70 Solutions To Writing Mistakes

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BY BOB M
AYER
www.writersdigest.com
Cincinnati, Ohio
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About the Author
New York Times best-selling author Bob Mayer has
thirty-three books published under his own name
and the pen name Robert Doherty. Bob graduated
from West Point and served in the military as a Spe-
cial Forces A-Team leader and a teacher at the JFK
Special Warfare Center and School, experiences he
drew on to write Who Dares Wins: Special Forces Tac-
tics for Building the Winning A-Team. He also teaches
novel writing for colleges, workshops, and conferenc-
es, based on his Novel Writers Toolkit, published by
Writers Digest Books.
Bob has more than two million books in print, in-
cluding his latest novel, Dont Look Down, co-authored
with Jennifer Crusie. He lives on a barrier island o
the coast of South Carolina. For more information see
www.bobmayer.org or www.crusiemayer.com for the in-
famous He Wrote/She Wrote blog.
70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes 2007 by Bob Mayer. Manu-
factured in China. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information
storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher,
except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by
Writers Digest Books, an imprint of F+W Publications, Inc., 4700 East Gal-
braith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236. (800) 289-0963. First edition.
Visit our Web sites at www.writersdigest.com and www.wdeditors.com for in-
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11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1
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ISBN-13: 978-1-58297-442-2
ISBN-10: 1-58297-442-X
Edited by Kelly Nickell
Designed by Claudean Wheeler
Production coordinated by Mark Grin
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Part I: Habits
1. Not Starting ............................................................................10
2. Not Finishing ..........................................................................12
3. MisusingWriters Groups ......................................................14
4. Forgetting the Reader .............................................................16
5. Tinking Youre the Exception to the Rule ..........................18
6. Not Breaking Rules.................................................................20
7. An Unwillingness to Learn ....................................................22
8. Letting Your Ego Run Amok .................................................24
9. Not Understanding the Dierence Between
Craftsman and Artist ..............................................................25
10. Waiting for the Mood to Strike .............................................26
11. Not Managing Your Time Correctly .....................................28
12. Failing to Learn From the Masters ........................................30
Part II: The Idea
13. Not Having an Idea Tats Dierent Enough ......................32
14. Not Doing Enough Work Prior to Starting
Your Actual Writing ...............................................................34
15. Not Being Able to Succinctly Say
What Your Work Is About ....................................................36
16. Not Knowing What Your Teme/Intent Is .........................38
17. Not Knowing Who Your Audience Is ..................................40
18. Playing Out Your Personal Demons on the Page ................42
Part III: The Story/Plot
19. Not Having a Hook ................................................................44
20. Telling, Not Showing..............................................................45
21. Overusing Setup .....................................................................46
22. Not Having an Inciting Incident ...........................................48
23. Not Escalating the Conict....................................................50
24. Misusing Flashbacks and Memories .....................................52
25. Overplaying Emotions ............................................................54
26. Saying the Same Ting Over and Over ................................56
27. Lecturing the Reader ..............................................................57
Part IV: Scene & Structure
28. Writing Incidents, Not Scenes .............................................58
29. Using Bad Dialogue Tags .......................................................60
30. Handling Point of View Incorrectly ......................................61
31. Not Understanding the Limitations
of First-Person POV ..............................................................62
32. Failing to Create Substantial Conict ...................................64
33. Not Setting Your Scenes ........................................................66
Part V: Characters
34. Not Understanding Tat Character Is Preeminent ............68
35. Using Contrived Conict to Bring
Your Characters Together ......................................................70
36. Not Understanding Your Characters Motivations..............72
37. Making All Your Characters Sound and Act the Same ......74
38. Picking theWrong Character Names....................................75
39. Creating a Stagnant Protagonist ...........................................76
40. Creating a Weak Antagonist ..................................................78
41. Creating Too Many Characters .............................................80
42. Not Recognizing Your Characters Needs and Flaws ..........82
Part VI: Editing & Rewriting
43. Falling in Love With Your Bad Writing................................84
44. Overediting and Removing Subconscious Seeds .................85
45. Listening to Too Much Feedback ..........................................86
46. Not Moving On ......................................................................87
Part VII: Selling Your WOrk
47. Using the Copyright Symbol
and Other Subconscious Negatives ......................................88
48. Failing to Use Basic Formatting .............................................90
49. Choosing Bad Titles ...............................................................91
50. Writing a Bad Query Letter ...................................................92
51. Writing a Bad Synopsis ..........................................................93
52. Not Putting Together a Strong Nonction Proposal .........94
53. Not Knowing the Magazine Market .....................................96
54. Paying for an Agent to Read Your Work ..............................97
55. Not Using Rejection in a Positive Way .................................98
56. Comparing Your Book to a Best-Selling Work ................. 100
57. Stalking ................................................................................. 101
58. Buying In to the We-Tey Attitude ................................... 102
59. Writing for the Market ........................................................ 104
60. Taking Any Deal .................................................................. 106
Part VIII: THe Publishing Business
61. Staying Home ....................................................................... 108
62. Not Learning Patience ........................................................ 109
63. Not Sharing Your Knowledge and Expertise .................... 110
64. Not Using Conferences Correctly ...................................... 112
65. Not Staying Up-to-Date on the Business ......................... 114
66. Getting Scammed ................................................................ 116
67. Not Marketing Yourself and Your Book ............................ 118
68. Not Respecting Yourself as a Writer .................................. 120
69. Not Having a Professional Web Site ................................. 122
70. Quitting................................................................................. 124
10 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes
Habits
Part I: Habits 11
Not
Starting
Why this is a mistake: If you dont start you can never nish.
Completing any writing project, particularly a novel, is a daunting
prospect. Many people become frozen by the prospect. Others keep
waiting for the right time. Some wait for the spark of inspiration.
Even experienced writers nd it is easier to do anything other than
actually write.
Many people say, Ive always wanted to write a novel/how-to book/
nonction narrative/a magazine article. Teyre called wannabes. Dont
be a wannabe.
The solution: Start anywhere. While the opening line, page, and
chapter of a book is critical, remember you can always change the
opening upon rewriting. So after doing the correct preparations
(covered further on), pick the best possible start point at the mo-
ment and just begin writing. Te right time is now. Tis minute.
Te right time can be while sitting in the airport waiting for your
ight, which is where Im writing this.
You provide not only the
spark of inspiration,
but also the fuel to sustain it.
You cannot look outward
for these things. No one else is
going to make you write.
If you study successful writers, you will nd that many began writ-
ing at what appeared to be inopportune timesnot when all the stars
were lined up and things were perfect. Often they began writing when
the timing seemed the absolute worst. Tis might actually be the best
time to write. If you wait for the perfect time, it will never come.
So. Youve just started reading a book about writing mistakes. If you
have always wanted to write but have never written what you want to,
youve made the rst mistake and its easily correctable. Open a blank
Word document; grab a blank piece of paper and pencil (were not that
perfect); open a vein and start bleeding onto the page.
12 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes Part I: Habits 13
Why this is a mistake: Kind of obvious, isnt it? But starting a
project is so much more interesting than slugging through the en-
tire thing. Te middle section of any piece of writing, whether it be
a novel, narrative nonction, a magazine article, even a short story,
is almost always kind of hard to work on. Te excitement of gener-
ating the ideathe lure of the beginning, writing something new
isnt there, and the lure of the nishing line is as far away as the
shiver of the beginning.
Its always easy to get sidetracked by a new idea while youre in the
midst of working on something. Its also easy for a writer to do just
about anything other than write. Check e-mail, go out and walk the
dog, do laundry, take a nap, research, marketanything. Ive always
said the hardest aspect of the job of being a writer is writing.
Te Myers-Briggs personality test classies people as either process
oriented or result oriented. If you are a process person, you might have
a problem getting to the end of a project.
The solution: Suck it up. Keep those new ideas and exciting oth-
er projects at bay. For the professional writer who is under contract
this is a bit easier because you know your paycheck hangs in the bal-
ance, but even then, I know many authors who have a hell of a time
bringing a project in on deadline.
For the writer who isnt under contract this isnt quite the case. But
understand you wont ever get that contract if you dont nish a project.
If you are one of those people focused on the process and not the
end result, gure out a system whereby you can reward yourself by get-
ting to the end.
Make the end, make finishing,
part of the process.
What I mean by this is that you do not
allow yourself to move on
to another project, another
process, until you finish whatever
project you are currently
working on.
Te bottom line is simply forcing yourself to sit down and plug away
at it. Knocking out words regardless of how you feel. A one-hundred-
thousand-word novel might take a year or several years, and then you
just come to Te End one day. But it takes hundreds of days to get to
Te End. As a writer you have to put in those hundreds of days.
Not
Finishing
Why this is a mistake: Writing is a lonely profession. Many
writers ock to writers groups that meet in person every so often
or more so these days, online writers groups. Elsewhere Im going
to talk about the importance of networking, and writers groups can
be useful in that regard, but they can also be a negative inuence if
used improperly. In fact, if there are no professional writers in the
group, a writers group can be a case of the blind leading the blind.
Sometimes (often in some bad groups), if egos are not controlled,
the best writers are often torn down (either consciously, or more of-
ten, subconsciously) because they are a threat to the majority of the
other writers in the room. Also, people can waste valuable time get-
ting critiqued and critiquing rather than writing. For novel writers,
a group can be troublesome in that a novel is a very large and time-
consuming project, and a group can have a hard time keeping track
of such a large endeavor.
The solution: Be very particular with any group you decide to
join. It is very helpful if the group has at least one or two published
and professional writers in it to give some guidance and to keep it
on track. A group must have rules to help its members avoid de-
scent into unbridled hacking and slashing. One rule to follow is that
you cannot critique content, only style. What this means is that
whatever subject someone wants to write about is her business and
not open for judgment by the group. Another rule is to balance neg-
ative and positive comments. Another rule is to be specic about
comments, to not oer I just dont like it.
Balance the amount of time you spend
with a writers group against the
amount of time you spend writing, with
the majority toward the latter.
Also consider a small, tight group rather than a large group. Make
sure the group you are in is oriented toward your type of writing and
not scattered. When you go to writers conferences, consider the people
you meet there as possible writing partners, or as people with whom
you might form a small writing community, whether local or online.
If you are a member of a writers group, stop every so often and eval-
uate the eectiveness of the group with regard to your writing, both in
terms of creativity and business-wise. While the group might emotion-
ally fulll some need you have, is it fullling its true purpose?
(For tips on starting your own writers group, see Appendix F of
Te Mini Market Book.)
Misusing
Writers
Groups
Why this is a mistake: Te ultimate consumer of any form of
writing is the reader. Yet too often writers focus on people other
than the reader. Te biggest mistake a writer can make is focusing
on herself. Teres no point in writing something down for some-
one else to read if the only person you care about is yourself. Too of-
ten, writers end up telling their own story, thinly disguised as ction.
Tis is called the ctional memoir. Readers have their own lives
lives that are of much more interest to them than someone elses,
unless that other persons story is told in an exceptional manner or
is of an extraordinary nature. Sad to say, most peoples lives are not
as interesting as they think they are.
The solution: A writers job is to get something that is inside her
own head into the readers head through the sole medium of the
printed word. Tus the writer must focus on the words and the
aect those words are going to have on the readers thoughts and
emotions, particularly the latter.
