Their are 25 common mistakes that will peg you as an amateur writer:
- Number one is spelling changes If you spell a name a certain way, make sure it is always spelled that way. Also? with locations and abilities. Be consistent with the capitalization, too.
- Number two is characters that are similar. Do not have multiple characters with very similar names, similar personality attributes, or that are on same side, either the good side or the bad side in your story.
- Number three is mistakes in procedures with different professions like Social Work, the Police, the Court System, or Forensic Scientists to name a few. You need to understand how those professions work if you are going to write about them.
- Number four is mistakes in descriptions of medical problems, medical care, technology, or weapons. Research to make sure you understand what you are describing.
- Number five is small talk in the dialogue that takes up a lot of space but does not mean anything, or have any relevance.
- Number six is forgetting to include sensory information like sight, sound, and smell.
- Number seven is naming the main character after yourself or a slight variation of your name. This will be very apparent when you go to query agents or publishers and it is a big red flag.
- Number eight is cliches used too frequently. You do not want to rely on cliche phrases.
- Number nine is using the same sentence construction over and over.
- Number ten is switching between past and present tense unintentionally. Make sure you know which tense you are writing in.
- Number eleven is pausing the story every time a character is introduced to provide a laundry list of physical descriptions. One or two descriptions is fine, but the big long paragraph of descriptions is not going to read smoothly.
- Number twelve is over use of alternative dialog tags. Use these very sparingly.
- Number thirteen is using more than one or two adjectives to describe a noun.
- Number fourteen is using more words than is necessary. EX: he lifted his chin slowly and then dropped it back to his chest instead of he nodded.
- Number fifteen is thesaurus writing. Replacing words constantly with bigger or fancier words to sound more impressive or sophisticated.
- Number sixteen is constantly repeating the character’s name.
- Number seventeen is repeating character’s name in dialogue. You do not normally call people by their names in dialogue very often so it can seem unnatural.
- Number eighteen is repeating the same description over and over.
- Number nineteen is switching the point of view of your character at random. The point of view of the character should switch because it advances the story. You want to switch smoothly so your reader does not get confused with your story.
- Number twenty is including mundane details for no reason. The reader does not need to watch your character brush their teeth, get out of the shower or pick their clothes. These descriptions are very rarely interesting.
- Number twenty one is describing every article of clothing every character is wearing at all times.
- Number twenty two is using an adverb plus a verb instead of just using a stronger verb. EX: saying he moved quickly instead of he jogged.
- Number twenty three is overly formal dialogue.
- Number twenty four is introducing too many characters at the same? time.
- Number twenty five is writing stage direction instead of action. Nobody needs excessive descriptions.