General
Problems to Watch For
1)
Are quotation marks used correctly? Does all dialogue begin and end with quotation marks? Is ending punctuation inside quotation
marks, or outside where necessary?
2)
Are apostrophes used correctly in contractions and possessives?
3)
Do all sentences begin with a capital and end with the proper punctuation?
4)
Are there unnecessary adjectives?
5)
Are there unnecessary adverbs?
6)
Did you remember to spell out numbers of ten or less and to use numerals for numbers larger than ten?
7)
Did you use the correct words: its/it's, there/their/they're, to/two/too, are/our, *ould of/*ould've? For example: [could
of WRONG!]– instead of could've
8)
Are modifiers in the right places?
9)
Have the words "up" or "down" been used where they aren't needed? For example: He sat "down". She stood "up".
10)
Try to avoid using the following words that lack movement unnecessarily: that, was, were, am, is, are, be, being, been, have,
has, do, did, does, could, should, would, get, went, put
11)
THAT – The word that can often be removed. Sentences often read better without that. The one acceptable use for THAT
is as an adjective; 'that night', 'that cup', 'that car'. Misuse of 'THAT' is when 'WHO' should be used. 'WHO' is used in
referring to a person.
12)
WAS and WERE are passive verbs. We do need to use them sometimes. Was will be found before an -ING word. Try changing the
-ING word to a word that ends in -ED. Then, the 'was' can be dropped, because the passive verb is now an action verb. The
same goes for were, (They were drinking tea. – They drank tea.) Stronger
wording and less words.
13)
HAD - can sometimes be deleted. Use had in the first sentence of a paragraph, to lead the reader into the past. Middle sentences
do not need had in them. In the last sentence, use had, to bring the paragraph and the reader full circle.
14)
Did you use a lot of words ending in –ing, -ly?
15)
Do subjects and verbs agree in number?
16)
Did you use your spellchecker?
17)
Did you use your grammar checker?
18)
Did you use your thesaurus?
19)
Did you do a final proofread to catch any mistakes your spellchecker and grammar checker may have missed?
20)
Did you check for missing words?
21)
Did you check for words that weren't deleted and are just sitting there for no reason?
22)
Did you check for unnecessary repetition of words or phrases?
23)
Do you have body parts doing things they can't really do? For example: her eyes danced, her eyes roamed, *her gaze can do
these things, but her eyes can't, unless they grew feet* Her eyes were glued to the phone. Can you imagine how disgusting
it would be to have eyeballs glued to your phone? He wore his heart on his sleeve. That must have made it easier to replace
his pacemaker.
24)
Take out needless words. Make your sentences as concise as possible.
25)
Don't use a big word when a small one will work just as well. Keep it simple.
26)
Show, don’t tell. Check your manuscript for sentences that tell the reader how a character felt (Claire was unhappy)
and replace with sensory descriptions (Tears trickled down Claire's cheeks.)
27)
Avoid passive writing. Look for verbs preceded by "would" (would go, would sleep, would eat), and replace them with the past
tense (went, slept, ate).
28)
Each character should have his own unique speech patterns and phrasing.
29)
Dialogue should not repeat the narrative, nor vice versa; "Did you see that? Someone turned on the hall light!" should not
be preceded by "They saw the hall light come on".
30)
Have you varied the lengths of your paragraphs?
31)
Don't tell your readers what to think about the story (Kelly idiotically decided to believe Lynne again.) Show your character’s
actions and decisions to your readers, and then let the readers draw their own conclusions.
32)
Look for actions that seem to just happen. "The bell was rung" is passive, because the sentence lacks a "doer". "Hurricane
force winds continued to swing the bell back and forth, as the pastor dangled by his neck from the bell rope" is better. It
shows the wind was so strong it caused the bell to continue swinging.
33)
Be precise by using exact nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Adjectives like big, little, cold, hot, beautiful, scary and
silly; adverbs such as quickly, slowly, loudly, and softly; and general verbs like walk, went, stayed aren't going to portray
a vivid picture for your reader. Descriptive words like: tiny, tremendous, frigid, scorching, plodded, sauntered and gulped
are more interesting and exciting. They appeal to the readers' senses and help them feel what the characters are experiencing.
34)
Synonyms: Buy a thesaurus and look up synonyms wherever you feel a better word might more accurately describe your ideas.
35)
Similes and Metaphors: Add them where possible, but sometimes, too broad a metaphor (or too flashy a simile) can distract
readers from the actual meaning of your storyline. Don't mix metaphors by comparing something first to a carrot, and then
comparing it later to a cabbage.