No matter what type of
writing you are doing, you have to
remember how that
writing is received by the reader.
If you are a technical writer, consider how your information is being
processed by the readers brain. If you are writing an instruction man-
ual, have several people read what youve written as they try to follow
your instructions, and see if they can accomplish the task.
When writing ction, pretend you are the reader and that you
know nothing about the story other than what youve read from the
rst word of the rst sentence. Are you hooked? Is there escalating con-
ict? Suspense? Are you engaged with the characters of the story? Do
you want to know what happens next? Of course, you the author, care
about what youre writing. Te key is making the reader care.
Forgetting
the
Reader
Why this is a mistake: Tis is where things start to get sticky.
Too many beginning writers want to be artists before they learn the
craft of writing. Tey think they can do whatever they want because,
after all, its just writing. Tey go to the bookstore and see books
published in which, for example, the author uses no punctuation.
So, they believe, there are no rules.
Actually, there are rules. Tere are rules as far as grammar and punc-
tuation. Tere are also rules to craft. Tere are rules to the business. And
writers, especially those trying to break in, best not believe they are the
exception to the rules (even though, as you will see shortly, there are in-
deed exceptions to every rule).
Tere is a tendency for people to think most artists are overnight
successes. While there are some, they are the exception to the rule. But
you arent. Not yet.
The solution: Learn the rules. Accept that, initially, youre not go-
ing to be in a position to do much rule breaking. Accept that there
are reasons there are rules. Accept that those people who do strange
and bizarre things to draw attention to themselves, draw attention
to themselves that they really dont want to have.
Also accept that you dont know the full story behind the success-
es of those people who broke the rules. Tere is an inside story to ev-
erything, and when you get further into the business of writing, some-
times you learn that the rule-breakers were successful for reasons other
than the apparent ones.
Whatever type of writing
you want to be successful in, accept
that you need to work your
way up in the craft by learning the
basics, the rules. Writing
is like any other profession
in this way.
Thinking
Youre the
Exception
to the Rule
Why this is a mistake: It is a mistake to break a rule, and its
not a mistake. Youre not the exception to the rule until you know
the rule and have a reason to break the rule. Tus my three steps
of rule breaking, which Ill list in the solution. But rst, why would
you want to break a rule? Because, if youre like everyone else, youll
never stand out. If youve been trying to get published, in any for-
mat, sooner or later youre going to run into the classic rejection of:
We want something like X, but not X.
Try to make something new from
proven strategies and techniques.
Put your own unique spin and stamp
on things that have worked.
The solution: Tere are three steps to rule breaking. Te rst
is learn the rules. If you break a rule because you dont know its a
rule, thats simply called, putting it nicely, not being very smart. It
means you havent bothered to do the basic homework of learn-
ing the craft.
Te second step is to have a very good reason for breaking the rule.
Dont just break the rule because you have nothing better to do. Look
at the rules, study them. Ten gure out why you would want to do
things dierently.
Tird, and most important, accept the consequences of breaking
the rule. If it works, great. But most likely, it wont work. Ten you have
to pick up the pieces and start over again.
You have to eventually break rules to stand out from the crowd and
be successful in the world of publishing. You have to be unique. If you
examine the three steps, they are a career arc: learning the rules, which
is learning the craft. Having a reason to break the rule, which is mak-
ing a decision as an artist. Accepting responsibility, which is making a
career decision.
Not
Breaking
Rules
Why this is a mistake: Ive taught thousands of writers over the
years. Online; through correspondence courses; at workshops, con-
ferences, and retreats. I would have to say 95 percent of the par-
ticipants really didnt improve their writing very much. A good per-
centage of those, I believe, signed up for the instruction looking for
validation, not to learn. When they didnt get that validation, they
shut their minds down. Te rest thought they were there to ne-
tune their writing, not get the major overhaul they really needed.
For many others it was a case of not letting go of their preconceived
notions about their writing. Tey just were not open to learning.
More importantly, their minds were closed o to information and
concepts that did not align with their own. But heres the key: If
youre not where you want to be, you have to change. Change re-
quires being open-minded.
The solution: Every year, I learn many new things about writ-
ing. My opinions and view of various aspects of the craft undergo
tremendous changes as I listen to other writers, study the craft, and
try new things. I believe open-mindedness to be one of the most
critical character traits a writer must have in order to become bet-
ter and successful. One of the keys to open-mindedness is focusing
on things that you really object to or that make you angry when you
see or hear them. We build our greatest defenses around our great-
est weaknesses in all aspects of our lives, and that includes writing.
So when something that you hear in a workshop or conference real-
ly bothers you, put aside your negative emotions and really focus on
it with an open mind to see if perhaps youve just heard something
very important that will make you a better writer.
Never think you have it made.
Always be open to new information
and new ways of doing things.
If you do get published, become a teacher of writingnot only be-
cause you owe it to others to pass it on, but also because you will learn a
lot by explaining what you think you know to other people.
An
Unwillingness
to
Learn
Why this is a mistake: Too many beginning writers try to be
artists before they master the craft of writing. While in every gener-
ation there are some natural-born geniuses who can make that leap,
the vast majority of us have to toil away at learning the craft.
Tere are very few professions in which someone would expect to
walk in and be accepted at the highest levels right from the start. Yet,
for some reason, people think writing is a profession in which amateurs
can enter right at the top levels.
The solution: Learn the craft of writing. First and foremost,
learn it by writing a lot. Tere is no substitute for actually doing
something in order to learn it. Ten get feedback from those who
know more about the craft than you do, either through a network
of friends, a writers group, a writing retreat, a writing conference,
a mentor, whatever you can nd. An MFA (master of ne arts) in
creative writing is another possibility, although usually the focus in
those programs is more on literary writing.
Why this is a mistake: Too many people want what they envi-
sion being a writer is, as opposed to what being a writer really is.
Tey envision the book racked in the store, the book signing, being
at a party and saying Im an author. Te reality is that 99 percent
of an authors life consists of writing. Sitting alone with pad and pa-
per or in front of a computer and creating something out of nothing.
Tere is very little ego-stroking involved in being a writer, since the
majority of a writers life involves working alone.
The solution: Being a writer is about the writing, not the end re-
sult of writing. Pretty much every published author I know dreads
events such as book tours and agent/editor meetings. Focus on the
process of being a writer, not the trappings of being a writer. Te
reality is not all it appears to be. Do not try to take shortcuts to get-
ting published or to misrepresent yourself or to cheat. One thing to
remember about getting published in any format: Te printed word
is out there for anyone to see and double-check, so any shortcuts
taken will come back to haunt you.
Being a writer is about creating, through words, a construct that
comes alive in readers minds. Yet the reader is always separate from
the writer. Terefore, the writer has to be satised with sitting alone 99
percent of the time with just the creating.
Letting Your
Ego
Run Amok
Not
Understanding
the Difference
Between Craftsman
and Artist
The solution: Write. Tat sounds simple, but writers will go to
amazing lengths to do anything other than the one thing the job ti-
tle requires them to do. One of the greatest curses for writers is the
Internet. When I taught martial arts, my students moods were of
no concern to me, and I think its the same way with writing. If you
force yourself to write, regardless of what you feel, you will begin to
see that what you create is of the same quality, no matter your mood.
Also, youll nd that as you make it a habit to write more and more,
those other habits that kept you from writing will go away and you
will become more ecient.
While writing is an emotional
business, it is still a business, and you
have to treat it as such.
Just as people in pretty much every
other business have to get
up and go to work regardless of what
they feel like when the schedule
calls for it, so does a writer.
Sometimes you just have to grind it out. Also, there are other as-
pects of the business of writing besides writing that you can do if the
muse has truly deserted you. Tere is research to be done, marketing,
making sure your business records are in order, teaching, conferences,
notes to be put in order, presentations to be updated, outlines to be
prepared for future books, previous books to be edited, etc.
Why this is a mistake: While writing is an emotional art form, it
is also a business. Too many people, when they are rst starting out,
think its all about working when the mood is right. Tey might be
waiting a very long time. Most writers Ive talked to say that what
they write when the mood is right is pretty much the same as what
they write when the mood isnt. While a large part of a writers work
consists of thinking, a writer isnt paid for those thoughts. A writer
is paid for the words that are written.
Waiting
for the
Mood to
Strike
The solution: If you want to be a writer, you have to make writ-
ing important enough that you take time away from activities that
arent as important. Sit down and write out your daily routine. Look
at where you can stop doing something, such as watching TV, and
make that prime writing time. Many successful authors made their
time at one end or the other of their day. Tey got up an hour ear-
lier or went to be an hour later and used that slice of time to write.
Some people write on the train during their commute to and from
work. Some people use their lunch hour.
The bottom line is that if you
want to be a writer bad enough,
you will make the time.
Why this is a mistake: Time is the most valuable asset you have.
One of the biggest excuses people make for not writing is that they
dont have enough time. Yet most people never examine the way
they really use their time.
While time is the greatest and most valuable asset we all have, it is
also the thing we waste with the greatest disregard. Its easy to say Live
each day as if it were your last, but thats actually not good advice for a
writer who knows she needs a year to write a novel. Shed stop writing
and go out and run in the sand at the local beach. What a writer needs
to do is prioritize her writing over distractions. A writer needs to make
a decision about where writing ts in the big picture of her life, and
then act upon that priority. You cant just say you want to be a writer;
you have to live like you are a writer.
Not
Managing
Your Time
Correctly
ter writers. Break their work down and examine the structure. Ask
yourself why the author did everything she did. I once picked a
week and read the fteen books that were currently on the New
York Times best-seller list, regardless of genre and whether I liked
them or not, simply to learn. And I learned a lot. If something is
successful, study it, regardless of how you feel about it. Tat doesnt
mean you have to do what that person is doing, but it does mean
you have to understand what that person is doing.
Note that I read current books. While studying the canon of litera-
ture is good, classics from the past might not be so applicable to the
twenty-rst-century world of publishing.
Do this not only with writing, but with any type of art that comes
close to your own. As a novel writer, I study movies, their similarities to
novels, and their dierences from novels. If I were a newspaper reporter,
I think it would behoove me to study lm journalism.
Study not only the craft, but
the artists themselves.
Read biographies of their lives in order to understand how they ap-
proached their art and also how their careers progressed. Also study
how they approached the business.
Why this is a mistake: I suppose there are some people who
come out of the womb as natural-born writers (but if you really
study the truly gifted writers, you will learn that even they spent
great amounts of time and energy on learning their craft and art).
Ten there are the rest of us. We have to learn the craft. While there
are many ways to learn the craft, one of the best is often the most
overlooked by aspiring writers: learning from those who have mas-
tered it already.
The solution: Have you ever gone into a museum and noticed all
those art students seated in front of the classic paintings, sketch-
ing them? Writers should be no dierent. Study the works of bet-
Failing
to Learn
From the
Masters
The Idea
Part II: The Idea 33
Why this is a mistake: Tere is an inherent catch-22 in writ-
ing: You have to learn the craft of writing, yet if you follow the
rules of the craft too closely, you become like everyone else who
can read an instruction manual. Every idea, pretty much every
story, has been done before. Elsewhere I mention the value of
studying those who have mastered the craft of writing. Tats all
well and good, but sooner or later, youre going to have to put your
own stamp on your writing.
