Tag: Writer

Top Three Writing Mistakes


When I first started writing and sending my attempts out to beta partners and critique sites, it wasn’t unusual to get a wide range of comments from “This sucks.” to “This is the best thing I’ve ever read!”  Just goes to show how different people view what you write, and it’s pointless to try to please all of them.  One thing that was consistent were the following comments:

1.  Don’t be so descriptive and technical.

A big comment I got a lot was “I love your descriptions, but they go on too long and I started skimming.”

Skimming?  Oh no.  No skimming in my books.  It’s been a hard lesson for me to learn because I am such a description hound, but there is a happy medium.  There is no need to take your reader on a tour of the room unless each of the things you point out are relevant to the story in some way.  For example:

“Above the cherry-wood mantel hung a gilded mirror.  Upon closer inspection of the frame, I noticed the handiwork revealed cherubs chasing rabbits through vines of ivy. Each cherub possessed a unique expression and varying lengths of hair, as well as age. The intricate work down to their fingernails, was exquisite.”

Now unless my main character is an art dealer and is looking for such a piece, or those cherubs are about to come to life, this information is way too much.  For most, knowing there is a gilded mirror over the mantel is enough information.

2.  Voice change.

Writing a character’s voice and keeping it consistent is difficult.  With me, my ‘adult’ voice creeps in now and then and my teens sound older than they really are.   Thank goodness I have a couple of good beta readers that are excellent at finding my ‘voice’ mistakes and offering suggestions on how to fix them. I am also thankful for my teen son who has no problem telling me he wouldn’t say something a certain way.

3.  Disembodied body parts and having eyes do strange things

All of us writers do it, and most of the time we don’t see it when we edit.  That’s why we have beta readers and critique partners.  How many times have you written something like, “His hand reached for his gun.”  Is his hand not connected to his body?  Did it wander off on its own?  Yep, funny stuff, but not as funny as what we get our eyes to do.

We’ve all seen the phrases:

  • Their eyes met across the room.
  • Her eyes devoured him. (wow, those are some big hungry, man-eating eyes)
  • His eyes fell to the floor. (splat)
  • Her eyes were glued to the book.  (ouch)

I used to roll my eyes and grimace whenever I saw comments like this because everyone knows what the author meant.  Still, eyes are not disembodied body parts that can wander around. I’ve learned to rev up the heat or the tension by showing and involving the reader in my scene.

Instead of “Her eyes devoured him.” try something like:

“Her sultry body and come-hither stare consumed him, burning him in a way he hadn’t felt since Nina died.”

Yeah, it’s a bit longer, but the picture is much clearer, don’t you think?

What are some mistakes you’ve learned as a writer you’d like to share?

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“R” is for Rejected/Rejection


Hi, everyone!  This post is part of the A-Z challenge. Please take time to visit the other blogs that are participating.

For a writer, getting a rejection letter is one of the worst things that could happen.  After days, weeks, months, even years of pouring our hearts into a story only to be told to take a hike is a difficult pill to swallow.

Over the years I’ve submitted a variety of material for publication.  In my early years I submitted to magazines a lot.  Most of the time I got the standard form letter…Dear Jenny, thank you for submitting your work to [insert name of agency/magazine, etc.].  Unfortunately, it is not a fit for us at this time.

Okay, no problem.  I’m down with that.  I mean, they didn’t say my writing was bad; just that it wasn’t a fit, right?  Gotta move on.  Keep going.  For almost 2 years I diligently sent off articles, short stories, etc. with no luck.  After a while, the rejections began to take their toll.  Was I really that bad of a writer? Surely someone liked something I wrote.   I changed tactic and started submitting short stories for competitions.  Didn’t win anything.  Then I started looking for homes for some of my short stories, submitting to anthology competitions.  Again, nothing.  Not even one bite.  I decided to take one more chance with a short titled “When Herman Cries”.  It was a children’s story about a goldfish who lost his mother and cried so much, his tears overfilled his fish tank.  It was a story of grief and how kids find solace in the simplest of creatures.  I received the worst rejection I could have ever received.  I’ll never forget it.  Paperclipped to my returned story was a yellow note that simply said in black marker,

There was no salutation, no closing.  Just those four words.

I was devastated.  Two days later, in a heated argument, I tore up my first completed novel, “One Night With You”…a fictional piece about Elvis Presley.  I put my typewriter and pens away.  That was twenty-two years ago.

In 2003, the writing bug returned to me again.  Wait. Let me rephrase.  It didn’t return to me. I returned to it, and oh, how my heart rejoiced.  It was like being reunited with an old and dear friend.  How could I have shunned my soul’s calling for so long?  I began writing again, anything and everything…poems, short stories, flash fiction, novels, novellas, editorials.  You name it.

For the past seven years I’ve done nothing but work on perfecting my own writing as well as those of others.  I’ve read a lot, joined critique groups, landed a few lifelong beta partners.  The internet has been a lifeline for me and other writers, offering outlets that didn’t exist 22 years ago.  Now, my writing is better, crisper, but I know I still have a long way to go.  I still get rejections and they still burn, but I’ve also received requests for partials and a request for an entire manuscript.  And while each rejection stings, they are the yellow bricks that line the road to publication.  I have a belief in myself and my writing now that I didn’t have 22 years ago.  That publishing contract is close, I can smell it, and when it finally happens, I’ll have all the ‘Thanks but no thanks’ I ever received to thank for it.  What a journey it’s been.  What a fantastic journey it’s going to be.

What about you?  What was your worse rejection letter and how did you overcome the sting?

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