by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: March 29, 2009

Writing is such a varied and yet at the same time specialised field that there are an infinite number of common writing errors which particularly the novice writer can be guilty of succumbing to if they are not very careful. Some of these errors can be so serious as to completely spoil the piece of writing in question and effectively ruin subsequent chances of publication, so it is extremely important that writers be aware of them and do their utmost to avoid them.

The first common writing error I would suggest writers can be guilty of is attempting to write to a genre of writing to which their own individual talents are not suited. It may be, for instance, that the writer loves to read classic poetry but their writing style is more suited to action adventure stories. While it is of course possible that some writers can very effectively write to both these diverse disciplines of writing, the odds would tend to be against it.

The length of a piece of writing is another area in which common writing errors occur. It may be that the writer is required to write a piece of a specific length, per the publishing guidelines, and either does not have enough quality material available on the subject or - perhaps even worse - has too much. It is important that the writer be aware that these publishing guidelines are stipulated for a very specific reason and that a piece which does not comply with them is unlikely to be accepted.

If the writer does not have enough material on the subject in question, there may be a temptation to "pad out" the piece with what is essentially irrelevant information. This is a common writing error and must be avoided at all costs. What the writer should do in this instance is either conduct some research in order to obtain more quality and suitable material or simply realise that the project in question is not suited to them at that time and move on to something else. Including irrelevancies is a common route to rejection.

If the writer has too much material, the first option they can consider is writing the piece in full and subsequently conducting some ruthless editing. Alternatively, they may wish to explore writing to a very specific aspect of the subject in question and perhaps impressing their prospective publisher with their knowledge of same.

It is a very common writing error when a writer believes that they have finished their work to know a great desire simply to get it sent to the publisher and fail to conduct any self-editing. It is vital that the writer take the time to pore over their piece of writing and very thoroughly analyse it for any spelling or grammatical errors, factual omissions or any other form of inaccuracy which they may wish to address. Only in this respect do they maximise their chances of the piece being approved.

Every writer has to remember that writing is a never ending learning process and that new and very common writing errors will manifest themselves from time to time. By always looking to improve their writing and learn the nature of their craft, writers can minimise the number of times they succumb to these common writing errors and know their best chances of long term success.

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