7 Most Common Writing Mistakes New Authors Make—And How to Start Fixing Them Today!
Let's talk about writing mistakes—whether this is your first novel or your fifth, these top 7 most common writing mistakes can haunt your novel. Check out what you might be missing, and how you can adjust to make your writing better today and moving forward!
Check out the video HERE.
Show Don’t Tell
No matter if you’ve written one book or a hundred, show don’t tell is an easy trap to fall into. Show don’t tell isn’t always about adding more descriptors, but how you say something, showing dimension, giving context.
“She walked up to the old, blue house.”
“She stumbled up the sidewalk before collapsing on the porch of the old, blue house.”
Or one step further:
“She stumbled up the sidewalk before collapsing on the porch. It was doubtful she was going to find the help she needed in the crumbling blue house, but at least she’d have a place to hide for a few hours.”
*Show the important details. Don’t spend too long describing the house they’re going to enter if they’re only going to be there for 5 minutes, never to return.
Information Overwhelm (formerly known as Info Dumping)
I feel like info dumping gets a bad rap because maybe all the information that you have in the scene is important, is needed.
If that isn’t the case, definitely cut that out.
But I’ve found after talking with authors is not that they’re always giving too much information, but too much info at once.
So take care to break up the information and evaluate if it is needed right then. Or if it can be held back until later, worked in more naturally at some point.
Too many characters
Take care how many characters you have in your novel, and how many you introduce all at once.
Create a character hierarchy – who are your leads, secondary, and “red shirts”?
Make sure those that need it, have growth, have a goal. Those that don’t, consider how much they need to be on the page.
Passive Voice
Find and search your to be verbs, “is/was/were”. See if you can/should make them more active.
Balance word quality and word quantity.
Don’t push yourself so hard that you’re writing 10k words a day, but they’ll all be thrown out because you’re basically just putting words on a page.
BUT also don’t spend all your time crafting one sentence. Find a balance, keep moving forward. Everything can be fixed later.
Don’t get caught in the first line trap.
Redundant writing
Take care not to over explain to your reader. They are smart cookies, let them infer, be vague at times, and let the tension speak for itself.
And I know, I know, you’re asking yourself, “How do I know when it is enough or when it is too much?”
And I don’t have an easy answer for you – a lot of it is practice and getting a feel for how adding these details, or keeping them out, works with your writing. Some of this will become more clear once you’ve had some distance from your novel and you are self editing. You may see where you’ve explained how your character’s magic works too many times and can cut. And that is also where an editor or beta reader comes in – it may take an outside pair of eyes. But that is why while writing can be a solo venture, publishing takes a team.
7. Don’t edit as you go!
At this point in your novel, everything has the ability to be absolute gold and complete garbage. So hedge your bets and keep everything.
Open a different document, put new ideas, or deleted scenes in there.
Comment if you think of something you want to add or change, but don’t make massive changes.
Avoid your delete button as much as possible!