After many years of teaching creative writing, I've learned to spot work from people who are inexperienced reasonably swiftly. A number of things give them away and I thought it might be helpful to talk about these, so that you can try and avoid what are fairly common pitfalls when it comes to your own efforts.
The thing that strikes me most of all is that the work of people who are only just beginning to write creatively tends to lack intensity. I often think this is because they are so focused on getting the story down on paper that as soon as this is achieved they flop back in an exhausted heap and consider that the job is done (and who can blame them?)
The same process that turns ordinary grape juice into brandy is what turns slack and rather mediocre prose into something taught and exciting: it is distillation. This means going through what you have written and cutting out every single redundant word, phrase, paragraph, character, chapter -- anything that impedes the flow of your story. When you have done this, put it to one side for a few days and work on something else (or go for a walk, or a bike ride, or whatever takes you out of yourself) and then when you come back to your draft, see if you can cut out an equivalent amount again. Having done this, you should be able to cut a further ten percent on your third attempt. The fewer words that you have at your disposal, the greater the pressure those which are left will be under. They will have to work incredibly hard to tell your story effectively, and you may find that you have to add in a few new and different ones to help the narrative along.
When you're going through this process, try and remember that it's not just economy which makes good writing, it's the urgency you as a writer bring to the telling of your tale....
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