I read a lot of writing in my line of work and while thatâs amazing, I see the same flaws again and again. Below is a list of 7 common writing mistakes in fiction and how you can fix them. This list is by no means complete. In fact thereâs a great list over at The Editorâs Blog that covers even more mistakes.
Sometimes writers can forget that theyâre writing a conversation and thus not write a conversation. The dialogue can be boring, stilted and unnatural, and Iâd rather listen to the territorial call of an Australian Raven than read one more word of it.
There are many things that contribute to bad dialogue, but here are the three that really get on my nerves:
Not using contractionsâIâve seen work that is modern and still doesnât use contractions. Consider this:
âYou are going to be late.â Unless the speaker is trying to sound like an irritated mother and is leaving an emphatic silence between each word to sound threatening, use contractions. It sounds really drawn out and like the speaker is pointing their nose in the air. We generally donât speak like this in real life, so neither should your characters.
Using complete sentencesâNot only is it natural for your characters to chop their sentences, this can also contribute to their voice. Does your character say âI donât know.â or âDunno.â Would he/she say âI missed the train and had to find a lift home.â or âMissed the train. Had to find a ride.â In casual speech, we often only use the words necessary to convey our message, even if it doesnât form a complete sentence. You shouldnât apply this to every line of dialogue, but consider it if your dialogue sounds stale.
Using characters as a conduit for research and plot informationâSometimes writers like to show off their research (looking at you Jurassic Park), backstory, world building and plot by having their characters talk way too much. If your character says âOnce this valley was home to an ancient race of elves, who looked after the land and treated it with respect. One day, the secret magic spring dried up and then the goblins came. Without their magic spring, the elves couldnât fight back, and they were killed by the goblins. The goblins didnât respect the land and now itâs uninhabitable.â he should probably shut up. It sounds less like a person talking than it does an audio tour. The information heâs shared could be given in a much more interesting way.
Listen to and watch the way real people talk to each other. Do they speak in full sentences with full words? Do they speak with grammatical correctness? Do they speak differently in different situations? How do hand gestures, body language and facial expressions help them communicate?
Read your dialogue out loud as if youâre practising lines for a movie. Does it sound natural? Does it flow?
Test every piece of information your characters give out. Does it all need to be said? Would your character say all of it at once? Do they need to say it all in so many words?
2. Passages of uninterrupted speech or thought
Sometimes you might want to avoid telling the reader about something and have a character tell another character instead. Sometimes you might want to avoid telling the reader how a character feels about something by having them think about it excessively instead. If this goes on for longer than a couple of paragraphs (or less), you risk allowing your reader to drift out of the scene.
The only thing anchoring your reader in the scene is your characters and what theyâre doing. If the characters are talking or thinking for a long time without interacting with anyone or anything else, they might as well be floating in space, which can make the reader feel like theyâre floating in space. Thatâs not to say that theyâve forgotten where the scene is taking place or who else is involved, just that it can feel that way if this is how the character acts.
If your characters have a lot to say, try to include the other characters as well. Have them ask questions or make comments so it feels like a scene and not a soliloquy.
If your character is around others when he/she is deep in thought, try to include the other characters in some way. If the POV character is thinking about something that the other characters can see, why not give voice to one of the other characters in between thought paragraphs?
If the character is alone when he/she is deep in thought, is there a way they can interact with their environment? Unless theyâre standing in front of a wall, they should be able to see, smell, feel or hear something.
If your character is absolutely, completely lost in thought, is there a way you can bring some sort of image into it? For example, on page 216 of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Katniss is thinking about how to treat a burn she receives. Almost the entire page is a paragraph describing a memory; however, there is still action in this memory and, therefore, there is something for the reader to imagine.
3. Not knowing when to/not to use said
Some people will tell you to use descriptive speech tags and others will tell you thereâs nothing wrong with said. Both are true, but when do you follow the former and when do you follow the latter? And when do you use no speech tags at all?
Using anything but said and using nothing but said both get exhausting and boring very fast.
Below is a rough guide to what kind of speech tag to use. Please bear in mind that it is only a guide and will not and should not apply to every situation.
Said is unobtrusiveâa way of letting the reader know whoâs talking without making a song and dance about it.
Specific verbs (e.g. whispered, shouted, mumbled) give the reader information about how the words are being said.
Adverbial tags can also give extra information about how something is being said, but more often than not they can be replaced with a stronger verb (e.g. she said loudly can be replaced with she shouted). Writers can also fall into the trap of telling where itâs better to show when using adverbial tags, which can make the writing bland. Sometimes telling is better, but with speech tags, itâs usually better to absorb the reader in the conversation. If youâve used an adverbial tag, go back and have a look at it. Is there a better way you could get the message across?
What you need to pay attention to when determining what speech tags to use is the context of the speech. If the reader is already aware of the manner in which a character is talking, it wonât be necessary to remind them every time the character speaks. If there are only two characters in the conversation, it wonât be necessary to finish each quote with he said/she said. Going back to #2, you can also do away with speech tags entirely and use action to demonstrate how a character is feeling, while also grounding the reader in the scene.
The key to avoiding repetition and blandness is to find a balance between using the unobtrusive said, using something more specific, and mixing it up with a bit of action, which means you might not even need a tag at all.
4. Too much description/overwriting
Sometimes itâs better to tell and not show. Some details just arenât important enough to warrant a lengthy description. If you want your reader to know that itâs raining, you can write something better than âIt was rainingâ, but thereâs no need to go overboard and write a poem about how the puddles on the asphalt looked like a great abyss.
Think of description like camera focus. The more you describe something, the more focus you put on it. If you put enough focus on something, you eliminate everything else. Whatâs this? A close-up. What does a close-up in a movie tell you? That object of the close-up is significant.
Be wary: when you write thirty words describing the way the moonlight is reflecting off the inky black lake, you might not be just setting the scene. You might also be giving the lake undue emphasis, and itâs probably going to irritate your reader when they realise thereâs nothing significant about the lake at all, you were just showing off your imagery skills.
Keep it real. What would the character notice, what would they think about it and is it worth the attention? And try not to focus on sight. Your characters have more than one way to perceive their environment, and incorporating their other senses can help build a 3D setting for your reader rather than just painting them a picture. Give the reader enough to imagine the scene, and no more.
5. Not knowing when to/not to use adverbs
Thereâs a lot of writing advice out there that will tell you to cut all adverbs. The result is that many writers now think adverbs exist only to eat their children and wouldnât dare to ever use one.
There is truth to the advice, but to say âThe road to hell is paved with adverbsâ? Really, Stephen King? And his dandelion analogy assumes thereâs no editing process.
Adverbs arenât evil, but there is such a thing as using them ineffectively. Which of the below are more descriptive?
She ran quickly or She sprinted
âItâs a long way down,â he said nervously or âItâs a long way down,â he said
He was shamefully prone to anxiety or He was prone to anxiety
She sprinted not only gets to the point faster, it also creates a more powerful image for the reader.
âItâs a long way down,â he said gives no indication of how the speaker is speaking or feeling; however, âItâs a long way down,â he said nervously is telling, not showing. Rather than using an adverb here, the writer could describe the speakerâs body language.
He was shamefully prone to anxiety tells you how the character feels about being prone to anxiety and there is no stronger word to replace âshamefully proneâ.
How would the meaning of the sentence change if the adverb was removed?
Can the adverb and verb be replaced by a single verb?
Does the action really need clarification?
Does the adverb add something to the sentence that canât be described in another way?
6. No conflict in the beginning
The first few chapters of a lot of stories Iâve read involve the main character plodding along in their daily life. This is a good thing as the reader needs to get a feel for your character before the big plot things happen, but that doesnât mean the first few chapters should be without conflict. I donât want to read about a character waking up, looking at themselves in the mirror, getting dressed, getting coffee, going to work, getting home, going on a date etc. for three chapters. Itâs boring and I donât care about any of it.
The confusion might be caused by common story structure theories that say the main conflict enters the story at the first plot point, or 25% into the story. But this doesnât mean there should be zero conflict at the beginning! At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Philosopherâs Stone Harry was told âno funny businessâ or heâd be grounded. Not long after that, there was some vanishing glass and an escaped boa constrictor. After this happened there was a mysterious letter addressed to Harry, and he spent an entire chapter trying to get hold of it as the weirdness escalated. Thereâs conflict and a goal right off the bat, and the story hasnât even really started yet. In The Hunger Games Katniss faces the Reaping. In The Hobbit Bilbo finds himself hosting a dinner party for dwarfs and being asked to go and fight a dragon.
Take a look at all the books youâve read. Most of them (if not all) start with some sort of problem or goal. Study up on this to help you realise what makes a good beginning.
Donât fill your first few chapters with characterisation and nothing else. Build your character in the context of a problem or goal.
Keep in mind that you find your characters more interesting than your reader does. What you like about your character might not be enough to keep the readerâs interest.
Whatâs going on in your characterâs life? How is this going to influence what happens when the conflict or story goal takes the stage?
What would happen if you cut your beginning out of the story? Would the plot still make sense? Maybe itâs better to start the story at a later point.
7. Lack of story structure
When you write a first draft, whether youâve planned it or not, there are going to be structural flaws. Maybe halfway through you thought of a way to solidify a characterâs motivation. Maybe at the climax you thought of a way to strengthen your conflict. Maybe somewhere in the middle you had no idea where you were going with this and slugged your way through some boring scenes. Itâs all good; this is how stories come together.
What should happen next is that you revise your draft with story structure in mind. Thereâll be a lot of âI should add a scene here about thisâ and âwhat was I thinking when I wrote that?â and after a few goes, youâll have a story.
Writers donât always do this though (which, by the way, makes my job take longer and cost more). Theyâll go through and fix all of the obvious problems, but what remains is a manuscript that still lacks a solid structure. Itâs messy to read, itâs confusing, itâs clearly not thought out, and it feels like the writer is giving me the finger. Iâll regret paying for the book, stop reading it and leave a negative review on Goodreads. Is that worth not giving your book a good edit?
Read a lot. Make sure you have a decent grasp on different story structures. Make sure you understand the way stories progress, the way theyâre paced and what keeps the reader engaged.
Re-outline. Or if you pantsed your way through the first draft, make an outline. Write a checklist for what each scene should accomplish and what each chapter should accomplish. Make a timeline of how the events progress and how the tension increases. Donât base this on what youâve written, base it on what youâve figured out about your plot.
Edit ruthlessly. If a scene doesnât measure up to your new plan, cut it. If itâs in the wrong place, move it.
