Freed From Behind The Paywall: Common Mistakes of Fledgling Writers 3 & 4

Cliches and Characters

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Ten Shun! Here’s some more tips on how NOT to do things when starting a novel.

3.Cliches

One of the easiest ways to become a better writer is to run like the wind away from using cliches.

Which is why you should never used a sentence like the one I’ve just written.

Because if you’re satisfied with ‘run like the wind’ as a simile you are either insufficiently well read or simply lazy.

Martin Amis wrote a book called ‘The War Against Cliché’.

That battle, he said, was the writer’s job.

What exactly is a cliché?

Clichés are a very good idea for a phrase or action  that someone had a very long time ago and are now stale, worn out or completely dead.

So if your character is feeling as bright as a button or if their blouse is as blue as the sky, resist the temptation to describe them as such. 

Because one of your chief jobs as a writer is to forge fresh language to describe reality - not just rely on old tropes.

Other writing cliches, quite apart from similes, usually coming at the start of a story, include:

Opening your story with a dream

Your first-person character looking in a mirror and describing themselves.

Someone running away from something.

Someone waking up in the morning ( and seeing dust motes in the sunlight.).

Descriptions of the weather,  or the moon,  or flowers, or the clouds.

Or starting in the middle of an action scene, in media res, to grab the reader’s attention, then flashing back to the start.

In other words, just like your use of language, make sure your situations are not cliches either, particularly as the book gets underway. Then you are more likely grab a publisher’s attention and respect.

PS I have reached for most of these ‘situational cliches’ at different times in my novel writing career, and now when I look at them on the page, my heart sinks ( yes I was a fledgling writer too, once).

4.Insufficiently Developed Characters

Beginner writers too often create characters  who are insufficiently motivated or too simple or simply too anonymous.   

A lack of motivation is often the most important of these. Storytelling is  often all about desire. What does the character want? How are they going to get it? What stands in their way. Give your character something to want. I write more about this in my post of May 31st which you can access here if you are a paying subscriber.

All too often I read character behaving in ways that just don't make sense.

 This is because the writer has not bothered to motivate them properly - they find it more convenient to just have them do something so it fits the plot they have set their heart on.

But every single thing every single character does has to be properly motivated - at least as far as you, the writer, is concerned.  That motivation doesn't have to be broadcast to the reader in the form of internal or external narrative - they will sense it if there is an internal logic to the character's actions, or at least they will trust you that there is one. 

Apart from desire and motivation, individual characters should be just that - individual.

 Every single major character should have a different view of the world, that will show up in their speech, behavior and attitude.

Too many times I read manuscripts when all the characters could be the same character ( usually a disguised version of the writer) - just with different names and different jobs to do to advance the mechanics of the plot.

Instead build up character profiles in a file of each of your characters and make them behave according to their type – shy, or aggressive, or sulky, or cheerful.

Don’t make the protagonist or any of the main characters too simple – think about what’s going on inside them.  Give them contradictions that are difficult for them to resolve.

Some characters have no contradictions. Partly becauseof this, they are static, they never change. These are one or two dimensional characters. Which definitely have their place in fiction, particularly Young Adult and straightforward good vs evil thrillers.

Three dimensional characters, and protagonists usually are best thought of as three dimensional, do have contradictions which they will struggle with throughout the story. At the end of the story they are different from how they began the story. They have an arc. And this arc is what will engage the reader.

That’s all for today. You might also want to look at this excellent YouTube video by New York editor Ellen Brock on the ‘Five Mistakes Amateur Writers Make’.

BTW - coming soon will be a BIG announcement about Boot Camp. Stay tuned.

At Ease!