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Today’s guest post by author Larry Brooks (@storyfix) is excerpted from Writing Voice: The Complete Guide to Creating a Presence on the Page & Engaging Readers (Writer’s Digest Books).

By far the most common entry-level mistake in the writing game, the thing that can get a perfectly good story rejected by an editor on the first page, is overwriting: a writing voice that is laden with energy and adjectives, that tries too hard, that is self-conscious in a way that detracts from the story, that is obviously the work of a writer trying to poeticize a story that doesn’t stand a chance.

Bad writing voice is like wearing a clown suit to the Oscars. Chances are you won’t make it past the lobby.

Of course, one writer’s clown suit is another’s tuxedo. Which is to say, you may believe your eloquence is palatable and beautiful, and you may feel the need to stuff all this fat into your sentences because you don’t feel they’re muscular enough as is. It’s always an opinion—yours and the editor’s, and finally the reader’s—but it’s a critical one.

Read more: https://janefriedman.com/common-entry-level-mistake/

Please welcome Colleen Oakley as our guest today!|

Colleen’s debut novel Before I Go was a People Best New Book Pick, an Us Weekly “Must” Pick, a Publisher’s Lunch Buzz Book, a Library Journal Big Fiction Debut, and an Indie Next List Pick. Formerly the senior editor of Marie Claire and editor-in-chief of Women’s Health & Fitness, Colleen’s articles, essays, and interviews have been featured in The New York Times, Ladies’ Home Journal, Marie Claire, Women’s Health, Redbook, Parade, and Martha Stewart Weddings. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, four kids, and the world’s biggest lapdog, Bailey. Close Enough to Touch is her second novel.

People often ask me which I like better—writing articles for magazines or writing fiction, and I often say the two go hand in hand. Though fiction I’m obviously making up, I rely heavily on the research and reporting skills I honed in journalism to help guide and craft my novels. I think that surprises readers sometimes, so I’m passionate about sharing my process and the idea that the best fiction always has at least a small basis in fact.

Connect with Colleen on Facebook and Twitter.

How To Make Your Readers Believe the Unbelievable (Or, The Importance of Facts in Fiction)

Read more: http://writerunboxed.com/2017/04/23/how-to-make-your-readers-believe-the-unbelievable-or-the-importance-of-facts-in-fiction/