The Most Common Blunders
That Editors Can’t Stand.
1.
Do
not overuse adverbs (“ly” words). If you have a phrase like, “…must be used
sparingly”, change it to, “…must use with caution.”
2.
Do
not use the following sets of words for one another. Learn the difference.
a.
passed,
past
b.
there,
their, they’re
c.
no,
know
d.
new,
knew
e.
where,
were, we’re
f.
fair,
fare
g.
farther,
further
h.
awhile,
a while (a while is used after prepositions)
i.
alot
(is not a word. It is supposed to be a lot)
j.
weather,
whether
k.
you,
your, you’re
l.
lead,
led
m.
red,
read
n.
wait,
weight
o.
waist,
waste
p.
to,
too, two
q.
for,
four
r.
write,
right
s.
whose,
who’s
3.
Most
editors prefer “all right” to “alright”, and feel that “alright” is “all wrong”
most of the time.
4.
Never
have more than one character viewpoint in the same paragraph.
5.
Be
careful of run-on sentences. Do not have sentences that are overly long. If
they are, try breaking them into two sentences.
6.
Do
not say the obvious. “He walked over and said to me.” Of course if there are
only two people in the scene, it is “understood” the “me” was spoken to. Try,
“He walked over and said.”
7.
Beware
of redundancy (unnecessarily repeating the same thing). “I thought to myself.”
Of course if you thought, it was to yourself.
8.
The
proper use of an ellipse word break is one that has a space on both sides of
the ellipse. (“Won’t you go … just go!” The ellipse represents a break in
thought during speech and should never be used in narration, only in dialogue.
9.
If
a sentence in broken off before going to the next paragraph whether in dialogue
or in narration, use the em dash [—]. There is no space between the em dash and
the last word being cut off. Example: “He said that it was a big—”
10. Chapter lengths must
balance. Do not have real long ones and real short ones.
11. Please don’t use not
twice in the same sentence. People are starting to say things like, “I can not
not tell him.” It’s okay if your character talks that way and you are
consistent about it, but in narration, please use: “I must tell him.” Try to
avoid two had’s in a row as well.