By Ricard de la Casa
Translated by Fausto Adams
We all make mistakes, it’s human, as the famous Latin quote says. It’s important to understand that even with extensive experience as baggage, we keep making them—different errors, of course, and in some cases the same ones, but someone also said we’re the only species capable of tripping over the same stone two, three, even four times.
Here are several common errors in work. Some slip by almost without us noticing and are difficult to find.
1. The Main Character Becomes Passive
This usually happens because after we’ve been completely immersed in crafting the work for a while, the characters tend to come “alive” within us and some secondary character takes on greater relevance. It might be because the main character has stopped appealing to us or precisely because we like some secondary character more or find that the work improves or becomes more dynamic with that character. It’s easy for this to happen—let’s remember that characters who act as counterpoints to the main one tend to be the “villains,” and these are, in most cases, much more attractive. In any case, it’s an error. Of course we remain free to do whatever we want, but it will still be a conceptual error. We should then review the text (the scenes) and see where the character becomes passive and restore their lost strength. If that doesn’t appeal to us, or it’s too complicated and we end up preferring the secondary character, we should restructure the work to exchange roles or have more than one main character—this solution is a bit more complicated, but the experience is worth it.
2. Not Introducing the Main Character in the First Paragraphs
The reader seeks, needs, wants to identify with the main character, or at least wants to find them quickly to know how and to whom to pay more attention. It’s vital that in the first scene, the main character is presented. The beginning is a delicate time not only because we must capture the reader’s attention, but because we must introduce the character. There are many ways to do it, don’t worry about that, but if they don’t appear, the reader tends to get confused and believe that some secondary character is the main one (unfortunately we’re creatures of fixed habits) and when the main character does appear, the confusion becomes greater and can become annoying. Try to show some emotion from the character—that will serve to give them depth, to characterize them, without needing to describe them completely. Make sure to include it naturally, not in a forced or emotional way. If it’s not, rework the scene until you achieve it.
3. Wasting Ideas – Arguments – Characters
A typical beginner’s error. We have too many ideas in our head and want to put them all in to give a sense of plot complexity, of richness, it’s absolutely not necessary. It will serve, at most, to let the experienced reader realize our lack of self-confidence. Often, we use one character to explain something in the first chapter, another in the second, another in the third. You have to make use of the same ones, use them more intensively, that will give them greater psychological depth and thereby make it easier for the reader to follow the plot. By using the same secondary characters, and although these can’t show important changes in their character, you should choose some, for example, the one who gives the reply to the main character—to show small changes.
4. What Am I Doing Here?
Don’t despair, it happens to everyone, even the most experienced. It’s simply lack of foresight, lack of a general outline of the story or novel. And it happens to us because despite having things very much under control, we all like to let our imagination run and see where the scene we’re immersed in takes us. It has its advantages and disadvantages. It’s good that before starting we’ve designed the work in its main parts: characters, conflicts, scenes. Only then do we know where we’re going, and if we deviate, we should have a good reason. Experimenting isn’t bad, but the more organized we are, the better we’ll take advantage of that experimentation, as a good writer shouldn’t spend an entire lifetime writing a single novel.
5. Dialogue
The longer the work, the more essential this becomes. But don’t obsess over it either. Try not to leave soliloquies, lectures, long paragraphs, or explanations. A simple system to check if we’re on the right track is to visualize the sheet of paper as if it were an image—if there’s a lot of text, it means there’s a poverty of dialogue; if there’s a lot of white space, the opposite is happening, we’re overusing it. Still, only you can evaluate whether a scene needs more or less dialogue. Be careful with slang, with dialects, if you use them, you must try to ensure the reader can correctly interpret their meanings. We must find a way to make clear what’s being attempted to be said. Don’t be afraid to use “said” in dialogues—that word is normally used 90% of the time. Of course it should be interspersed with other words, especially when the character does something or says it in a certain way, but try to show those emotions, not just point them out.
6. Stopping Too Soon
Another novice writer’s mistake. We’re so anxious to finish a work (we have so many unfinished ones…) that we usually rush to the ending. Stories end too abruptly (usually due to lack of a general outline). Force yourself to keep writing when you think you’ve finished—normally we can find ourselves with a surprise. And in any case, if you don’t manage to improve it, it will be excellent exercise.
7. Not Letting the Story Rest
When we finish a story, we’re too immersed in it. We’re incapable of judging it with absolute impartiality. You have to give yourself time to forget-distance yourself, and depending on your work, be at least a few days-weeks away from it. Once that time has passed, you need to check the story for general acceptance, read it as a reader—directly—without intending or thinking about correcting-changing, etc.
8. Not Trying Different Beginnings
We don’t value our capacity fairly, whether too high or too low. Perhaps the chosen beginning isn’t the most appropriate even if it seems so. Once you have the story, you should try several alternative beginnings, not very complex ones, just two or three paragraphs, quickly, choosing different ways to present information, entry points into the story. Once you do this several times, it becomes natural to us, and we’ll better utilize all our creative potential.
9. Not Planning the Climax from the Beginning
One thing is foresight, organization, having a general outline of the story or novel, and another is going to the extreme of having even the climax planned, something that generally occurs at the end of the novel. We shouldn’t tie our hands to that extreme and should leave ourselves the possibility of changes. It’s evident that we should develop it according to the original promise, but that shouldn’t restrict us to the point where the work becomes something rigid.
10. Taking Too Much Time to Review
More than an error, it’s a vice that needs to be eradicated. Set a specific time to make corrections; otherwise, you’ll endlessly edit each time you review, which will slow or even halt your progress. Accept as an article of faith that every work is susceptible to improvement, and that we ourselves evolve and with that our capacity and experience increases. We have to stop at some point, otherwise we’ll always be going around the same mill.
11. Illogical Structures
An error to flee from like the devil. The work is sustained in a reality (including science fiction and the wildest fantasy), the one the writer desires and must cling to. You must respect yourself and above all the reader. Building it implausibly or out of touch with reality will make people not believe what they’re reading—they’ll think with good reason that you, the writer, are pulling their leg, they’ll get annoyed and simply stop reading. The work must be consistent with all its premises and be honest with them. And above all, at the end of the story or novel, don’t pull a rabbit out of a hat to solve your structural flaws, you’ll only make them more visible.
Source: Ricard de la Casa
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