The 7 Deadly Sins of Writing To Turn Away From (With Examples)
The “Holy Article” is here to help you avoid making mistakes in writing a story
Pride. Greed. Lust. Envy. Gluttony. Wrath. Sloth.
These are the “cardinal sins”, first enumerated by Pope Gregory I in the 6th century. We all have indulged in the above activities more than once, even though we won’t admit it.
The seven cardinal sins of writing a book exist as well. If you don’t pay attention to these mistakes, God won’t blast you on your way, but your readers will. Beware.
Sin 1: Writing flawless characters
You love your protagonist. You want to make her personality and her life the best. But, very few writers realize that the execution of this mindset is harmful to your novel.
Imagine Ruby as your main lead:
Ruby has sparkling violet eyes that enrapture anyone around. Her sleek silver hair reaches to her knees. Her skin is the color of gold. Her voice is sweeter than a cuckoo. She is headstrong, yet has the patience of a saint. She never makes any mistakes, even though she is thirteen.
I managed to make you feel disconnected from the protagonist, didn’t I?
This is because Ruby doesn’t have any flaws, and flaws are the foundation of mankind. Without faults in the characters, they will be an unreachable, unrelatable, and disliked angel!
Here’s the hard thing you have to do:
Let your character mess up. More than once. Let her ruin a situation so bad that it cannot be reversed to its original form. Let her try and let her cry in the attempt. Let her learn the lesson the hard way.
By doing this, you would make the read a painful journey, full of emotions jolting the reader’s heart. This is what the readers yearn for. Some readers might hate the character, but others will love her too.
If you make the character perfect, nobody would feel any feelings towards her; there will be no extreme emotions evoked by your book.
An example of a flawless character — or “Gary Stu” — is Jace Herondale from The Mortal Instruments. His looks are godly, he is the bad boy, and his fighting skills are above every expectation. I frankly didn’t get to care about him one bit, even though I wanted to. Reading the series was a bland experience for me.
An example of a deeply flawed yet likable character is Scarlet O’Hara from Gone With the Wind.
Our main lead is beautiful beyond words. Beneath her deep dimples and her perfect figure, though, lies a heart that is woefully stubborn, arrogant, and twisted.
We watch with pain as Scarlet makes the mistakes we all do while growing up. Despite her flaws, I couldn’t help but fall in love with the character.
Don’t be afraid to make your character flawed. It will make her more human.
Sin 2: Showing no aftermaths of the “Big Event”
The series is building toward the war in the end. When the conflict rises to its height, we finally get to see the much-needed action. And yet, something seems missing. The fight seems to round off pretty soon, and the heroes are suddenly living happily ever after.
Does this template sound familiar?
In several fantasy books, the last bit is rushed. Only the side characters nobody cares about are killed, and our main heroes get the life they have wanted for years — full of peace and joy.
Events like wars are no joke. They may end, but the consequences keep on hitting for years. There are innumerable casualties, food shortages, and a homeless population looking for shelter. You simply cannot skip the aftermaths of the big event if you want your story to appear realistic.
Harry Potter did have some shocking revelations in its end, but I felt disappointed by the epilogue, which provided no value except telling the world that the heroes were living happily ever after.
What about the consequences of the Battle of Hogwarts? What scars did it leave on the population? How did the general outlook look then? How did things return to normal?
J. R. R. Tolkien did a better job in his The Lord of the Rings. When Frodo returned to the Shire, things immediately didn’t become pleasant as always. The war had indirectly hit his remote dwelling as well; it took time to eradicate the problem.
Make sure you have the right consequences for the events that matter in your story.
Sin 3: Not letting the side characters shine
Writers tend to forget that the side characters also have a life of their own. They shouldn’t keep meandering around the protagonist like the moon orbits around Earth. Side characters should have goals, motivations, and challenges of their own.
They should get their moments to shine too!
I just criticized Harry Potter above. Let me rescue myself by throwing light on the thing it did right. It didn’t let the side characters remain in the background only. Their personalities were more interesting than the main character himself!