36)
Dictionary Check: Go through your document and look up in a dictionary any words where you aren't 200 percent sure of their
meaning.
37)
Action and Active Voice: Structure your sentences as subject-verb-object. Tell the action instead of describing situations.
Use your word processor to search for words ending in "-ed" -- if these words are preceded by, "is" or "was" (or similar verbs)
the phrase would be better rewritten. Also, check for the word "there" followed by "is" or "are" (or similar verbs).
38)
Be Positive: Occasionally the word "not" is useful for emphasis, but a sentence is stronger when positive. Use your word processor
to search for the word "not" and rewrite the sentence using other descriptives.
39)
Kill Commas A comma followed by the word "but", separating a list of things, or setting off parenthetic expressions is okay.
Other commas need to be examined -- should it be a semicolon, a colon, an em-dash, or parentheses? When you find a dependent
clause beginning with such words as because, if, as, when, while, and since, separate it from the rest of the sentence with
a comma.
40)
Quick rules on using commas. l) When addressing someone: Kate, I don't know what you mean. Jill, do you want a cup of coffee?
2) After an introductory clause: As usual, I'm explaining more than I should.3) Before and after an imbedded clause (if taken
out, the sentence would still make sense): My brother, who is a licensed truck driver, works as a dispatcher.4) Anywhere you
pause when you read your work aloud.
41)
The colon and semi-colon are used in very different circumstances. Use a colon when a list or explanation follows: Three sounds
woke me last night: a scream, a gunshot, and a siren. Use a semi-colon to link two sentences which are connected: My dentist
charged me $200 for pulling two teeth; he's a crook. Notice the words linked with the semi-colon could stand alone as sentences,
the words linked by the colon could not.
42)
Fling Your Favorites: If something you've written seems "oh so clever" you should probably remove it, or rewrite it.
43)
Re-sort Words and Sentences: Keep related words together -- adjectives next to their nouns. The important words go at the
end of the sentence; important sentences at the end of the paragraph.
44)
Be sure the subject of your sentence agrees with the verb. Both should be singular, or both should be plural.
45)
Capitalize a word only when it refers to a specific place, person, or thing. Write
Holy Cathedral Church, but--outside the church; Oxford County, but--the county boundary; or Senator Jenkins, but--the senator.
46)
Double-check spell check. Computer programs compare each word in your file with the computer dictionary and point out any
words not in the dictionary. They do not tell if a word is correctly used. Spell-check
your work, but then reread it to see what spell check missed.
47)
Clumsy entrances and exits. Too many doors open and close in fiction. Some writers try to punctuate emotional scenes with
histrionic exits. If the scene isn't angry enough, fix it. Don't slam the door.
48)
Are all word divisions correct?
49)
Look for and try to replace nouns ending in "-tion," "-tive," "-ability," "-ment," "-able," "-ness," and "-ance.
50)
Are your sentences and paragraphs loaded with more descriptions and information than your readers need--or want--to know?
51)
Keep a list of errors or writing problems, so you will know what to watch for when writing other stories.
52)
Landscape and scenery. If the scenery doesn't have a purpose in the story, leave it out, or just mention it in passing.
53)
No rule is carved in stone. Occasionally, something will clearly break the rules, but will add an intriguing spark to a narrative.
Decide for yourself whether or not to leave it that way.
54)
Look at word endings. Have you dropped any s or ed endings?
55)
Check for redundancies/repetition: Make sure something isn't just reworded. If one character says, "I'll make you some lunch,"
another character shouldn't respond, "All right, I'd love some lunch."
56)
Put yourself in the reader's place and reread the manuscript to be sure nothing can be misunderstood. You know what you meant
to say, but will the reader understand it that way. Sometimes things can be misread and easily misunderstood. Make certain
your writing is as clear as possible with no possibility of more than one interpretation.
57)
Try to drop dialogue tags altogether. Reword and strengthen the dialogue itself. Make your characters' words so expressive,
the reader won't need a dialogue tag as a clue to the characters' meaning.
58)
Sometimes dialogue tags are necessary, to remind the reader who is speaking. Stick with the old standby, he said/she said.
59)
Consider using movement alone to break up the dialogue, instead of dialogue tags with movement tacked onto the end. Or, drop
the dialogue tag and use the movement alone.
60)
RUE is short for ‘resist the urge to explain. Never tell the reader things they probably already know.
61)
"was" is a passive verb used as a helping verb to prop up a subsequent weak "ing" verb
62)
"Got" and "get" are common weak verbs to watch for.
63)
Proofread again and again.
64) Edit
and rewrite over and over until your story is the best it can be.
