Rookie Writing Mistakes to Avoid

Rookie Writing Mistakes to Avoid

Dan is back for his second post! And this one is on the
mistakes that rookies make.

It's a widely accepted belief, in the writing community,
that an aspiring author's first book will be absolute crap.
Sure, there are exceptions to this rule, but they're rare.
Most authors who succeed in finding publication have
at least one novel in the drawer already.

This would suggest that, for all our pretenses to the
contrary, writing is a matter of skill as much as it is art and inspiration. If we accept that much, then there are two important corollaries:

1. Writing should get better with time (i.e. practice)
2. A writer's current efforts should reflect how much time he/she has practiced

Writing Experience Tells in the Prose

It's no accident that most literary agents want part of your novel (often the first few pages or chapters)
along with the query letter. The letter itself is a test of writing, but so is the prose. Good, clear, 
professional-grade writing stands out. When a writer has years of practice under the belt, the prose
tends to be clean. It flows well. It's easy to read. And it introduces information at a reasonable pace.

Unfortunately, the writing samples from less-practiced authors are also easy to identify. Anyone who's
been part of a writer's group or pitching contest knows what I'm talking about. I'm happy to forgive a
couple of small mistakes in a writing sample. We all have different styles and editorial quirks. Yet when someone's writing isn't quite there yet, there are often some obvious signs.

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