Writing a book is tough. You have a long journey ahead and to help you on that journey, here’s a road map of the common pitfalls. Avoid the beginner mistakes and you will reach your destination much more quickly and easily than you would have otherwise.
Clichés are common phrases that are hackneyed and tired. They infuse your work with these same qualities. Awareness is the key here. Cut the clichés and replace the overused phrases with fresh language. Clichesite offers a long list of common clichés to help you identify and ferret out these phrases. They make your writing seem bland and leave it devoid of feeling. Your readers will thank you.
Many beginning writers make this common mistake. Characters need to stand apart from you. Don't create a bunch of clones of you that think your thoughts, have your habits, and spout your sayings. You need to create characters different from you. Try a character chart to flesh out a character with original ideas and thoughts. Here is a link to a character survey at Eclectics that will help you create an original character. Your readers will itch to turn the next page of your story.
Preaching is for the pulpit and teaching is for the classroom. Many writers want to preach and teach in their stories. No reader likes to be told the moral of the story. No one wants a lesson in virtue. Morals and lessons need to be shown to the readers. Readers want to experience the writer’s created world for themselves. You, as the writer, may have something important to say, but you must learn to trust your readers. Readers can figure things out. Get heavy handed with the preaching and teaching, and your readers will bristle fiercely at your sermonizing and yawn at your lessons.
Many writers use pet phrases over and over throughout a manuscript. Make a list of the words you use too much and perform a special edit of your work to “clean up” your personal word abuse. Another common form of word abuse is too many "to be" verbs (is, am, are, was, were, been, be, being), and not enough active verbs. Search out “to be” verbs and replace. Finally, a few words have lost meaning from overuse. Here is a list of common overused words: bad, good, big, fine, amazing, awesome, happy, nice, interesting, well, and just. Be kind to your readers and cut or replace overused words.