10 Common New Writer Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

great video! thank you

"Develop a revision process" seems like it is screaming to be made into a video of its own. 😉

I’ve learned it’s better to write with the idea that no one will ever read it. That idea allows me to create real characters with real voices sayings truths. And that’s hard to do if you think someone will read it. Once you do that finish it. This will be your first draft. It will look raw. Now GET TO WORK. Writing is rewriting.

Another stellar video chock full of information - you really keep exceeding my expectations! Thank you.

"All writing advice is more nuanced than appears on the surface.” is this bad writing or just bad thinking?

This is one of the best, most useful videos about writing that I have seen.

I can't take how she pronounces Genre!! Wtf

All I can do is tell and unable to show. What do I need to do

Thank you:)

I’ve seen every single one of your videos and I watch them over and over lol

I can hear the passion in your voice.

By not showing yourself I feel like you’re not trying to sell your looks. You’re trying to sell your passion and knowledge.

That’s what I think Abbie does. I like her channel but I feel it’s less about the art and more about her🤨😑

Writing may not make you rich. But it’s an enriching experience.

Thanks for inspiring me to perfect my craft.

Meanwhile 13 chapters Power fantasy isekai with kingdom building called overlord - 1235431 words of pure plot. Now it has 16 ig (hard to find in russia, since Yen press is doing usual Yen press things)

Im just here to thank you, thank you, thank you. Great content, so much love flows through your every word. Thank you

My biggest issues indeed are head hopping and repeated words ("But" more than anything). However, I need to get my first draft actually done so I can focus on these kinda issues

Oh I am the worst for head hopping lmao 😂 never even thought about it either.

If all writing advice are guidelines, then I take that as a guide line and all advice really is set in stone. Thank you for this revelation.

I guess to this point is not making enough specific time to write. Have written a bit throughout my life but only when I make a time and place to write. I love your tutorials. You are a born teacher, easy to listen to and have noticeably researched your tutorials. Thank you.

My mistake is trying not to make mistakes

Just drink a cup of coffee in preparation then write the first thing that comes to mind. The rest should follow

one of my biggest lessons was when I was writing my first detective series. I only post online right now and haven't written my first book yet, but writing that series taught me a lot about the writing process and how different genres require different techniques. It's probably my worst story to date, but the best part about writing your worst work is rverything you learn from it.

thank you, Diane.

I've learned from my mistakes, revision more often then not, improves the work I'm doing. Revision isnt a one time process. Sometimes more revision works rather then less, seems best. It usually never gets less words, or shorter. It most always seems to get more interesting, as it increases in length. I just have to let go and not be inhibited to work on it more by writing it longer. Its just fun for the heck of doing it, to rotate revising longer and shorter, just to see what happens. It never stays the same, or maintains its original first draft copy. I simply enjoy writing and i find its more exciting then not. I must be obsessive compulsive with it because i rarely write anything that stays as it was when I first wrote it. It keeps changing, evolving, and growing, or, shrinking. Whichever way it goes in the process of formal and final drafts. As long as I can finally leave it that way. Usually thats the biggest challenge. I do it for the thrill of doing it mostly. Seeing it through the changes is amazing. And BRAVE. Sometimes it gets better and sometimes not. Some times its just bad. Lol

FANTASTIC VIDEO! Especially liked the second half with the "big picture" advice. I just now bought so many of the books that were shown in this video, too!

Wowww The lines at ending are really magical had blown my mind...

actually, there's a great many people - especially youngsters - who learn to play guitar or any instrument or a sport under the exact ambition of becoming super stars. the secret weapon of youth is that they're too stupid to know better... and that this is indeed a valuable weapon in their repertoire - IGNORANCE. in their idiotic and naive hope, they actually gain motivation for something that adults would know is as unlikely as winning the lotto.

problem for adults is fighting our hard won life wisdom and to try our at hand at something we KNOW is essentially a futile waste of time.

