Writing a novel: 5 mistakes to avoid 2022
Writing a novel: 5 mistakes to avoid
I have been reading manuscripts by beginning authors for several years now as part of support programs. My role is to read and annotate the works, allowing the apprentice writers to improve their narrative and general writing skills.
I have found, over time, that the same errors always come up in these manuscripts. It doesn’t matter what kind of novel is presented.
I thought it would be good to present the 5 most frequent errors I see inside these projects and propose concrete solutions. It may help some people eliminate them before their first draft’s end. (Because of these mistakes, you may be making them!)
Mistake #1: Not mastering your French
It might seem obvious, but many beginners start writing without knowing the basics of French. Sometimes I receive manuscripts with so many mistakes that I have to squint to “decode” what is written.
What reading experience do you think that gives?
These authors will have to realize sooner or later that the French language is their primary tool, just as the pencil is the designers’ tool. An illustrator who doesn’t know how to hold a pencil will smudge his sheets with the palm of his hand and make random strokes that ooze amateurishness. It’s the same for the writer who will make mistakes every 5 words. It will not be believable.
Publishers typically hire linguistic revisers before publishing a work, of course, but they prefer — by far — to read manuscripts from people who demonstrate an excellent command of French.
To avoid this mistake: Improve your French skills. Take remedial classes and reread your grammar books. Write a lot and make an effort to check your sentences for errors, whether in your writing project or your email. Buy software like Antidote and comb through your texts. To learn more, read my article, “Why you have to master your French to write a novel.”
Writing a novel: 5 mistakes to avoid 2022
Mistake #2: Staging cardboard characters
What is a cardboard character?
He’s a character with no depth and was inserted into a story to “fill a role.” He arrives, exercises his function, and we rarely see him again. And during the rare moments when we see him, he acts like an automaton (we feel that the author pushes him very hard to bring him in a specific direction).
This kind of character irritates readers. And the beginners’ manuscripts contain a large number of them.
When you open a book, you want to identify with the characters it contains. We want to feel their emotions and expect them to act believable. In a way, they “undergo” the story, and we want to know how they will be affected by it.
If you only insert pre-programmed puppets, you kill the pleasure of reading in the bud.
To avoid this mistake:
- Remember that your characters had a life before the beginning of your story and that this life will (probably) continue afterward.
- Make character sheets and find deep motivations for your protagonists.
- Think of them as normal humans and try to see the world from their perspective.
Writing a novel: 5 mistakes to avoid 2022
Mistake #3: Presenting a story that lacks research
I can’t remember how often I received manuscripts of detective novels where the authors had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA of the essential workings of a police force or the law.
We will agree on one thing. If you choose to portray police officers, you need to know what they do when they return to the station in the morning, what forms they have to fill out in a day, why they have the right to use lethal force, and more.
You need to educate yourself to the point where you’ll be able to think like a policeman (because your characters certainly will).
You understand that this advice does not only apply to crime novels. It will happen that your project requires a minimum of research, for example, if your characters visit a foreign city, if they read a text in an unknown language or if they practice a trade that you do not know.
Your duty will then be to demystify these subjects before talking about them. It will save you from talking bullshit.
To avoid this mistake: Read novels that focus on the topics you are discussing. Flip through monographs or textbooks. Do interviews with experts. Visit the cities where your action will take place. To learn more, read my article: “The importance of research for writing a novel.”
Writing a novel: 5 mistakes to avoid 2022
Mistake #4: Giving little importance to consistency
For some authors, coherence is incidental.
For example, the character of “Justine” will have blue eyes on page 5 and brown eyes on page 26. In the same way, “Alexandre” would be presented at the beginning as very sensitive, while in the middle of history, he would show extreme coldness – and no major event would have transformed him in the meantime.
Consistency is like the foundation of a building: if it is covered with cracks, everything will crumble.
Consistency errors can be minor (as in the eye color example) and can be easily corrected. Other times, though, it’s central (characters act at odds with their core characteristics for no apparent reason), and a substantial rewrite is needed to rectify the whole thing. Do not be afraid to do this essential work.
