Whether you’re looking to entice your readers with your wonderful, well-imagined, and exciting characters or to grab the attention of a literary agent with your powerful storytelling skills, there are some elements of writing that writers tend to ignore when they write the first draft and these can turn off potential readers and industry professionals like agents, editors, and publishers who could, otherwise, be interested in their work.

#1. Forgetting to let the setting come out clearly

You don’t want readers to wonder where and when the action is taking place. So, establish the place and time, where and when your story is taking place. Then go ahead and explore that setting throughout the story. To make the setting colorful and full of life, you may want to ask yourself the following questions:

How did people speak during this time? How did they dress? What was their transportation? Did they have cars at the time your story took place or were they using horse-drawn carriages? How about the technology? Are there historical events that happened at the time your story took place and how did such events affect the lives of people living within the place at the time?

#2. Forgetting to set huge challenges for the hero

Readers are easily attracted to a hero who has to work his way through complex and challenging situations. They want the odds stacked against him. They want to see him bleed. In short, they want to see what he is made off. So seek to create scenes that make life difficult for the hero, that present a puzzle to be solved or a danger to be faced. Your hero can only grow through the challenges he overcomes.

#3. Trying hard to maintain a voice that isn’t yours

Every writer would like to write like their favorite author. Who is the fantasy writer who wouldn’t want to gain the popularity and readership of J.R.R. Tolkien? Who wouldn’t want to be read like J.K. Rowling? But imitating authors such as Tolkien or Rowling because of their fame or because you love their style of writing would be killing your own craft. Readers don’t want to listen to the same narrative voice all the time. They want something original, something that rings through their ears and hearts as genuine, and they will know it when an author tries too hard to imitate someone else’s writing. Literary agents as well as publishers will easily spot it when you're striving too hard to sound like someone else. So, find your voice and work on it until it becomes a clear and powerful voice that readers will want to listen to.

You can make your first draft read better if you avoid these three mistakes many authors are making. Think about your setting, work on your protagonist, and get the reader's sympathy by making life difficult for him. A hero can't suffer enough. Find your voice and work on it until it becomes compelling and irresistible to readers.