✍️ Common Fiction Writing Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them – Part 1 of 3

...or, How to Go for Tarzan Yell instead of Tarzan Fell

Artist’s rendition of the original Pitfall! video game by Activision for the Atari VCS/2600.

When I finished writing my first novel, I was excited to put it into the hands of beta readers.

It was an eye-opening experience. Not just because of what they said, but because of what they didn’t say…

I get it. It’s hard criticizing someone else’s work. Giving helpful criticism – and receiving it, for that matter – is not something that’s baked into our DNA. Quite the opposite, actually. But it’s a useful exercise worth doing.

Plus, I’ve found a loophole...

Over the years, I’ve been on judging panels for short stories and other writing. This exercise was almost as useful as feedback from my own beta readers! I saw writers fall into similar pitfalls again and again – things that they may not have even been aware of. Of course, it made me wonder, Am I unknowingly wallowing in those same pitfalls?

My next thought was, well, why don’t I help everyone know and avoid them?

Common Fiction Writing Pitfalls and How to Leap Over Them

I’m not here to tell you how to write. But I can share with you some common pitfalls I’ve seen that made me deduct points as a contest judge. So, I present the following to you as a rubric of sorts to judge your fiction by. I’ve divided these into Easy Fixes, Extra Work, and Major Issues, along with suggestions on how you might fix them.

Judging is subjective, so these are merely my opinions. Following these suggestions will not guarantee your story will get published or win a contest, of course. However, avoiding these pitfalls will likely help you improve your chances – and your writing.

This post runs extremely long, so I’ve decided to split it into three. We start with…

Easy Fixes

Spelling and grammar. It’s true, as editors have said before me, that if a badly spelled “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” landed on some editor’s desk, it would still likely be published. But glaring spelling errors do tend to pull down the perceived quality of the story. It’s a little bit like the broken windows theory – too many mistakes, and you stop trusting the writer. Besides, in the game of “don’t give them a reason to say ‘no’”, this is a relatively easy one to fix.

High-fallutin’ language and/or too much thesaurusing. This screams, “I’m writing capital-L Literature!” Unfortunately, it often comes off as unnatural at best. The key is to find the right word, not the most expensive one. Generally, the cheap ones offer the most value. Try writing like you would talk, and see how that impacts your writing.

Saying too much. Train schedules of days and times. Character descriptions that sound like a mugshot. Overdescription of place. (“Sunsetting” is something I’ve been guilty of in my own writing!) I’ll semi-contradict myself by saying that these things are actually okay to write down – in the first draft. Whatever gets you from start to finish, and gives you a fuller picture of your story! But much of this can be cut out in the editing phases. I go into this in more detail in Anchors Away! and No Words are Wasted.

Using words other than “said” or “asked”. Don’t do it, except in the rarest of circumstances. (See, “too much thesaurusing”, above.)

Over to You

Have you noticed any common pitfalls that writers fall into? Let us know any basic things you’ve seen in the comments below! Feel free to let us know about more complex issues as well or email me directly.

Next week, we’ll cover the medium-sized Extra Work items before going to Major Issues the week after.

Until next time, keep writing with wild abandon!

~Graham

email me if you get lost.