In the upcoming Sunday Book Review, Anna Holmes discusses some of the rookie mistakes she made as a new writer:

I regret many things, including, but not limited to:

Inserting myself into reported narratives where I didn’t belong.

Crafting long, complex sentences that I thought made me sound intelligent and sophisticated.

Assuming that aggressive, masculine-sounding prose was the ideal style of writing because it was so frequently rewarded in my literature and composition classes.

Taking too long to get to the point.

Read the story