7 Mistakes new writers make

So today I wanted to share 7 mistakes new writers make. If you guys are thinking about or wanting to become a writer, then here are 7 tips that you will come across as you begin your writing Journey.

By all means I am not perfect, I am still learning as I go but these are 7 Tips that I have came across myself and I’d share with all of you.

1. INFO-DUMPING: When there is too much back story of your character in one chapter. This is not a good Idea for it will lose the interest of the reader if you put all info in one chapter rather than spreading it all over your novel and/or series. Keep the reader intrigued and don’t say all the goods in one chapter.
2. DESCRIBING EVERYTHING- books are not a play-by-play of real-life. It’s boring, it slows down the plot.
3. NOT ENOUGH CONFLICT- Newbies like myself make this mistake. There is not enough conflict in the story. Conflict is things that impede your character’s goals. Good Conflict doesn’t mean “we are going to die.” It can also be a disagreement of some sort. From conflict, we drive stakes to where things that your character stands to lose if the conflict gets in their way.
4. NOTHING BAD HAPPENS TO MAIN CHARACTER- This will put an artificial limit on how much conflict and/or bad events drive the story forward.  Take the plunge, what’s the worse thing that can happen to your character?
5. MESSY DIALOGUE- A lot of newbies even myself do this. We write messy and/or cliche dialogue. Do you don’t have to every time identify the speaker at all times however do it frequently so the reader has a sense of who is talking. It can show who, what, and where the characters are in that scene.  The go to tag should be said. It’s the invisible dialogue tag. Newbies write things like he exclaimed rather than said. You can use tags such as ‘He Whispered’ but sparingly. When using quotations, your punctuation should be inside the quotation mark. When I started it out, I always had it outside of the quotation mark.
6. TOO MANY POINT OF VIEWS-  Now, don’t get me wrong, there are stories out there that have an extra Point of Views but most of these multiple point of views can distract the readers from the main story.
7. WHITE ROOM SYNDROME- Variant on ‘show don’t tell’; AKA when characters are in a scene but no description or detail has been provided. Story ends up feeling generic.

There it is 7 common mistakes. I hope you guys use these tools to better your writing.

XOXO

NLN ❤

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