3 Mistakes You Are Making In Your Novel That Are Boring Your Reader

The last thing you want a reader to be when experiencing the world of your novel is to be bored to tears. 

This leads to them either returning your book for their money back, placing it on the shelf never being touched again, or it being donated so that maybe someone else will find enjoyment in it. 

Our job as writers is to entertain our readers, if they wanted to be bored they could go read their old high school textbooks. 

Here are three common mistakes that writers make that bore readers right out of the story. 

Lack of Conflict or Tension

If your story has no stakes, why would your reader care if your character makes it to the end?

Oh, they get a detention? What's the big deal? It won't ruin their life - unless they are one detention away from getting expelled or that one demerit will keep them from being accepted to their choice college. 

Without conflict or consequences, it's just a boring story of things that happen. 

This doesn't mean that your story has to be high tension with danger lurking around every corner for your protagonist, but there has to be some sort of conflict - either internal or external - that keeps readers emotionally invested in the outcome of your story. 

Info Dumping 

Yes, your characters may need certain information to understand the world of your story. What they don't need is all of it at once spanning ten pages in lecture format.

There's no need for excessive description or having one character monologue all of the information about the intricacies of your story for an entire chapter.

Information necessary to the store should be given to readers in a way that doesn't disrupt the pacing of the story. 

Instead of overloading your reader try to dish out information gradually and only when it is relevant to the plot or character development. 

Telling, More Than Showing 

Show, don't tell is dumb advice because it places the idea into new writer's heads that they can never tell the reader anything when the true answer is in finding the balance between when to show and when to tell. 

This is most often seen in the example of emotions. 

You should never tell your reader that your characters are angry or sad, but it should be seen in the way they carry themselves, in the actions they do, and in the thoughts that they have (if narration style allows it) 

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No author wants to be known as the one with the book with the most DNFs on Goodreads. 

Take the time to avoid these three common mistakes, lack of conflict, info dumping, and telling your reader what you should be showing and you'll be on your way to writing an engaging book your readers won't be able to put down. 

Best of luck! 

With love, 

B. xo xo

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This story was originally posted on Medium.

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