What’s one of the most overused and unnecessary words in a writer’s repertoire? Try “suddenly.” Now, at first glance, “suddenly” seems pretty innocuous. After all, it’s just a little adverb. It’s so commonplace, it’s almost invisible. And it’s important. Unlike so many useless modifiers, it tells readers exactly how some important action is happening. It […]
October 7, 2012 by 36 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Skipping the Best Parts of the Story
The fastest way to frustrate readers is to write everything but the good parts of a story. You’d think this would be a no-brainer. After all, as story aficionados ourselves, we’re presumably writing the story because of the good parts. The action, the romance, the comedy, the drama. We can’t wait to get it on paper, and readers can’t […]
September 2, 2012 by 12 Comments CharactersMost Common Writing Mistakes: Characters Who Lack Purpose
Raise your hand if you love to be bored. What’s this, you say? You don’t like wandering around the house, puttering aimlessly at half a dozen jobs, flipping through TV channels and finding zero of interest, or poking around the Internet and smacking your head against the keyboard with the sheer futility of it all? If […]
August 5, 2012 by 38 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Not Enough Story Tension
How can you keep your story moving forward in scenes that don’t offer full-blown conflict? No doubt you’ve heard the aphorism, “No conflict, no story.” But your characters can’t be clawing each other’s eyes out in every scene. So how do you keep readers hooked until you can pull out the big guns? The answer […]
June 10, 2012 by 16 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Non-Reactive and Over-Reactive Characters
Half of what your character does in your story is going to be reaction. Fiction is all about pushing and pulling. Your antagonist pushes your protagonist, and your protagonist moves away, considers the situation for a moment, then pushes right back. That’s reaction. That’s the essence of fiction. It’s what makes the dominoes fall. But […]
February 5, 2012 by 55 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Vanishing Setting Syndrome
As authors, we usually consider ourselves the masters of the crimes committed in our stories—not the victims. But as Sherlock, Poirot, and Castle will tell you, the sneakiest crimes are always those in which the victim doesn’t even realize he’s been ripped off. Such is the Case of the Vanishing Setting. This is one of […]
January 8, 2012 by 43 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Too Much Explanation
Readers have needs. Authors are supposed to fulfill those needs. One of those needs is knowing what’s going on in a story, so naturally the author’s response is to explain what’s going on. So far, so good, right? Well, that depends. Explanations, in whatever form (narrative, dialogue, or action), are essential to any story. But […]
December 4, 2011 by 44 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Are Your Flashbacks Flashy or Flabby?
To flashback or not to flashback? Sooner or later, that’s a question every writer must face. A good flashback can sometimes bring to life an important event in your character’s past. But constructed poorly or plopped in at the wrong place, a flashback can end up irking readers more than impressing them. Let’s search for […]
November 6, 2011 by 23 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Giving Readers the Wrong Impression of Your Characters
The wrong choice of just a single word can be enough to give readers a completely different (and from the writer’s viewpoint, wrong) perspective of a character. Even though writers often see our characters in crisp, glorious, mega-wattage detail, we sometimes struggle to share those details with readers. We want readers to see our characters […]
October 2, 2011 by 55 Comments Beginning Your BookMost Common Writing Mistakes: Character Overload
When dealing with large casts of characters—or even just scenes that require the rapid-fire introduction of more than two or three characters—readers sometimes find themselves in grave danger of “character overload.” The common wisdom is that there’s no such thing as too many good characters. But, in fact, too many characters can become way too […]
