Don't Make These 3 Writing Mistakes
As an editor, I see these issues all the time. But they’re totally avoidable!
At Google, where I’m an editor on a learning and development team, there’s an internal publication called Learning on the Loo that’s read by Googlers in more than 80 offices across six continents. Each printed episode features a quick lesson on productivity written by a volunteer employee. The publication always finds an attentive audience – because it hangs in all Google office bathrooms, right inside the stalls and over the urinals (so I’m told, anyway!).
I loved the premise for Learning on the Loo and was determined to write an episode for it. I ended up pitching a topic that’s dear to my heart – common writing mistakes – and got the go-ahead to submit it. And while that particular subject may not be dear to my coworkers’ hearts, it was at least intriguing, racking up more responses than any other Learning on the Loo episode to date! It turns out just about everyone wants to be a better writer.
For that piece, I focused on common writing mistakes for emails, proposals, and other work-related content, but for this newsletter I’ll adapt the tips to creative writing.
Mistake #1: Submitting your first draft
So you’ve poured your blood, sweat, and tears into your story and now you’re eager to have an agent or editor read it asap. After all, you’ve worked so hard on this first draft and it’s pretty darn good; you’re sure readers will recognize its brilliance and fall in love with it, too.
As a longtime editor, I can confidently say, without even reading your work, that it isn’t ready yet. (My husband doesn’t call me the dream-crusher for nothing!) It may have the beginnings of brilliance, but it can definitely be polished into a better version of itself.
How do you get it there? By overhauling what you’ve written and producing at least one more draft. That doesn’t mean changing a word here or there – it means trimming whole sentences, paragraphs, and chapters with an eye toward clarity and precision. Pushing yourself to go deeper with the themes and characters. Tearing apart and rebuilding entire scenes and dialogue that aren’t exactly right. You know, in your heart of hearts, what needs to be done. And after you’ve done all that, do it all over again.
The secret to self-editing is to commit. If your mindset is “I’ll go through the motions of editing, but I don’t actually think this needs anything more,” then you’ll cheat yourself out of the process. Instead, tell yourself that while your first draft is an amazing thing – you got it all out of your head and into actual words! – it’s not yet your best work. And what you want to present to an agent or editor is your best work, so your chances of getting published are higher.
Mistake #2: Avoiding criticism
When you get up to that second – or, better yet, third or fourth – draft, it’s time to identify your worst enemy and have them read it. That may sound dramatic, but here’s the idea: While it would be affirming to have your best friend read your novel and tell you how awesome it is (and there’s definitely a place for that elsewhere in the process!), their platitudes won’t push you to do your best work. Find someone who will be insightful and brutally honest, and ask them to critique your writing; here are some helpful guidelines for them to follow. If you don’t have such a person in your life, consider signing up for a writing workshop.
Before you hand your story over to that person, though, make yourself a promise to seriously consider their feedback. Then, remember that promise after you receive the feedback, even if it sounds completely off-base. You might think to yourself, This person obviously doesn’t get it! But the fact is, if they don’t get it, other readers likely won’t either.
Being receptive to comments is never easy. Even I can’t help it when someone critiques my writing – my hackles go right up! But if you can get past that initial defensiveness, you’ll realize that criticism is an important part of the process and can only make your work stronger.
Mistake #3: Not proofreading or formatting properly
Before your work is published, a trusty copy editor will go over it with the literary equivalent of a fine-tooth comb. But that doesn’t mean you should hand it over filled with dangling modifiers, faulty parallelism, and case confusion. Do your best to proofread your work and get it into the shape you’d want to see it in as a reader.
Not much of a grammarian? At the very least, make sure your work looks professional by following the guidelines for proper manuscript formatting. If you neglect to do this seemingly small thing, an editor may hold your noncompliance against you and read your work with a biased eye – if they begin reading it at all.
As an editor, my biggest pet peeve is rogue formatting. If you’re adding two spaces after a period, justifying the alignment of your sentences, or using a cutesy font, I’m subconsciously (or maybe even consciously) writing you off as someone who either doesn’t know what they’re doing or, worse yet, can’t be bothered to follow the rules. That might sound harsh, but first impressions are real! So make it a good one.