Writing Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Novel

Like with everything mistakes happen even in novel writing, but thankfully almost any mistake you make can be easily fixed before you learn about it in the reviews for your novel. 

Been there, done that. If you're going to change the name of your main character… remember to change it throughout the WHOLE book AND on the back cover-a simple mistake, easily fixable. I just wished I had fixed it before it was published.

Here are the top mistakes you should avoid when writing your novel.

Is this novel in the past or the present?

I once had a teacher that was so fed up with underlining all the places in my story that I changed tenses that he broke the pen in half and splattered it with red ink. 

Dramatic? Extremely. Did it get the point across? Yes. 

There are pros and cons to writing your novel in either tense, which you use is going to be depending on your writing style and the type of novel you are writing. 

The most important thing to do is to pick a tense and stick with it.

Don't be passive!

Writers hear this one all the time. Almost every article on writing will tell you not to use the passive voice, but what exactly is it and how do you fix it?

[Passive Voice] in most instances, put(s) the verb in the active voice rather than in the passive voice.

Passive voice produces a sentence in which the subject receives an action. In contrast, an active voice produces a sentence in which the subject performs an action. www.hamilton.edu

To avoid using the passive voice, make sure the subject of your sentence is doing the action. For example, "The tail was wagged by the dog" is passive, but "The dog wagged its tail" isn't because the subject of the sentence, the dog, is doing the action.

I'll be honest even I still get confused about this one, it's not as difficult as it seems to correct the mistake after you've written your novel and it's time for editing.  

Search for words ending in -ing, or the words has, was, or had, and see if there is a way to make the sentence more active.

You're telling me something, you're not showing me.

"Agatha felt depressed as she sat on the bed."

This is the most common mistake amongst newbie writers and seasoned authors alike. It's much easier to just cut to the chase and tell the reader what you want them to pick up from the scene instead of having them feel it themselves.

Never tell your reader something when you can show it through action. What actions would your character be taking if they were depressed? What would the room look like?

"Her clothes were strewn around the room in piles of unwashed days across the floor. Agatha sat in the center of the bed, glancing at herself in the dresser mirror. Her cheeks were sunken in and her eyes carried the baggage of mountain trolls beneath heavy lids. Her shoulders sagged under the weight of her thoughts. Her attempts at nursing her body lay mounded in the nearby trash waiting for her to find the strength."

The old phrase action speaks louder than words somewhat applies here. Use your words to show the action.

Avoid phrases that tell the reader what emotion your character is feeling.

Anger should be violent, fist-clenching, glass shattering. Fear should be legs shaking and sweat dripping. Pretend your story is a movie scene, what is the actor supposed to be doing to portray the emotions they're supposed to feel? What actions have you done when feeling that same emotion?

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ __

Mistakes in writing happen, but the great thing about technology is that none of the ones you make are permanent unless you've etched your novel in stone.

Even then if you've got a grinder and the willpower I'm sure you could change a few of them. 

Don't let any of this discourage you from writing just keep going and everything can be fixed in the end.

Don't give up and keep writing.

With love, 

B.K. xo

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