In the same manner, too many writers are concerned about whats
hot now and whats selling now. Te problem with this line of thinking
is twofold. Whats hot now is a ship that has already sailedanything
you sell now will have to be hot a year from now. And what will be sell-
ing a year from now is anybodys guess. Usually, its good writing.
The solution: Look inside yourself and nd your own passion
and creativity. Apply that passion and creativity to learning the craft
and then putting your own spin on things. Tere is no one else out
there who is you. Tis is how you become dierent enough. By be-
ing you. No one else has lived your life and has had your experienc-
es and possesses your brain.
Put your own experiences
into your writing, even if just in
the form of a unique
point of view, and youll make your
writing stand out from
everyone elses.
Not Having
an Idea
Thats
Different
Enough
34 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes Part II: The Idea 35
Why this is a mistake: Too often writers jump into their project
before doing the necessary groundwork, and they end up with a mess.
Revising can only do so much. Sometimes starting writing too quick-
ly can leave you with a project that cant be saved and waste a lot of
your time and energy. Its easier to pick the best point of view for your
story before writing. Its easier to gure out your characters backsto-
ries and primary motivators before writing. Its easier to develop and
understand the antagonists plan before writing. Get the picture?
Many of the mistakes listed here can be avoided prior to starting
your writing.
The solution: Tink through what youre going to do before you
do it. For every action you plan to take, ask yourself why, and make
sure you have a good reason. Numerous writing books oer check-
lists for things like characters, but you actually almost need a check-
list for the entire writing project, covering all aspects of it, making
sure you know what you plan to do and why you plan to do it.
Look at all aspects of the
craft of writing and make conscious
decisions on as much as
possible before you write the first
page of your manuscript.
This will save a great amount of
work later on.
Ultimately (and many new writers cringe to hear this) the best
preparation for whatever form of writing you dowhether novel,
short story, or articleis to create a practice form of that writing, toss
it in a drawer, and then move on to another. For a novel writer, this is a
particularly hard thing to hear.
Not Doing
Enough Work
Prior to
Starting
Your Actual
Writing
Not Being
Able to
Succinctly
Say What
Your Work
Is About
Why this is a mistake: In my experience, people who cannot ef-
fectively summarize their work usually have a project that has no fo-
cus. Have you ever started a novel and gotten lost halfway through?
Have you ever written a full-length feature article only to realize
at the end that a tangential side note took over your piece around
word 562? If so, then you probably didnt have a rm grasp on your
starting point and a clear concept of how to get to your intended
ending. Big mistake.
The solution: When you begin a new writing project, sit down
and write out the original creative idea from which that project
originated. Print it out and tape it somewhere in your oce where
you can see it every time you work on the project. It will keep you
on track. A novel, for example, is a very long, slow journey full of
many surprising twists and turns. Along that journey it is very easy
to get lost. To have a subplot overwhelm your main plot. To have
your protagonist react in a manner that distracts from the story line.
To have your research overwhelm your topic of choice.
Having that original idea
in black and white, right where
you can see it, will keep you
on the right path.
Why this is a mistake: Teme or intent is the emotion you
want readers to feel when they are nished with whatever you have
written. No matter how objective you are, even if you are writing a
newspaper article, your emotions are going to come through in your
writing. If you are not aware of this, then they come through sub-
consciously and you can end up evoking in your reader a theme you
didnt intend.
Often, the theme in the works of a new writer comes out of the
blind spot of his character, which means its often a negative theme,
which might not be what he really wants to convey.
The solution: Teme comes out most clearly in the resolution of
the novel, which is the last scene. So if you dont know what the
theme is before you write the book, at the very least, check it out af-
ter youve nished the rst draft. But, of course
its best to know your theme before
you start your writing
project, whatever it might be, so
that the whole of your
writing supports that intention.
If you dont have a handle on your theme before starting, you can
end up contradicting yourself in your own writing and confusing your
readers. Also, while you dont have to have a positive theme, ask your-
self whether people prefer feeling positive or negative.
Not
Knowing
What Your
Theme/
Intent Is
Why this is a mistake: Too often writers disconnect from the
people on the other side of the writing (the readers); theres a break-
down in eective communication.
Acquiring editors are
extremely in tune with who their
target audience is, so it
behooves you, as the would-be writer,
to keep this is mind.
Every type of written material is geared toward a certain type of
reader. A technical writer has to know who the consumer of the man-
ual would be. A writer for a magazine has to know what demographic
that magazine targets. Genre ction writers should know what type of
readers gravitate toward that genre.
The solution: Study the end-product of your target publication,
or the best-sellers of your chosen genre. If you want to write for
magazines, study those magazines, their advertisers, and their core
demographics. As a novelist, I go to bookstores and simply sit there
and watch people who wander the stacks. Try it sometime. Watch
how people select books. What stops them? What catches their
eye? Is it the cover designs? Titles? Te back cover copy that suc-
cinctly tells them what the story is about? Go online and watch chat
groups of readers. See how they discuss books and how they feel
about what they read. Always, always think about your audience,
what they are reading and what they want to read.
Not
Knowing
Who Your
Audience Is
Why this is a mistake: Many psychologists and counselors ad-
vise their patients to keep a journal. To record their day-to-day ac-
tivities and the way they feel about what happens. To delve into
their life and their past and record events and their feelings about
those events.
Unfortunately, too many people consider this to be a novel. Tey
write a story about themselves and then think the rest of the world will
be fascinated. Te problem with this is that everyone has his own story.
Why would he want to read about someone elses story?
Te other problem with writing your story is that you are ctional-
izing fact. You are in essence writing what I call the ctional memoir. If
your memoir is so important, then write it as memoir. If it needs to be
ctionalized, then it probably isnt that important to start with.
Another problems with ctionalizing your memoir is that when
you get editorial feedback you will resist changing anything, using the
infamous comment of but thats not what happened. And the edi-
tor will say: But its a novel, so you can change anything you want.
And you will reply: But thats not what happened. And around and
around it will go.
The solution: If you have to do the personal demon novel, write
it fast, get it out of your system, and unless it superlatively writ-
ten, throw it in a drawer and move on and write a book that is
outward oriented.
Once more, this is a case of thinking about the reader and not the
writer. Your goal as the author is to entertain and inform the reader,
not to burden the reader with the trials and tribulations of your life.
Franklyand this is one of the things that agents and editors have to
bite their tongues to keep from saying during their one-on-one ses-
sions during conferencesmost peoples life stories are not interesting
enough to ll out a novel.
Playing Out
Your
Personal
Demons
on the Page
The Story/Plot
Part III: The Story/Plot 45
Not Having
a Hook
Why this is a mistake: If you dont hook the reader, she will stop
reading, which means your career as a writer will be a short one. It
doesnt matter what kind of writing you do. A newspaper reporter
has to hook a reader within a few words. A novelist within a few
pages. It does appear that peoples attention spans are getting short-
er, so hooking your reader early is becoming even more important.
Whatever eld of writing you are in, you are competing with a lot of
other media for the readers attention.
The solution: A hook is emotional, as well as intellectual. Te
Da Vinci Code had a great intellectual hook in its opening chapter:
a puzzle that drew readers in. You need something in your opening
that will grab the reader.
Go to a bookstore and walk to the new ction section. Pick up the
hardcovers and read the opening pages. See how many of those hook
you with just the rst page. Examine why those pages hook you. Exam-
ine which ones dont hook you and ask why not. Is it the setting? Te
characters? Te writing? See how the opening scene in each book ends.
How does the author draw you in and keep your drawn into the book?
If you want to write an article or essay, look through magazines and lit-
erary journals and read pieces similar to the one youre working on. Study
each piece and think about what draws you, as well as what turns you o.
Telling,
Not
Showing
Why this is a mistake: Tis is the classic writing instructors
line: Show, dont tell. Telling is easy. Its appropriate if you are a
newspaper reporter or a technical writer, or if you are writing an in-
struction manual. If your job is simply to tell the facts, then tell. But
telling is rarely entertaining, and most forms of creative writing are
designed to be entertaining.
The solution: Tink of the maxim Actions speak louder than
words. Te same is true when you write. Dont rely on exposition to
convey the crucial parts of your story. Instead, use action to illustrate
dramatic moments and infuse your scenes with tension and emotion.
46 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes Part III: The Story/Plot 47
The solution: Tere is a maxim in screenwriting: Start as far into
the action as possible. You can always layer in backstory later, when
the reader really needs to know the information in order to under-
stand what is going on.
Look at what Frank Herbert does in his classic book, Dune. He
invents an entire new universe for his book, but he doesnt start out
the book by explaining this universe to the reader. Instead, he starts
out small, hooks the reader with the protagonist, conict, and action,
and then explains the pieces of his universe only when the reader ab-
solutely needs the information in order to understand what comes
next in the story. For example, Herbert has space travel in his story.
However, he does not explain space travel to the reader until the mo-
ment when his protagonist gets on board a spaceship. Tat is the ap-
propriate time to explain it.
Only give the reader
information when she absolutely
needs it to understand
character and storyand not before.
Overusing
Setup
Why this is a mistake: Setup is not story. History is not story.
Too many novice writers feel like they need to setup everything be-
fore they start the story. If you do this, the reader will quickly be-
come bored and never get to the story. Te reader wants action and
conict, not pages of tedious backstory.
Tis is true not only of a book, but of a scene. Every time you show
your character waking up, driving some place, going somewhere, do-
ing anything that in no way contributes any tension, ask yourself if it is
necessary or if it can be cut.
Because human beings rarely seek out
change for the sake
of change, and readers know this.
Readers want to
know the why behind the change.
The solution: Readers need to clearly see the event that starts
the action of the story. However, this pivotal event does not neces-
sarily need to be the rst event of the book. Keep in mind that its
even possible for inciting events to occur long before the start of the
book. In J.R.R. Tolkiens Lord of the Rings trilogy, for instance, the
Ring was around for a very long timewell before Frodo Baggins
was even born. In fact, the inciting incident for the trilogy actually
occurs when Bilbo nds the ring in Te Hobbit.
Te thing is, though, you have to have a clear handle on what this
event is before you start writing. If you dont really know what event
kicks o your story and causes your protagonists life to turn upside
down, then how are readers supposed to gure it out?
Why this is a mistake: Te inciting incident is the event that up-
sets the protagonists everyday world. Te resulting story, then, is an
attempt to restore the natural order. At the end of the book, the old
order will be brought back, or a new order will be established.
Novice writers often fail to create an inciting incident to get their
story moving. Too often, their characters just wake up one day and de-
cide to change their lives or do things dierently on a whim. Tis will
strike astute readers as false and unrealistic. Why?
Not
Having an
Inciting
Incident
The solution: Make things grow more dicult for both the pro-
tagonist and the antagonist. Many writers forget to up the stakes for
the antagonist by focusing too much on the protagonist. Te pro-
tagonist and antagonist are locked in conict, and the stakes must
grow more important to both of them as the story progresses. Ask
yourself what happens if each of them loses. What if your protago-
nist fails? What if your antagonist fails? As the book goes on, they
both become more invested in what they are doing, so that failure
becomes more and more unacceptable.
