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Even with all the variety I see in voice, theme, setting, and yes, errors in all the wonderful the projects I've edited over the years, there are some cliches too. So without further ado, here are some, lets call them cliche errors: errors I see so often that they are maybe getting a little old (who am I kidding, I still enjoy finding and fixing them. I'm like Marie Kondo: I love mess).
Dialogue tags. A huge number of people get these wrong. The dialogue tag is probably one of the few things on my list that has harder and faster rules, and the rules are fairly simple. I could lay them out here, but you could find them elsewhere really easily. I do want to say, making dialogue start a new paragraph is NOT a rule, and thinking it is can cause you some unnecessary heartache. I see lots of problems where an action tag (showing the action or expression of the person talking) comes before dialogue (totally valid, by the way), but because the author though dialogue had to start a new paragraph, the action tag was separated from the dialogue. Whoops!
Semicolons. I don't know why these get so muddled in everybody's minds, but they do. The rule on these is pretty simple, both sides of the semicolon must be a complete sentences: meaning subject, verb and possibly object if the verb requires it. Why not just have a period between them? Thanks for asking! The semicolon signals to the reader that the two sentences are closer connected than the period. So if those sentences were people at a party, the period tells you that they are just two separate beings, sitting in the same room, no more or less connected than any other two sentences. Semicolons show that the sentences are actually dancing together. A comma shows that the clauses (not full sentences) are holding hands, kissing maybe, but one is an appendage of the other. And an em dash can mean any of those, which is probably why it is a favorite among editors and authors alike. Some people hate semicolons, saying they shouldn't be used in fiction, but I disagree. They are cute! Like a little doggy with a tail! Do keep in mind that some people feel like it makes your writing seem too scientific, though I haven't found that to be the case either. As long as you are using them right and aren't overusing the same structure too much, I say take advantage of the tools you have!
Paragraphs. Paragraph cutoffs are much more nebulous and hard to pin down. However, sometimes it can help to think of the way paragraphs are put together in essays. You start with a topic sentence, have a few supporting sentences, and have a concluding sentence. If sentences are people at a party, the paragraph is the party. And new paragraphs are new, different parties.
Ok, lets say I've got this:
Every year since the Arrival, one or two friends and I sneak out of the compound and attend an event, one event of my choosing, incognito. In other words, I go in disguise and I don’t tell everyone there that I'm an alien. Not really a lie, just an omission. I just don’t think I need to share every single about myself with strangers.
I could divide that up however I want, give some emphasis to different sentences, but I want them to be connected here. However, if I also add on, this line into the same paragraph:
Sometimes I go to street soccer events in Africa, or high school swim meets in Chili, or political rallies if there’s one available.
I'm implying that this bit was the whole point of the other information in the paragraph. cutting things there and moving it to the new paragraph lets me get a little bit of a punch line.
By the way, you do not need to start a new paragraph every time you mention someone new, just make sure they are entering the paragraph because they support the main point.
I should probably say that the most common errors have to do with commas, actually, but I am not even going to touch that. It is a big huge scary bear. Same with hyphenation. There are just so many rules, and much that can be interpreted different ways, and so many exceptions to every rule, if you really want to get good at commas or hyphenation, just read a lot and then look things up when you wonder about it, and eventually you will start to see a pattern. Maybe.