I think there's a special place in hell for talentless gatekeepers goons and just normal idiots/mean spirited people who are happy to piss on the works of others when they've done sweet FA themselves...its easy to point and laugh at others taking risks and with initiative ...when you're just a follower for life😡🤷‍♂️

I fear the harsh gatekeepers because I have very little confidence....John Kennedy toole was thinking of these ppl when writing "confederacy of dunces" lol

Some excellent thoughts. Thanks for sharing.

I love this channel❤

The biggest mistake? Listening to academics fill my head with bull and acquiring a kind of snobbery against popular fiction. Trying to write literature with a capital “L” and not understanding that such things are only determined by posterity. In the meantime, the rules they imposed on me became a straight jacket, and I didn’t write for 20 years from my frustration and disgust of academia. Now, I’m writing for the fun of it and it’s been the most productive year of my life.

This channel is a hidden treasure in this mundane social network.

Thank you for throwing this bucket of cold clarification.

Keep strong. Dont forget that despite the evil in this world, God is full of justice, mercy and love.

Justice said we broke His perfect law - causing the world's previous perfection to be destroyed - and therefore we deserve Hell (like a punishment in any legal system but this is eternal as His perfect law is eternal too). Don't think you fit in that category? Ever done one of these?: lying, stealing - regardless of how small the object EVER, hating others - which is murder in God's perfect law, lusting (plus God sees our entire thought life). Justice says "the soul that sins shall die" - if we break one in thought/word/deed it's as if we're guilty of all of them. Quite simply, living by the law (which is doing everything perfectly) is impossible for sinful humans

. The law shows us that 1. We will die in Hell if we fail to follow it and 2. We cannot save ourselves BUT, 3. God's perfect, immovable law points us to Christ, who followed and fulfilled the law in thought, word and deed perfectly in our place. He did what we couldn't and did it on our behalf. He was then sentenced to death on a cross, and took our personal punishment for our sin, paying our penalty (like paying our fine) completely FOR us, and has given us freedom.

If we turn from the sins we have committed and repent (pursue the opposite direction of love through Christ) He will, overtime, recreate us into His image through The Holy Spirit which Jesus sends to all who accept Him as their personal Lord and Savior of their life. We cannot purify ourselves, but Christ lived that perfect sinless, pure life and then allotted it to our "account".

That's where our righteousness comes from. Not from any good, works that you or I could do.
It is not based on the amount of good works we do. God starts the changes, He carries it on, and He completes it in those who let Him.

It's about letting Christ in to guide and teach you and obeying Him, again, through His power and instruction).

He is our substitute in His life, death and resurrection. He essentially rewrote history in our place so that, if you believe in Him, it will be as if YOU had never sinned if you accept Christ's death as our own in our place.

He is in Heaven right now preparing a place for us so that He can take His faithful, believing children home with Him when He returns. He will ressurrect us from death when He returns, giving mercy to those who accept His love, forgiveness, instruction and teachings in their life, and give justice to those who refuse it.

He doesn't want ANY of us to go to Hell and die for continuing in evil and rejecting His way to life, thats why He died FOR us. Hes giving EVERYONE a chance, He wants everyone to take the free gift of salvation from Hell. He wants us to be His and begin to follow His life of love and service through His power and abiding (staying) with Him. So long as we keep our hearts near to Christ through His strength, strive to follow His will of perfect love revealed in the Bible, and let Him lead in the midst of (very certain) pitfalls and struggles, we will, in time, win the ultimate victory over sin, pain and DEATH through Christ. Even if you are willing to be made willing, pray for Jesus to come in and He will do what we can't. Give us The Holy Spirit who will guide us in the right way.

NOTE: You are NEVER too sinful or messed up that God cannot turn your life around through Jesus. EVER
If you have any questions let me know

I have rushed scripts and Novels and all have failed I end up telling a whole lot more than showing and my writing falls flat. I’m learning to write just to write and take my time to sink deep into my character. If I have any ground to give advice it is to take your time and go on an adventure with your people. Don’t fly through your story to produce crap.

