* Should of, would of, could of. This one can make me throw things. It's wrong! What you mean is should have, would have, could have. Or maybe you mean contractions. Should've, would've, could've. And maybe 've sounds a bit like of. But it's not! Of is not a verb. Not now, not ever.

* More, shorter sentences are better. Always. Don't ask a single sentence to do too much work or advance action too much, because then you've got lots of words scattered about like "that" and "however" and "because" and "or" and "as" and "and" and "while," much like this rather pathetic excuse for a sentence right here.

* On a similar (exaggerated) note: "He laughed a wicked laugh as he kicked Ralphie in face while he aimed gun at Lerod and pulled trigger and then laughed maniacally as Lerod twisted in agony because of bullet that burned through his face and splattered his brains against wall and made wall look like an overcooked lasagne or an abstract painting." Now tell me this sentence isn't trying to do too much.

* Too means also, two is a number, to is a preposition.

* He said/she said. Use those only when necessary to establish who's speaking. They distract reader, pulling him out of story and saying, "Hey look, you're reading a book." Ideally, within context of dialogue, we know who's talking just by style or ideas. When a new speaker arrives on scene, identify him or her immediately. Beyond that, keep it to a minimum. Oh yeah, and give every speaker his/her own paragraph.

* Billy-Bob smiled his most winning smile and said, "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" I don't like this. Use two shorter sentences in same paragraph. Billy-Bob smiled his most winning smile. "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" Same effect, fewer words, no dialogue tag (he said).

* In previous example, I don't like "smiled his most winning smile," because it's redundant and also cliched. Please, if you find yourself writing something like that, try to find a better way to express it before you just give up and leave it like it is. During self-edit, I mean, not during initial writing.

* "The glow-in-the-dark poster of Jesus glowed in dark." This editor won't let that one go. Much too redundant, and it appeared in a published novel.

* Lie is what you do when you lie down on bed, lay is what you do to another object that you lay on table. Just to confuse matters, past tense of lie is lay. Whenever I hit a lay/lie word in reading, I stop and think. Do that when you self-edit. (Note: Don't fix this one in dialogue unless your character is quite well-educated, because most people say it wrong. I do.)

* Beware of dangling modifier. "Rushing into room, exploding bombs dropped seven of soldiers." Wait a minute! The bombs didn't rush into room. The soldiers did. To get all technical about it, first part is "dependent clause," and it must have same subject as "independent clause" which follows. Otherwise it's amateur, distracting, and a real pain for your poor overworked editor.

* If you are able (many readers are not), keep an eye out for missing periods, weird commas, closing quotes, opening quotes, etc. When I read a book, be it an ebook or a printed book, I can't help but spot every single one that's missing. They slap me upside head, which makes me a great editor but a lousy reader. If you're like me, use that to your advantage. If not, that's what editors are for!

Michael LaRocca's website at http://freereads.topcities.com was chosen by WRITER'S DIGEST as one of The 101 Best Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002. He published two novels in 2002 and has two more scheduled for publication in 2004. He also works as an editor for an e-publisher. He teaches English at a university in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China, and publishes free weekly newsletter Mad About Books.

I once met an editor who said that spelling has something to do with pronunciation. She's an idiot. Spelling isn't 100% pronunciation. It's history. I'll say LaRoccas-zz whether it's LaRoccas' or LaRoccas's. So will you.

Jump up five paragraphs and read seventh word. Noun. Note that I didn't write pronoun. Just for fun, rule for pronouns and apostrophes is completely different, as I noted in my Common Writing Mistakes article. I still get email praising that one, so let me repeat a little bit of it.

It's is a contraction for "it is" and its is possessive. Who's is a contraction for "who is" and whose is possessive. You're is a contraction for "you are" and your is possessive. They're is a contraction for "they are," there is a place, their is possessive. There's is a contraction for "there is" and theirs is possessive.

If you've been paying attention to above examples, you've noticed that possessive pronouns never use apostrophes. Its, whose, your, yours, their, theirs...

And there you have it. Apostrophe usage explained.

Michael LaRocca's website at http://freereads.topcities.com was chosen by WRITER'S DIGEST as one of The 101 Best Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002. He published four novels in 2002 and has two more scheduled for publication in 2004. He also works as an editor for an e-publisher. He teaches English at a university in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China, and publishes free weekly newsletter Mad About Books.