Some of my rookie mistakes.

Ian wanted to know what some common, fixable rookie mistakes were, and I realized the list I was writing would make a good blog post — because they’re my rookie mistakes.  Not that I’ve really stopped making them, but at least I can spot them and go, “Perhaps not.”

• Writing a very similar story to the author’s favorite writer without realizing it.
• Too many characters in the opening (and no clear hero).
• A convoluted plot with no point.
• Overgeneralization instead of providing details (show, not tell).
• Trying to be clever and dropping in “hints” of backstory at inappropriate moments, just because it was the first time I mentioned something related.
• Spending waaaay too much time describing characters’ outfits.
• Writing an interesting beginning and dropping off into blandness, because I can’t figure out how to revise.
• Writing main characters that nobody can empathize with.
• Action scenes strung together without any concern for meaning or giving the reader a break.
• Unrelenting seriousness that takes a perfectly good plot and turns it into unintentional melodrama.
• Trying too hard to be funny.
• Writing an absolutely evil character with whom I cannot empathize.
• Writing main characters without flaws; o woe is me, why are all these terrible things happening?
• Writing passive characters.
• Stacking endless prepositional phrases in an effort to sound poetic.
• Trying too hard to sound “fancy” when a plain, clear, direct style would be much better.
• Describing something, then deciding I had a better description for it, and leaving both descriptions in.

And that’s just what I can think of off the top of my head.