A bonus: Escalating
conflict also causes readers to
become more and more
emotionally invested in your
characters.
Another way to escalate conflict is to make what seems like a
good thing turn out to be a bad thing and vice versa. This is much
like real life. Weve all had this happen to us. You win the lottery.
Good thing, right? So you buy a sports car. Then you crash it and
end up in a hospital. Bad thing, right? But then you meet this doc-
tor. Marry him/her. Good thing, right? But then he/she is a serial
killer. Bad thing, right? And so on.
Why this is a mistake: Not only must every scene in a story have
conict, but the level of conict must continue to escalate through-
out the course of the story. Too often, writers open with a great
hook to a story that only goes downhill. To keep the reader engaged,
the stakes for the protagonist and antagonist must rise, leading up
to the nal conict in the climactic scene.
Writers often get lost in backstory, ashbacks and memories, and
dialogue, leading to an overall loss of conictand reader interestas
they get further into the story.
Not
Escalating
the Conflict
author had put the story into a ashback inside of a memory, inside of
another memory, inside of ashback. Tats not good.
The solution: Make sure you have a very good reason for using
ashbacks or memoriesthey must be essential to understanding
the present story.
Also make sure you know whether you need a ashback or a memory,
as each will be written dierently and interpreted by the reader dier-
ently. A ashback requires a verb-tense transition, whereas a memory re-
quires an action transition. Using clear transitions will ensure that read-
ers know when they are entering and leaving a ashback or memory.
Remember: The reader usually
wants to know whats
going to happen next, not what
already happened.
Why this is a mistake: Flashbacks and memories are not wrong
in and of themselves, but they are often used wrongly. Time, for
most of us, is linear and moves forward. In the same manner, time in
a story or article is linear and moves forwardbecause thats what
people naturally understand and expect. When you use a ashback
or a memory, then, you are going against the natural ow of things.
(Many writers dont understand the dierence between a ashback
and a memory. If youve ever been divorced, you will understand the dif-
ference. A ashback is a portrayal of what actually happened. A memo-
ry is what someone remembers happening. A memory is tainted by ev-
erything that happened after the event and by a persons emotions.)
Many writers fail to make it very clear to the reader when they have
entered a ashback or a memory. I once read a manuscript in which the
Misusing
Flashbacks
and
Memories
The solution: In real life most peopleunless they are very dra-
maticare pretty stable and have a basic emotion that isnt easily
swayed or changed by external events.
A fictional character
can undergo an emotional change in
one scene, but it has to
be a natural emotional shift from A
to B, not from A to D, to C,
to X, to B.
Give your character a basic core emotion for each scene. Ten, if
her emotions are going to change, use a specic action to facilitate that
change, and make it clear to the reader why they, too, would change
their emotion in response to that action.
Try to visualize the characters as real people, with their scenes play-
ing out right in front of you. How would you feel if you saw this hap-
pening? Would you be calling for the men in the white coats to take
your characters away?
Why this is a mistake: Have you ever been forced to watch awk-
ward public displays of aection when you wished you were some-
place else or just wanted to tell someone to go get a motel room?
Novice writers tend toward hyperbole in order to make sure the
reader gets it, and this can lead to the creation of characters who always
overreact. Characters whose emotions go with the wind are constantly
reacting to a given scene. Tey might enter the scene smiling and in a
good mood. Ten something happens and they become angry. Ten
they hear something and laugh. Ten they see something and become
sad. Ten someone says something that triggers a childhood memory
and they cry. Ten someone walks by and theyre in love, and all of this
occurs in four pages. Tis, needless to say, is very unrealistic; the reader
knows this isnt a real character with real feelings.
Overplaying
Emotions
Lecturing
the Reader
Why this is a mistake: No one likes to be lectured. Not even in
school, where they pay to be lectured. Tink back to your favorite
teachers. Did they tell or show? Readers buy ction to be enter-
tained. Tey buy others forms of writing to be informed, but they
usually want that information to come in a format that is palatable
and easily digestible or, even better, entertaining. Too often writers
see ction as a vehicle for disseminating their views on some subject,
and they plainly lecture the reader on those views.
The solution: Entertain the reader. Layer any themes and intent
inside of an entertaining story. Show, dont tell, and let the reader
interpret what he wants from that showing. Te best writing keeps
the reader thinking long after she is done with the story. Tis type
of writing works on several levels: It works on a base level of pure
entertainment. And then it works on a more contemplative level,
causing the reader to think things through and consider the charac-
ters actions and choices.
Saying the
Same Thing
Over and Over
Why this is a mistake: Te reader gets it the rst time, yet many
new writers dont understand this. A fact, a characters emotion, a
key clue, or an element of foreshadowingnew authors are tempt-
ed to pound the information home again and again to make sure
the reader gets it. But the key word there is pound. Readers dont
like to be pounded. Te rst time someone reads something, she
gets it. Te second time, shell gure its really important. Te third
time, shell start to get irritated.
The solution: Trust your readers. Tey understand that every-
thing they read has signicance. Remember, too, that if you overem-
phasize something, youre downplaying other aspects of your book.
Everything in a book, every little detail, must serve some purpose
(hopefully several purposes).
Beating the reader to death with repetition can give away the im-
portant clue in your murder mystery, or your antagonists plan in your
thriller, or other key plot points. If you dont beat these key plot points
to death, the reader wont be able to discern which of all the plot points
are the key ones, and which are the red herrings.
Scene & Structure
Part IV: Scene & Structure 59
Why this is a mistake: Too often, novice writers feel like they
are losing the reader if they arent constantly barraging the reader
with new scenes; the scenes become so short that they are no longer
scenes, but incidents.
Tere are several problems with this. Barraging the reader with short
scenes/incidents disrupts the narrative ow of the story. Te reader feels
overwhelmed by a storm of short incidents. You cant keep a story con-
stantly ramped upa reader needs to decompress every now and then.
The solution: Slow down. Storytelling is the oldest profession.
Once you hook the reader, take him along for the ride. A scene is
a complete unit of conict. It has its own protagonist, antagonist,
start point, escalating conict, climax, and resolution. In eect, a
scene is almost a mini-book. If a scene has no conict, then it isnt a
scene and needs to be discarded.
A scene must serve a purpose
within the entirety of the novel.
When approaching a scene, dont concern yourself so much with
what is going to be in the scene, but rather with what purpose it serves
in advancing the plot and developing character.
Writing
Incidents,
Not
Scenes
60 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes Part IV: Scene & Structure 61
Why this is a mistake: Tink of point of view like the camera
position in a lm. If POV is handled badly, readers wont know
from which perspective they are viewing the scene, and they could
become disoriented. A disoriented reader is an unhappy reader.
The solution: Make sure readers know what the POV is. Lets go
back to the camera analogy. Pretend youre the lm director. Where
are you putting the camera to lm the scene? When considering
how to tell your story, the rst thing you have to do is select a point
of view (or multiple points of view). Tis may be the most critical de-
cision after you have your original idea.
Once youve made your choice, your next challenge is to keep the
readers oriented as to which camera they are seeing the scene through.
Tis is especially important if youre using multiple viewpoints. In a lm,
a cut is a change of camera position; in a story, the end of a scene marks
any change in POV. Readers have got to know from whose point of view
they are viewing the scene. Lose that clarity and you lose your readers.
Using Bad
Dialogue
Tags
Why it is a mistake: A large percentage of real-life communi-
cation is nonverbal. Yet as a writer all you have is words. So new
writers tend to try to make up for the lack by using strong dialogue
tags (those words that indicate who is speaking). We nd people
in books doing a lot of shrieking, mumbling, murmuring, shouting,
etc. Tese words are jarring to the reader, especially if you use them
more than once. You cannot smile, sigh, or frown a line of speech.
The Solution: Said is a word that is noted but not noticed. Read-
ers ick across said, know it indicates who is speaking, and it doesnt
jar them. Make sure the dialogue tag accompanies the rst sentence
of a paragraph of dialogue. Dont wait until the end of the para-
graph, making the reader wade through the entire thing before nd-
ing out who was doing all the talking.
Other techniques for identifying the speaker are showing action (sep-
arated from the dialogue with a period), and referring to the setting.
Handling
Point of View
Incorrectly
you surrender part of your control in writing. Remember, the rst-per-
son narrator is not you the author, but rather the character in the story.
Note there are certain genres that t rst person very well, most par-
ticularly mysteries/detective stories. Tats logical if you understand the
advantages of rst person: By using this mode, you can bring the reader
along for the ride, disclosing clues as the narrator discovers them.
Another major disadvantage of rst person is that your narrator has
to be present in every scene. Because of this, many writers make their
narrator the protagonist. Te narrator will then be a critical part of
the plot and have many things happen to and around him. Will he be
able to react realistically while still telling the story in a coherent form?
Will he be able to continue narrating in the face of an emotionally over-
whelming event?
Can you get your narrator to all the key events in order to narrate
them? Inexperienced writers can create very convoluted and unrealistic
plots in an attempt to do just that. If the narrator isnt present at these
important scenes, then he has to nd out about them by other means,
which can reduce suspense and the immediacy of the action in the story.
Some authors use a narrator who isnt one of the main characters
a detached narrator. Te detached narrator is more of an observer. Tis
has some advantages. Tink of the Sherlock Holmes storieswho is
narrating? Watson. Why? Because this allows Conan Doyle to with-
hold what Holmes is thinking from the audience.
Why this is a mistake: Many novice writers drift toward rst-
person POV because they think it is the easiest, when in reality it is
the most dicult voice to write in.
The solution: First person means you use the word I quite a bit.
It is giving the camera to one character and letting that character
lm a documentary while doing a voiceover.
Te advantage of this POV is that it allows the narrator to tell his
own story. Te major disadvantage is that the reader can only see and
know what the narrator knows. Te narrator can be a witness or a par-
ticipant in the story. You, as the author, are absent in this mode, thus
Not
Understanding
the Limitations
of First-Person
POV
Why this is a mistake: Without conict, the reader doesnt
care. Its that simple. While we may smile at the image of the hap-
py couple sitting on the park bench holding hands, our attention
will quickly wander away from them. Tey wont engage us. Every
scene of a novel, every short story, even every article must have dra-
ma, and drama revolves around conict. And what does conict re-
volve around?
Conflict revolves around differ-
ing motivations in your characters.
The solution: Tere are essentially three types of conict: inner,
which is inside of a person; personal, which is between people; and
universal, which is a person battling the system, the government,
the world, the gods.
Dene your scenes by Character A versus Character B. If you cant
do that, Houston, we have a problem. Conict doesnt have to be es-
pecially violent or signicant. It can be as simple as two characters dis-
agreeing over what color paint to select for their bedroom. But that
conict can then be symbolic of deeper conict in the relationship. Al-
ways consider layers to your conict.
Failing to
Create
Substantial
Conflict
The solution: Within the rst few paragraphs of a new scene, you
should orient the reader to several things:
Who is in the scene? Let the reader know what characters
are on stage. Dont have secret agents. Dont have a charac-
ter lurking about who suddenly speaks three pages into the
scene, shocking the reader.
Where is this scene? If its a new locale, give the reader a feel for
the new locale. If its a location the reader has seen before, let
the him know if anything has changed.
