Welcome to the monthly newsletter from Write Club, written by yours truly. The purpose of these posts is to inspire creativity for our fellow writers of short fiction. And I also share our writing group’s fiction writing prompt of the month.
In this edition, we’re going to look at some of the most common mistakes we see fiction writers make, especially as they are just starting out developing their craft.
5 Common Mistakes Fiction Writers Make
Writing fiction is a blast, right? Ha! No, it’s frustrating, and it’s hard work. Especially when you have visions of greatness in your mind and the words just aren’t working. Many writers trip over the same roadblocks on the way to finishing a story. Here are five common mistakes — and some tips to sidestep them.
1. Bogging down the opening with backstory
Too much setup and readers get restless. “Get on with it,” they shout at the writer. “Get to the good stuff.” Or worse — much worse — they fail to become engaged in the first few paragraphs and drop-kick your story to the curb.
The antidote is an engaging opening and some action. Give the reader a character, a setting and a challenge, and get right into it, and you have a chance of grabbing their attention. Just like you don’t go fishing without some bait, you also don’t try to reel in readers without a nice hook. (Did that sound corny? Yes, it absolutely did. Okay let’s just move on, shall we?)
2. Explaining everything to death
This one falls right on the heels of the backstory debacle. We’ve all been guilty of this: spelling out a character’s emotions until the poor reader has no room to breathe. Trust your readers. Show them the clues in what characters say and do, and let them connect the dots. It makes for a much more satisfying read.
As a short story writer, I’m always trying to find that balance between giving the reader enough information so they fully understand the character’s problem and motivation, and going spare enough that descriptions don’t bog down the story. And one thing that I’ve found over and over again is that less is more. Sometimes taking out excess details feels a bit like trimming overgrowth from shrubbery. Let the light in!
3. Letting the plot overshadow the characters
As a writer of primarily literary short fiction, I sometimes deal with the opposite problem — neglecting the importance of plot, even in a character-driven story. But as a person who runs writing communities, I see the plot issue a lot. When writers say this happened, then that happened, and that led to this other thing happening… I sometimes get to the end of the story and know absolutely nothing about the character. That is fundamentally unsatisfying.
Plot is important, but if your characters feel like cardboard cutouts, you’ve done them a disservice and left a gaping hole where lifelike people should be. Give them quirks, fears, bad habits, or weird little obsessions. The more real they feel, the more your readers will care when things go wrong. (And yes… things must go wrong.)
4. Neglecting story pacing
As we’ve discussed, readers get restless if there’s too much setup. By the same token, if you rush through the big moments, readers can feel cheated. The trick is balance. Launch the story with some power to grab the reader, hit the gas when you want to create excitement, and when there’s a heightened moment, think about slowing it down for impact.
5. Rushing to send it out
Here’s the truth: nobody writes a fabulous first draft… or even a perfect second draft. Great writing requires revision. That’s when you go back and give some depth to your character, perhaps add a subplot, strengthen the story arc, and of course fix actual grammatical errors.
Revision isn’t punishment — it’s where the magic happens. Cutting, reshaping, and polishing turns a rough idea into a story that has heft. Yes, we all want to get those stories off our desks and into the hands of editors who just might get smitten with them and give them a home. But wait. Just a little longer. Let that story gestate. And then go back and review it with fresh eyes and give it the polish it deserves.
Our September 2025 Write Club prompt: Post office
Post office? Really? Yes! Think about it: a post office is a place where thousands of letters and packages pass through, each carrying secrets, confessions, good news, a frightening hospital bill, or even heartbreak. So much humanity all enclosed in a boxes and envelopes sealed with tape and spit.
What happens if a letter arrives decades late, changing the course of someone’s life? Or if a postal worker starts noticing a strange person visiting an empty post office box each day? Even the simplest scene — a long line of people waiting to put Christmas packages in the mail — can become the backdrop for tension, humor, or romance. Who’s standing next to whom in the line? What are they hiding in their packages? What conversations strike up while they wait?
Short fiction thrives on small, contained settings where human drama can unfold. The post office, with its mix of the ordinary and the mysterious, is a pretty cool backdrop when you think about it. Whether you go for suspense, humor, or horror, you only need a spark: a misplaced letter, a suspicious package, a forgotten post office box key, or an unexpected reunion at the counter. From there, let your imagination take over.
When you allow your mind to wander and let settings, scenes and characters take shape in your mind, there is no end to what you might come up with. How do you get started on a story? What are your favorite ways of getting into creative writing mode? I’d love to hear from you.
Learn More About Write Club
Write Club is an online writers’ group for short story authors, with a focus on writing for mainstream publications, literary journals and genre magazines. We are committed to publishing our work in the many professional publications and short story anthologies accepting submissions. Some of our members are successfully published, and others are on their way, with the help of the honest yet caring critiques from our workshop members. In fact almost all of my published short stories were written from Write Club prompts.
How Does the Community Work?
Each month we launch a new writing prompt. Write Club members are required to write a short story based on the prompt, and then review and critique each other’s stories. These requirements are central to who we are. Every writer needs an outside eye to help them see what they may have missed and to provide perspective. This invaluable feedback can make all the difference in taking a story from promising to published.
The next phase is to revise our stories based on the workshop feedback, and (optionally) do another round of critiques. This method helps us to prepare our manuscripts for professional editors.
Is It Possible to Join Write Club?
While we purposefully remain a small group to ensure that we can all read each of the other stories that are submitted for critique each month, we do occasionally welcome in a new writer with experience who is looking for an online writing community for mutual support, writing critique and comradery. If you are interested in exploring whether Write Club is a fit for you, visit us in our Discord server or reach out via my Contact page.
Note: If you enter our Discord server you will be in a waiting area where we can chat with you and learn more about your interests.
Here’s what’s expected of our members:
- You should already have a strong foundation in short story writing, excellent English skills, and a desire to continue your development as a fiction writer.
- You should have the goal of publishing your work in professional publications.
- You must be ready to commit to writing one story each month.
- You must be willing to provide helpful feedback to other writers and support their journey as well as your own. We are all required to critique every story produced within the community.
Looking for Prompts and Writing Resources?
If you’re just looking for inspiration, watch for our monthly writing prompts, which are published at the beginning of each month on jaynalocke.com. Feel free to use them to inspire your short stories. You can post them on Hive, Medium, Vocal, your WordPress blog, or wherever you like. Note that we do not offer critiques for those who are not members of our workshop. This is just for inspiration!
All we ask is that you provide a link back to our prompt post that inspired you so others can be inspired too. Thank you!
I love to share tips and ideas about creative writing! Here are two treasure troves for you:
- You can find many of my tips and resources on my website, in the On Writing section.
- I also share writing tips in The Ink Well community on Hive. See the complete catalog for the full list of articles.
Have fun and keep writing!
Featured image source: Generated with Leonardo.ai
About Jayna Locke
Jayna Locke is a Minnesota writer who has had a lifelong love of fiction. Her short stories have appeared in a range of literary journals, including Great Lakes Review, Portage Magazine, and Bright Flash Literary Review, as well as several anthologies.
Her collection of short stories, Somewhere in Minnesota, is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kirk House Publishers, and indie bookstores. She is reachable through her contact form at Contact Jayna.