Take Snape’s revelation, Dumbledore’s past, and Luna’s personality.
In the Percy Jackson series too, Rick Riordan stressed every character’s importance. Every person had a unique role that nobody else could replace. Percy’s mother, best friend, love interest, and enemy — all could stand well without his presence.
Sin 4: Treading on the same tropes
If one more fantasy book starts with the story of a farmer’s kid being the Chosen One without an exceptionally good explanation, I would bang my head on the table.
Kidding. Because the chances of this happening are too high.
Copying the same hundred-year-old tropes gets tiring for the reader to read. It is easy to follow the common patterns, but it is not always better. Instead, you can twist the expected to surprise the readers for a change.
The ASoIaF books performed the shocking factors well, as I explained in this post.
The kind queen became evil and selfish. The wise king turned into a lousy head. The neglected child turned out to be not someone who understood pain, but one who willingly gave it. The person who everyone wanted to live in the first book died.
On the contrary, Eragon was palpably deductive from books like The Lord of the Rings.
Elves, dwarfs, and urgals (orcs with horns) were a blatant copy of Tolkien. Other worn-down tropes used were the evil empire, a kid from a village, and dragon riders. If you are a veteran in the fantasy genre, you could painfully see where the motivation of the elements was taken from.
Make your book unique by delivering fresh and unexpected outlooks and events.
Sin 5: Having a weak start
Your first line makes me buy your book. Your first chapter makes me continue flipping it. If your story has a weak start, however, you risk losing the reader without even reaching the best parts that may come later.
Here are some weak starts to not copy:
- Information dumping: Don’t shed every detail about your magic system’s history on page one. This will bore the reader. None of the details will register properly. Instead, spread the facts at appropriate moments throughout the book.
- Common tropes: Waking up, dreaming, and describing the weather are one of the most common ways to start a novel. Try to diverge from the worn-down patterns to win your reader’s attention.
- Instant action: Throwing thirty different names on the same page and all of them battling each other is an instant turn-off. Make the reader care first! Don’t confuse us the moment we step into your world. We escape in books for some peace instead of a headache.
Sin 6: Having a substandard prose
The concept of your book might be propelling, but the lackluster prose will turn me off. The quality of the prose is subjective for each one of us. Yet, if the read is effortless, I would term it as good enough.
Here’s the question: What kind of prose do people like?
Often, what draws people to the sentences is how prettily they are arranged, doused in poetic lines and melodies. At other times, it is the ability to write down the indescribable (for the readers) that wins our hearts.
Most of all, it is how close to life it can take you.
As a novelist, you must take care of your writing skills. Editing words is the last stage of the process of drafting a book. It is the finishing touch that can shoot your book from an “average 3.5” to a fabulous read.
I have already given a couple of tips to improve the prose of your novel here.
Sin 7: Having a dull theme or message
As Neil Gaiman tipped,
The story isn’t about the facts, it’s about the message.
The story I was writing seemed so out of depth because I was focused too much on making logic rather than providing my message. I wasn’t clear about my message — a big mistake.
Both the readers and the characters experience a change if the story is good.
What is the essence I care to convey? — I asked myself. There were too many and there were none. In my next draft, I promised to keep the message in my mind, because it connected with the lie, conflict, and theme.
People love ASoIaF because of the brutal truths present.
Sansa Stark’s lie of a utopian society gets busted when her blind love gets her father beheaded. Ned Stark refutes how rotten people can get… and he dies. The Red Wedding is an unpleasant reminder of how unexpected life is.
What value can you provide the world? How can you make life/writing/working easier for others by sharing your lessons?
Keep the moral in mind even when you write anything, because, dear readers, the world is won by givers than takers.
Recapitulation
Do not make your character flawless. The aftermaths of important events should be realistic. The side characters should have their own personality. Twist the tropes. Have a strong start and prose. Make sure to have a strong message for the readers — a message you believe in with all your heart too.
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