Sin #4: Creating caricatures rather than characters
The late psychologist Abraham Maslow believed that certain universal human needs must be met for anyone to be satisfied and motivated to meet their other needs:
Physical: food, water, sleep, shelter, and clothing. If one’s energy is devoted entirely to survival, his focus on anything else is diminished.
Safety: once physical needs are met, security becomes essential: personal, financial, emotional, and physical.
Social: the longing for love and acceptance can be satisfied by family, friends, and intimate relationships.
Self-esteem: once this need is fulfilled, desire grows to accomplish something greater.
Self-actualization: once our basic needs are met and we are comfortable psychologically, we desire to fulfill the purpose for which we were created.
Build your characters with realistic, credible motivations.
Examples of internal motivations:
Fear
Honor
Love
Examples of external motivations:
Survival
Money
Deadlines
With dozens more in each category, it’s up to you to craft your character in a way that makes him relatable to readers and not a cliché.
Sin #5: Refusing to aggressively self-edit
Separate yourself from the competition by ruthlessly editing your manuscript before shopping it to agents or editors.
It’ll still be edited by someone at the publisher, but if you haven’t already done all you can, they’ll see that it requires more work than they can afford to have done.
Nine tips for effective self-editing:
Develop a thick skin. Or at least to pretend to. It’s not easy. Listen to colleagues, fellow critique group members, professionals—even your gut. Trust your instincts and be willing to tweak your work.
Choose the normal word over the obtuse. When you’re tempted to show off your vocabulary or a fancy turn of phrase, think reader-first and keep your content king. Don’t intrude. Get out of the way of your message.
Avoid hedging verbs. Like smiled slightly, almost laughed, frowned a bit, etc. They weaken your prose.
Give the reader credit. You don’t need to write: “They walked through the open door and sat down across from each other in chairs.” If they walked in and sat, we can assume the door was open, the direction was down, and—unless told otherwise—there were chairs. So you can write: “They walked in and sat across from each other.”
Avoid telling what’s not happening. You don’t need to write, “He didn’t respond,” or “She didn’t say anything,” or “The crowded room never got quiet.” If you don’t say these things happened, the reader will assume they didn’t.
Avoid clichés. And not just words and phrases. There are also clichéd situations, like starting your story with the main character waking to an alarm clock; having a character describe herself while looking in a full-length mirror; having future love interests literally bump into each other upon first meeting, etc. These have been done to death.
Resist the urge to explain (RUE). For example, look at what can be eliminated here: .
Marian was mad. She pounded the table. “George, you’re going to drive me crazy,” she said, angrily.
“You can do it!” George encouraged said.
If Marian pounds the table and chooses those words, we don’t need to be told she’s mad. If George says she can do it, we know he was encouraging.
Avoid the words up and down unless they’re really needed. He rigged [up] the device. She sat [down] on the couch.
Avoid subtle redundancies. “She nodded her head in agreement.” Those last four words could be deleted. What else would she nod but her head? And when she nods, we need not be told she agrees.
Sin #6: Thinking you’ve arrived
True masters at their crafts know they can always improve.
First, find a critique group or writer friends who’ll be brutally honest with you.
You’ll become a better writer if you’re held accountable, not allowed to quit, and know you’re not alone.
(One caveat: Be sure at least one person, preferably the leader, is experienced and understands the writing business. A group of only beginners risks the blind leading the blind).
Read The Elements of Style. This short, easy read covers everything from style and grammar to usage. I’ve read it every year for nearly 50 years. Being a lifelong learner is a must.
Read more. Good writers are good readers.
Read dozens of books in your genre before trying to write in it. You’ll soon learn what works and what doesn’t, the conventions and expectations.
Fixing this sin can change your writing forever.
Jerry
Post-script from the Attic
In studying Dante’s Inferno with the great Dante scholar Nicolae Iliescu, here are the most important take-aways, in my view, for us today:
Condemned to the lowest dregs of Hell, even below the Satanic Popes, are the nice, sweet people (the Kool-Aid drinkers who believed everything they were told, taking it all at face value while they were alive) who politely held the door open for every evil to take hold on earth.
And the Reformation did such a good job taking our eyes off ancient things that Americans in particular don’t even see Sloth & Gluttony as sins anymore, and at times have been known to actually admire (Billionaire) Avarice (Disorder)!
The original illustrations of Dante are a riot: