Character
names should all start with different letters
If you have John, James, June or an Emily and Elaine
or a David, Danielle, Diggory all
in the same story change them.
Same letter names will confuse me, and your readers.
Any editor (the good ones) on Publisher's Row will have you do
that anyway.
Avoid unpronounceable
names and names with apostrophes
Yes, we all LOVE Teal'c from Stargate SG-1,
but exotic punctuation in a proper name is now considered to be a cliché.
Ditto
for characters called Gl'mmrxfyd or even Dyfxrmmlg.
Holy over the top,
Batman!
Get! Rid! Of! Things! Like! This!
*!*
Exciting
punctuation in a narrative won't energize a scene.
Characters
who yell a lot may need a tranquilizer.
DO I HAVE TO LET YOU KNOW THAT ALL CAPS ARE
ALSO A NO-NO? Good.
Wut du u c?
Save text-speak for your friends and use proper English in your books and
business mails.
It tells others that you're a
professional.
Song lyrics, poems &
other copyrighted material
The doctrine of "fair use" covers essays, reviews, reports,
critiques, and similar non-fiction applications.
In other venues you have to have written permission
from the copyright holder.
The copyright holder may ask for payment for use
of his or her words. It usually is not cheap. While some writers
might be flattered you love their work enough to quote it, others
won't be and will demand payment.
Using material
without permission translates into nasty letters from lawyers.
It's less complicated to write around the quotes.
Example: Instead of quoting the actual song lyrics of A Hard Days Night,
simply let readers know that's what's playing on the radio or
running through a character's head.
Or use quotes from material that is in the public domain. No one owns
the copyright to Shakespeare or anything else on
Project Gutenberg!