The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes

1. Adopt a Professional Mindset: Write Consistently and Humbly

Writers write; everyone else makes excuses.

Embrace the work. Writing isn't about waiting for inspiration or having unlimited free time; it's hard work that requires consistent effort, day in and day out. Successful writers fight through tiredness, distractions, and discouragement, showing up at the keyboard regularly. Don't let excuses like being too busy, too tired, or waiting for the perfect idea derail your progress.

Build momentum daily. Even writing just one page a day can result in a novel in a year, with another year for revision. Making excuses half the time drastically slows progress, while making them three-fourths of the time likely means never finishing. A simple calendar system tracking hours and pages, or even writing a page of excuses on non-work days, can highlight procrastination and motivate consistent output.

Stay grounded and open. Avoid the trap of thinking you're too smart for your readers or contemporary fiction; condescension alienates. Fiction connects through the heart and emotions, not just intellect. Be humble, sensitive, and caring in your approach, focusing on telling the best story possible for your audience, rather than showing off your vocabulary or knowledge.

2. Hook Readers Immediately: Start with Action and Threat

Every good story starts at a moment of threat.

Skip the warm-up. Modern readers and editors are impatient; they won't wait through lengthy, static descriptions of settings or historical background before the story begins. Starting with exposition or backstory is like warming up an engine that's already running – unnecessary and wasteful of precious reader attention. Get straight to the point.

Introduce change and tension. The most effective way to start a story is by presenting a moment of change that poses a threat to the main character. This threat doesn't have to be physical; it can be emotional, psychological, or situational. Readers are naturally drawn to conflict and uncertainty, wanting to see how a character will respond to a challenge now.

Identify the crucial moment. Pinpoint the specific moment of crucial change in your story – a stranger arriving, a difficult conversation starting, a telegram being delivered. This is where your story must open. Beginning too early with background or too late after the change has occurred will confuse or bore the reader.

3. Keep the Story Moving: Weave in Description, Avoid Static Stops

Fiction is movement. Description is static.

Integrate, don't dump. While description is necessary for readers to visualize the story world, lengthy descriptive passages, like detailing a sunset for its own sake, halt the story's forward momentum. Description should be woven in carefully, in bits and pieces, serving the story's needs rather than existing as standalone "pretty prose." Avoid clichés like "rosy fingers of dawn."

Prioritize speed. Different writing forms have different speeds. Exposition (giving facts) and description are the slowest. Narrative (moment-by-moment action) and dialogue (characters talking) are faster. Dramatic summary (condensing action) is the fastest. Analyze your copy; if it feels slow, you might be relying too much on description and exposition.

Description serves the story. Even descriptions of a character's thoughts or feelings should be relatively brief in modern fiction. The goal is to tell (describe) a little and demonstrate (show in action) a lot. Ensure that any description relates to the viewpoint character's experience and affects their feelings or actions, making it relevant to the plot's movement.

4. Craft Characters Bigger Than Life: Make Them Active, Goal-Driven Fighters

Good fiction characters, in other words, are never, ever real people.

Exaggerate for impact. Real people, when transcribed directly onto the page, often appear dull and flat in fiction. To make characters vivid and compelling, you must construct them by exaggerating traits, adding distinctive tags (like a nervous habit), and giving them clearer motives than people often have in reality. They need to be bigger, brighter, and more understandable.

Avoid the wimp trap. Stories about passive characters who wait for things to happen or refuse to fight are inherently uninteresting. Good fiction characters are active, risk-takers, and highly motivated towards a goal. They struggle against opposition and determine their own fate, reflecting a reader's desire to believe in agency and effort.

Goals drive character and plot. An active character forms a goal based on their plight and motives. Their pursuit of this goal drives the story forward and creates suspense, as the reader translates the character's goal into a story question ("Will she get the job?"). This quest structure, whether for a major or minor objective, is essential for engaging fiction.

5. Fuel Your Fiction with Conflict: Seek Out Struggle Between Opposing Goals

In fiction, the best times for the writer—and reader—are when the story's main character is in the worst trouble.

Trouble equals interest. While we avoid trouble in real life, fiction writers must actively seek it out for their characters. The more pressure and woes you pile on your protagonist, the more the story perks up and captures reader interest. Trouble is the engine of plot.

Conflict is key. The most effective kind of trouble is conflict: an active struggle between two or more characters with opposing goals. This is distinct from blind bad luck or adversity, which characters cannot grapple with or change. Conflict is dramatic, happens onstage, and allows characters to prove themselves by fighting for what they want.

Engineer the fights. As a writer, you must constantly devise ways to set up more fights. This doesn't always mean physical combat; it can be an argument, a negotiation, a chase, or any situation where characters actively push against each other. Ensure both characters are motivated to struggle now and are actively involved in the give-and-take.

6. Build a Believable World: Ensure Logic, Cause, and Effect

Because fiction is make-believe, it has to be more logical than real life if it is to be believed.

[ERROR: Incomplete response]

Last updated: May 19, 2025