By TrudiRose

As a beta reader, I find that there are certain mistakes that seem to come up especially often in fanfics. Here are a few tips to help you avoid these common errors.

1. When dialogue is followed by any form of "he said," the dialogue must end with a comma, and the "he said" must be lowercase.

INCORRECT: "Hello." He said.

CORRECT: "Hello," he said.

2. An apostrophe indicates a possessive ("Mary's dog") or a contraction ("She's pretty.") Never use an apostrophe to indicate a plural.

INCORRECT: "I bought some apple's."

CORRECT: "I bought some apples."

3. Pick a tense, and stick to it. Don't mix up past and present tense.

INCORRECT: "She walked along the beach and remembers the happy times she had there."

CORRECT: "She walked along the beach and remembered the happy times she'd had there."

4. If you're writing in past tense, use "had" when talking about things FURTHER back in the past than what's happening at the moment.

INCORRECT: "She put on the dress she bought the day before."

CORRECT: "She put on the dress she had bought the day before."

The exception to this rule is dialogue, because to the characters, "now" is the present - from their perspective, they live in present tense. So if the character above were speaking, she would say "I'm putting on the dress I bought yesterday."

5. When writing dialogue, start a new paragraph each time a new person speaks.

INCORRECT: "How are you?" said Bob. "I'm fine," replied Mary. "That's good," said Bob.

CORRECT: "How are you?" said Bob.
"I'm fine," replied Mary.
"That's good," said Bob.

6. POINTS OF VIEW: It is often recommended that you stick to one person's point of view throughout a single scene. However, it's not mandatory. You CAN switch points of view - the key is to do it seamlessly, so that it's always clear to the reader whose eyes you're looking through at any given moment. You never want the reader to be confused or distracted, or to have to take even one second to figure it out.

So, just like with dialogue, always start a new paragraph when you switch point of view, and start that new paragraph with the person's name, to make instantly clear who's doing the thinking/seeing here.

Also, when you're in one person's POV, remember to use that person's name, rather than something like "the dark-haired girl." You think of yourself as yourself, not as what you look like. But you might think of the OTHER person as "the dark-haired girl."

That probably sounds confusing, so here's an example to illustrate:

INCORRECT: In the bookstore, as he perused the titles, Bob suddenly noticed a girl with blonde hair a few feet away from him. He wondered what kind of book she was looking for. The girl scanned the shelves, then looked up, catching sight of Bob. He wore his hair in a waist-length black braid, and Mary wondered why she hadn't noticed such an interesting person in town before.

CORRECT: In the bookstore, as he perused the titles, Bob suddenly noticed a girl with long blonde hair a few feet away from him. He wondered what kind of book she was looking for. The girl scanned the shelves, then looked up, catching sight of Bob.

Her name was Mary, and as she studied the young man with his waist-length black braid, she wondered why she hadn't noticed such an interesting person in town before.

I hope these tips are helpful! If anything sounds confusing, or if you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected].