The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes - Jack M. Bickham [4]
• Don't assume your reader is dumber than you.
• Never—ever—sneer at published work.
• Think you're too smart to sell? baloney!
• Come down to earth! That's where the readers are.
3. DON'T SHOW OFF WHEN YOU WRITE
IF YOU HAVE A SPECIAL area of expertise—if you're a nurse, for example, or a lawyer—your specialized knowledge may be a gold mine you can use as background for your stories. Fiction readers love learning about new things as they read a good stow.
If you have a rich and extensive vocabulary, that may also prove to be a useful tool. Or if you happen to be a widely read person, or more cultured and schooled in the arts than the average citizen, this too may help you when you write your fiction.
But just as a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, too much erudition may be fatal to your fiction if you succumb to the temptation to show it off.
Good fiction writers never show off dump in abstruse knowledge for its own sake, or purposely use big words when simpler ones would do. They constantly seek ways to work in necessary background information in as unobtrusive a way as possible, and they remember that readers get irritated quickly if a writer's style sends them to the dictionary once or twice every paragraph.
You must remember that readers do not read your story to hear how smart you are, or how complicated you can make your sentences. If you insist on showing off in your copy, readers will flee in droves. It's possible to put even very complex ideas in relatively simple language, and its equally possible to tell your readers a great deal of fascinating information without making it sound like a self-serving show-off act.
Here's an example of the kind of thing you must not do:
In an obscurantist deluge of extraneous verbiage as an outgrowth of an apparent excessive effort to manifest extraordinary intellectual attainment, the aforesaid man impacted adversely on the totality of his audience in a veritable paradigm of irrelevance.
What the writer was trying to say was:
The man tried to impress people by talking too much, but nobody liked it.
You might want to examine yourself—and your copy—for smart-alecky stuff like this. You might also comb your copy for specialized terminology that might be written more simply and for information you've put in the stow just to show how much you know, rather than because it really contributes to the story.
For nobody likes a smart aleck, and fiction readers can sniff one out a mile away.
4. DON'T EXPECT MIRACLES
A DOCTOR SPENDS FIVE to ten years learning how to be a doctor. Why, then, do people think they can learn how to be a professional writer of fiction in a week or a month—or even a year?
The writing of fiction is very deceptive. Like riding a bicycle, it looks easy until you try it. But whereas the bicycle gives you quick and painful proof that riding it isn't quite as easy as it appeared, writing is more subtle; your very first story may look good to you—even though it's almost certainly unpublishable on later reflection.
You came to this book because writing interests you, and you're probably doing some of it. To the task you brought some language skills and a desire to tell stories. Your language skills may be quite good. (I hope so.) You may have wonderful ideas for stories, and you type well, etc., etc.
Does any of this mean you know how to write fiction? Unfortunately, no. The writing of fiction—except in the case of that very rare genius—is a difficult job. It involves the interactive working of dozens of specific, hard-won techniques. It may become an art, but only by first being consummate craft.
Yes, if you have a modicum of talent, you can learn how to do it. But it may take you years.
But, why should that be such bad news? If the task were easy, everybody in the world would be a writer, and your achievement would mean little. Setting out on a difficult course is exciting, and the conclusion can be the triumph of a lifetime.
You may find that it takes many manuscripts... and a lot of time... to learn