Top 10 Mistakes Aspiring and Creative Writers Make - Are You Guilty of Any?

As for me, even though I write this stuff, I still make mistakes in my writing from time to time. Even though I have about 20 years of experience as a freelance writers and author, I still often have that boo boo moment, those brain farts! But that's okay! Because we learn from doing. And mistakes aren't something that should be looked at as complete and total failures. Because you can learn from them and learn how not to repeat them again. So when you do make a mistake, don't come down on yourself too hard for it! Learn from it! That will go on to make you a better, smarter, more accomplished and successful writer and author!

You know it makes sense!!

Right?

Mike.

I must admit that I am guilty of some of these things here. For example, not scheduling regular times to do my creative writing is a big problem for me. I truly need to be more disciplined. You could be the greatest writer in the world, but if you do not apply yourself and treat it like a job, at work at it every day on the regular, then you will never reach your full potential. Also, I can be guilty of writing more than I read, and this can be a real rookie mistake. You need to read constantly to be a better writer, and my desk, floor, bedside table, bathroom floor, etc. are all littered with books and magazines that I have half read, never started to read, or have barely cracked open. That is not a good thing.

Not knowing what to say or write is probably one of the worst things to come across and I'm sure it's a mistake that a lot of aspiring and creative writers have come across. Like you said, most of the time it is simply just writer's block and can actually be easily overcome. All you have to do is go for a bit of a break. And hopefully, when you are finished and start to write again, a lot of ideas will start coming back to your head.

One of the most common mistake that I find in new writers is the redundancy and the so called going in circles. Obviously, the writer does not know what to say or write about the subject matter. In one audition for writers, I had the privilege of reading the written exams and that’s what I saw in most of them – they don’t know the subject very well but since it was a test so they had to write whatever they can think of. The half a page of manuscript had nothing but words and phrases…. yet no substance at all.

I have to admit that at times I keep using the same words repeatedly and to be honest when I go through my content again I find it to be boring. I am now using the thesaurus and this has helped me to improve my vocabulary and write richer contents.

I find it easier to write in the morning as I can concentrate better. So I try to wake up early every day and write as much as I can. I usually do other kinds of work during the day.

Great article. Creative writing is no walk in the park. To be successful you need to get those creative juices flowing.Writing or working from homes seems so easy. But it's not. You have to be super disciplined . Time management is extremely important. You need to plan your day with military precision. Otherwise you end up not having achieved much. You definitely need to set aside time to write. This is the diffrence between sucess and failure.

I started reading through the list, and the second I hit "passive voice" I threw my head back and just sat here thinking "oh god, that's 100% me." Even when I was a high school student I can remember getting papers back from my teacher that said in huge letters at the top "PASSIVE VOICE" underlined three times. It's always been a problem for me, and one I can't seem to get away from (although admittedly I could probably afford to put a little more effort into moving away from it, but it's hard to break a habit you've always had!)

Not outlining also hits pretty close to home. I'm sure everyone has the same problem - thinking "oh, I know what I want to write, I don't need to plan it out." But then you realize that you've been writing for a while now, and the story get left behind some two, three hours back with no indication of where it went.

Then of course the last one. Characters are so important, but so many of my own stories have just collapsed under the weight of bad character design. It's so easy to just fall into habit and create the same basic, boring character that's been seen time and time again. I like the idea of building a story on top of a great character - maybe that's where I should start, rather than creating characters that I think fit my story.

I have a tendency to lapse into passive voice as well. If it makes you feel any better, I think that this is quite terribly common. You and I are very similar in our "creative writing mistakes", so to speak. I tend to outline bigger projects, but I run under false pretenses, often, when I think I do not need to outline smaller written pieces. I think a good outline, even if it is sparse, sketchy, and skeletal, is better than no outline at all. Furthermore, believable characters with three dimensional personalities and believable dialogue are incredibly hard to write, so I struggle with that as well in my fiction.

The first writing mistake I make is not scheduling my writing time properly. Like many people, I have a demanding daily life and I don't protect my writing block, but instead, keep moving them around. This has delayed my writing a book many times and discourages me from wanting to write at all. Sticking with a writing schedule is something I know I must do to be successful. Reading it here confirms and reminds me to make it a priority.

The second mistake I make is not outlining properly. I do create an outline, but I find myself veering away from it too often. I get inspired to write about something not on my outline and I go off on a tangent instead of sticking to my own plan. This also delays the completion of my work unnecessarily. I have to admit I don't know how to train myself to stop doing this. I like writing from my heart and feel stifled by following an outline even though I know I need one. Any suggestions?

I think that the biggest mistake which I do in my writing is the use of passive voices. I lived the tip that you have attached to your post. Now I will always try to attach a strong alternative for every common noun or verb.

Secondly it is the lack of proper research that leads me to backdrop. I read only a few related articles. My research is always limited and I rarely opt for a detailed study.

This is such a nice post! It was a great read and was truly an eye opener. I have a couple of websites and I currently don't have the funds to hire content writers. All of the content in my website are 100% written by me. And boy is it hard. And then I read this post and I found out that I'm guilty of primarily three things:

#1. waiting for inspiration to come - I don't search for inspiration. I get lazy most of the time when writing and wait for inspiration to come to me. This results to very little articles written.
#3. _{Using a Passive Voice, Weak Nouns & Verbs} - I kind of tend to use the same words over and over which makes my articles boring. Sometimes, I go over my posted articles and change some words using thesaurus. Lol.
#7. _{Not Scheduling Your Writing Times} - I don't have a scheduled time for writing. When I feel like writing, then I write. When I don't feel like writing, then I don't. Again, this results to only a few written articles.

Sometimes writers out of laziness use the same word again and again not bothering to think or google for a synonym to use, a writer should practice by memorizing atleast 3-5 synonyms for a word, doing this will give the writer an improved vocabulary which is always handy when writing.

This article is good. Makes me laugh when I am guilty of one of the items here. But it teaches me to point out that it should be not done when I will right again. This is an eye opener for beginner.

I am also guilty of using passive voice in my writing as well as using the same words over and over. Maybe because while writing, we tend to feel like we are just normally talking to someone that is why we write whatever comes to mind and doesn't really think of how proper we say it.

There is no such thing as advice that applies to everyone. I have looked for a publisher before I finished, in fact I have secured a publisher with only three chapters finished because this is completely routine procedure for non-fiction. My idea of mistake would be taking advice from random people on the internet too seriously. I have also trade published 5 novels which provided most of my income for a decade while rampantly committing 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10.

The only rule is: do what works for you.

I think a good addition to your list is "Writing Something You're Not Passionate About". You can really see and feel a content which has no soul. Something written without passion. So my tip to newbies is to write about things that you're passionate about. This would give your content some soul and it would shine if done properly.