10 Common New Writer Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

As a developmental editor and writer, I’ve noticed patterns in the types of problems new writers often face. This video covers ten of the most common stumbling blocks, focusing mostly on big-picture issues and attitudes toward the publishing industry. In future videos, I’ll cover common grammatical errors and dialogue mistakes. We all have to start somewhere, and it’s through making mistakes that we can improve our storytelling as fiction writers.

Background Music by Vindsvept:
+ “Keeper of the Forest”
+ “Skymning”
+ “Chasing Shadows”
+ “Illuminate”
+ “The Fae”
+ “Woodland Lullaby”
+ “Wildkin Glade”
+ “Voyage to Nowhere”
+ “Into the Unknown”

SOURCES

Introduction (0:00)
1. Treating writing advice as if it’s set in stone. (0:46)
2. Being unable to convey a cohesive story concept. (2:46)
3. Writing a novel like a bad movie. (4:17)
4. Creating inconsistent or undefined characters. (6:25)
5. Failing to make the reader feel the emotions of the story. (9:23)
6. Head-hopping, or not understanding the difference between third-person omniscient and third-person limited point of view. (11:43)
7. Unintentionally repeating plot points or phrases. (14:51)
8. Not knowing much about the book’s genre or audience. (18:27)
9. Being impatient and underestimating how much revision a publishable novel requires. (22:29)
10. Having unrealistic expectations about how publishing works. (25:14)
Final Thoughts (28:21)

[hamothemagnif]

Helpful hint: get a text to voice reading software and a good voice. You can use this as a sounding board for your writing. It has helped me find typos, repeated words, and other errors. The voice lack a bit of intonation but it has still been a cheap and effective investment.

[sietsewijker]

My biggest writing mistake is not writing at all. I like the process, I like doing it. I cannot let ideas go.
But actually sitting down to do it.
It almost never happens.

[Tutoriala]

The most important thing when you're a newer writer is not to know how to write a good book but how to learn what you're doing wrong. You need to be able to look at what you make and figure out exactly what the problems are. Not just to solve those problems, but to get deeper and understand why you're making those mistakes in the first place. That's how you'll find your weaknesses as a writer, and that's how you'll learn to overcome them. Solve specific problems, not general ones.

[sindarpeacheyeisacommie]

I must not fear. Fear is the art-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration of my art and my soul. I will face my fear to make my art. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn my inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only my art will remain.

[bookaholic]

When we needed her, she returned. I'm a writer, and I just love your suggestions Ma'am. Thank you for guiding me.🙌

[dubadduwariwari]

She really understands all kinds of writers and she really is making the future novel's better.

[aceyourgrace]

"Success is not an escalator. It's pushing a rock up a hill, over an over again."
Words to live by 👏

[nathanwagner]

My biggest mistake is giving up on stories before they're done; hearing some writing advice that my story lacks, or a finding a seemingly unfixable plot hole, and deciding the book isn't worth writing.
But, the way I see it, the only way to write a book that's worth writing, is to first write one that isn't. So was it ever not worth writing in the first place?

Thank you so much for your incredible insights and amazing videos! I hope your channel grows so more people can find this content- they deserve it.

[strandedgeek]

On advice 2: As Albert Einstein once said if you can't explain it simply then you don't understand it well enough.

[rdjazzboy]

One of your very best. I chuckled reading, "It takes a village to raise a novel." Our characters are our friends after all...

[jayeshchouhan]

Learned many things from writing and reading, but one important thing I learned was that fear doesn't have to be paralyzing. Every time I sit to write, a fear downs on me that this would just come out bad and nothing. But then, a leap of faith is all i need in the dark valley, a belief that I will just save myself, I start writing. I tell myself, it doesn't matter whether the piece comes out to be utter crap, my goal is to just write a comprehensive story.

[abhilasha]

I always get caught up in the setting. Am I describing it enough? Is too detailed? Too less? Am I using too many words for something that'll need only a sentence?