When is this in relation to the previous scene? Has there been a
time lag? How much? What time of day is it? If its outdoors,
what is the weather like? If its indoors, what is the lighting?
What point of view is the reader seeing this scene from? Te
POV aects how the reader views the scene.
Why this is a mistake: A movie or a play has a physical set for
the audience to see; all a writer has to work with are words. Too
many writers, because they can see their settings in their own heads,
assume the reader does too, and therefore dont bother to actually
set their scenes. Or they think scene-setting is just a matter of de-
scribing the physical environment to the reader.
You have to establish more than the main setting of the story; there
are settings for each scene. Every time you move the story to a new
scene, you have to orient the reader very quickly. Some authors wait too
long to do this or never do it, and the reader feels like he is oating in
some featureless void with the characters.
Not
Setting
Your
Scenes
Characters
Part V: Characters 69
Why this is a mistake: Tink of your favorite book. What do
you remember about it? Te plot, or the characters? I would be
willing to bet its the characters. Yet too many writers focus on the
plot of their stories, emphasizing it to the detriment of their char-
acters. When they pitch their story, the focus is on plot or situation,
rather than character. But since all stories have been done, its going
to be dicult to stand out doing this.
The solution: Focus on character. Understand that your protag-
onist and your antagonist (and to a lesser extent your supporting
characters) are going to be what makes your story unique. Te story
you are going to write has indeed been done before. But your char-
acters have not necessarily been done inside of that story. Its that
combination which will make you unique.
If you look at the books
that sell and stand out, most of them
have very unique characters.
Their protagonists have unusual
backgrounds, quirks in
their personalities that draw
the reader in.
Tere is something about them that quickly engages the readers
empathy. Te great antagonistsHannibal Lecter, for instancealso
draw the readers emotions.
When you think about pitching your book, consider what you are
leading with: Is it story or character? Optimally it should be both, but
if you have to emphasize one, it should be character.
Not
Understanding
That
Character
Is Preeminent
70 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes Part V: Characters 71
Why this is a mistake: Jennifer Crusie, a novelist (and my co-
author on Dont Look Down), sums up contrived conict as: I hate
you. I hate you. I love you. One of the problems of the heroine-as-
protagonist, hero-as-antagonist plot is that he cant be horrible, or
why would she love him? Tis leads to wimpy conicts like the ones
romance novelist Teresa Hill describes as rudeness and minor mis-
understandings. Its so annoying, and the characters just come o
seeming unhappy or spiteful or mean.
Example: Te hero and heroine meet in an airport ghting over the
same unlabeled bag from the carousel. Instead of recognizing that both
have a reason for grabbing it and nding a solution, like seeing whose
key ts the lock, he assumes shes a thief, she assumes hes a bozo who
doesnt know what his own bag looks like, and they each treat a strang-
er so rudely that I dont want to spend a book with these people. Add
to that the TDTL (too dumb to live) heroine who picks a ght or goes
out into the dark night to see what all the screaming is about, and you
have the basics of contrived conict.
The solution: Go back to basic conict analysis. Who is your
protagonist? What does she need above all things? What must she
have to protect her sense of self? Who is the antagonist? What does
he need above all things? What must he have to protect his sense of
self? How do their needs cross each other, bring them into a direct
conict from which they cannot resign? How does each characters
move to achieve the goal make the other characters life more di-
cult, make the others goal more distant?
Conict is not people arguing on the page, conict is people strug-
gling with goals that are huge and vital to them, and by extension, to the
reader who cares about the people.
Conflict is inherent in your
characters, not created by situation.
And its the key to
the success of your story.
Using
Contrived
Conflict to
Bring Your
Characters
Together
Why this is a mistake: If you dont understand your characters
motivations, the characters will inevitably become cardboard cut-
outs to the reader, there only to enact the authors desire to make
the plot work.
Readers want to empathize with the characters, and they have a
hard time doing that with characters they dont believe in. When char-
acters act out of character, readers just cant believe in them.
The solution: Before you begin writing, make sure you under-
stand your characters motivations, particularly each characters
primary motivator. Once these are locked into place, you no longer
control your characters. Tey are going to act and react like real
people. Sometimes they may surprise even you, the author, with
their actions.
Be aware that your
subconscious might even plant seeds
in your characters
that sprout as the story develops.
Remember that your characters are not on Maslows fth level of
self-actualization; they have their own blind spots and subconscious
motivations. Sometimes even your characters are not consciously aware
why they are doing what they are doing. While they might consciously
put forth one reason for their actions, subconsciously they have a dif-
ferent reason. Tis underlying reason usually boils to the surface as the
conict in the story escalates, making for more conict and drama.
Not
Understanding
Your
Characters
Motivations
Why this is a mistake: Because you are writing all your char-
acters, its easy to make them all seem very similar to one another.
Tey tend to talk alike, and their points of view seem to be the same.
Tis is because most people have a hard time getting out of them-
selves and into their characters. Your reader must feel that the char-
acters in your story are distinct.
The solution: Use real people (with details changed), archetypes,
templates, proling, or any other approach that breaks people down
into dierent types. Once you have created distinct characters, make
sure you dont start melding them together inside of the plot.
To ensure every characters dialogue is distinctive, highlight each
characters dialogue with a dierent color. Ten read each color one at a
time to check for consistency.
Picking the
Wrong
Character Names
Why this is a mistake: Readers have to remember your characters
names. Not just remember them, but be able to tell characters apart
from each other. Te reader shouldnt trip over a name every time
she reads it. For example, in your science-ction novel, dont give the
alien antagonist a name consisting of fourteen consonants that could
never be pronounced. In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolk-
ien kept all the names relatively short and easy to pronounce, even
though he had invented a fantasy world and fantasy creatures.
The solution: As weve discussed, give names only to characters
who are important to the story, and make sure each name you do
use ts the character. If you have a hard character, then the name
should be hard. Private investigators tend to have names that you
bounce o of. A seductress would have a name that draws you in.
Try to avoid giving dierent characters names that start with the
same letter unless you have a specic reason for doing so. It wasnt by
chance that Tolkien picked the names Sauron and Saruman. Te latter,
to his demise, was trying to emulate and become the former. But nor-
mally alliteration is not a good thing. List out the letters of the alphabet,
then put the names of your characters in place, with only one per letter.
Making All Your
Characters
Sound and Act
the Same
Why this is a mistake: If the protagonist is exactly the same per-
son at the end of the book as she is at the beginning of the book,
then the journey she underwent through the story served no pur-
pose. Yet many novice authors fail to give their protagonists ade-
quate character arcs. One thing to consider is that the protagonist,
as she is at the beginning of the book, would fail to triumph in the
nal conict. Te growth and change she experiences, and/or the
community she develops around herself as she goes through the
story, are what ultimately allows her to defeat the antagonist when
she reaches the climactic scene.
The solution: Tree things signify growth or change for a charac-
ter. Te rst is that the character must have a moment of enlighten-
ment. Tis means that the character either experiences something
shes never experienced before, or experiences something familiar in
an entirely new way. Tis is the lightbulb turning on. Characters
and peoplehave moments of enlightenment all the time (hope-
fully you are having many while reading this book). However, by
themselves these moments mean nothing.
Second, the protagonist must make a decision based on the moment
of enlightenment. In a novel, this decision often comes at the point of
no return for the protagonist. Sometimes the decision isnt necessarily
a good one, as it leads directly to the moment of crisis, that darkest mo-
ment when all looks lost for the protagonist. However, even this deci-
sion doesnt mean the protagonist has changed.
Te third and crucial signier of change is sustained action.
The protagonist must
continuously go down a new path,
continue to take new and
different actions than she would
have before the moment of
enlightenment.
Tis is what nally molds the protagonist into someone new. Ten,
in the climactic scene at the end of the story, the protagonist is able to
defeat the antagonist because of all she has experienced.
Creating
a
Stagnant
Protagonist
Why this is a mistake: A story plot is a character trying to re-
solve a problem. In most cases the antagonist is the one who intro-
duces the problem.
A good antagonist should,
therefore, have a good plan.
For example, lets say your antagonist wants to rob Fort Knox. Be-
fore you write the book, you have to put yourself in the shoes of the an-
tagonist and come up with the plan the antagonist would come up with.
If you antagonist comes up with a stupid plan, the book is going to look
stupid, and your protagonist is going to look less than heroic trying to
stop the not-too-bright antagonist.
The solution: Take the time to really get inside the skin of your
antagonist. Pretend you are the antagonist. Gather your cronies
and minions together. Ten develop your devilish plan for what-
ever it is you are going to do. Going to rob Fort Knox? Okay. First
thing to think about: Why? Whats the motivation? Make sure its
a believable one. Ten develop a viable plan. A smart one. One you
would have a really good chance of getting away with in the real
world. One so good the FBI might come knocking on your door if
one of the neighbors saw it laid out on your table.
Creating
a Weak
Antagonist
Why this is a mistake: If the curtain on a play opened and there
were thirty people on stage and all of them had speaking roles,
would you be able to identify and keep track of everyone? Or if
you went to a party and opened the door and the room was lled
with people youd never met before, would you have a good time?
Trowing too many characters at the reader creates the same sense
of bewilderment and diminishes the readers ability to empathize
with any of them. Larry McMurtry can do it in Lonesome Dove and
win the Pulitzer Prize, but were not Larry McMurtry. Hes able to
do it because he makes each character distinctive. Its a question of
how much youre able to change personalities with your characters.
Most of us can only take on a handful.
The solution: Before you start writing, decide how many char-
acters you feel you can handle in the story. You will have your pro-
tagonist and your antagonist. Ten you will have your named sup-
porting characters. Named characters will be those who appear
throughout the story.
Its probably not a good idea to give names to characters who appear
only once. Tose characters might be described as spear carriers, analo-
gous to those people on stage in the opera who stand in the background,
carryingyou got itspears. Teyre window dressing, and you can
describe them by their roles, such as the taxi driver or the desk clerk
so as not to confuse the reader.
Make sure the reader can keep track of your named characters, and
keep focus on the protagonist and antagonist.
Creating
Too Many
Characters
Why this is a mistake: As noted before, characters are not walk-
ing around on Maslows fth level of self-actualization. Often, like
real people, they are not consciously aware of why they are doing
what they are doing. Tey give a reason, but its not the real reason.
Recognize that characters are acting out of need, and that they have
a corresponding blind spot associated with that need.
The solution: Be aware of the triangle of traits, needs, and aws.
Every character trait has a corresponding need and aw associated
with it. A need is something a character has to have and cant control.
The flaw is often the
making of tragedy and the characters
blind spot, a part of her
personality that can be exploited
because she isnt aware it
is a weakness.
For each of your characters, then, list a trait, a need, and a aw. For ex-
ample, if a key trait for a character is that she is loyal, the need she has is
to be trusted. Te corresponding aw or blind spot associated with this
might be that she is gullible. If a character is decisive, she has a need to be
in charge, and her aw/blind spot could be that shes impetuous.
You might also want to create this list for yourself. Identify what
you feel is the strongest part of your own character and then consider
the corresponding need and aw. Tis will help you pinpoint your per-
sonal blind spot and potential aw both in your writing and in your
business dealings.
