Do you want to clean up your writing?

I enjoyed last week so much because many of you let me read your WIP. I didn't plan to do this, but since we learn from each other, I thought I would post some of the more common errors I came across--ones that I have had to learn myself not to do.

1. Putting period outside of quotes

2. Not using contractions in every day dialogue

3. Using quotes around phrases you want to stand out—better to drop them

4. Repetition—repeating the same idea in the same paragraph several times

5. Starting sentences with There was, this was, or that was rather than finding a stronger way

6. Weak beginnings

7. Ending doesn't have a hook to next chapter

8. POV shifts

9. Too much Telling and not enough showing

10. Using an –ly adverb + a weak verb instead of a stronger verb

11. Change in tense

12. Improper use of em dash

13. Too many dialogue tags

14. Repeating the same word in several close sentences

15. Using the phrases: at this point, the fact of the matter, in fact

16. Same sentence lengths, Break them up for variety

17. Punctuation error “Go there,” he said instead of “Go there.” He said.