Are these mistakes really unavoidable? No, not at all. By avoiding these mistakes, your writing will be better, and you will see that by not making them, you became a better writer.
So to solve this problem I created a list of creative writing mistakes to avoid. By being conscious of the mistakes, you can be careful and not make them in your fiction, articles, reports, etc.
Don’ts of Creative Writing
- Are you reading other writing? If not, you are in big trouble. Read. If you want to become a better writer, it goes without saying that you need to read to see how it’s done. If you are a novelist, read novels. If you are an essayist, read essays. If you are a poet, read poetry. And so on… but if you don’t read, then suffice to say, your writing will not be professional.
- Are you plagiarizing your writing? It sounds easy enough, to copy paste someone else’s writing and pass it off as your won. It is easy enough. If you are clever enough, you could even reword someone else’s writing and pass it off as your own. But why would you want to? It won’t gain you any credibility or readers. It’ll just harm your reputation.
- Are you using big words and complicated flowery prose? There was a time when all the books written used flowery and complicated prose, and readers didn’t seem to mind. That was long ago, though, and as attention spans keep shortening and the rise of short form media such as Twitter have changed the mindset. Now, people don’t want to read flowery prose. They want to read short, simple and punchy sentences. They want short, not long paragraphs. They want something good but short.
- Are you copying someone else’s writing voice? Writing voice is unique. Every writer has his own writing voice. To test if your writing voice is unique, simply read it aloud and you will know if you compare it by reading aloud a different text. If you copy someone else’s voice, your story or work will not be as good as it will be if you used your very own writing voice. It takes time to develop… but it’s worth it. Just practise writing as you like it; don’t try to copy famous authors’ writing voices. (More resources about writing voice: here and here. Have trouble finding your writing voice? Then read this post).
- Are you using too many adjectives and adverbs? This is kind of from the previous post. If you rely upon an overused adjective or adverb to do the description work and don’t use a strong verb, you don’t paint a picture of your writing in the reader’s mind. Adverbs like “suddenly”, “simply”, “painfully” etc are overused. That’s not to say you can’t use them; do use them but don’t rely upon them for too much description.
Now you know all the mistakes. You can avoid them. But if you still aren’t satisfied with your writing? Don’t worry. Some more tips and tricks are found below:
Dos of Creative Writing
- Write as much as you can. This is also pretty well known advice, but just in case you only tried the advanced tips, remember that beginner tips work very well too. Have a regular writing schedule. Some popular writers say that you must write every day. That’s all great, but writing is a mental job, and you can’t expect to have new writing ideas in your head every day. So write as much as you can, but tweak your schedule according to your needs.
- Try to make your openings as compelling and grabbing as possible. If you begin at the beginning, don’t use well known openings such as first day in school, packing for new house, etc. Grab the reader with compelling openings. In fiction, your opening chapters must be as interesting as possible. For more, read How to Write Compelling Opening Chapters in Fiction.
- Hunt for new writing methods, processes and advice. It’s all very well to follow a given writing method, a given process, and some given advice. But after some time, when you feel your writing getting stale, it’s time to step out of your boundary a little bit and hunt for everything new. Where? Anywhere, of course. The Internet is a big resource. Then there are creative writing books etc etc.
And that’s it for this post, and the end of the Creative Writing 101 series. Feel free to share feedback and advice about the series. Did I explain everything well? Was the series blah-blah and boring or did it contain some great advice? Have your say in the comments section below.
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View Comments (42)
Enjoyed the article "Common Mistakes Made by Creative Writers"...ironically, I found a few punctuation mistakes. In the Dos and Don'ts, you've placed a possessive aapostrophe in the header "Do's". Should be "Dos".And in the page header, "Writers Treasure" SHOULD be possessive, should it not? Either "Writer's" or "Writers'". If it's not possessive, then I'd ask you to finish the sentence... writers treasure what?
Thanks for the comment and feedback. Wow, I just learned that "Dos" is a word! (I'd seen it before, thought it was a spelling mistake by other people, it doesn't really look like a word). As for the site header, yes I've also thought about that in the beginning. Writers' Treasure is fine, but I didn't know that "Writers Treasure" was wrong until you pointed out the reason. I'll change it now.
Wow, you are the first person to post a comment on this blog! Thanks very much.
