SOME OF THE MOST COMMON MISTAKES WRITERS MAKE
AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

The following list is compiled from my more than forty years of being a fiction and nonfiction acquisition, developmental and line editor---of which the last sixteen years has been spent as a freelance editor/book doctor working with agented and unagented authors.

MANUSCRIPTS IN GENERAL

Not Delivering a Reader-Friendly Manuscript: Submitting a hard-to-read manuscript set in ten point type, on dirty paper, with no margins top or bottom. A manuscript is an interview with a prospective agent or editor. Would you go to a job interview in a soiled, wrinkled suit or dress? Of course not, because you know how important first impressions are in an interview. So be sure your manuscript is as easy to read as possible: even young editors and agents have tired, old eyes. The appearance of your manuscript clues the reader into the level of your professionalism as a writer before a word is read or a page turned. Remember, if your manuscript looks good, you look good.

FICTION

Failing To Hook The Reader’s Interest As Quickly As Possible: It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the first few pages of your novel in terms of attracting and holding your reader’s interest. Busy, overworked editors and agents (and that means all of them!) often decide whether they want to continue reading your novel on the basis of these early pages. That means creating a dramatic scene in which a character----preferably your hero or heroine----begins an important quest, tries to conquer a seemingly insuperable obstacle, or faces a moment of intense, perhaps life-or-death crisis. Put the reader into the character’s head as well as describing his or her actions, and make the reader wonder what happens next.

Waiting too long to set the premise and conflict of the novel and introduce the protagonist and antagonist: Use description sparingly, establish the setup of the novel swiftly. Too many unnecessary details delay giving the reader someone to identify with and to dislike. Get the reader’s emotions and allegiances established swiftly if you want him or her to keep reading.

Not giving your characters believable motivations, actions and relationships: It’s always been my belief that a reader will stay with a novel with some holes in the plotting but will not stay with characters that are not well motivated, and whose behavior is not credible. When you realize that a novel basically is a collection of interesting, complex, conflicted people relating to each other by the decisions they make, or do not make, and that these relationships really are the “plot” of the story, you see immediately how important believable, persuasive characters are.

Permitting stilted dialogue to remain a novel: Every character should speak in his or her own voice, and the dialogue should sound natural and believable. To ensure that your dialogue sounds like real people speaking, read it out loud before committing it to paper. Or, better yet, read it (don’t act it) into a tape recorder and play it back. You will be amazed how your ear will pick up tinny dialogue that doesn’t ring true.

* Don’t overdo it when you write dialogue: a few words are often enough to establish the class, ethnicity or region from which the speaker comes.
* When there are only two speakers in a scene, there’s no need to keep repeating the person’s name in the flow of dialogue. If Tom says to Jerry, “How’s the wife and kids?” there’s no need to write “My wife and kids are fine. How’s yours?” Jerry replied.
* Most people use contractions when they speak, so use them in dialogue. It makes for realistic, brisk conversation.
* Don’t go into stylistic contortions to avoid simply saying “he said” or “she said.”
Most other choices make the dialogue sound stilted .
* Don’t have a character continue speaking for paragraph after paragraph after paragraph without being interrupted unless he or she is literally making a real speech to some group. Listen closely to how people converse and you’ll notice that dialogue usually runs no more than two or three sentences before someone interrupts with an answer or a comment of some sort.
* Don’t rely on adverbs to enhance or explain your dialogue. If you write, “Get out of here. You’re fired!” you don’t need to add, “he said angrily.”

Creating a believable hero or heroine: Your hero or heroine should not be, cannot be, losers. Modern popular fiction, whether genre or mainstream, has as its heroes and heroines people who make life happen; they do not allow life to happen to them. That means that, after an often grueling quest of some sort during which they are often momentarily defeated, they triumph over their adversary, their obstacles---whether a person or an interior failing or a hostile expression of nature---and accomplish the goal of their quest. In other words, they eventually take charge of their lives and succeed.

Writing unconvincing sex scenes: Writing a believable sex scene is very difficult for writers, not because of prudery or embarrassment, but because too much attention is given to describing the participants’ sexual acts and not enough to their thoughts, their psychology, their state of mind. That authority on sex in all its manifestations, Mae West, said it best when she wrote, “Sex is emotion in motion.” Remember that where, when, how, and with whom characters make love should reveal the psychological aspects of their relationship as well as their sexual tastes and preferences. A sex scene should never be written just to titillate the reader; it should always be there to enhance our understanding of the characters and to advance the story.

Not knowing how to plot the novel to sustain the pace, shape, energy and interest of the story: Don’t overload the opening with too much exposition, a crowd of characters and a confusing jumble of events and conflicts. The CIA has a maxim that works well for writers as well as spies: “Information will be given to you only on a need to know basis.” That means don’t front-load the story so that all the drama and excitement is at the beginning, with nothing exciting enough to keep the reader turning the rest of the pages of the novel. A well-plotted novel should be as smooth an experience as being with a driver with a steady foot on the gas pedal, who never stops and starts or lurches or jams on the brakes out of panic.

Not knowing how to create characters: Don’t introduce a character as though you are reading a resume of his or her life-until-now. Let the reader learn about a character as we learn about a person we meet in real life: a little at a time---just as you get to the core of an onion by peeling away one layer at a time.