“The Five Plus One Big Misgakes Fiction Authors Make Part 1! --An Expert's How to Write a Book Step-by-Step Guide”
All you've got to do is avoid making these five horrendous mistakes when you write your novel and your book is already on the way to success!
by Steve Manning
There are all kinds of errors we make when we start writing a novel, but some will always have a bigger impact on our success than others. I can tell you now that if you don't eliminate tdhese mistakes from your writing efforts, you'll face a severely up hill climb to writing success.
And that's really too bad, because getting rid of them really isn't that difficult. All that is required is a little effort and some simple solutions…
And if it's any comfort, virtually every author (if they'll admit it) faced the same mistakes sometime in their writing career. So you're not alone. From the greatest to the most modest, they al started out doubting themselves, wondering if maybe they should be doing something else, wondering why their first efforts weren't meeting with the wild success that other authors had. It wasn't until they corrected these mistakes in their efforts that they started to see the success they're enjoying now.
Mistake 1: Thinking the story will just come to you
You sit down at the keyboard, you take a deep breath and your fingers start to race across the keys in a mad dash toward writing success. It's almost as if the story was writing itself. You're hearing a voice in your ear and you're just transcribing what is going on in your brain. Characters come alive and take over the page. Your biggest challenge is just keeping up with the thoughts, plot developments, storylines and pure writing beauty that is coning forth.
Sure. In your dreams. There are authors who will tell you that this is the way they write. Don't ask them what time it is. Frankly, I think they'd fib about other things as well.
The fastest, most dependable strategy for writing a novel is to create an outline and then a blueprint of what happens on virtually every page of your book before you start actually writing the first word.
Time for a little unabashed, self promotion: If you haven’t asked for my Free CD,
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Now, back
to the article…
Yes, it's painful, yes, it's boring, and, surprise, no other author likes doing it either. But it simply is the fastest way to get your book written. Writing enthusiasm may be able to take you up to page five, perhaps even to the completion of a short story. But a saleable book needs an outline.
Mistake 2: Not reading enough
The more you read, the better your writing will become. Actually it becomes even better the more you write, but we're all able to read faster than we write, so loads of reading will give us the greatest benefit in the time we have.
You'll start to hear the sentences, you'll see how an author (and later an editor) create the flow of thoughts for the reader. You'll see how rooms are described, what is done, what is avoided, what works and what doesn't work.
A lot of people ask me if they run the risk of having their writing look like a copy of the work they're reading. Most would actually benefit by such a problem. But the reality is that your writing will take on only slight nuances from what you read. Read a lot of Hemmingway and you won't start sounding like Hemmingway. At worst, your sentences will get a little shorter and you'll get to the point faster. That's something we could all benefit from.
Mistake #3: Forgetting it's the story, stupid
Have you ever read a novel and found yourself skipping over the descriptions of things? The story is presented for a couple of pages and then there's the description of the old Tudor living room in the cottage. Another bit of story and then we're off to take in three pages of rustic beauty of the country-side. Oh, there's Mr. Draycott, the father of that good for nothing son, along with a page and a half describing the clothes he's wearing.
You skip over the descriptions and head right for the story, don't you? Hey, we all do it.
When you write your novel, please remember that you're writing the story first and, if you're really good, you're writing only the story. When you write a book outline (there's that word again) for the agent or publisher they don't want to read any dialogue, or passages of description. They're interested only in the story… and so is the reader.
In my next article, we'll look at the final two mistakes novel writers make, plus a bonus mistake that can kill any novel before it even gets out of the box!
While we're on the topic of strategies, and if you haven't already done so, feel free to
subscribe to my FREE on-line course, "How To Write A Book On
Anything in 14 Days... or Less" it's packed with tips, techniques
and tactics for writing your book faster than you ever thought possible! But
ONLY if you're SERIOUS about writing a book NOW!
Wait a minute! You mean you still don't have your writing program, "How to Write A Book On Anything in 14 Days Or Less... Guaranteed!"? Well click How to Write A Book!
Time for a little unabashed, self promotion: If you haven’t asked for my Free CD,
“How to Write a Book On Anything in 14 Days Guaranteed!” then you’re just plain nuts! The CD is free, just pay postage,
but you can bet this $100 CD will be carrying that price tag very shortly. How do you get it? Just order it
here.
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