Four Things That Make Your Writing Boring (and how to fix them!)

Why is it that some books get gobbled up by readers, and others don’t? It’s easy to get stuck in a revision cycle when you aren’t sure if a scene is working, so you rewrite it, and rewrite it again, and again, going by gut feel, and not knowing if you’re making your book better, or worse. If this has happened to you, you’re not alone.

Often, writers focus on “fixing” their writing by correcting spelling and grammar, or by trying to optimize sentence structure. And while all those things are important (you don’t want your reader tripping over errors), if you focus in on this too soon, you’ll run the risk of missing the bigger picture—Is your writing interesting?

Now, before you comment below to say that interesting is in the eye of the beholder, let me be specific. I can guarantee that the idea for your book is interesting, and that there are readers in the world that will agree with you. After all, you’ve spent hundreds, possibly thousands of hours on your writing already. You’re reading this article. You’re doing the work because your idea is good enough to keep you interested.

But if those beautiful ideas in your mind are falling flat on your pages, your reader will get bored. Luckily, it’s entirely fixable.

If you have the following four issues in your writing, it will stop readers from seeing what you’re hoping to say with your writing. Fix them if you want your book to make the maximum impact that it can.

Problem #1: Using Writing Clichés

Clichés are phrases or situations that are so overused that they become an eye roll for readers. I’m not talking about these phrases (although you should avoid them too, in favor of fresher ideas!). But Writing Clichés are situations that are so overused they will be a snore for your readers, and believe it or not, can mark your writing as amateur for editors, agents, or publishers who’ve worked in the industry for a while. Some examples include:

• Starting a scene with a character waking up
  • Ending a scene with a character falling asleep, or everything fading to black
  • A character looking in a mirror to describe themselves

Now, before you freak out, because you’re like, But Suzy, I have all of these clichés in my pages. Why didn’t I know this? Let me explain.

There is absolutely nothing technically wrong with these situations, and there’s no way that you could know they’ve overused. Why? Because these tired bits of writing usually get edited out of books before they’re published, so you won’t see them in many books on the shelf of your local bookstore.

But they are very common in first drafts. Why? They are simply the easiest way for a writer to start or end a scene, or to show readers what a Point of View (POV) character looks like. Because of this, thousands of writers come to write scenes in a similar way, writing the first thing that comes to mind. If you have these problems in your book’s draft, you’re in good company. But the easiest way to write something is not often the most effective way to engage readers.

Luckily, these problems are easy to fix, and you don’t even have to rewrite your whole scene to do it.

• If your character wakes up at the beginning of a scene? Simply eliminate the sentences where they wake up, starting the scene a few moments later, when your character is already awake.
• If your character falls asleep, passes out, or is knocked unconscious at the end of your scene? End it just before.
• If your POV character looks themselves up and down in a mirror to describe what they look like? Instead, get creative with how you share a few details about their appearance when we first meet them. We don’t need it all at once. Instead, aim for 2-3 details you can share, the more specific, the more effective they will be.  Is there something they like or dislike about their appearance? Share that. Do they share a hair color or nose shape with a family member who’s also in the book? Share that. And share these details sooner rather than later. Giving a description of what your character looks like in Chapter 5 is frustrating to the reader, because it will undoubtedly be different than they’d imagined. Slip it into the opening pages.   

Problem #2: “Draining the Well Dry”

One of the toughest things for writers to learn is how to smoothly manage the passage of time in their story. Like in Problem #1 above, where writers have naturally gravitated to the path of least resistance, they end up describing everything that happens to a character during each day, zooming in on conversations, watching them eat, drink, or go about their day. The problem with this is that it’s unfocused, and can feel rambling. You as the writer may need all this information to get your timeline straight, but don’t make the mistake of including it all in your scenes, because it’ll take forever for your reader to wade through. 

Unless this minutia directly relates to the message you’re trying to convey with your book, skip it. We probably don’t need to watch your character brush their teeth, for example. If your book is contemporary, readers will assume that they did. If you’ve got scenes like these, take a step back and consider which moments readers really need to witness to get a feel for what your character is going through. Being able to make these decisions is where your writing skill comes in. Cut the rest by ending the scene or chapter earlier, with a scene break, then taking us to the next important moment in the next chapter or scene.

Problem #3: Writing Exhaustive Dialogue

In my opinion, some of the worst advice out there for writers (although it’s very commonly passed along) is this: To learn to write dialogue well, sit in a coffee shop and eavesdrop. Write down phrases as you hear them, then use them in your writing to make your dialogue more realistic.

Uh… no. Why? Because if you’re not careful, you’ll end up with pages of this drivel, and you’ll put your reader to sleep.

Consider this exchange, which might happen in an everyday coffee shop:

“Hi, I’m Rob.”

“Sorry, did you say Bob?”

“No, Rob.”

“Oh, sorry. Nice to meet you, Rob. I’m Larry.”

“Nice to meet you too, Larry. I’ve never been to this coffee shop, have you?”

“No, I haven’t.”

Are you sleeping after reading that? I almost fell asleep writing it. Dialogue in books doesn’t have to accurately reflect how we speak in real life, unless you’re ironically trying to show how pedantic it can be, as in a comedy series like The Office, where they slow down everyday office occurrences to poke fun. In most books, aim for dialogue that sparkles a little brighter than the mundane conversations people have.

Ask yourself, Which moments will help the reader see my characters in action?  What they are thinking or feeling as the conversation is happening, that will move your story forward?

There are many problems with the example dialogue above, but here are some guidelines to start with:

• Skip introductions or summarize instead of making us wade through them whenever possible. A simple, The man introduced himself as Rob, would be just fine here.
• Eliminate prompting dialogue. This is where one character asks a question (“did you say Bob?”), or prompts another character to repeat themselves. Watch for this in your dialogue, and collapse it down to eliminate the feeling of redundancy.

Problem #4: Not Enough Exciting Showing Details in Your Scenes

Implementing each of the tips above will inevitably reduce the word count in your scenes, and that doesn’t always feel great, when you’ve fought hard to get the words down and watched your book grow. But be ruthless, eliminating boring elements that will stop your reader from getting hooked on your story, because this reduced word count will give you breathing room to add in details that will really make your writing pop.

Every scene in your book should have a balance of showing, and telling. Drawing out important moments by sharing a specific showing detail or two will always draw readers in, making your story come to life for them.

Not sure what I mean by showing, or telling? You can get more information on that here.

Click here for a wealth of show-don’t-tell resources!

Making Your Writing Exciting for Readers

Eliminating the boring writing habits listed above will increase your book’s impact on your reader, making them stay up late into the night to finish your pages, fall in love with your story, and share it with their friends.

Not sure if you’ve developed some boring writing habits along the way? Get a writing assessment! Until Black Friday, I’m offering an introductory Writing Assessment, where I’ll evaluate a sample of your writing and coach you where to focus to make your writing as impactful to your reader as it can be. Get details at www.suzyvadori.com/10pagereview