Not
Recognizing
Your
Characters
Needs
and Flaws
Editing & Rewriting
Part VI: Editing & Rewriting 85
Falling in Love
With Your
Bad Writing
Why this is a mistake: Tere is going to be a part of your writ-
ing that you love. And its going to be a really bad part of your writ-
ing. Perhaps the worst part. Tats the reason you love it. Its natural
to become emotionally attached to things that dont work, whether
they are entire books, chapters, paragraphs, scenes, characters, or
even just sentences.
The solution: Let it go. Its dicult. I know its hard to think of
all the time and eort you put in as learning time and eort, that
the payo will come down the line, but not now.
Whats really dicult to accept is that you have to kill your darlings.
Tats a phrase you will hear at conferences and in workshops and writ-
ers groups, and its true. You have to back o emotionally from your
writing and consider whether the parts you hold near and dear really
have a place in the written work.
Ask yourself: Are these parts
necessary? Do they
support the overall work?
Overediting
and Removing
Subconscious
Seeds
Why this is a mistake: Tere are writers who overedit what they
write during the process of completing their work. Why is it a mis-
take to polish a work-in-progress?
First, you are polishing writing that you might need to cut later on. Tis
means that you are not only wasting time editorially, but making it that
much harder to cut the material when so much time has been invested.
Second, you plant subconscious seeds in your early drafts. You put
in things that sometimes seem to not quite belong. Yet. And if you ove-
redit, you take them out too soon. Because later on, when you get stuck
in chapter twenty-eight, if you go back and re-read what you wrote ear-
lier, youll discover you need that seed, that your subconscious put it in
way back when, knowing you would need it.
Tird, you end up spending a lot of time editing and not getting to
the end of your work.
The solution: Dont overedit your early drafts of your work, no
matter how tempted you are. Move forward in the project. Dont wor-
ry about those weird things in the early drafts that nag you. Te nag-
ging is good; you just might need those weird things later on.
86 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes Part VI: Editing & Rewriting 87
Listening to
Too Much
Feedback
Why this is a mistake: It is possible to get so overwhelmed with
feedback on your writing that you stall out. Everyone has an opin-
ion. Te question is whether that opinion is of any value. You may
desire others opinions because you dont trust or value your own.
But remember that while others can often point out problem areas,
they rarely can give you good solutions.
Another problem for book writers is that few readers will wantor
even be ableto oer feedback on the entire book. If someone isnt there
from the beginning, its hard for him to give accurate feedback. Go to the
bookstore, pick up a book, read chapter fourteen, and try to critique it
without reading the previous thirteen chapters. Kind of hard, isnt it?
The solution: Find at most three (optimally one or two) read-
ers whose opinions you value and trust. Find readers who will stick
with you through the entire manuscript, not readers who will chew
up a random chapter and spit it back to you.
And when you do get feedback on your project, evaluate it careful-
ly. Some early critique readers are pretty brutal, others sugarcoat their
opinions, and some just arent honest. Keep an open mind. As the writ-
er, you have a role to play: You have to be willing to listen to the feed-
back without reacting negatively. And this is very dicult to do.
Not
Moving On
Why this is a mistake: A book is a large investment of time and
energy. Often over a years worth. Simply just typing 100,000 words
takes a long time. Most writers dont want to let go of that much
work. Ive watched writers come back year after year to the same
writers conference with the same manuscript, reworked and edited,
trying to sell it. Rewriting can only x so much. It can change story,
but it cant change an idea.
If the core idea of the book simply isnt strong enough to sell, it
doesnt matter how many rewrites the manuscript goes through; it just
isnt going to be the one to make it. Sometimes it just isnt the right
time no matter how good the book is.
Te bigger problem with not letting go of early works is that you
learn by writing. Te next book you write is going to be better. But if
you never move on, then you cant get better.
The solution: Tere comes a time when you just have to put that
manuscript in a drawer and let it go. Start writing a new book. Con-
sider it an investment in learning. Most published authors I know did
not sell their rst manuscript. Many did not sell their second. It was
around number three that they started seeing success. A rough rule of
thumb? Give it a year. Beyond that, move on and write something new.
Selling Your Work
Part VII: Selling Your Work 89
Why this is a mistake: Most writers have a few blind spots when
it comes to their work, and these negatives tend to come out in their
business dealings. Insecurities are often most obvious in submis-
sions and proposals, as in using the copyright symbol on cover let-
ters and cover sheets for manuscripts. Writers might be quick to
point out that they need to protect their work. But what they imply
by using the copyright symbol is that they fear the agent or editor
they are sending their work to will steal their idea.
In the same way, many authors put subconscious negative com-
ments in their cover letters. Tey will unwittingly say negative things
about themselves or their writing, mentioning that this is their rst ar-
ticle or book, for instance. Or they will slam the genre or form in which
they are writing. Some of them even say negative things about the agent
or editor to whom they are submitting.
The solution: Review any written material before you send it, and
examine it sentence by sentence for subconscious negatives. Give it
to someone else to read and have the person look for these negatives.
Examine your word choice. Examine your verbs. Do not put any-
thing in writing that can be taken as a negative, either consciously
or subconsciously.
Put yourself in the
position of an agent or editor
reading your material.
Ask yourself how you would feel reading your material cold without
any idea who the author of it was. What would be your initial impres-
sion? (Remember that the initial impression is often the only impres-
sion.) Would it be positive or negative? Make sure it is a positive one.
Using
the
Symbol
and Other
Subconscious
Negatives
90 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes Part VII: Selling Your Work 91
Why this is a mistake: Basic formatting in writing is a funda-
mental of the craft. Hard as it is to believe, about 50 percent of nov-
ice writers dont even bother to learn this. Tey submit to their ven-
ues in ways that guarantee that their writing wont even get looked
at. When book agents and editors see a manuscript that isnt dou-
ble-spaced, they know right away that the author hasnt done the
basic groundwork needed. When magazine editors see an article
that isnt the correct word count, they know the same thing. A badly
formatted piece might be a diamond in the rough, but that possibil-
ity is a remote one. In fact, all the agents and editors Ive talked to
say they dont even bother to take a look.
The solution: Te simple mistakes weed out half of all submis-
sions. Tese are the easiest ones to avoid, so take the time to ensure
you dont make them. Get the guidelines for whatever venue you
are submitting to and follow them.
Choosing
Bad
Titles
Why this is a mistake: Novice writers often create titles that
wont make sense to anyone who hasnt read through the piece.
First and foremost, the title should invite the reader into the book,
article, or essay.
The solution: Titles should do at least one of the following two
things: Tey should give the reader a very good idea what the book
or piece is about. And/or they should intrigue the reader by juxta-
posing two things that dont belong together. For nonction, titles
consist of two parts. Te enticing title and the subtitle that clearly
tells the reader what the book is about. Te best thing to do is go to
the bookstore and study titles. Look in the section of the bookstore
where your book will be racked when it is published.
For magazine articles, do some research into your target publica-
tions. How do they title their features and columns? Do they use num-
bers? Is the benet to the reader clear? Title your work accordingly.
Failing to
Use Basic
Formatting
Why this is a mistake: Query letters are sales tools. Plain and
simple. To hook an agent or editor into taking a look at your manu-
script or article, you have to write a great query letter. If your topic
or storyline is muddled and ambiguous, then the acquiring agent or
editor is going to assume that your manuscript will be as well.
The solution: Te rst line of your one-page query letter must grab
the reader, because it is the rst (and maybe the last) line the person
opening your submission will read. Next, grab the agents or editors
interest with a paragraph on your book or article. Remember to in-
clude some factual information like: Tis is an 85,000-word sci-
novel, or Ten Tips for O-Roading is a 2,000-word article.
In addition to a sales pitch for your manuscript, you need to include
a sales pitch for yourself. Te manuscript is an extension of you. What
special background do you have that would make the editor want to see
what you have done? Tis means not only any writing background you
have, but also your background as far as the story goes. Tis does not
mean you wont get looked at it if your background doesnt have much
direct application to your subject matter and you have little writing ex-
perience, but editors and agents also remember what Mark Twain said:
Write what you know. If your job or background in any way applies to
what youve written, make sure you mention that.
Why this is a mistake: A synopsis is a short summary of a novel,
the key word being short. Tere is some argument whether you even
need a synopsis. Agents and editors state in their guidelines whether
they require one. Many writers have a dicult time writing a strong
synopsis. Tey end up submitting one that goes on for too long or
uses too many adjectives. One thats too vague or too unfocused.
The solution: Te best synopses of my books that I have read were
my reviews in Publishers Weekly. In those, the reviewer gets the sto-
ry down to one paragraph. Peruse PW and see how a book similar
to your own is summarized. Another method is to go to your local
bookstore and get some old publishers catalogues and see how they
pitched their books. Dont you think it would be very worthwhile to
pitch your book to that publishing house in the same manner?
To get down to one page, write a really long synopsis and keep cut-
ting. Remember, a synopsis is an overview. Psychologists say our short-
term memory can hold seven facts. Terefore I think you shouldnt
have more than three namesprotagonist, antagonist, and one major
supporting characterin your synopsis. Add in the original idea, the
hook, the main storyline, and the climax, and you ll up the readers
brain. Ive read synopses with so many names in them that I got so con-
fused I couldnt keep track of anything.
Writing a Bad
Query Letter
Writing a Bad
Synopsis
mote the book. Tere is a right way and a wrong way to do a pro-
posal. If a proposal is done incorrectly, it doesnt matter how excit-
ing the idea is, it wont make it past the rst screener.
The solution: Take the time to do your proposal correctly. Get a
book on writing nonction proposals, like the third edition of Mi-
chael Larsens How to Write a Book Proposal, and follow the format
in it. You may also want to consider attending a conference where
there is a presentation or two on nonction proposals. Tere are
even entire conferences geared toward nonction.
One thing to remember when seeking
out conferences is that there
is a spectrum of nonfiction ranging
from narrative nonfiction
to self-help to inspirational
and so forth.
Make sure you nd the presentation that corresponds to the niche
you are working in. Te best way to do that is to check the back-
ground of the author or instructor.
Not
Putting
Together a
Strong
Nonfiction
Proposal
Why this is a mistake: Professionalism counts. While ction
writers usually have to have an entire manuscript completed before
starting the submission process, nonction writers are required to
submit a proposal rst. Te proposal includes the books topic, its
potential markets, a detailed outline, the authors qualications for
writing on the topic, and her personal platform on which to pro-
Not Knowing
the Magazine
Market
Why this is a mistake: When it comes to writing for magazines,
one of the biggest mistakes is not knowing the market well enough. Ed-
itors want a new and fresh story, but they want the story within a con-
text that appeals to their subscribers or audience. If you send a query to
a magazine youve never read, odds are youre going to miss the mark.
The solution: If you look at magazine racks, you will see that
there are magazines for just about every subject imaginable. If you
expect to be paid by any of these magazines, you have to make your-
self familiar with their content. You cant just go by the title of the
magazine and blindly submit. Often there is a slant to their mate-
rial. Do your homework. Research the market, nd out which titles
suit your work, and be able to articulate why.
You should also make note of the lengths of the articles. If a mag-
azine typically publishes 2,000-word features, theyre not going to be
interested in your 5,000-word masterpiece, no matter how great it is.
When you make contact with editors, you have to work with them be-
cause they have a deadline and a certain space for each piece they buy.
