Writing a First Novel: Ten Mistakes Not to Make

There’s no one right way to write a novel, but there are plenty of wrong ways! Here’s a few common mistakes to steer clear of to make the path a little smoother.

Structure your novel.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a pantser or a plotter, your main character needs to have a compelling goal.

With my first try at a character driven book, my MC had plenty of internal motivation but no external motivation. Nailing down GMC, goal, motivation, conflict helped. Identify the GMC of a story before starting the first or second draft. Getting the GMC nailed down helps me keep my story on track and saves a lot of grief and time wasted rewriting.

Develop the characters.

Sometimes the story idea is fantastic and all is in place, but the characters fall flat. Characters should be relatable and realistic. One of my characters was meant to be crabby due to grief, but just came off as crabby and nothing else. Rewriting her wasn’t horribly hard, and the character is much more likable and relatable now.

Find the right point of view.

Try out different points of view. Choose the one that suits the story best, or choose the POV that works best for you as a writer. Originally, I almost always wrote my fiction in first person, but it was short fiction and not a novel.

I got advice from a writing mentor and was told to write in third person past.

Unfortunately, third person past didn’t work for me. The stories were okay, but even after writing complete novels in third person, something wasn’t right. I rewrote all my books into first person past and it was like breathing clean air. It would have been much easier to write a few chapters in different POVs and pick the best one from the start.

A different book may require a different POV from your usual, so don’t be afraid to test out the first chapter in various POVs before settling on one.

Don’t head hop.

Stay in one character’s point of view during a single scene. Omniscient POV and head hopping are two different things. Study up and learn the difference before using this as an excuse.

Don’t write about a topic you hate to research.

You would think this would be obvious, however it was not. I wanted to write an emotional story about grief. In order to do that, I needed to research medical conditions. I love to research all sorts of things, but death is not one of them. However, my heart wanted to write a book to comfort, so if I considered my goal, the research was tolerable.

Keep yourself organized.

Use a running list and/or pictures of people, settings, and items important to your story to help write consistent descriptions. Those blue eyes turning brown halfway through a manuscript is a common problem. If you have a series, you can keep a story Bible. This is a document to keep all the details straight.

Make a timeline.

If the story takes place over an extended period of time, evade headaches and make a timeline. This way strange weather anomalies such as snowfall in May and other time bending occurrences can be avoided.

Ask for feedback from the right sources.

Find some people who can provide useful feedback and encouragement.

Don’t share your work with the wrong people. Do not take to heart advice from people who do not read in your genre.

Shun Negative Nellies who have nothing good to say about anything. Constructive criticism is the only useful criticism.

The ideal writing buddies give useful feedback and do it in a respectful way.

Don’t query too soon.

When is too soon? That’s hard to say. Usually, it’s not wise to query your first novel, but there are always exceptions. This is rare.

I queried too soon, but once I realized my mistake, I’d lost those opportunities.

If you’re not sure, enter a few contests that provide critique-type feedback or use a critiquing service outside of the people who love you. Anonymous services sometimes provide a bit more honesty than your writing friends.

Trust your heart.

Don’t try to write a story you don’t love. It will show. Writing to the market may seem like a good idea, but if the author doesn’t feel connected to the characters, the reader won’t either. Writing a novel length work is a long-term commitment. Love the story and characters enough to stick with it.

Do you have any tips or experiences to share? Leave a comment.

Donna Jo Stone writes YA contemporary novels about tough issues but always ends the stories with a note of hope. She blogs at donnajostone.com.