Today’s guest post features practical writing tips from Digital Ink: Writing Killer Fiction in the E-Book Age.

By Bonnie Hearn Hill & Christopher Allan Poe, authors of DIGITAL INK

Don’t let toxicity take over your manuscript. Before you begin submitting – let alone publishing – study it with a critical eye. Readers will tolerate an error or two. Maybe three. After that, you fall into the pit of amateurs. That’s the desolate, frigid region where lost souls waste unthinkable amounts of energy and money on promotion because they didn’t bother to learn the difference between your and you’re. Don’t end up there. Here are the most common copy mistakes to watch out for in your manuscript.

● Ellipses…well…they really do slow your pace… Besides, they do not substitute for dashes or periods. They’re meant to indicate missing words from a quotation. You can also use them to show that the character is interrupted in mid-speech. Be careful though. Every sentence can’t trail off into a haze of dot-dot-dots. Too many probably indicate that you’re relying on punctuation to prop up weak writing.

● Exclamation points. These poor creatures get tacked at the end of any sentence that can’t stand on its own. F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.”

He’s right. Use them rarely.

Your language should be strong enough to convey meaning without the punctuation crutch.

This also applies to our friend, Mr. Caps Lock.

“YOU STAY AWAY FROM ME,” she shouted.

That’s fine for Facebook, but it has no place in fiction. Come to think of it, we wouldn’t do it on Facebook either.

● That damned very. Mark Twain said it best. “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write “very.” Your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

Twain was one smart man.

● Echoes. These delightful little gems have a tendency to pop up when we’re not thinking about them, like when Pops used to make pop-tarts for you. Echoes draw attention to themselves and can cause the reader to wake from your story. Your goal should be to use the most important words once—not just in one sentence or paragraph, but on the entire page if possible.

● Low-impact words and phrases. We’ve all been guilty of using words that don’t sing on the page. Instead, ramp those babies up. Use words and images that punch the reader. Whenever possible, you should always replace limp words with their high-octane counterpart. Punch. Octane. Limp. See what we mean?

Blade is a lovely word, but a switchblade or an X-Acto knife conjures a stronger image. Did the couple drink wine or chardonnay? Was the flower fragrant, or did the jasmine smell like exotic spice? The more specific your language, the more real your setting.

● The Old Words Home. Some words and phrases are just too old. William Saroyan could use “commenced” and did so frequently. Not such a great idea today. Send it to the Old Words Home, the place where tired words and phrases go to live out the rest of their days. Don’t worry. They’ll have nurses, good company, and shuffleboard, and you won’t have to deal with those words in your writing.

● Clichés. Even if your character is cool as a cucumber and ready to give the devil his due, you have the chops to kick it to the curb and come up with something fresh as a daisy. Well, maybe not, but you get the idea. The first author who described someone’s eyes as jade green might have been original, but the term should now be retired. Silken loins might have been sexy once, but it sounds like something at a butcher shop and it’s been used too many times to conjure a fresh image in the reader.

● Adverbs and adjectives. Stephen King nailed one part of this problem when he said, “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” Cut them wherever you can, or replace the weak verb they’re modifying. And don’t use them to explain what your dialogue already has.

If your character smiled sweetly, the dialogue probably suggests that. “I love you.” Clara smiled. You need an adverb only if the way somebody takes an action is not what is expected. “I hate you.” Clara smiled sweetly.  

Adjectives can be equally redundant. The worst are the dark-and-stormy night variety. Jane was sad and depressed. She should have been grateful and optimistic. You use two words dark-and-stormy style here because you sense unconsciously that neither is strong enough to satisfy the reader. Keep searching. Better yet, put yourself in your character’s head. Jane felt like throwing herself out the window.

When you’re in the heat of a first draft, you’ll find yourself tossing around adverbs and adjectives like confetti. That’s exactly what you should be doing in the first draft. You can fix anything but a blank page, but eventually you do need to fix it.