10 mistakes that writers make

[Brian G Turner]

Here's an interesting resource - I was gonig to repost it here, but it's a bit long.

Certainly worth a read:

http://www.holtuncensored.com/members/#mistakes

 

[littlemissattitude]

Cool resource. Very helpful. Right now, though, having just read through it, I am so self-conscious about making the mistakes the article talks about that I'm afraid to write anything.

 

[Gnome]

Although I agree with the points given, It's hard to be sure that the "mistakes" weren't intentional when taken out of context. It might be that the author intended the reader be bogged down at a certain point. Granted, some of the examples given are hilairiously bad, but some of the complaints are just personal taste, clearly subjective.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Certainly that can be the case. I presume that such comments are most useful in making a writer stop and think about their work. There's nothing worse than blind self-confidence - of writing without any awareness of what is practised and accepted in the genre being written for.

Being able to sensibly self-criticise work I feel is one of the best gifts of any writer. Importantly, the reasons for any critical decision are best justified in terms of reference to markets. Articles like this help give pointers on pitfalls, but are in themselves merely personal guides. Every agent and publisher works by different personal taste - and, to some degree, standards. Holt's comments are merely a part of a larger picture - but I would think there's still a lot of relevance.