Story Writing Mistakes

Writing mistakes will they never end? There are so many. And how do you learn what your mistakes are?

I remember the first time I met another writer. He was a fellow I met online and he was local. I didn't want him to get the wrong idea but I wanted his help, so I had my husband take me to meet him at the library.

He read my story's hard copy, sat down with a pen, and marked out every "had" in it. Then he told me to rewrite it. Why didn't he just cut off my hands? I "had" no idea I "had" been so nailed to the word "had" but I "had" my chance to correct it.

The little three letter word, "had" has a lot of meaning but it is a meaning that we don't usually need. Let's take an example:

I talked to another writer.
I had talked to another writer.

In the first sentence, it is straight past tense and easy to understand. No one has a problem with understanding that there was a writer and I talked to him. Easy, huh? But, "I had talked to another writer," gives an altogether different connotation. By using the word "had" (which put it in past perfect tense, for you English buffs), I was saying that I talked to another writer in the deeper past before something else happened. Do you see the difference? So, unless you are trying to indicate a deeper past, leave out the "had(s)". Your writing will show a marked improvement.

Another problem I "had" as a young writer was (I know I'm going to get flack for saying this) consistently writing in first person. As I look back on it, I realize that I didn't have the imagination to put myself in a character's skin and tell the story from a different point of view.

But before you pelt me with rotten tomatoes, let me explain that I am paraphrasing The Writer Magazine, which said some editors consider first person writing "amateurish". You will notice that very few short stories are selling in first person right now. Write in third person, past tense, if you want to sell your work. (See writer's guidelines for the magazine you want to write for, and they will usually tell you what voice they favor.)

And a couple of last quick tips: don't use adverbs that end in ly, such as consistently, inadvertently, etc. (You can use these words in informal writing just not in stories.)

Don't start a story with the weather or scenery. Make your first sentence an action sentence that will grab the reader by the throat. The best way to do this is to open your story halfway through an action scene, like this:

Peter stumbled into the room wearing a bloody shirt.
The phone rang again. She knew it was him.
She awoke, naked, on somebody's bathroom floor, and with a tourniquet around her arm.

And one more thing don't use the ellipsis ( ). Use a dash instead.
See below for more free writing tips.

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