For those of you who love lists, here’s another list of ten common mistakes I see writers make when they come through The Writing Spa. Check and see if you make these mistakes too. And if you do, choose to make 2010 the year you change the way you write. 1 Starting the story too late. When I wrote my first novel, it took me 90 pages to get to the inciting moment. I believed I needed to tell all the backstory first. Not true. When I rewrote the beginning, I cut the first 90 pages, rewrote the beginning to have the inciting moment first. Then, I shared both beginnings with a critique group and asked which one had more emotional impact. Everyone said the second one. Start your story when it starts. 2 Lack of passion. If you’re not wild about your subject, it shows. Write from your passion and your words will have punch. 3 Overuse of had. When recounting something in the past, use “had” once, then keep the rest in straight past tense. Otherwise, you’ll clutter up your prose, make it gunky. 4 Too many modifiers. Use a better noun instead of a weak one that needs an adjective. Use a stronger verb instead of one that leans on an adverb for help. 5 Misplaced modifier: An adjectival (modifies a noun) or adverbial (modifies a verb) placed in an awkward spot—usually far from the word or phrase it modifies. Misplaced: I learned how to tie-dye t-shirts on the radio. Correct: I heard on the radio how to tie-dye t-shirts. 6 Punctuation and Formatting Errors:

• Punctuation within quotes. This is a proper ellipses: . . . (dot space, dot space, dot space)
• Use an em dash in a sentence: Bob ran his business to the ground—right after he alienated his wife and children.

To create the elusive, continuous-line, em dash: Type as usual, but when you want to make the em dash, type two hyphens in a row and simply continue typing the next word. As soon as you hit the “space” key after you complete that next word, the computer automatically turns the two hyphens into the correctly formatted “em dash.” (The funny thing is, the computer can’t NOT do this action automatically.) Incorrect (but the “old” method on a manual typewriter): I left my favorite baking dish–a wedding present from Aunt Jackie–at the church potluck dinner yesterday evening. Incorrect (a symbol, actually an “en” dash): I left my favorite baking dish – a wedding present from Aunt Jackie – at the church potluck dinner yesterday evening. Correct: I left my favorite baking dish—a wedding present from Aunt Jackie—at the church potluck dinner yesterday evening.

• Don’t use ALL CAPS.
• When writing a title, italicize it, don’t underline.
• Don’t hit enter twice when you start a new paragraph.
• It’s no longer five spaces when you indent; use the Tab key instead.
• 11 or 12 point font, preferably Times New Roman.
• One inch margins all around.
• Use exclamation points sparingly. You don’t want to be the writer who cried Wolf!

7 Pronoun/Antecedent Problems. Be sure your pronouns agree with the words they’re replacing. A writer makes a mistake when her pronouns don’t match. 8 No Parallel Structure. When listing things in a series, be sure the structure of the first words in each series are parallel. Example: The cat dodged the ball, ate a mouse, and is sleeping now. Correct: The cat dodged the ball, ate a mouse, then fell asleep. 9 Dangling Participles. When you have a participle (-ing word) followed by a comma as a phrase (dependent clause), the word following the comma should be the one the phrase modifies. Example: Crashing outside, I jumped when I heard the thunder. Crashing outside, the thunder made me jump. 10 Purple Speaker Tags. When you attribute dialog to someone, refrain from using purple speaker tags. Said works best most of the time. Or creating the dialog with beats (sentences of action) works better, too. Example: “Herb, you irritate me!” she exclaimed vehemently. Solved: She stomped her tiny feet. “Herb, you irritate me!”