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

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

Are you an aspiring creative writer? Think you wont make any mistakes? Think again! Think you've already made all the mistakes? Think again! There's many more you can make. Although, as you progress in your writing career, you'll make less mistakes, you'll grow, improve and become a great writer. That much I'm sure of as I consider no serious writer nothing short than great anyway!

But there are some writing mistakes that some young but aspiring and even creative writers make sometimes. Some more than the rest, some not so much. But that's either because they haven't learned anything from their mistakes and keep falling into the same trap over and over. Stop doing that to yourself! Learn about what are the top 10 mistakes that writers make today, and forever..

And learn about how to not commit these same mistakes yourself, why they are the top 10 mistakes writers and authors make and how to avoid committing them yourself! And this will be mistakes that actual book authors can and will make too. But can be applied to all those freelance writers out there as well!

1. Waiting for Inspiration to Come to You.
Like time, inspiration waits for no man. You have to go out there and hunt it like its your prey. And when you find it, grab it by both horns. Bleed it dry and make fur boots! You can't wait for inspiration to just come to you. Well you can, but if you go out and look for her you'll find her a lot quicker than waiting for her to come and find you!

Tip: Inspiration is fleeting! You have to catch it with a net. Go out and hunt for it by getting involved with those things that are relevant to your business/site/industry.

2. Looking for a Publisher Before You've Finished.
Whoa whoa slow your horses mr! Let's do one thing at a time. Finish your project first before you start wondering and thinking about who's going to publish it. Sure, it's good to look around and research but nobody is going to publish it if it's not completed! So finish it first, pour your heart and soul into it. Then when it's done, you're one step closer to getting it published.

Tip: Instead of finding a publisher, you can help them to find you by promoting your book and snippets of it on social media and book publishing forums and blogs etc.

3. Using a Passive Voice, Weak Nouns & Verbs.
Over a long period of time, and especially if consistently throughout, a passive voice just becomes so, meh! It lacks the character and personality that is synonymous with the main characters or people within your story or book. And just using weak nouns and verbs that aren't very thought about just make the reader lose less and less interest on every page they turn.

Tip: Look up other ways to say stuff and words to say instead on sites like Pinterest etc like this pin I find that has some other ways to say some commonly used weak nouns and verbs.


4. Not Outlining Properly.
To outline or not to outline? That is the question but what is the answer? To be honest, it really depends on you and what kind of writer you are! There are two types of writers. Well there's more, but the main two when it comes to outlining are those that do and those that don't. Those that do outline the subject matter, and those that don't just keep writing on and powering their way through. But those that don't often means the resulting content is hard to break down easily or even make sense of in some cases depending on who or what's being written about.

Tip: Create a bigger, better story by outlining important events, people, scenarios and situations.

5. Trying to Write Differently.
Some writers don't want to sound the same as other writers. And I understand that! I really do. Nobody wants to be seen as the same as how are you going to stand out in the crowd when you need to get published you know? And everyone loves to be unique. Well we all are at the end of the day. But some writers deliberately try to write differently to try and sound different. But don't do that! For starters it's fake. It's not the real you. And that's not something you will want or or be able to keep up for the rest of your life is it? So what if you sound the same and use the same words as everyone else more or less. It's still YOUR story and will still be unique. Only you can say what it will say in the words that came from your heart and mind. And no two hearts and minds are the same!

Tip: Never try to write differently just to sound different. To thine own self be true! - Polonius.

6. Not Reading Books in Your Genre for Fear of Plagiarising.
This might sound daft on the face of it but there is some logic in peoples madness. Logic that I'm going to burst like a balloon! Don't not read books in your genre for the fear you'll be accused of plagiarising someone else's content! I can see why people might think this would happen but do you really have that small of an imagination? Come on! Give yourself some credit! You have an INFINITE imagination and nobody can even conceive!

Tip: Do read books in your genre, as much as possible. You'll learn what that genre needs and become a better writer/author for it!

7. Not Scheduling Your Writing Times.
Every great writer needs to learn to write first. And the more you do, every word you type, every page you complete, the more you'll improve. But more than this, if you really want to complete that amazing book, story or novel or some other book you're writing, then you will probably need to schedule in some times in your day, week/month that you can sit down and chop away at it! There are some amazing books you can buy now that would have been with us much quicker if the writers/authors of them would have more managed, scheduled and dedicated some time to completing them!

Tip: Try to schedule writing times for early in the mornings and get it out of the way. You be more willing to write in the mornings when it's quiet but also feel much more productive for it.

8. Not Knowing What to Say.
Uh ohhhh writers block bam! You've just hit a brick wall and can't scale it. That's writers block! And not knowing what to say, write about or communicate in your article or book is something we all often come up against. It's like, we have the knowledge in us, but we just can't find the words to say about what we know or how to say it! And this is something that can prevent some people from even typing a single word. But it's simply writers block and there are many ways to overcome that block wall if you learn how to find inspiration!

Tip: Overcome writing block by finding ways to be inspired. Learn what those things are and do them until yuo find the inspiration to overcome your block.

9. Not Reading a Single Book or Taking Classes (screenplay, writing etc).
Some people just don't like to read period. Some people even despise it! But they still go on to write amazing books and content. If that's you, then power to you! But some people really love to read and learn how to read. Even though they already can. But every great author will tell you that you should read books and even take classes if you want to be a successful author because it's from those things that those authors got most of their ideas and inspiration and writing skills from!

Tip: Don't be afraid of reading! It will only go on to help you to become a better, smarter writer and or author anyway in the long run.

10. Having Great Ideas for Stories But Weak Character Personalities.
I've heard many great story pitches in my life and some of them get me really excited. And then I ask them about their characters and sometimes I end up pulling their house of cards down from the top and they then get annoyed of me for exposing the holes and weaknesses in their characters and their personalities. lol But let me tell you now, having a great story is one thing, but if your characters don't truly live up to that story, it will likely disappoint and bore people. 

Tip: Great stories are built on top of great characters. Never create unlikely, weak personality characters and put as much thought into them as your story itself.

And that's your Top 10 Mistakes Aspiring and Creative Writers Make - Are You Guilty of Any?

What other writing mistakes are there you know of that writers/authors can make and how to avoid them?

Thanks!

Mike.