What’s the worst mistake an aspiring novelist can make?
Poor characterisation?
Feeble plot?
Too much ‘tell’ and not enough ‘show’?
No.
All that can be fixed.
Far and away the biggest mistake you can make is this:
You pour your heart and soul into your novel.
You send the manuscript off to an agent.
You pray.
She doesn’t even bother to read it because of a rookie error on page one.
All those years of struggle were wasted.
Worse still, you spend the rest of your life thinking your novel was no good.
Then you die and arrive in Heaven and the angel reads your name off his clipboard and tells you the terrible truth.
Your novel was awesome.
You could have been one of the greatest writers of your generation.
But the world never found out.
The angel directs you to Section 14F where you spend eternity with the Great Armadillo of Despair snacking on your liver.
Forever tormented by the sounds of revelry coming from the Writer’s Bar in section 14/H.
You can avoid all this by following this amazing piece of writing advice given to me by a drunken Scotsman I met in the cells beneath Marylebone Police Station many years ago.
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If you find it helpful, make sure you grab my free novel-writing e-course here:
www.malcolmpryce.com/youtube
Image credits:
Hertford College: Andrew Shiva / Wikipedia
Flame video: www.pexels.com/video/burning-...
Evelyn Waugh: Carl Van Vechten Photographs collection at the Library of Congress
Police light: Bruno Martins, Unsplash
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