Common Fiction Writing Mistakes to Avoid
Writing a book is exciting, but it’s not a process that should be taken lightly, especially if you intend to publish it. Moreover, because art is subjective, differentiating between someone’s opinion and legitimate feedback will be challenging. So, how can you judge whether or not your book is worth reading?
What are some of the most typical errors people make when they write their first book? While you cannot expect your first fiction story to be a masterpiece, it is still a step forward in your writing career. So, if you aren’t sure what’s stopping your novel from getting published or you have writer’s block, keep reading to the end of this blog to ensure you’re not making these common fiction writing mistakes and how fiction book editing services can help.
Poorly Handled Dialogue
There are numerous mistakes writers can make when writing dialogue for a fictional story. You must write dialogue that sounds realistic. Furthermore, writers should also avoid inserting overly long conversations. They can create a lull in your story and may impact its pace.
Besides this, you also need to ensure that your dialogue helps develop the characters’ personalities and conveys critical plot information. So, if you’re not doing the above, you’re probably setting your story up for failure.
Adding Unlikeable or Unrealistic Characters to your Story
Characters are an essential component of any story. However, don’t let yourself fall victim to the process of having your characters act in a particular way just to keep the plot moving.
Generally, your story must bring tears to the readers’ eyes or make them jump out of their seats and laugh aloud. The bottom line is that you must entice your readers to form an emotional bond with the characters in your story.
Take the example of the Harry Potter series. Lord Voldemort is the perfect example of an interesting villain. Sure, people hate him for what he does to Harry, and he’s an unlikeable character. However, people are interested in his backstory. They want to know what drives his actions and why he tried to kill Harry when he was only a baby.
Besides this, it is also important that the readers understand the characters’ actions if you want them to care about what happens to them in your story. So, ensure that you create credible backstories and motives for your characters to make your readers fall in love with them.
While we are on the topic of characters, it is a cardinal sin to include characters that your readers find repellent. The reader will probably not care about such characters and will have no interest in what happens to them.
Lack of Paragraphs, Bad Spelling, And Grammar
Not all writers hold an English Literature degree, and grammatical errors and spelling mistakes can happen. However, Microsoft Word’s spelling checker, Grammarly, and a slew of other autocorrect features are now available online. Also, don’t forget to format paragraphs properly. Otherwise, prospective agents will reject it.
Sure, writing freely without worrying about punctuation, page breaks, scene breaks, and paragraphs sounds counter-productive. But, you should always proofread your work and format it properly after you’re done. Otherwise, your editor will have difficulty grasping your story and whether it is worth publishing.
Not Including Conflict
There is no doubt that conflict will always be present at the center of any fictional story. This can be an incident requiring resolution or a disruption in your character’s ability to tackle obstacles. After all, without any conflict, your fictional story will lack drive or purpose and become dull sooner or later.
So, start off by asking yourself, “why does your story exist?” and “how will you plan your story’s plot?” At the end of the day, conflict, especially between characters, allows you to advance your story’s plot. So, whatever you do, ensure that conflict always remains at the center of your story!
Editing Your Story as You Go
Nothing is more crucial than creating your first draft and writing down whatever comes to mind. However, if you’re second-guessing or continuously editing your words as you write your story, you’ll end up experiencing a creative block.
Therefore, separate the editing and writing into different processes to avoid this. Doing this will help you steer clear of any self-doubt and write more freely, which is critical to writing an excellent fictional story!
Work With a Professional Fiction Novel Editing Service
Being an excellent fiction story writer is a journey at the end of the day. But the less you write, read, or study, the more mistakes you’ll make. Therefore, it is wise to grab your favorite books, take inspiration from them, and write a fictional story that is your own! Of course, make sure you avoid the above-mentioned common fiction writing mistakes too.
If you need help on that front, get in touch with Edit911. We offer fiction book editing services and help you iron out any mistakes in your story to improve your chances of getting published!
