Every day, great stories miss getting a fair reading because of these three common mistakes. If you follow these three tips, around 99% of your competition fades away. Most of your competition isn’t going to even take time to read this list.
1) Remove passive sentences and passive voice.
Passive sentences, … Ick. Passive voice, … Double ick. Imagine a greasy-haired, oily-faced teen, who’s worn the same smelly clothes for a week—that’s how editors look at passive sentences and passive voice. For brevity, I refer to them both as passive sentences.
Around 75% of all stories I receive, I reject because of passive sentences. Get your story noticed by removing every possible passive sentence. After removing them, go through and fix all the impossible-to-remove passive sentences, too. Removing passive sentences will feel awkward to novice writers. After removing them regularly, you will discover that you don’t use passive sentences in first drafts anymore.
In case you don’t know how to spot and remove passive sentences, check out my passive sentence post. Continue reading “Eliminate 99% of Your Competition”