List of 24 Unpublishable Offenses

So, I don’t remember exactly where I got this list, but it was from a senior editor at one fiction magazine or another. I found it very helpful, especially as an unpublished writer hoping to break into the market.

As always, these are guidelines, not hard and fast rules. Write your story. If this advice makes it better, use it. If not, don’t. Also, this is advice for publishing short stories in fiction mags, not novel writing, so all may not apply.

1. Don’t start in the wrong place. You should start in the middle, in the action.
2. Show, don’t tell.
3. Dead dialogue – “Most of the sentences you put between quotes should equal three you put outside of them. If you can take the dialogue out without adding three sentences of narrative, you probably don’t need either.” – Dialogue is inherently superior to prose.
4. Undead dialogue – Get rid of unnecessary dialogue. Just because a character would probably say it, doesn’t mean the reader needs to read it.
5. Impersonal dialogue – Speech is a reflection of a person’s soul. Use of words, contractions, phrasing, should make it obvious who is speaking before reader sees he said, she said.
6. Impersonal narrative – Narrative should have a personality that represent the story.
7. POV keeps the story well contained so writer and reader can focus on what really counts.
8. No matter what POV you choose, you must choose set of rules to write by. Stay consistent.
9. Don’t choose 2nd person POV (Though I’ve seen this published more than a few times.)
10. Skip the boring bits – Readers Don’t need step by step.
11. Mistaking motion for movement – Physical movement, including fight scenes, only serves to move the story forward.
12. Negative space is good, it serves as an absence of distractions that, by its emptiness, focuses the readers attention on the details given. This enables the reader to imagine all the unspoken, unwritten parts that are implied. It allows the reader to personalize the story in ways you could never imagine with details. (Such as minimalist description of a fat cop. Just saying his belly flops over his belt, instead of all kinds of gross features.)
13. Skinny story stuck in a fat story body. Err on side of slim
14. Characters aren’t people – They are Both bigger and smaller. Don’t limit them. Leave room for readers to slip into their shoes. Characters are supposed to represent some idea, a relationship. Let the reader experience something.
15. Don’t use exclamation points
16. Let the drama speak for itself. Steer clear of melodrama.
17. Only use semi-colons if you know how.
18. Its not a yarn – One story can maybe carry a thousand words. Fiction should weave, tangle, knot, and twist multiple stories  together into a whole that is greater than its parts. Two stories woven together, layered on top of each other and pulling characters in different directions will carry a reader a lot further. Even in short fiction it usually takes two or three stories and a couple interesting ideas stirred together to really get it down.
19. Don’t tell lame echoes of old, popular, burnt out stories.
20. Horrible people die, so what?
21. Lead character has to evolve, choose the right one. (probably not the superman)
22. Cardboard characters – Part of what makes a character unique is also what puts them in the situation, problem, conflict, drama of the story.
23. Short stories needs to be tight – Every sentence, every word, needs to carry its weight. Trim 10-20% of word count before submitting.
24. We should care what happens to the characters, They don’t have to be likable, but we should care.

Before you submit

1. Cut words! — was (passive writing), really, very, started, began, feel, see, heard.—avoid telling then showing.
2. Look for telling, look for weak verbs and adverbs and get more concrete with stronger nouns and verbs and be specific. 
3. Get rid of negative information – He didn’t see a thing, he couldn’t hear a thing… Better:  The silence was palpable…
4. Look for repeated words.
5. Abstract and ambiguous – Fear rose from within, sadness washed over her – these are telling. Show physical and mental symptoms of that emotion.
6. Don’t overexploit or insult the readers intelligence, or telling them an emotion or a thought of the protagonist that the reader should have figured it out.  Don’t water down what’s going on.
7. Watch out for info dumping.