…which happens rarely. You can wait for your wanted inspiration to come during weeks, months or years even. But, as Stephen King noticed, it is needed to write every day. At least write a page or a paragraph.
Simple math: if to write every day, you will have 20-30 pages of text in a month; if to wait for the inspiration, you will have nothing. Of course, sometimes it is extremely difficult to move yourself towards the computer, yet if your story is really interesting for you, this interest is exactly the thing which will become your constant inspiration sooner or later.
Mistake Six: “I Write My Own Text, so I Will Not Read the Others” or The Fear of Losing Rhythm
And to get into someone’s story, to lose connection with yours. And wish not to lose time of writing while reading. And…
Reading nothing during your writing process is a rude mistake. Books (especially ones of classics and quality) are your perfect workshop. Someone’s stories are where you can find interesting plot turns, track the plot and conflict building. Additionally, reading unconsciously makes you remember rules of morphology and grammar, thus makes your own texts look better.
And moreover, you can find your inspiration in books: it happens that one fitting phrase leads the author out of creative crisis and shows the way to continue the story.
Mistake Seven: “I Do What I Want, This is My Story”, or The Work With no Future for The Book
Of course, if you write in order to spill the story away: just to get it outside your mind – yes, you can write as you want and to do anything. But if you plan publishing your book in the Internet, promoting and selling it, then you’ll need to take into account the market and the audience. And to keep the genre. And to fit to your readers.
On the other side, you can write as you want and then rework your black-paper keeping up to the publishing needs, but this work is extremely difficult. It is better to decide at once: is the book for yourself or for readers? Will it end the way in your table, or you plan to publish it?
Mistake Eight: “I Can Use It All”, or Trying to Use Every Idea
When the writer starts working, there always is the starting ground notes about characters and the world, approximate plan (or list) of plot turns, some episodes, etc. Writer wants to use them all, together with the very last dot. They want to keep every single word of their ideas. But…
It’s fantastic. In practice, the story goes another way than it was in your imagination. Old characters change, new ones adding story details appear. And sometimes it turns out that way: old ideas don’t fit the plot. Adding them means killing the story.
Of course, we are all sorry about ideas and materials we worked out. But if those thoughts just do not get into the story, it is better to refuse them. Sometimes nearly 70% of starting ideas fall down from the finished plot, though in the beginning they all seemed to be fitting to their places.
Still, these ideas complete their mission: they help the author to form characters, light up the world and explain the idea, give certain direction to the plot, inspire authors. These ideas need to be… left off with no regrets.
Mistake Nine: “What If…” or a Chain of Fears
What if I will not make it? What if they will not like it? What if I will not finish it? What if… All these “whats” stun your job, kick you off your way, and sometimes make you completely sad and willing to quit it or to bury your writing inside the table.
It is difficult to get rid of these thoughts even if the writer is experienced. What can be said about newbies in that case? Still, if to come back to elementary math: once you follow your fears, all the energy goes in vain, not on achieving your goal.
Yes, there is no universal cure for all the fears: every writer needs to find their own algorithm. But you need to find it as soon as it is possible. It is difficult, but you can do it.
Mistake Ten: “This story needs a sequel… maybe” or One Story in Ten Books
Someone could tell this is not a mistake, but… There are very few authors whose numerous sequels of original stories were not worse than their first books. If to write long series, one should plan them beforehand and divide one massive plot into small and detailed links. If to work with the same world, authors should use different characters, other intrigues and conflicts denying similarity and self-repeating.
Nobody ever has to write a sequel because readers ask them to do that; or because of fear of thinking out new world; or because of the lack of new ideas.
Sequel just for itself is a waste of time. Plus, the mark of “one book’s author” doesn’t make any writer look good. The more diverse is your creativity – the more possibilities to interest reads and publishers you get.