A reader who reads an incoherent story will drop out very quickly. He will no longer trust the work or the author.
To avoid this mistake:
- Take plenty of notes as you write.
- Fill out character sheets to adequately describe your protagonists, physically and mentally, and consult these sheets regularly.
- Reread and make the appropriate changes.
Mistake #5: Making perspective mistakes
When you write a story, you have to choose how you tell it. It can be registered with “I” or “he.” And even when written in 3rd person, one can choose to have omniscient or single-character-aligned narration (you can read more about the main types of narrators here ).
In an “I” narration or a 3rd person narration aligned with a single character, many authors will expose the thoughts of the secondary characters in the narration when this is not allowed. One can only know the main character’s thoughts and period in these narrations.
(Of course, the main character can infer what others are thinking, but in this case, the information must be presented as such.)
If you have trouble understanding this error, I invite you to read an article devoted to the subject.
To avoid this mistake:
- Become aware of the type of narrator you are using and know the rules that come with it.
- Proofread your text and spot any errors in your point of view.
- Make the necessary changes.
Writing a novel: 5 mistakes to avoid 2022
1 – Wanting to protect your voice at all costs
A common mistake of the beginner writer is to be obsessed with the idea of ​​finding your own “voice.” We must, at all costs, have a “tone,” necessarily original, then do everything to protect it jealously… even before asking ourselves what story we want to tell and what emotion we want to convey to the reader!
Matthew Neill Null, author and professor of creative writing, testifies to this paradox that he regularly observes in some of his students:
2 – Give yourself the place of the hero
Another reflex found in the young author is to choose himself as the primary source of inspiration – despite the work of imagination, fictionalization, and creation.
Mick Kitson, author of numerous novels translated around the world, including “A survival manual for young girls,” testifies to this recurring habit:
At Les Artisans de la Fiction, we encourage apprentice authors to draw on their knowledge and experiences because this often makes for solid stories. But we agree with the words of Mick Kitson: it is in the soil of his understanding that one can make his best imagination flourish because fiction is, above all, a work (and a pleasure) of the invention.
3 – Be satisfied with being original
The third mistake to avoid when writing your novel that we regularly find among apprentice authors: bet everything on originality! And, at the same time, sacrificing plot, character, and story clarity.
Author and professor of creative writing Jane Smiley, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “A Thousand Acres,” reassures us:
We advise our students not to worry about the originality of their writing or the themes they address: what matters is, first of all, to tell a good story well… Being original is still a step above! It wouldn’t occur to an apprentice architect to make an actual house. First, he must master the basics of architecture… and by learning them, he will find a way to circumvent or improve them.
4 – Forgetting the narrative universe to the detriment of the characters and the plot
Let’s dwell for a moment on the pyramid theory invented by Jane Smiley to explain the stages of writing a novel.
Language is at the base of the pyramid: of course, writing a novel requires knowing your language and loving words. Then just above the base of the tongue are the plot and the characters… there too, no surprise, without a story and characters to embody it, there is no possible novel.
But writing a good novel goes beyond just mastering language and plot… and this is a mistake often made by beginners in writing fiction:
Therefore, Jane Smiley encourages young authors not to leave aside the work on the narrative universe, that is, the world in which the story takes place. Too often, this world is underdeveloped and underexploited, robbing storylines of breadth, richness, and depth!
5 – Project yourself into the future
Finally, a mistake often made by apprentice novelists is to put the cart before, well before, the horse. Of course, the prospect of being published is a motivating element to get down to work in a profound way. Still, this objective must not obscure the actual position of the novelist: writing a good novel requires a long learning curve. It’s a path that takes time and many failed attempts, as with any severe creation.
It is, therefore, a question of concentrating on learning, writing, rewriting, and focusing your energy on this prospect rather than rushing to the end of your book and the frantic search for a publication.
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Writing a novel: 5 mistakes to avoid 2022
