More Editing Notes

- Do you really need those adverbs? Do you really?

- I’m telling you, just get rid of past perfect participles. Just do it.

- There’s no need to frame thoughts and observations as thoughts and observations in limited third-person narration. State them as facts, and the reader will infer that they’re coming from the perspective of the viewpoint character.

- New rule: You only get one (1) run-on sentence per story or chapter. Choose wisely.

- Another new rule: You only get one (1) reflexive verb per story of chapter, and you probably shouldn’t even have that one.

- Try to rethink common verbs that usually have more specific alternatives, such as “give,” “get,” “put,” “have,” and so on.

- If a paragraph would work better as two paragraphs, just break the paragraph. This is not academic writing. A paragraph should really only be about five or six sentences long.

Re: More Editing Notes

Another solid editing tip is not to be discouraged when things take a long time.

Social media can make it feel as though everyone is doing everything all the time. It's true that some people really are extremely productive, but you don't know their story and shouldn't worry about matching that level of social media activity.

If a project takes time to come to fruition, that's okay. You're good. Keep going.