Novice Writing Mistake #5: Not Reading Enough

· Writing

I've been in several critique groups now, and the one novice writing mistake that I can usually identify in emerging authors' opening pages is that they haven't read enough recent children's literature.

Hit the library to check out as many books as you can from the shelves that target your readers' age-range. Then read, read, read, and never stop reading! Become familiar with the format, the sentence structures, the way the opening chapters read, and how quickly the plots develop.

Take the books apart - deconstruct and identify how the authors hit those plot mountain points. When writing this WIP, I happened to admire Stuart Gibb's Big Game, from his Fun Jungle series, and so I read, took notes, and created a plot mountain for how he crafted the book. Google "Plot Mountain Template" and you'll find lots of jpegs and other images that can be useful for identifying story structure. Study how other authors create their magic, as a tool for writing and revising your book.

Plot Mountain Jedi Font

In addition, there are writing "norms" for each age range: Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult, and those norms are constantly changing and evolving. Read to keep up with these changes, to know they're out there - and decide if you want to revise according to what you're reading. Reading won't take away from your writing and creativity - it will enrich it, give you ideas, begin to shape the way you write, and inspire! But always, stay focused on how you can use what you read to write and revise your book.

Then, attempt to emulate the style, format, pacing and feel of the writing you admire the most. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Never copy stories or plots or ideas, but try to deliberately evoke a writing style using your own words and ideas. In so doing, you make it your own.

Never forget, writing is a process. It's hard work and a LOT of revision. My latest WIP is the result of feet - multiples of 12-inches - of revisions and years of work to produce 313 editable pages. I proudly say the first version stank. It did NOT communicate what I wanted it to communicate. Worse, the story had no plot, as I was making stuff up as I went. But it was the first manuscript I finished, and once I finished it, I had a starting point to work magic - revision.

In the interim, I read - voraciously, non-stop. I taught books. I can now read the opening pages of some manuscripts and identify writing styles from 30, 40 years ago that aren't published any longer. Reading enables you to identify the range of what's currently being published, and where your writing falls in that range.

Then, if you deliberately choose to write in an older style, know that you're doing that, and your chances of publication are diminished - although nothing is impossible!