If you establish a good working relationship, often you will nd them
coming back to you instead of the other way around.
Paying for
an Agent
to Read
Your Work
Why this is a mistake: Tere are numerous agents who charge
reading fees to look at manuscripts and give feedback. And it is un-
derstandable why writers would be tempted to go along with this; it
is, after all, so hard to get professional feedback. Even writers groups
dont necessarily generate professional-level feedback. Tese agents
say they charge these fees to cover their overhead costs. Since their
slush pile is so large, they gure they can kill two birds with one read-
ing by charging a fee. Tere are several problems with this reading
fee, though. One is that fee-charging agents cannot be members of
the Association of Authors Representatives (www.aar-online.org), a
nonprot organization of independent literary agents. Te second is
that a legitimate agent should be making her money by selling books,
not by reading unsold manuscripts and critiquing them.
The solution: Dont do it. When you feel youve revised your
manuscript as much as possible, and its as close to perfect as you
can get it, consult a directory like Guide to Literary Agents, do some
research to identify appropriate agents, and start submitting.
Why this is a mistake: Nobody likes to be rejected. Rejection is
not quite as bad as betrayal, but its still not fun. Yet rejection is an
integral part of a writers life. You cant take it personally. And you
do need to learn to use it in as positive a way as possible. Most of
the time rejection comes as a form letter or slip, so theres little to be
learned. But sometimes you actually get some sort of feedback.
This is the time to try to read
between the lines and glean
some sort of lesson.
The solution: If you are a writer long enough, you become almost
inured to rejection. You learn what part of things you controlthe
writingand what parts you dont. And one part you dont control
is what happens once the manuscript or article leaves your hands.
(Of course, to a certain extent you do, in that if you write to the best
of your ability you increase your chances of success.)
If you do get that personal letter, try to see what the agent or edi-
tor is really trying to say. Understand that these industry professionals
rarely write personal rejection letters; they just dont have the time. So
if you do receive such a letter, someone saw something of worth in your
writing. Try to nd what, and then also try to see where you came up
short. Keep this person in mind for the future. You never know where
an agent or editor is going to end up years down the line. And publish-
ing is a long-term business. Make sure you mention the personal con-
tact when you query her again.
Not
Using
Rejection
in a
Positive
WaY
Comparing
Your Book
to a Best-Selling
Work
Why this is a mistake: Some how-to-sell books and articles sug-
gest that you compare your work to something that is easily recog-
nizable and best-selling. Im not saying that doing so is absolutely
wrong, but I am suggesting that its dangerous and potentially self-
defeating. Agents and editors may have an immediate gut reaction
and think, No, your book isnt as good. Tey are also going look
for ways your work doesnt measure up to the work youre compar-
ing it to. And they will nd them, because, frankly, your work most
likely isnt going to be as good as the best-selling work. In addition,
the best-selling book or author is already out there selling, so why
do they need your book, which is supposedly just like it?
The solution: Dont directly compare your work. If youre going to
do this, perhaps say your work is in the vein of another book, and
then explain how it is dierent. If you know that a particular agent or
editor works with a particular author, and you can mention this, you
will show youve done your homework. But compare in a way that
shows how your work is dierent, not how your work is the same.
Stalking
Why this is a mistake: Who likes to be stalked? Agents and edi-
tors certainly dont, and neither do authors. Every editor and agent
has at least one stalking story to tell. Most are humorous, but some
of them are scary. And who hasnt heard the infamous story of an
overeager writer shoving her manuscript under the bathroom stall?
Tere are levels to stalking. Some people push too hard to try to
sell themselves and their writing. Socializing is an important aspect of
conferences, but that doesnt mean you stand there pitching over cock-
tailsno matter how tempting. No one will want to come near you.
The solution: Tere are obvious times when it is inappropriate to
pitch your writing, such as when an editor or agent is with a current
client. Dont be overbearing. Let other people talk about themselves.
Invite them in. Let them ask you about your book. Let the quality
of your writing and your idea speak for itself. If someone isnt in-
terested in it, let it go. You cant force your writing on an editor or
agent. Let a social situation be a social situation and dont force it to
become an awkward business one.
I always say the dierence between being aggressive and obnoxious
is that the aggressive person has a good manuscript and the obnox-
ious person has a bad manuscript. Tats not very helpful in that we
all think we have a good manuscript, but the bottom line is not to hurt
your good manuscript with obnoxious social behavior.
Why this is a mistake: In any gathering of authors, sooner or
later you pick up a we-they attitude, where authors seem to be on
one side, and editors and agents and publishers seem to be on the
other, as if the two groups were enemies locked in an eternal battle.
Its almost as if would-be authors see agents and editors as allied
to keep them from being published. But this just isnt the case
without authors, who would agents and editors publish? Publish-
ers need writers, and the agents and editors know that and respect
writers. Well, most of them do. Te majority of this we-they atti-
tude seems to come from unpublished writers who see agents and
editors, correctly to an extent, as the gate-keepers to the world of
being published.
The solution: Instead of seeing agents and editors as the enemy,
embrace them as allies. Frankly, seeing them as enemies is profound-
ly self-defeating. Everyone has the same goal: to publish good books.
When an agent or editor gets treated as a partner in the process, she
tends to become less a gate-keeper and more of a facilitator.
Remember that agents and editors
are people, too.
Theyre just trying to do their jobs
in a difficult business.
Try to keep their perspective in
mind when you approach
them. Doing so just might put you
ahead of the pack.
Buying
In to the
We-They
Attitude
Why this is a mistake: Its already too late to write for todays
market. Book-length publishing is a three-year-ahead business for
a writer. Even magazine writing requires quite a bit of lead time. So
whats hot now might not be hot when youre ready to start submit-
ting. In fact, it probably wont be. Many people try to ride the latest
writing fad, which means youll be lost among the crowd.
Also, when youre writing for the market, youre probably not writ-
ing what is important to you, and this usually results in writing thats
shallow and not the best quality.
The solution: I was listening to a panel at a recent Romance Writ-
ers of America event where participants were asking questions of a
couple of agents and an editor from Harlequin. And all the ques-
tions seemed to be a variation of the same thing: Whats hot? and
Whats selling? which is the same as What are publishers buying?
I hear that a lot at conferences. And Im not slamming it. But Im
not too thrilled with it either. Because underneath it is the feeling that
if someone said, You know, vampire-lesbian-nun-slasher-paranormal
novels where the hero is redeemed and becomes a monk at the end are
really hot and selling, there would be ten such books cranked out with-
in two weeks of conference, whether or not those authors gave a damn
about writing V-L-N-S-P monk redemption novels.
I think the questions of whats hot and whats selling come out of a
degree of frustration with publishing (which is bad) and also a degree
of business savvy (which is good). But that business savvy can be taken
too far, and often is.
I wrote military techno-thrillers in the late 1980s. Tat was stupid
business-savvy wise. In the early and mid 90s when those books came
out, the military techno-thriller market collapsed. Only two or three
writers survived, and even a lot of the ones who had been best-sellers
went under or had to nd new genres to write in. ButI got published.
And I learned about writing. Even though my career kind of sucked
because I was in a not-hot eld. But I was writing what I wanted to,
and I think thats why I got published. Lawyer books were very hot
then. I imagine I could have written one of those. But you know what?
My lawyer book, if Id written one simply because the market was hot,
would have sucked and never gotten published. Its a vicious catch-22.
Write what you really want to write, what youre passionate about
regardless of market.
Writing
for the
Market
Why this is a mistake: Tis is such a hard and crazy business
that writers tend to take any deal a publisher oers. Tis is akin
to taking the rst marriage proposal you receive from the rst
stranger you meet. You wouldnt do it in your personal life, and
you shouldnt do it in your professional life. And you know the
til death do you part thing? Tats what it feels like sometimes.
Novice writers dont understand that a bad deal is much worse
than no deal. When you sign a contract, you are locked in. I know
best-selling authors who have the yoke of a bad contract signed
decades earlier still haunting them.
The solution: Tis is where its helpful to have an agent. But if
youre going it solo, remember to think long-term before you sign
any deal. Dont get greedy. Consider more than just the money.
Consider a contract in terms of your career as a writer, even if you
have no career to speak of at the time. Imagine that you do, and
imagine what this contract will look like in ten years.
You do have a negotiating position. Many writers feel they dont.
Tey think that if they dont sign the contract, the publisher will sim-
ply oer the contract to someone else. Perhaps the publisher will. Ten
just gure that some other author will be stuck with the bad contract.
Its a hard mindset to develop as a writer, but sooner or later, preferably
sooner, youve got to start treating yourself with some respect, because
if you dont, no one else will. Ive found this particularly true when deal-
ing with Hollywood.
You have to be prepared to
walk away. And you have to walk away
when necessary. Hard as it is
to believe, no deal is better than
a bad deal.
Taking
Any
Deal
The Publishing Business
Part VIII: The Publishing Business 109
Staying Home
Why this is a mistake: Writers tend to be introverts. We like
to sit by ourselves and create with words. Were not fond of crowds
and gatherings of people. In a perfect world, we would create our
masterpieces, send them out, have a check sent to us, and never
have to leave our house.
Tat is also one of the biggest mistakes a writer can make. Early in my
career I used to actually boast that I had never met my agent or my editor
face to face. Tat writing was a business you could conduct without face-
to-face meetings. It is, but not one you can conduct well in that manner.
Writers tend to over-rely on e-mail. It has made us lazy. And it was stu-
pid of me to sit at home and not meet my agent and editors face to face.
The solution: Its always better to put a face to a person. It is
worth the expense and time to make the journey to sit down and
have a lunch with your agent, even if there is no specic business to
be discussed. Ive heard it said there are six hundred people in the
publishing business. I think there are more than that, but the longer
Im in it, the more I keep seeing the same people again and again. I
also know that Im still in publishing not just because I learned the
craft, but also because I got out of the house and made personal con-
tact with people. Ive gotten business deals because of some of these
meetings. And its not just going to meet editors and agents. Its also
going to conferences, joining professional organizations, and even
meeting other authors when they come through your town on their
book tours. Get out there!
Not Learning
Patience
Why this is a mistake: If youre a type-A personality, publish-
ing just might beat that out of you. You cant make anyone do any-
thing faster than theyre going to do it. Trying to push agents or edi-
tors to work faster than theyre planning on working can only earn
you a negative image. Calling every day to check on a submission
isnt a good idea. In fact, its a terrible idea. While the saying is that
the squeaky wheel gets the grease, in publishing its more likely the
squeaky wheel gets tossed in the trash bin.
The solution: Let people do their jobs. Your job as the writer is to
write. Let agents agent and editors edit. Tat isnt to say you shouldnt
stay on top of things and check in, but dont be excessive and irritat-
ing about it. Tis also isnt to say that when you get a window of op-
portunity you shouldnt leap. Every once in a while, something may
appear. If you have an excellent one-on-one meeting with an agent
at a conference and she wants to see your manuscript, dont wait a
year before sending it in. I watched a TV show season nale the other
night that had a lot of similarities to a series of books I have the rights
to, and I immediately e-mailed my agent to see if there was some-
thing we could do as cross-promotion. Odds are nothing will come of
it, but when opportunities do present themselves, jump.
110 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes Part VIII: The Publishing Business 111
placed. Which is, of course, wrong. Because any writing advice given,
any knowledge shared, will be processed through another writers own
experiences and craft and artistry and end up being something com-
pletely dierent.
The solution: Because writing is such an individual and lonely
business, it can be easy to slip into a bunker mentality. Tere is also
a tendency in certain genres for writers to develop a good ol boy, in-
cestuous network that keeps others on the outside. Tis works all
right for a chosen few, but not for most. Te reality is that the world
of writing is so diverse that competition really doesnt exist.
Its best to share your
knowledge and expertise with
other writers and in
turn learn what they have to
share with you.
Why this is a mistake: People have a tendency to be afraid of
losing out to others, and they sometimes sense they are competing
in the workplace. However, I have not found that to be true in pub-
lishing. Yes, at one time Fabio did get a two-book deal from Avon at
the same time I was rejected by Avon for a book, but I really dont
think it came down to them deciding between the two of us. Okay,
maybe it did, and his hair was better.
Tere are writers who feel protective of their work and their tal-
ent, whatever it might be. Tey feel that if they share it, somehow they
are giving out gold bullion from a secret stockpile that cannot be re-
Not
Sharing
Your
Knowledge
and Expertise
The solution: You should look at conferences primarily as learn-
ing experiences. Go to workshops based on whether the speaker
has something you want.
Be open to learning something new.
If a speaker says something that bothers you, focus on it. Te more
it bothers you, the more you should focus on it. If it makes you very an-
gry, write it down, because the odds are, its hitting your blind spot as a
writer and touching on a truth you need to delve into to become better.
Treat the volunteersand they are almost always volunteers run-
ning conferenceswell. Volunteer yourself. Tey are usually looking
for someone to make runs to the airport to pick up presenters. What
better way to get some time alone with an editor, agent, or author?
You also should view the informal conference time as very valuable
networking time. Make a list of everyone you make contact with, both
professionally and personally. You will be surprised who you will run in
to again, even many years down the line. Make notes about the people.
Unpublished people you chat with now will be on the best-seller lists
years from now. Perhaps you will be, too.
Why this is a mistake: Too many writers view conferences sim-
ply as a place to sell their work. Tey march in with their cards
printed up, with a stack of cover letters and synopses, and plan on
going home with a book contract. And 99.9 percent of those people
go home very disappointed.
Te odds of landing a book contract at a conference are miniscule.
Yes, you hear those urban publishing legends. And thats what they
are: legends.
Writers also go to conferences focused too much on editors and
agents and not enough on the writers on the faculty. Too often editors
and agents will sit on panels and spend the entire time telling you what
they dont want and how to make their jobs easier.
Writers also tend not to look left and right at the other attendees
overlooking a wealth of knowledge and networking possibilities.
Not
Using
Conferences
Correctly
While I noted elsewhere that you shouldnt necessarily write to the
current market and you cant predict the future market, you should still
stay abreast of the market and the business.
Writers frequently feel
like their job is simply to write, and
the business end will
sort itself out. These writers end
up getting sorted
out of the business entirely.
The solution: Stay informed. Subscribe to free e-newsletters like
the one from Publishers Lunch (www.publisherslunch.com), and
read industry publications like Publishers Weekly. Conferences are
also a good way to stay abreast of news inside your particular area
of writing. Networking, of course, is important, as noted elsewhere.
Online chat groups that are linked to your type of writing can be
valuable as well. (See Appendix I in Te Mini Market Book for a list
of helpful Web sites.)
Why this is a mistake: Like any other business, publishing is u-
id. Tings change. Ive seen authors and even agents get left behind
in the business as the marketplace, technology, and even consumer
tastes changed. Too often writers work o of out-of-date templates.
A magazine writer, for example, has to see what a magazine wants
now, not what it wanted a year ago, and, actually, what the trend for
the future is, as the magazine is actually buying a half-year to a year
out. Publishers are buying books that they will be publishing years
into the future.
Not Staying
Up-to-Date
on the
Business
The solution: Caveat emptor were the watchwords in the Ro-
man Empire, and they still ring true. Let the buyer beware. Te rst
thing I would really be leery of is anyone who promises to get you
published. Unless they at out tell you up front that they are a van-
ity press, they are trying to pull some sort of ruse on you. If you just
want to see your name on a book jacket, then go to a self-publisher
and do it straight up. Teres absolutely no reason to play a game
with a fee-charging agent who gets a kickback, or a press that waf-
es on the point of whether they are a real publisher.
I always recommend getting references from whoever wants to take
your money. Talk to others who have used the service in question and
see what level of satisfaction they have. If the service is not willing to
give you referenceswhatever the excusewalk away.
Te key to not getting scammed is knowing your goal and then
comparing that to what is being oered. Dont be in a rush and allow
your emotions to overrule your good reason. Put aside your frustra-
tion, no matter how hard that is to do, and avoid taking the easy road to
publication. Getting published, no matter what the format (magazine
or book), is not easy. Yes, there is a degree of luck involved, but there is
also a large degree of craft and persistence, so focus on the factors you
do control, which are learning the craft and sticking to it.
Why this is a mistake: Many writers feel frustrated. And des-
perate. Tey look at other writers who get published and they tend
not to see much dierence between their own work and published
authors work. Frustrated and desperate people are easy targets for
scammers. Tere are plenty of people out there more than willing to
relieve wannabe authors of their money. Just consider some poetry
contests, certain vanity presses, book doctors, fee-charging agents,
and numerous other agencies all promising to help the writer gain
the ever-elusive goal of publication.
It is difficult to tell
the difference between those who can
really help you and those
who just want to take your money
without Providing
substantive aid in return.
Getting
Scammed
You can use any of a number of techniques to market your book.
(See also the books written entirely on this topic.)
Web site: An absolute must.
Blog: An inexpensive, but time-intensive endeavor.
Direct mailings: Probably not cost-eective for ction.
Media outlets: Te best bang for your buck, time and cost wise.
But it can be very dicult to garner media interest for ction
unless you have a unique hook. Tink about how many times
you see ction writers on media. However, there is a magazine
out there for everything. Talk radio is also good if you can g-
ure out a reason a show would want to book you.
Hand-selling: Very dicult unless you have the personality
to do it.
Book signings: Not as fun as you think they are. Mostly done
to meet the booksellers.
Controversy: Depends on whether youre willing to sell your
soul to the devil.
Tere is a balance, though, that needs to be struck between market-
ing your published book and writing your next book.
Why this is a mistake: Writers tend to think that promotion
and marketing is the job of other people, and in a perfect world it
would be. Unfortunately, this isnt a perfect world. Sometimes you
may nd youre the only PR department your book has.
The solution: Promotion is the bane of a writers existence but also
an absolute necessity. Even if your publisher is 100 percent behind
your book, you should still do everything possible to promote it.
Not
Marketing
Yourself
and Your
Book
an A-Team leader in the Special Forces, and I can say that writing
is overall more intense than any them because it is self-generated.
Tere really isnt an outside pressure. Te only downtime I get as a
writer is when I make a decision to have down time.
Still, even after hitting the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and
Publishers Weekly best-sellers lists, I get sort of a blank stare when I tell
people Im a writer. Tey ask my name, and then comes the inevitable
response: Never heard of you.
Many people dont think its that hard to be a writer. Tey see a
book that they can read in a couple of hours and gure it cant have
been that dicult to knock out. Tey dont understand it takes a year
or more of bleeding onto the page to create it.
Ultimately, its up to you to re-
spect yourself as an author and
to draw your own boundaries.
If you write, youre a writer. To a certain degree, being published is
a matter of luck, so dont let that get you down. Call yourself a writer
and respect yourself.
Why this is a mistake: Some people almost seem apologetic
when they say theyre writers. Especially if theyre not yet published.
If you dont respect yourself as a writer, who will?
The solution: Writing is a strange job. Most of the time were sit-
ting around, staring o into space. If someone wanders by, he thinks
were doing nothing. Ive held several dierent jobs, including being
Not
Respecting
Yourself
as a
Writer
do-it-yourself kits available, there is an art to Web site design just like
there is an art to writing, and if computers really arent your thing, it
might be worth it to consult with those who know the art.
Consider the goal of your Web site. What are you trying to achieve
with it? Are you primarily promoting yourself, or your writing? Te
two are not necessarily the same thing. For a while I was doing too
much with my Web site, trying to promote my books, my speaking ca-
reer, my teaching, etc. When your message is too broad, it doesnt get
across. So the rst thing is to decide what your goal is. As with most
other things, less is more. Tere is often a desire to go with all the bells
and whistles that can be loaded on a Web site these days, but think
about how you feel when you hit a site that takes forever to load. You
want an opening page that is just that: a single page that requires little
to no scrolling.
A good spin-o marketing tool from your Web site is an e-mail
list you can use for a newsletter. Tis is another very cost-eective
marketing tool.
Why this is a mistake: A Web presence is a must for a writer.
Yet too many writers have none, or they consider it a secondary pri-
ority and put forth a presence that shows minimal interest or eort.
The solution: Your Web site is probably going to be the way most
people get an impression of you, so it behooves you to put time, eort,
and money into making sure it represents you well. While there are
Not
Having
a Professional
Web Site
simply shrugged and said Not enough re, and turned his back. Te
young man was crushed and quit his career as a musician. He went on
to do other things with his life. Many years later he met that master at
some other function and relayed this story. Te master was quite sur-
prised and shrugged once more and said: I tell everyone that. If my
simple words stopped you, you really didnt have enough re.
The solution: Te only person who can stop you from being a
writer is you.
So dont quit. You never know whats going to happen. Have a back-
up plan. For instance, I failed as a solo writer several times, but had a
backup writing career going under various pen names, so I was able
to stay alive in the business. I think a big mistake many novice writers
make is thinking they have it made. You never have it made. Jenny and I
are probably working harder than we ever have right now.
Youre never okay. Youve got to keep pushing. Study the lives of
those who have succeeded in the entertainment business, because writ-
ers are part of the entertainment business. Watch Inside the Actors Stu-
dio and shows like that. Get rid of the mindset of the overnight success.
If Dont Look Down breaks out, Ill be an overnight success after thirty-
three books and sixteen years. And even then Ill still be at the begin-
ning of really pushing it hard to make it even further. In a way, Ill have
just begun. But writing is a lot of fun also. Sometimes we get too gloom
and doom. Id rather be doing this than anything else.
Simply put, if you want to
be a writer, never quit. Keep writing.
Quitting
Why this is a mistake: If you quit, then youre rejecting your-
self. Ive seen many people with a lot of talent simply pack up and
go home. Tey quit. Ive seen others with perhaps less talent keep
plugging away and eventually make it.
Teres the classic story of the young violinist who managed to
wrangle an audition with the master he had always admired. He went
in and played his heart out. When the young man was done, the master
Chapter After Chapter: Discover the Dedication &
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Turn your passion for the craft of writing into
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Writing Metrical Poetry: Contemporary Lessons for
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Tis book combines instruction from a recog-
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Whether you want to write picture books, chapter
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Te 3 .. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises
Tat Transform Your Fiction, by Brian Kiteley
With unusual exercises designed to stimulate
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Tese and other Writers Digest
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and from online suppliers.
www.writersdigest.com
Cincinnati, Ohio

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