Confess your (first novel) sins

[seun]

Are there common mistakes for the first novel? Do fiction writers screw up on the same things?

For me, I must confess to author intrusion, too little plot, writing about myself while telling myself I wasn't, and a non-ending.

Anyone want to confess their sins?

[Bufty]

I think you've maybe missed this thread, Seun.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48653

[seun]

D'OH!

[Garpy]

Still, worth a comment here ain't it?

Mine biggest boo-boo first time round was way too much time spent working on character motives.

[Misty_Blue]

I think you've maybe missed this thread, Seun.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48653

Never mind can't this be part II? :D

Worst mistakes well heck, where does one start!

1. Ok, well this one really hits hard. I guess its a mistake to believe that other people might be as fanatic/ecstatic about my first time novel as I am! No chance - Forget it, even hubby falls asleep over my incessant ramblings about my 'great' WIP..

2. That horrid feeling you get when you watch someone begin to read it (which ya should never do btw) and their face suddenly creases up into a perplexed frown. Noooo!

3. As for the novel itself, accept there will always be huge mistakes in a first draft, so don't attach yourself to it emotionally. Its the only way to prevent you from ultimately using it to line the cats litter tray!

[Higgins]

Are there common mistakes for the first novel? Do fiction writers screw up on the same things?

For me, I must confess to author intrusion, too little plot, writing about myself while telling myself I wasn't, and a non-ending.

Anyone want to confess their sins?

The first novel of mine that I can remember clearly enough to find its sins...well...:

1) it was indescribable
2) unbelievably bad
3) totally unreadable
4) clever about things no one should really have any interest at all in.....
5) had no plot
6) nothing ever happened
7) was in 20 different first-person points of view
8) was entirely a prolog to nothing at all...

But I still read it for laughs.....not that it is particularly funny

[David Gonzalez]

I'll... better take notes on this...

Although its a bit inevitable :(!

Edit: My god it's true! i'm going down hill light speed :( suddenly I feel so insecure now

[Shadow_Ferret]

My first novel, basically, the first characters I ever created, were created from a D&D game and the whole first scene was borrowed loosely from another novel, "Another Fine Myth" by Robert Asprin.

So basically my mistake was painting myself into a corner with packaged characters and someone else's ideas and not knowing how to get out.

[blacbird]

Lack of ability.

caw

[Éclairer]

I stole someone else's idea. For my first completed novel.

The first novel I attempted to write was all me though. I actually think it's one of the best things I've ever written. Which I suppose doesn't say too much about my growth as a writer, except that I'm in that twenty-ish stage right now where I write comedy while trying to sound smart, so I'm beginning to envy my adolescent honesty and guts.

I feel now like a flake. A flakey yuppy.

It'll pass.

[UrsusMinor]

My first novel contained everything I could think of, as though I'd been told that when I wrote "The End" they would take away my writing priveleges forever.

I go back and look at it sometimes. And, you know, I can see that there's a real story in there.

The problem is it's tangled up with (and mostly buried by) a dozen other stories that don't belong.

[pconsidine]

My worst mistake? Not finishing it.





Yet.

[ChunkyC]

Mine was overwriting (at least the biggest 'sin' I can recall, guaranteed there were tons more). I put way to much flowery language into it, and paid the price when I posted a snippet in Learn Writing with Uncle Jim.

The funny part was that I had posted the excerpt for a completely different reason. Good lesson, tho'.

ETA: I had to go look for it ... gawd, I can't believe that was nearly three years ago. It starts near the bottom of pg.33 and carries through to the beginning of pg.35, if anyone cares. I only mention it because Jim gives an exceptional crit of my paragraph.

[janetbellinger]

Using my son for a model for the children's story hero. I'm not sure why this was a mistake though, except the book was so overwritten my son would probably be embarrassed to be assossiated with it. No he wouldn't. He is involved with writing as well and is completely supportive of my writing attempts.

[ColoradoGuy]

Lack of ability.

caw
Ah---Bird? Are you OK? You're starting to remind me a little of Marvin the robot in Hitchhiker's Guide.

[PeeDee]

My mistake with my first novel was that I came from almost entirely a short story background. I didn't have the stamina, the patience, or the ability to write a long piece of work comfortably. As a result, my first novel ran decently then began to sound like a block of short stories, and then cut off abruptly when I reached what I thought could pass off as an ending.

[WildScribe]

My worst mistake? Not finishing it.





Yet.

Huh... me too.

[farfromfearless]

My first attempt was too contrived and I lacked the stamina and skill to actually see it through.

[glassquill]

Too many -ly words and never finished it. Enough said. :tongue

[Nyna]

I wrote my first novel when I was twelve -- it was about a princess who didn't know she was a princess, and had been raised by an abusive innkeeper before she fled to the hills with her talking pony, and ran into The Love Interest. Then there was DRAMA and ROMANCE and AMNESIA.

Sadly, I lost it when my computer crashed and died. It was a work of art.

[seun]

The sad thing is I carried some of my cock-ups through to Book 2 although I realised I was sucking again about halfway through.

It's worth mentioning that nothing much happens in my first two books and they're still over 120,000 words.

[Éclairer]

I wrote my first novel when I was twelve -- it was about a princess who didn't know she was a princess, and had been raised by an abusive innkeeper before she fled to the hills with her talking pony, and ran into The Love Interest. Then there was DRAMA and ROMANCE and AMNESIA.

Sadly, I lost it when my computer crashed and died. It was a work of art.

It sounds interesting. *nods* It sounds like my first novel, only trade the princess for a girl with an Irish father, the talking pony for a blonde poet named John, and the love interest for a stable boy.

There's nothing like pre-adolescent drama and romance, I tell ya.

You have my sympathies about losing it.

[beezle]

Not finishing.

[Meerkat]

My wife finished reading it, let it drop to the end table and announced her verdict: "Cheesy."

She is now ghostwriting such trivalities as character development, realistic language, and descriptions of places and things that would be of interest to...everyone except myself. So the plot was grea--....goo--....fair.

[Maryn]

Making my friend (who does not write) beta read it. I was cruel, I guess.

Maryn, unchanged

[kwwriter]

As far as the peice went:

"This is overwritten by about 250 pages." - Amy Berkower

After I performed surgery, did about three zillion edits, I was pleased. But Amy passed after a third look. Bummer.

[maestrowork]

I learned a lot during the two years it took for me to write my first novel, and the subsequent editing and eventual publishing of the book. I still have much to learn. These were the sins: not knowing where exactly the story began; trying to write "literally," making the prose stilted; trying to force my characters to do something they wouldn't do -- that is, I tried to play God at the expense of my characters; using cliches because I was lazy.

[TheIT]

Too much stage direction and trying to describe the characters' reactions and emotions.