The Right To Write

Ten Most Common Mistakes

I'm going to be completely frank with you. I have made, and continually make every single one of these, so I'm on the same page with you. Writer pun! But seriously, I'm no better than any of you. These are some things to remind yourself when you're writing. Follow these rules and you're a better writer than me. Congratulations!

I've probably covered most of these in my earlier chapters, but I want to emphasize on how common some of these errors are in both Wattpad writing and my writing.

Pacing. This is definitely the most common mistake on Wattpad. I don't want the action and situation jumping around like Speedy Gonzales every few sentences. A common belief circling the amount of interest readers may have in your book is based on how fast-paced your story is. Sure, fast-paced books are interesting. But there is a fine line between fast-paced and overly-fast-paced. Slow down everything a bit, take a sip of coffee, and explain a bit more, describe the setting, and give us some insight on your character's thoughts.

Dialogue Tagging. Do you know what they tell you in English class? Use more interesting words than "said," say "She shouted, He whispered." Remember that? Now forget it. It's irrelevant. Using fancy words whenever you could just say, "she said," or better yet, showing emotion through body language, is far better than distracting the reader with "she flambiguously squawked in a flabbergasted tone." See, anything besides "said" slows down the reader because "said" is such a generic word it slips so easily. You want your reader's eyes to flow through the pages, and keep their butts stuck on the edge of that chair. Boring them with distracting vocabulary needs to be avoided. 

There's also the issue of  when to stop tagging the characters. As I have mentioned, there is a point your characters can stand alone, unannounced by any "he said, she said." Remember that.

Too-quickly Introduced Characters. Pacing itself is one issue. The second most common issue is fast-paced character introduction. You understand and know all your characters like the back of your hand, but your readers don't. And filling the pages with character after character is wildly confusing and overwhelming. There's Jane, then Bryan, then Adam, then Bryce, then goodness-knows-what. At this point, readers don't even know the difference between any of the characters. Calm down, I suffer the pain of introducing characters in a well-paced manner as well. For all of you who have no trouble pacing introductions, tell me your secrets!

Cliched Beginnings. Been discussed. Never open with a cliche. Period. Alarm clocks, dreams, mirrors. Get rid of it.

Point Of View Errors. The most apparent is head-hopping. What you're writing is limited to one point of view, most likely. At least, one point of view per scene, and one outlook during the given situation. May I put more emphasis on that? One point of view. It's only one character's head you should be looking into and regarding. You can't look into both Michael and Laura's head. It has to be one of them. When I started my novel, a scene in my chapter went along these lines:

Ferna smiled to see the familiar form on the road. She was always happy to see Elizabeth. I wonder what she came to tell me, she thought to herself.

"Hey," Elizabeth smiled. Boy is she in for a surprise, Elizabeth thought slyly. "Wanna come up to the Cafe."

"Sorry, got practice," Ferna replied, suspecting her friend's strange antics.

Retain one point of view. Notice everyone in this scene has their thoughts flowing onto the page. That is a major violation of third-person limited. It's limited for a reason. Only one point of view is supposed to be dedicated to the scene. 

The Character. Not just a horrible character, the horrible character, usually referred to as the dreaded Mary-Sue. I call them Barbies, even if they're male, because Barbie was my childhood nightmare. She knew all, did all, and didn't have a single reason to be relatable. These characters are perfect. They do no wrong, make no mistakes, have unrealistically numerous skills. Beginning writers miss the point of the protagonist's book-long journey; their purpose is to overcome flaws and make amends, not live without them. Including the Barbie is like sending a graduated, straight-A student to high school again. It's an empty series of a character succeeding with no difficulty. 

Give your character a flaw that affects the way he makes progress in the plot. Their mistakes are something we, as readers, can embrace because we can all relate to flaws, can't we?

Telling Over Showing. Yup, I'm just a nagging teacher pleading you to use show over tell.

Trying Too Hard. This comes in many forms, but the most irksome is writing style. I can easily tell if someone is putting every effort they can into their forced writing tone, and vocabulary. I simply want to say to use what you have. Trying too hard ruins everything. Don't go looking up synonyms for every word in your manuscript. Just write it. If you're eloquent, good, point for you. If you have a simple, straightforward writing style, stick to that, point for you as well. 

Some writers may try to imitate other writer's writing styles, which is not only the most stressful process, but, well, copying. You have a writing style. All you need to do is find it. Other writing styles may help you improve yours, but never completely imitate other writers.

Writers Writing According To Trends. Never write because your work may be popular, write what you're meant to write. Many writers feel like writing what's hip and popular brings them farther, and the sad truth is that it does. If they're writing for the sake of what comes with it, they lack true writer qualities. The best part about being a writer is writing what you want to write, not what the world wants you to write!

Moving-Itself-Plot. These plot include passive protagonists, lousy conclusions, and coincidences, coincidences, coincidences everywhere. Main character can't fend for herself? Superhero sweeps her off her feet and saves her. The forest is set ablaze and the protagonist is trapped? Firefighters to the rescue. Main character is being stabbed  to death by a gang? Bob the Builder to the rescue with the Teletubbies.

What?

You could easily guess that the writer wrote this story with no, or next to no, outline. Everything that happens is pure luck and predictable last-minute miracles. Chances are, the protagonist didn't do a thing to contribute to the conclusion. In fact, the plot would most likely not be a bit different without the protagonist than it would be with him or her. So note a couple things:

-Your protagonist is supposed to be saving the day, not Bob the Builder, unless it is Bob the Builder.

-No Coincidences

-A well-thought-out conclusion might do the job

Hello there. Yes, I'm done roasting you, and of course, myself. Please tell me which of these you don't violate, because in that case, you're awesome; stop reading this book and go make a writing tip book of you own. If you do, welcome, I'm not alone.  I feel that this chapter mainly serves as a reminder and checklist of what to be avoiding. 

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