Identify your most common fiction writing mistakes--and fix ‘em!

Book giveaway! Leave a comment today for a chance to receive a copy of Myra’s debut novel, One Imperfect Christmas!

For my post today, I decided to pull out my copy of Jack Bickham’s The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them). I noticed I’d highlighted key points in just about every chapter, so let’s go through several of them together and see what we can learn.

Chapter 1: “Writers write; everyone else makes excuses.” Are you writing every day (or almost)? What’s the most recent excuse you’ve used to avoid applying seat to chair and fingers to keyboard?

Chapter 2: “Fiction does not come from the head; it comes from the heart.” Don’t flaunt your intelligence or your extensive vocabulary. While I’m not averse to using the occasional $20 word when it suits the narrative or the character’s speech, I try to make sure the meaning is evident in context.

Chapter 5: “Every good story starts at a moment of threat.” Does your story begin with boring description of scene or character? Or do you jump right into the middle of the action? It doesn’t have be shoot-em-up or car-chase action. Anything that threatens the main character with change will get your story off to a strong beginning.

Chapter 7: “In real life people often don’t make sense. But in fiction, they do.” Know your characters and their motivation, and make it believable in your fictional world.

Chapters 10 & 11: “Because fiction is make-believe, it has to be more logical than real life if it is to be believed.” Relying on coincidence is cheating your reader. Think “stimulus and response,” and make sure the stimulus comes from outside the character--an event that spurs him/her into action.

Chapter 12: “Figure out whose story it is. Get inside that character--and stay there.” Head-hopping confuses the reader and muddies the characters’ individuality. If you need help understanding point of view, find a good writing text and study it.

Chapter 16: “Modern dialogue tends to be brief, punchy, single-issue oriented. Impatient readers demand no less.” Don’t turn your characters into windbags. Don’t let them lecture. Make the dialogue issue-oriented, and keep each speaker’s goals in mind.

Chapter 19: “You should use the invisible word ‘said’ about 90 percent of the time.” Don’t go crazy with attributions like “scream,” “sigh,” “shout,” etc. Let the dialogue itself carry that weight. Personally, I prefer using a character action instead of “said” whenever it helps show the scene or character more vividly. And for heaven’s sake, don’t use attribution words that are physically impossible! Can you actually nod, smile, laugh, or beam a line of dialogue???

Chapter 23: “Figure out what the scene question is.” Every scene must have a reason to be there. The characters involved must have personal goals about the outcome, and there must be conflict and some kind of setback that also answers the scene question--something that will spur the main character to take further action toward resolving the main story goal.

Chapter 25: “Be sure you know what your story is about before you start.” Pantser or plotter, you need some sort of plan, or you’ll wander around in fiction limbo for pages and pages and then end up throwing a bunch out because you dashed down too many rabbit trails. Bickham lists five key points you should know before you start writing:

1. The basic plot situation
2. The main character
3. The character’s story goal
4. The primary opposition to the main character
5. The opposition’s main goal

Chapter 29: “Strong emotion--so often ducked or ignored in real life--must be at the center of your stories.” Readers read novels because they want to be emotionally moved. Don’t be afraid to draw on your own feelings to bring out emotion in your characters.

Chapter 31: “Study with a published author who also knows how to teach his craft.” Bickham has few kind words, unfortunately, for entering contests or exposing your WIP to a critique group. His reasoning is that judges and critique groups are only reading a portion of your manuscript, not getting the big picture--and in a novel, “everything relates to everything else.” Of course, here in Seekerville, many of us got our big breaks as a result of writing contests, and many of us work with critique partners. Bottom line: choose both your contests and your critique partners wisely. Work with writers who know their stuff--and are able to offer helpful, positive instruction. Throw the rest away.

Chapter 32: “Your business is creating stories. If you do that well enough, the trends will tend to take care of themselves.” Write your passion, the story on your heart. Don’t chase the market, because you’ll never catch it anyway.

Chapter 35: “Revise, revise, and be ready to revise again.” There’s really no such thing as “the end” until the book is typeset and bound! As long as you are studying and practicing your craft, there is always room for improvement. There are plenty of good books available with instruction on editing and revision. Find a plan that works for you. Then give yourself some space between revisions so you can come back with a fresh eye.

Chapters 37 & 38: “Your quest cannot be lost unless you choose to throw in the white towel.” “Whatever happens tomorrow, you need to be writing when it does.” ‘Nuff said!

About Myra’s book:

Christmas is the season of miracles,
but when blame and guilt keep people apart,
a miracle needs a helping hand.

Natalie Pearce loves Christmas so much she’d gladly make it a year-round celebration—until her mother suffers a massive stroke while taking down the decorations. Natalie’s guilt over not being there to help her mom soon builds a wall that separates her from the rest of her family, including her husband, Daniel, and their teenage daughter.As the next December approaches, the last thing Natalie wants to be reminded of is another Christmas season. Only her family’s tenacious love and an unexpected Christmas gift from her mother can help Natalie mend the broken pieces of their lives.

A warm, inspirational story of faith, hope, and love
for the holiday season!
Abingdon Press, September 2009