Idrees,
You are such a humble person. The way you received constructive criticism is really applauded. I teach creative writing at my University and in fact I stumbled on your article as I prepare to give a training to would-be writers in Cape-Town this weekend. Good work!
Honestly, I don't think anyone but an editor would notice. It's the most common mistake there is, especially when, as you pointed out, it just looks awkward without. That's why people write "back in the 60's". When I can, I avoid the issue by writing "sixties".
Yesterday, before I posted here, I was watching a show on the History Channel with my son. There in the intro, big as life, the header read: "UFO's--Fact or Fiction?" Of course I yelled, Apostrophe abuse!" My son just groaned, "Can't you give it a rest, mom?"
And, btw, I noticed several mistakes on my post...the second after I hit SUBMIT. Yeesh.
Of course I yelled, Apostrophe abuse!”
You missed out the opening quote mark. Sorry, couldn't resist. ;-)
Thanks anyway.
Touche. These little comment boxes are a bite in the shorts... I have a hard time seeing errors until it's up, and then it's too late. An edit option would be great!
BTW, I got to your site through the Writing Forward site. How are you associated? Is Writers' Treasure your blog? Is Idrees your handle or your name? I'm interested to learn more.
Wow, Idrees, I just clicked on the "about" tab and learned that you are 13 years old! Amazing! I'm very impressed. Hope you're entering contests, there are a lot of good ones out there. Here's one from Next Step U:
http://www.nextstepu.com/request-shout-out.aspx?clientId=5707
Hmm... the contest asks you to fill out a form, and in the very first field "I'm a/an..." I don't classify for any of the options in the dropdown menu. I'm in India and here we don't classify things such as high school junior and such... and I'm below even the lowest classification. Any ideas?
By the way, yes, Writers' Treasure is my blog and Idrees is my real name.
If you are looking for more articles, you could check out the other articles in the Archives or you could subscribe for new ones.
Well, I guess these contest are for US residents? You could find out by emailing the organizers. Do a google search with a number of different combinations...
"writing contests for teens worldwide" "writing contests for teens" etc.
These are great tips! I am glad to see "read" at the top of the list -- I think that is the most important thing for any writer to do -- yet it's also the one thing many writers neglect.
Kathleen, Writing Forward is my site and while I'm not affiliated with Writers' Treasure, we are certainly writing about similar topics.
.-= Melissa Donovan´s last blog ..Creative Nonfiction: Biography =-.
Kathleen - Yes, I will do these searches. I've always wanted to participate in a writing contest, but either it's not in my country (in India there are few writing contests) or it has an age limit. I don't believe there are any teen writing contests in my country. It there are suitable ones worldwide, I'll certainly look into them.
Melissa Donovan - Reading is so much important, but as it's such a beginner tip and many other writers have covered it succinctly I was almost ashamed to put it there. Glad you think otherwise! Thanks for visiting.
As for those wondering how Kathleen came to this site through Writing Forward, I'd better explain that I linked to Writing Forward and WordPress automatically sends a trackback to posts you have linked to. I guess Kathleen saw the trackback in one of her posts. Correct me if I'm wrong, Kathleen.
Thanks, both of you, for being the first readers of this blog.
That is a challenge, Idrees, on the few searches I did I ran into problems with location. Many sites are US based. I'm curious, do you have teachers or mentors where you are that might have insight to help you?
I did find an interesting contest, I believe it's over now, but the jury includes some very successful Indian writers. Perhaps you could contact one or two of them to ask their advice?
http://www.sulekha.com/penguin/jury.htm
No, I don't have any personal teacher or mentor who might have any insight. School ones do encourage my writing... but as for any help regarding contests... I don't think so. But I'll keep searching.
That link looks interesting, but how do I contact any of the authors? As far as I saw, no contact information was given on their bios. Oh well, someday I'll enter a contest...
For now, I'll just keep writing. Next up is an article on concise writing. Who knows, if after some months I have a popular blog I may just attract the attention of somebody big... ;-). Or not.
Did a little searching, found this...
Sushila Ravindranath
Editor sushila@epmltd.com
She might be able to connect you with contests. I was trying to find Anita Nair's address, no luck, but if you do a search you could write to her publishing house. If you just ask for information, I'm sure they could help you find resources!
Always refrsehing to hear a rational answer.