Authors make so many mistakes. Completely accidentally, of course. But you might be surprised by how similar many of these mistakes are. Now as a reviewer for The Story Star Standard (an indie book review service based on craft judgement, awarding badges Bronze-Ruby), and before that an editor and professional beta-reader, I review a lot of manuscripts. Some finished, some in their initial stages, some half-way through, but in all stages I’m required to give an assessment, and in this assessment, I see the same mistakes repeated again and again, and it’s often the same thing that lets the book down.
So, what are these mistakes?
Now I’m going to be categorising these mistakes a little differently than just an ordered list. Instead, I’m going to be listing by the most common mistakes we see in each category we review here at The Story Star Standard: Narrative Craft, Prose, Character, Dialogue, World & Atmosphere, Concept & Theme, and Format.
Category One: Narrative Craft
Narrative craft encompasses plot, pacing, and the overall structure of the book. Arguably, it’s a the most important category, the bones of the entire book, and hence this category is weighted at 22% in our star-ratings. But what is the most common mistake we see in narrative craft? Now this may surprise you (or maybe not), but the most common mistake we see is… the ending.
I think a lot of people would assume (maybe myself a few years ago included) that the most common mistake would be to do with the middle. However, I’ve actually found that the ending, or more widely Act 3, is often what I’m having to give constructive criticism on the most.
It’s really no surprise really when you delve into it. The author has spent the whole book setting a story up, and so when, you as the reader, reach the end, you want to feel rewarded for all the time you’ve invested into a grand (or at least satisfying) finale. This doesn’t mean books need to conclude all plot threads, and it certainly doesn’t mean the ending needs to be a happily ever after, but it does mean that the reader has to finish the book feeling paid off for the effort and time they’ve put into a book.
So, what often is done badly by authors in regards to the ending? I would say the most common problem I see is endings that are rushed. The author might have all the components to deliver a satisfying ending (the arcs are tied up, each plot beat is accounted for) only to have most of these ending beats concluded in only one chapter. What was all that build up for if it’s concluded so quickly? Think Game of Thrones Season 8. The White Walkers are set up as a substantial threat who’ll ruin the entirety of Westeros yet they’re defeated in one battle, in one episode, and you think, what was really all that fuss about?
Category Two: Characters
Our category characters, to no one’s surprise, evaluates characters. But to be more exact, it focuses on depth, believability, emotional impact, and the purpose the character’s serve within the narrative. The biggest mistake we see in this character came to my mind instantly and is possibly one of the most common writing mistakes we see: a book that has too many characters.
When you see this advice, you might think of books with a huge scope: from your sweeping epic fantasy to space operas, but this isn’t what I mean by a book with ‘too many characters’. Any book, no matter its scale often has too many characters. Kill your darlings didn’t become so well known for no reason. Even if a cast that only has six characters, can still come across has having too many characters. But why? Simply because one (or several) of those characters don’t feel necessary and they feel as if they could be combined with other characters to create a stronger narrative.
Let’s take an example a protagonist with a cast of five friends, ‘side-kicks’ if you will. Each friend has a distinct role: Friend One’s the strategist, Friend Two’s the healer, Friend Three’s the spy, Friend Four’s the comic relief/morale booster, Friend Five is the weapon expert who brings the fire power. Now on the surface, they all have a distinct purpose and all have narrative beats within the story. But a deeper reflection on these characters has you asking, do you really need five sidekicks? Can the story be told just as well, if not better, with four or even three? Friend Four’s comic relief could be given to Friend Two, Friend Three and One can combine into a strategist spy or even Friend One’s strategist could combine with Friend Five’s weapon expertise. Combining characters to the essentials not only stops the reader from being overwhelmed but often helps these character be much deeper and more complex as they’re not only given more ‘screen time’ but their combined attributed from several characters can help make that character more impactful.
Category Three: Prose
This category examines style, voice, and overall quality of the prose. Now, I might’ve lied when I said the character mistake was the most common, I think in fact this prose mistake is the most common. So, what is it? Over-explaining a character’s emotion in the prose.
I see this in almost every manuscript to varying degrees, I myself even still do it as a writer despite knowing it’s a flaw. As writers we all want to make sure our readers know exactly what our characters are feeling. We want character’s emotions to be the heart of our story, for the readers to feel all the effort we’re putting into making complex characters with emotional arcs. But one thing that’s often lost in over-explaining the character emotions is a lack of subtly and the mistake of over-telling, leaving no room for reader interpretation. Take this passage for example:
Jordan felt a surge of anxiety as he caught sight of his ex, Maya. His heart pounded uncontrollably and sweat dripped from his forehead. He couldn’t believe Maya was here and he had no idea how to handle it.
There’s a lot of different things here that show that Jordan is panicked: ‘felt a surge of anxiety’, ‘his heart pounded uncontrollably’ ‘sweat dripped from his forehead’, all over-describes how Jordan feels. But it’s not just the physical descriptions, the line ‘he couldn’t believe Maya was here and he had no idea how to handle it’, tells us Jordan’s emotions rather than shows it, though, of course, in this case the writer has already shown it, so it’s both telling and repetition.
Now, let’s see a version with this paired back:
Jordan felt a surge of anxiety as he caught sight of his ex, Maya. He couldn’t believe she was here.
Now this is by no means great prose and could definitely work on its flow, but it’s paired back. And while a paragraph of over-explained emotions isn’t too bad on its own, when it’s used paragraph after paragraph, it starts to effect readability.
Category Four: Dialogue
Our dialogue category evaluates realism, character voice, and convincing delivery. I would say the biggest mistake we find in dialogue is characters who are not in enough opposition with each other.
