POLL: As a WRITER, what was the biggest mistake you've ever made during your writing process?

Most points have been covered by some of the earlier Answerers, so I shall focus only on what are missing : Whether they are writing a short story one incident, which happens and ends in a limited period of time, or a novel which must include several inter-related incidents and twists, than may even occur over a long time span of several generations, authors must have a clear outline 'treatment' of every detail that goes into it - from the beginning to its end. These details must next be sequenced in a way that creates drama, builds up suspense, and emotionally involves readers in whatever is happening, right upto the end. Only after that, will any professional writer start working on the first draft of the actual story, or novel.

But too many authors begin writing straightaway - without any inkling of where their tale is heading! They tell themselves that the 'story will write itself' - and that, in reality, can never happen. And the amateurs of today never bother about spelling or grammar - because their super-inflated egos, and total lack of talent, make them feel that their 'creativity' cannot be curbed or disturbed by any such 'stupid' restrictions!

Worse, they even submit their half-baked creations to editors and publishers - who, upon reading the first paragraph itself, will dump the entire manuscript into the nearest wastebin! :-)) Another very frequent mistake committed by authors mostly the amateurs is to try discussing every detail of their story with 'friends and wellwishers' - to get more inputs, that will help them. ...Some dumb wannabe 'author's are even using Yahoo!

Answers for this - ignoring the reality that 'too many cooks can actually spoil a dish'! These 'inputs', from persons who have absolutely no idea about even the fundamentals of competent story telling, can cause even more damage than the writer's own inferiority complex - which caused him/her to seek such suggestions in the first place. Any successful writer will confirm that "creative writing is a lonely business" - where the author does all the needed research, outlining, sequencing, drafting etc. in absolute privacy.

It is like a mother patiently carrying her child inside her womb, and singly suffering all the labour pains, until the baby is ready to be delivered. Even then, the first completed draft is like a new-born baby in need of prompt medical attention : The story or novel has to be professionally edited, by an even more experienced and competent writer. This editor will list all the weak spots in the author's narration - which will have to be patched-up, revised or even redone by the authors themselves.

Except for a handful of veteran authors, who can edit and find faults in their own output, viewing it as if it was written by their sworn enemy (!), everyone else including some of today's best-seller authors have to depend most on their editors. Only after this, is the story shown to a select few - to obtain their expert feedback. These may even result in the author giving some more final touches to the tale.

Now the story/novel is at last ready for submitting to a publisher. Publicly exhibiting an unfinished story is like exposing a pre-mature baby to the vagaries of nature, instead of safeguarding it in an incubator : Half-baked stories that are prematurely exposed by immature writers will face the same fate as the exposed baby : a sad and painful death. :-( Que sera sera!

Not having an original script is a bit of a pain, but I'd read on if I suspect that there would be a twist. Slush piles in Literary Agents' back offices are full of books which could have made it if it wasn't for too much back story. Too much back story kills it.

I always tell people that after writing your book, you need to read every single sentence and ask yourself this: Does it advance the plot or does it not? If it doesn't, it needs to be deleted. Grammatical mistakes would also make a literary agent toss away a perfectly good book, because it's a sign of laziness.

But for me, back story and grammar mistakes are the worse (especially if combined with over-indulging tendencies to elaborate on things that are pretty basic just to show off your writing style).

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.