Writing a novel is learning process...one with many mistakes and solutions which aren't always so obvious. In today's post, I wanted to go over five of the most common content-mistakes in novels and how to fix them. These mistakes are found in every genre and can sometimes be tricky to fix, but not with this nifty guide! The Mistake: Depending on dialogue to tell the story If your story is all dialogue, some of it has to go. Solution A: make the characters more active—have them act out the dialogue. Instead of a character saying, “you’re such a jokester, Harry," show Harry play a prank on his teacher. Solution B: change some of the dialogue to an internal thought process, but have those paragraphs be from a unique voice. Instead of having a conversation worrying about something going wrong, change it to a series of paragraphs from a history-lover comparing what could go wrong to the disastrous beginning of WW1 The Mistake: Revealing too much, too soon Readers should get to know characters the same way they get to know people--gradually. The Solution: Reveal your characters personality gradually. Don't tell me so and so are best friends, show me over the course of multiple chapters how their friendship pans out! The Mistake: Telling readers what happens before it happens You might think you’re not doing this, but any time you reveal something because it seems needed for plot clarity, it’s probably not needed. Two common instances of this are: A. A morning getting ready scene B. Revealing plans The Solution: cut out the scene and see if the story still makes sense. Or, if you're not ready to cut, ask yourself "does the story need this to make sense?" Answer honestly and if the answer is no, cut! A good rule of thumb when it comes to revealing plans is to only reveal a plan/show plan brainstorming when the plan will fail. For example, if a heist is gonna fail, show the robbers discussing their plan beforehand. But if the heist is gonna succeed, just go straight into the heist action! The Mistake: Resolving too many subplots/small problems Some things can be open ended. No character’s life should be perfect at the end of the novel. The Solution: Focus on resolving the big plot issues and see where there are opportunities to resolve the small plot. Outline act 3 for the big plot and see where there’s built-in opportunities to resolve smaller plots. As the good army storms the castle to defeat the evil king in a story, there’s an opportunity for the foreign princess to kiss the captain of the troops. Have this romantic tension between the princess and the captain resolve IF it will give them hope to come out victorious from battle. If not, there's no reason to resolve this tension (and that will keep readers coming for the sequel) The Mistake: Passive characters No one likes to read about a character who is all talk and Netflixing. People want to read about active characters. The Solution: Passive characters are a result of passive situations, so put your characters in situations where they have to be active. An easy way to make the situation more active is to change the setting. Change that chatty first date over coffee to a cliff diving date. Want more examples and a more in depth analysis of these five mistakes and solutions? Check out the video I made on the topic! And it's a collab with my friend Melissa, so after you watch my video, you can check out hers for more novel writing mistakes and how to fix them!
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AuthorI'm Angela Anne, a Young Adult contemporary writer committed to helping you achieve your writing goals + giving you writing inspiration. ArchivesCategories
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