Now, don’t take the wrong advice, this is not saying that every character should be in constant conflict. But I find that for engaging dialogue you often want to show two side’s different and distinct opinions operating in a dynamic conversation: whether that’s because they have hatred of each other; or one is having to be shifty because they’re keeping a secret; or, perhaps more commonly, the two characters just have two different, even minor, viewpoints on an issue, or at least are coming at it from a different angle. Take for instance a more mundane topic, three characters are discussing which university they should go to. Character One is desperate to go to the prestigious Oxford University and is taking it very seriously, Character Two feels sad because he doesn’t have the grades for this top university Character One is gushing about, while Character Three views university as a waste of time. They don’t need to argue, they just need to bring something different and dynamic to the table.
Let’s take an example:
Lena leaned on the counter as Mark shook out his raincoat on the landing.
“How was the drive?” she asked.
“Traffic was light.” He set his keys down.
“There’s beer in the fridge if you want some.”
“Perfect. I needed it after that drive.”
“Help yourself.” She slid a glass across the table.
VS
Lena leaned on the counter as Mark shook out his raincoat on the landing.
“You’re early,” she said
“Traffic was light.” He set his keys down.
“There’s beer in the fridge if you want some.”
“You know I’m trying to cut back.”
“Don’t be boring.”
Immediately, in this level of opposition, even if said lightly or as a jest, it establishes two contrasting viewpoints of these characters and reveals to us an insight into both characters and their relationship with each other. The dialogue gives us a reason to be captivated by these characters and that’s sometimes what is missed.
Category Five: World & Atmosphere
This is one of the categories we have that is maybe more unusual. It covers world building, settling and tone. At first glance, you might think this is only relevant for fantasy and sci-fi books but setting and tone and the world the book creates is very important for any kind of book.
Now, picking a common mistake for this category was definitely harder than some of the others, there was no clear mistake that immediately popped into my mind. But if I had to choose the biggest mistake authors make in this category would be not considering the relationship between the world and the narrative.
So, what do I mean by this? Let me pick a more obvious example, an epic fantasy novel set in a magical world. It has the fascinating world building that each noble house in the kingdom is bound by specific seasonal magic, and the politics and societal life is shaped by this seasonal shift and the magic that comes with it. But the actual narrative of the book does not focus on this seasonal change and its impact. Instead, it’s a background feature, for side comments about the season change and some cool new armour or monster that’ll appear with each season. Little of this world is utilised in the narrative. If the plot is just a fetch quest with monsters and dungeons that could’ve been set in any generic fantasy world, so much so that the world feels generic, then the fascinating world-building has not been utilised and can often give readers bad sense this is a book of missed opportunities. Now, this is certainly not me saying you need to include every world building thing you’ve made in your novel (definitely don’t do that!) but think, what is the core concept of world-building in your novel? How does that affect the narrative or how the characters act?
But some of you are probably thinking, but I’m not a fantasy or sci-fi writer, I don’t need to worry about world and narrative link. But I would say that’s not true, thinking about how the world affects the narrative is incredibly important no matter what genre you’re from, though it does manifest a little differently in more contemporary fiction. Say for instance, we have a thriller set in contemporary London, but the author doesn’t give us detail or any aspects that make it feel like London, it’s written like it could be any other city: it could be replaced by a city in USA and the audience wouldn’t notice the difference. If that’s the case, then the World & Atmosphere hasn’t been established enough and the reader isn’t grounded.
Category Six: Concept & Theme
Now to our next category: Concept & Theme, which may beat World & Atmosphere for it’s unusualness. So, what does Concept & Theme include? Well, it deals with originality of the work, how it fits or transforms genre expectations, success of its concept, and execution of the book’s themes. Now I have to say, this is one of my favourite categories, but not enough people think about it. Which leads me to Concept & Theme’s biggest mistake: authors not thinking about their book’s themes.
Even if some readers, or even the writer, doesn’t realise it, books will have themes running throughout them, consciously or not. Whether its themes of grief, coming of age, romance, or political themes, a big mistake is to not consider what your book is trying to say. A book doesn’t have to be incredibly deep, a comfy romance novel might not be trying to be insightful or profound, but it will still have themes such as learning to love, what it means to trust another, and so on which can be written clumsily if not thought about.
Now, this is not the easiest category to give an example on but let’s think of a book where the Concept & Themes feel missed and underdeveloped. Say we have a Historical fiction book set in France leading up to the first world war. The book constantly shows the divide between the rich and poor, but it’s never reflected on and there’s no comment in the plot towards it, the book doesn’t feel like it’s trying to say anything, the customs and life of this older society is just used as set scenery and nothing more is said.
Theme is easy to not consider, but it’s often what makes a book resonate and be remembered after it’s put down. In my opinion, it’s the most important but undervalued parts of storytelling. So, this is my message to authors, think about it more.
Category Seven: Format
Now the final category is the easiest to explain. Format includes: punctation, spelling, grammar, and layout. This category is arguably the most objective and easiest to grade. For the biggest mistake author make in this category, outside of just books needed a better proofread due to lots of casual mistakes throughout, would be mistakes to do with punctuating dialogue. These often are not using commas right, using capital letters in the wrong place. Dialogue isn’t the easiest to punctuate. We won’t give all the examples here (though look out for it in the future), but we’d advise to double check your dialogue with a grammar guide.
Conclusion
Mistakes are a part of the writing process, even the greatest writers make plenty mistakes. If you’re interested in our review process or having your book reviewed you can find more details on our website or contact us via contact@thestorystarstandard.com