There are countless mistakes, traps and pitfalls waiting for the unwary novice writer but with a little time and effort many of them can be avoided. Listed below are what I consider to be the top four. There are more, but learn to avoid these and you're on your way.

Trap 1

Many Novice Article Writers have little Faith in their own Abilities to Write.

The Problem

If push came to shove, most people could write a factual article without too much trouble, particularly an article explaining how to do something. If you know your subject and can explain it verbally to someone, then you can write it down too. You don't need fancy language or a huge vocabulary, you just need to relax with the written word and write as you'd speak.

You'd be forgiven for thinking this wasn't really a mistake, but lack of faith in your writing ability can prevent you from even getting started. If you don't get started you certainly won't get finished, so this is why I've got it at number one.

The Solution

Approach writing your article as though you were writing a letter to a good friend. Be informal, use everyday words and language, and write it the way you would speak it. If it helps, you can even begin the first draft of your article by writing Dear Mark (or whoever your best friend is.) Bear in mind that the person reading your article probably knows nothing about what you're explaining. Be logical and methodical, get the necessary steps down in the right order and leave nothing out.

Don't worry about style or length in the first draft. Just get the information you have in your mind written down. The wonderful thing about first drafts is their ability to be changed. Don't try to get it perfect first time. Freewrite first drafts and let the ideas flow. When everything is written down, go back and take out anything that's overfamiliar (after all, you're not really writing a letter to Mark), then rearrange and prune in order to get the sharpest, clearest sense possible.

Trap 2

Beginning Writers Get Sidetracked by Non-Relevant Ideas.

The Problem

Nothing puts a reader off faster than having to plough through lots of information that has nothing to do with the article title. You need to stay specific. For instance, this article is about the mistakes that beginning writers make. You're not going to read here about what makes good dialogue, how to write a short story or how to present your novel to a publisher. You don't want a lesson in marketing your articles, getting ideas for your articles or approaching magazine editors. They are all subjects for another day so they're not explained here.

The Solution

Make sure every word in your article goes towards explaining the topic. The best way to do this is to put yourself in your reader's shoes. Why is anyone reading your article? They're reading it to get information or find the answers to a particular question.

Keep the target audience firmly in mind and remember why they're reading. Having a good title helps with this. A good title will help you keep on track regarding your subject matter. If any paragraph in the body of your article doesn't address the title, you should probably cut that paragraph out.

Trap 3

Novice Writers Pay little Attention to Punctuation and Grammar.

The Problem

Sadly, at the risk of sounding like Lynne Truss, punctuation and grammar do matter. You can't expect to be taken seriously as a writer if you don't know how to formulate a proper sentence and you can't spell properly.

The Solution

Learn the basics. At the very least learn not to confuse your and you're. If you're still not sure after you've done a bit of studying, get someone to read your copy before you publish it. There are plenty of internet writing groups whose members would happily proofread for you and gleefully point out any errors. All you have to do is say you want to learn and ask them to point out spelling and grammar mistakes. They will, believe me.

Trap 4

Beginner Writers Skimp on Editing.

The Problem

Self editing is probably the hardest part of writing. You've brainstormed ideas, written it down, and found somewhere to publish it. You're raring to go and want it 'out there' as soon as possible.

The Solution

Slow down. Save your file, close it down, walk away from the computer and find something else to do for at least a few hours and preferably a day or more. The idea is get some distance between yourself and your work. You need to forget exactly what you wrote so that when you come back to it you've got a fresh eye. By doing this you're far more able to spot all of the errors and mistakes listed previously and far more likely to do something about them.

With your fresh eye, read your article. Look for the places you got sidetracked and delete them (cut and paste them into a new file – they're good ideas for further articles), look for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, correcting as you go. Make sure it reads smoothly, and don't skimp on rewriting clumsy sentences. If you stumble as you read, think how much more your readers will stumble. Take the time to tighten and polish.

By doing these things you're correcting mistake number four (this one). By the time you've finished you'll no longer even be tempted to make mistake number one and will have corrected all the other mistakes in between.

It can be tedious, especially when you've got a hundred article ideas and want to get them written quickly. But if you apply the steps outlined above your writing will improve.

Repeat the process, the bits you enjoy as well as the bits you'd rather gloss over, until they become instinctive and pretty soon you'll no longer either consider yourself a beginner or write like a beginner.

(C) Deborah Sutton