Okay, squiders! We’re going to dive into the common writing mistakes series now on and off for the next month or so. I’m thinking the book will be divided into a couple of different sections: 1) a basic intro, 2) a discussion of common writing mistakes and how to spot them/fix them, and 3) general fixes that can be applied to a variety of writing wrongs and just to help improve it overall. I’m thinking we’ll do 1 and 2 here on the blog and leave 3 for the book.
I’ve got a variety of writing mistakes identified which basically fall into the following categories:
- Voice/point of view issues
- Pacing and structure issues
- Plot issues
- Grammar issues (just plain bad writing)
REMINDER: If you want me to touch on something, let me know!
So what makes something a “common” writing mistake? A lot of it comes from being a less experienced writer. Writing a book can be a hard thing to do, and there are a ton of things to remember, from what color that character’s eyes were on page 5 to what you named your fictional quaint seaside town, let alone where your major plot points need to be.
Some of it comes from being unfamiliar with your genre of choice. If you’re writing a mystery but aren’t used to the conventions of the genre, it can be easy to miss things.
But one way or another, a “common” writing mistake is one that probably most, if not all, writers will make at one point as they learn their craft. I’ve made most of these. But the good news is that you can learn what these mistakes look like, and you can learn how to stop making them, or at least how to fix them after you do.
We’ll dig in next Thursday, starting with grammar issues, since those are more universal across all forms of writing, and some of the other ones are more applicable to fiction specifically.