Very helpful ma'am! I don't know how this might sound, but I'm a new writer as well, and I unbelievably got a new idea for a story in the middle of watching this video! Wow! And it's giving me positive vibes! Thank you so much! I hope I can fix my problems with my new book!😊🙌

I totally agree...the more you receive feedback, the more you'll be able to tell if it's helpful or semi useless. I've been in a writing group for the past 4 years...and although I consider myself a pretty good writer now, and though I was then, a lot of my increased ability as a writer came from reading and commenting on other peoples writing and listening to comments from members of my group. Emersion is a great tool for finding what works and what doesn't.

The best revelation here is, "you don't know what you don't know." That's where I was...and still am sometimes...now less than before.

Almost half of the things mentioned are relevant to me.

I learned a lot from this video, and I will do my best to improve, and write great stories using these advices.
You have my thanks.

Really helpful video. I'm a very new writer. Never thought I would ever put pen to paper or, more accurately, fingers to keyboard. I have already edited my first novel six times. I have fallen down many of the usual pitfalls. I love reading but I hate books that are so literary they're really hard work. I've given up on quite a few books lately that come with glowing reviews but in my view were simply indulgent and boring. While I totally get the 'show don't tell' or 'describe don't explain,' I find myself skipping so many areas in a book because I want to get on to the next stage of the story. Is it just me or do too many writers become so wrapped up with their 'showing' their readers nod off to sleep? Maybe they're not doing their 'showing/describing' in the right way? I've recently finished reading 'Lessons in Chemistry' - a fun story, great characterisation, good writing, and a strong message but a really easy read - it left me wanting more. I'm currently reading John Le Carre's 'The Pigeon Tunnel - Stories from my Life.' I find his writing style superb. My taste in books is pretty broad. Will I ever publish - who knows. I've started the second book with the ongoing story of my protagonist in the first book and last week I started a new story with a different protagonist. My stories are based on my own experiences so should be true to life - I'm following the old adage, 'write about what you know,' - probably laziness
on my part as I don't want to do too much research. My biggest challenge - Finding good verbs.

describe don't explain might be the perfect way to explain how to use the "show don't tell" rule in writing

I did think "show don't tell" was also supposed to be used in writing not just cinema because even if cinema has visuals being able to show things that doesn't mean that text can't have the same rule

I had no idea how to do it thought... until now

describing how people react also shows their personality like let's say

"Jacob was frozen in place even though his eyes were trembling, Phenix felt like if he didn't stop moving his eyes so quickly they'd pop out of his sockets"

Nice video there. I have been watching your videos.

I am so thankful for you
No one knows how hard the writing in my place is , no one care to read and no one care to encourage me , because this kind of things are not even exist in our culture, but I am continuing either way, no matter what happen because I have something to tell in my stories.

How did you get the videos you used in your video? Where do you get all of these various shots/videos to match your dialogue? Just wondering how you did it. The process. They in themselves are creative and represent the message. Thank you

Thank you for your wonderful videos! They are awesome! Love that sentence "it takes a village to raise the novel!" 🙌🤗❣🙏🏿💫

You are a great teacher. Thanks a lot :)

My biggest problem with writing (and with everything else) is that I can never finish what I start. I'm not even a quarter into my first draft before I decide I hate it and I'm trying again.

My first book mistakes. Head-hopping. Adding description that made no contribution to the movement of the narrative. Lack of interpersonal conflict (my family characters were agreeing too much according to a professional author who critiqued it). Too didactic, rather than allowing the story to convey the message. The lone compliment from the pro writer was, "At least you finished the manuscript. That's more than most people do." This means, or course, that I was already in the Top Half of all writers with that first, poorly-written book. And if YOU have completed a manuscript (Good, Bad or Ugly), PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK AND KEEP WRITING!

My husband says he is not a writer but a storyteller. He writes short stories right now that he says no one will probably read. What he is writing now, he says is like Stephen KING meets the Twilight Zone and it is too scary for me.