Every writer dreams to have a flowing imaginations like waves in a calm ocean. Yet, we are far from it. We make mistakes and we keep doing them all over!
Five most common mistakes will be listed not to critic a writing mind but to shake a little doubt, and push fellow writers on focusing more.
1- Thinking that such lists will make you figure out where you messed up.
Like, really?
via GIPHY
Thinking that you will find your mistakes between the mistakes listed in a blog or an article won't truly help you out. In fact, it's a denial to your individuality. I don't mess up with Their, There, They're, but I have a bunch of other mistakes to handle. I may my own grammatical mistakes, my own spelling mistakes. I'm me, and nobody else.
And so you are!
via GIPHY
You are a human, before anything else, so you have your set of mistakes, that makes you different than your relative and family's members. Get a beta reader, someone who u can trust with your drafts and let him or her tell you where you messed up. List the mistakes, you will find your set of mistakes, and you will learn to fix them.
2. Expecting Perfection from the first Chapter of the first Draft.
Now, I ... I don't know what to tell you. Nah, just kidding.
We say that mistakes are the tools you have to use in order to polish your talents.
The deal is : It can be true, there isn't a single person in the whole world who didn't make a mistake somewhere, somehow, so everybody tasted the same bitterness. You can't be an exception, unless you aren't a human being.
Personally, this was my biggest mistake and I depressed because of how many flaws I could find in my first draft. I depressed and I got many author's blocks. I kept getting those blocks day after day, story after story. I have a story I started back in 2008 and I'm not giving up on. I don't want to give up on my first drafts, and one day I'll "polish" the draft itself in order to come up with a perfect story.
You should do the same. Don't try to be perfect, just write, and once you finish, step back and observe it. Fix it slowly, and once you finish, I'm sure the result will worth every thing you did so far.
3- Not getting a set of Beta readers.
To get a beta reader is good, but to get a lot of them is even better. It will be perfect if you knew those beta readers, if not you will have to publish your work somewhere.
However, if you are like me and have less trust in people, just don't abuse your beta reader and be kind to the poor soul; one story at the time. ;)
Why did I say get more than one beta reader? Well, every reader have a different perception of what you write, so gathering their opinions will allow you to see if you managed to pull off the emotions the way you wanted to, if they got the plot exactly as you want it to be understood.
4- Procrastinating when it comes to proofread.
When people told me about this, in my beginnings, ten years ago, all I would say was : Guilty as charged :p
I used to do that, and I know many who does! It's a big mistake. If you don't proofread the last update you made in your book before adding more, you will have more to proofread, to edit, and to even rewrite. So take it slow. You wrote 2000 words? Proofread them, check if they made sense, check the spelling and the grammar, and then make sure you at least did that three times before sending it to your beta reader.
Make sure to tell your beta reader that you did actually proofread, and ask them if the text still lacked something or if there is something you could truly get rid of.
It should be your habit.
5- Not writing your next chapter or scene down when you think of it.
It happens, and we keep doing it. Sometimes, I get ideas in the most random and unfortunate moments, but my biggest mistake is to not note that down somewhere once I can, because I got caught in something else or because I am too tired to do that. Well, I used to.
Do you the same? Then you are making the wrong move! The first fresh idea you get is way better than the shattered memories of it, isn't it? So once you get an idea, note it down, wherever you can (I wrote a whole story idea in a napkin). If you can't write then record it in your phone in audio.
Many do it, actually. They record their ideas in audio, I know it is weird, but you will get used to it with time. In fact the audio is the best way to keep your ideas in track. Why? because you hear your thoughts as you got them, and sometimes, without meaning it, you give tone to your characters.
For example: if you speak about a character being mad, you will definitely speak in a frenetic way, or at least mumble part of the dialogue in an angry tone, so in the end, whoever heard the audio will think of the anger the character felt first, the way you felt it in the beginning. Is the idea clear now? Good, because there is another list of mistakes I can't list them here.
Honestly, won't it be fun to find if someone share the same mistakes do?
Like, really?
via GIPHY
Thinking that you will find your mistakes between the mistakes listed in a blog or an article won't truly help you out. In fact, it's a denial to your individuality. I don't mess up with Their, There, They're, but I have a bunch of other mistakes to handle. I may my own grammatical mistakes, my own spelling mistakes. I'm me, and nobody else.
And so you are!
via GIPHY
You are a human, before anything else, so you have your set of mistakes, that makes you different than your relative and family's members. Get a beta reader, someone who u can trust with your drafts and let him or her tell you where you messed up. List the mistakes, you will find your set of mistakes, and you will learn to fix them.
2. Expecting Perfection from the first Chapter of the first Draft.
Now, I ... I don't know what to tell you. Nah, just kidding.
The deal is : It can be true, there isn't a single person in the whole world who didn't make a mistake somewhere, somehow, so everybody tasted the same bitterness. You can't be an exception, unless you aren't a human being.
Personally, this was my biggest mistake and I depressed because of how many flaws I could find in my first draft. I depressed and I got many author's blocks. I kept getting those blocks day after day, story after story. I have a story I started back in 2008 and I'm not giving up on. I don't want to give up on my first drafts, and one day I'll "polish" the draft itself in order to come up with a perfect story.
You should do the same. Don't try to be perfect, just write, and once you finish, step back and observe it. Fix it slowly, and once you finish, I'm sure the result will worth every thing you did so far.
3- Not getting a set of Beta readers.
To get a beta reader is good, but to get a lot of them is even better. It will be perfect if you knew those beta readers, if not you will have to publish your work somewhere.
However, if you are like me and have less trust in people, just don't abuse your beta reader and be kind to the poor soul; one story at the time. ;)
Why did I say get more than one beta reader? Well, every reader have a different perception of what you write, so gathering their opinions will allow you to see if you managed to pull off the emotions the way you wanted to, if they got the plot exactly as you want it to be understood.
4- Procrastinating when it comes to proofread.
When people told me about this, in my beginnings, ten years ago, all I would say was : Guilty as charged :p
I used to do that, and I know many who does! It's a big mistake. If you don't proofread the last update you made in your book before adding more, you will have more to proofread, to edit, and to even rewrite. So take it slow. You wrote 2000 words? Proofread them, check if they made sense, check the spelling and the grammar, and then make sure you at least did that three times before sending it to your beta reader.
Make sure to tell your beta reader that you did actually proofread, and ask them if the text still lacked something or if there is something you could truly get rid of.
It should be your habit.
5- Not writing your next chapter or scene down when you think of it.
It happens, and we keep doing it. Sometimes, I get ideas in the most random and unfortunate moments, but my biggest mistake is to not note that down somewhere once I can, because I got caught in something else or because I am too tired to do that. Well, I used to.
Do you the same? Then you are making the wrong move! The first fresh idea you get is way better than the shattered memories of it, isn't it? So once you get an idea, note it down, wherever you can (I wrote a whole story idea in a napkin). If you can't write then record it in your phone in audio.
Many do it, actually. They record their ideas in audio, I know it is weird, but you will get used to it with time. In fact the audio is the best way to keep your ideas in track. Why? because you hear your thoughts as you got them, and sometimes, without meaning it, you give tone to your characters.
For example: if you speak about a character being mad, you will definitely speak in a frenetic way, or at least mumble part of the dialogue in an angry tone, so in the end, whoever heard the audio will think of the anger the character felt first, the way you felt it in the beginning. Is the idea clear now? Good, because there is another list of mistakes I can't list them here.
Honestly, won't it be fun to find if someone share the same mistakes do?
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire