writers manage to publish through this traditional means. Self-publishing is always an option, but it can be incredibly expensive and every task falls on your shoulders. Basically, you are running a small business. You may have to pay for the audiobook's cover design, editing, formatting, advertising, and narrators. The return on investment in self-publishing is incredibly low because producing a high-quality book often involves hiring experienced professionals. Dreams motivate us to pursue our goals. But we also need to set realistic expectations so we don't end up disappointed in the long run. Having a profitable full-time career as a fiction writer is possible, but also difficult.

Difficult is good; Nothing is fun without a little challenge. I highly recommend The Business of Being a Writer by Jane Friedman for a great overview of how to navigate the publishing world and make a career in writing. If you are truly passionate about writing fiction, do it for the joy it brings to your life and not for fame and fortune. After all, most people don't learn to play guitar to become A-list rock stars, or play golf because they think they can be professional athletes with salaries.huge. Write to improve yourself and enrich your life. As fantasy author Neil Gaiman said, “I decided that I would do my best in the future to not write books just for money.

If you didn't get the money then you had nothing. “If I did the work I was proud of and didn’t get the money, at least I would have the job.” The good news is that you can learn a lot about writing for free thanks to the popular university of online writing gurus, library books, and critique groups. You don't need a college education or even a high school diploma to be a writer. It is not necessary to read a thousand books or know someone in the publishing industry. All you need to do is tell a good story and form a community of people who will support you on your journey.

Grow tough skin when it comes to rejection, forget about the haters and dream big anyway. Key takeaway: Writing fiction probably won't make you rich, but it is a rewarding, worthwhile, and meaningful endeavor. Most of these errors are due to lack of knowledge. It's hard to know what you don't know. Be open to learning and try not to be too hard on yourself. These are problems that writers face no matter their level of experience, and sometimes we have to relearn things as we go. Many problems can be solved by rewriting, so learning to revise is a crucial skill to have in your literary arsenal.

Maintain a growth mindset and know that you always have the power to improve. Above all, don't let writing advice paralyze you and lead you to indecision. Write first, diagnose problems later, and learn from your experiences. When we hone a skill, we rarely get it right on the first try, so take risks and fail big. Follow Neil Gaiman: “Go make interesting

mistakes

, make surprising mistakes, make glorious, fantastic mistakes. To break the rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art." What have you learned from your writing mistakes? Give me something to think about in the comments.

Whatever you do, keep writing.