Mistakes Fiction Writers Make
By Eugene Orlando
1.
Stop procrastinating
when it comes to writing. Pick a time and place and write. Writing is the only
way to learn to write.
2.
If you think you
know it all, you probably don't, and therefore you’ll never learn anything else.
Every author can still learn something, and as an author, you can learn
something from everyone.
3.
Don’t be on stage
when you write. The purpose of writing is to communicate to others. Showing off
usually leaves the reader baffled, so they will put your book aside and move on
to one that communicates better.
4.
Do not neglect
your other responsibilities to make time for writing. Everything has its place
and time.
5.
Don’t think you
can learn writing quickly. Good writing takes a long time to develop. There is
a lot to learn and it is difficult to learn it, but there is a lot of fun to be
had along the way—so enjoy it at a leisurely pace. Have patience, plod along
the best you can, and in time you will become a good writer.
6.
Never start a
story with static description. The opening of a story must be gripping,
exciting, interesting, something that will tease a reader’s curiosity, her
senses, her emotions. Start with action, not inaction.
7.
Do not overly
describe for the sake of making your language sound pretty. Communicate what
you need to in the least amount of words, and then move on.
8.
Never! Never!
Never use real people in your story. You can base a character on a real person,
but real people don’t make good fiction characters. And if real people find
out, real people can sue. You can start with a real person, but you’ll find
that you must add and subtract in order to make her or him a workable character
of fiction.
9.
Don’t make your
main character a complete wimp. Give her or him some good qualities. It is the
good qualities that will give them some power and energy. Good fiction
characters are fighters. They may start out as wimps, but they must learn to
take control of their own lives.
10.
Don’t make your
villains totally evil. Find some way to give them a characteristic that the
reader can like or sympathize with. That way they will be far more interesting.
Find some logical reason why they believe what they believe. That will make
them more of a tragic figure instead of evil.
11.
Don’t avoid
trouble for your character. That is what makes good fiction: the character, in
trouble, struggling to succeed.
12.
In life, things
just happen without reason. In fiction, things must happen for a reason. The
best manuscripts use everything mentioned in the story someplace else in the
story.
13.
If something
happens in your story, there must be a reaction to it. If not, the reader will
be asking questions when they’re supposed to be enjoying your story.
14.
Be consistent
with viewpoint. Who is telling the story? Never let it be forgotten to the
reader just who is telling the story.
15.
Don’t lecture. If
you are, then you are either bragging, being overly
descriptive, or giving too much exposition.
16.
Don’t let your
character’s lecture. Have them say what they need to say and get on with it. If
you are in touch with your character’s feelings, then you will know what they
will say and not say.
17.
Become the
characters you write about. Don’t just represent them. Try to become who they
are. Think of them as separate from your own mind. The more real you make your
characters, the more real they will seem to the reader.
18.
Don’t let your
characters talk too much. Let them say only what is needed for the story or the
development of the character or scene.
19.
Don’t allow your
characters to speak the way real people talk. If you have any doubt about this,
tape record a conversion and type it out. You will be appalled at the nonsense
you’ll discover, because people speak in digressive tangents, half sentences,
half thoughts, dialect, slang, and colloquialisms. We as readers are geared to
this in every day life—but not when it comes to a work of fiction.
20.
If you have a
foreign character that speaks with an accent, do not try to spell out the
accented differences. Capture the sentence structure, speech mannerisms, and
phrases.
21.
Include in your
descriptions and narrative the senses other than sight whenever you can. If you
walk into the Food Court of a mall, what will you smell? You also have the
senses of sound, touch, and taste. Use them.
22.
Don’t be afraid
to use “said”. Just don’t overuse that tag. Limit the number and kinds of
tags—and alternate them. Stay away from tags that have been overused and come
off “corny.” Tags like “Billy exclaimed”, or “cried Sally”.
23.
If you don’t know
a fact needed in your story, look it up. If you’re writing an historical story
that takes place on the
24.
Always observe
what is going on around you in real life. Those are the things that find their
way into fiction.
25.
Structure your
scenes with things you know are going to happen. Plan out the scene in as much
detail as possible before you write it.
26.
Make sure your
disasters have something to do with the story you’re trying to tell. Nothing
should be put into a story unless it advances the plot or understanding of the
character. Every scene must advance something, or else—cut it.
27.
Let your
characters think and make logical mistakes. These become obstacles on the way
to resolving the goal of the characters and help to make your story more
interesting.
28.
Get to the point
and stick to it. If you pad your story with unnecessary plot elements,
that is exactly how it will read. Try to stick to what advances the
story and the characters. Ask yourself, “Is that chapter or scene really
necessary?”
29.
You run the risk
of not being understood if you are too vague, so it’s all right to be obvious.
In defining characters, stating their goals, and plot development, the more
obvious the better.
30.
Be critical of
your writing in a constructive way. Do not “over pick” yourself to death. If
you are after perfection, you will never achieve it. Just do your best. Learn
to recognize what needs to be changed in your writing and what is good about
it.
31.
Don’t worry about
what other people will think of you once they know what you’ve written. If you
have passion in your heart, write with passion. There are those who find any
sort of passion trite or corny. Thank goodness most of them don't read.
32.
Do not count
praise from family, relatives, or friends as worthwhile. They know and love
you—and don’t want to hurt your feelings, so they will tell you good things
whether they believe it or not. They make the worst critics because they really
don’t know what is good or bad about fiction. Find someone who will tell it
like it is. That is literary gold.
33.
Don’t be afraid
of pouring your emotions into your story. Let it all hang out. If you’ve
overdone it—guess what: that’s what editing is all about.
34.
If you are lucky
enough to get help from a professional writer, don’t ignore what they tell you
about your story. If you disagree at first, think about it for a long time. In
the end you may see where the professional is correct. Make sure, however, that
they understood your story. They may not be familiar with your genre. Ten
light-years may seem like an incredible distance—but not so to a science
fiction fan.
35.
Don’t try to
write a novel about one idea. It is impossible. Every novel, no matter how
short, has secondary plots that are related to the main plot. Once you have
secondary plots, you will find it easier to come up with enough “literary
stuff” to make a complete novel.
36.
Don’t be too
anxious to finish your story once most of it is written. You will run the risk
of ending it too soon, which will make the story fall flat. Finish it out to
its logical conclusion and take as long as it takes.
37.
Don’t give up. If
you get stuck, put your work aside and go on to something else. Letting weeks
or months go by with a “stuck” story will make you see it with different eyes,
and what was not obvious to you, may become so once you let the manuscript sit
and “cool off.”
38.
When writing,
don’t pick the first plot or scene solution that comes to mind. Most of the
time the first thing you think up is the most common thing that anyone would
expect. Your scenes should have the element of “logical surprise”: a solution
that is logical, yet unexpected. Think of several solutions and go for the most
unlikely—and make it work. Your story will be better off for it