I've practiced a lot in showing after watching one of your videos and my characters have gotten a bit more "life" since then. I'll understand my process of setting soon💪💜

[mrnoone]

I wrote a "book" about 5 years ago, and recently, the fire to write and read in me has been reignited. I read the book I that I wrote, and I decided to learn it first before beginning to write again. I discovered your channel, and as I sift through your videos with no particular order, I realized that I made every single mistake and don'ts you described (that I know of) in that book. I told and didn't show, sometimes over described or under described scenes, a character looking at herself in the mirror and some more. But the worst one was, at the time, I thought I nailed it. And when I'd got rejected (Now I'm shocked that I even got few of those, most of them just didn't reply) I was sooo pissed off, I even got into some arguments with some low level publishers or beginner writers who got published on Twitter. I look back at those times and man, how is that even possible for someone to be so unaware about one's self while stepping on every landmine.

Edit: I got distracted while trashing myself. Your lessons are extremely good and I couldn't find better suited type of explanation for learning writing. I'm sure there are good teachers of writing in the wild but for learning a specific concept or overall writing? You're my first choice.

[trtlphnx]

As a Former FOX Staff Writer, I find Your material EXTREMELY Useful...
Thank You, You Are Appreciated!!!

[perymachado]

How I missed that final line! "Whatever you do, keep writing".
Great advice as always. I remember writing my first novel at 15/16 years old a d thinking it was the best thing since War & Peace. It was pure cringefest, though I do remember some lines I still like from it. I had started reading for pleasure a year or two before and I was trying to imitate a couple of authors I liked, though it was a completely different genre. With practice, studying and a bit of effort, anyone can write great things. What holds many back is doubt about our own abilities, but believing in your story and your desire to tell it will help push those mistakes aside. I remember reading about how Bernard Cornwell got over his fear of being good enough by typing up C.S Forester's Hornblower book, a page or two, sticking it in a drawer for a month, then looked at it and found "mistakes" or things that he would change to suit his style, and he adored the Hornblower books. It goes to show that even our favourite authors can have things we would "fix" because of what we think is better style or content or whatever it may be. Writing is an ever-learning craft, one that we must keep evolving and fine-tuning. It's great content like this that helps a lot of us find the right tools to tune ourselves. Thank you!

[sindarpeacheyeisacommie]

No. 11: you don't know how to write a novel until you have written a novel.

[Daniel-Clay]

Just as I was beginning to lose faith in my writing abilities, after becoming bogged down by the various and contradictory advice all over the internet, along comes this video. Thank you so much for your help. I write purely for pleasure, and nothing else, and you have reignited my passion and love for my manuscripts.

[stickman]

I actually think my first novel that I'm working on is turning out to be very noob friendly. I was a part of a D&D group for awhile, and eventually one person brought a really cool idea to the table. They shared it with everyone and it seemed really fun. We eventually drifted apart, but I saw their idea and I reached out to them. I'm writing that as a book and the reason it's noob friendly because
a) most of the characters, including the main character and the antagonist are done
and b) I have the end goal
All I had to do was come up with the plot, some new characters, and write it out.
And I am liking this because I am dipping my toes into writing, I'm enjoying it alot and plan to do more when I finish.

[hamothemagnif]

“What do they want and why can’t they have it?” Asked a movie producer who had no time or patience for another poor pitch.

[Master_Blackthorne]

Another bit of advice I can give is don't buy a book on how to write unless you're going to refer to it frequently, like Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style" (this is just for the sake of example, writing correctly doesn't mean writing well). Also, if your local library has a copy of a certain book, check it out, read it, and take notes. That way, you get the advice and your bank account remains intact. There are many books out there that have the usual writing advice, and you don't need a home library with lots of books basically saying the same thing. Stephen King's "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" is mostly autobiographical with just a small part of the book dedicated to writing. The book is interesting, and if you like Stephen King I recommend it, but you have to wade through his life story before you get to the part that's useful to aspiring writers. Remember: use library card, not credit card whenever you can.