The Most Common Errors in Short (or Long) Story Writing Placed in No Particular Order

1. Not enough imagery or descriptions, especially in first-person recounts. People have to describe more and make the reader believe that they are in the story as a character. Usually imagery comes more easily when writing as a narrator for a third-person story.

2. Too much imagery or descriptions: too much imagery or description destroys the pace of a book and makes it drag on. A good example of this is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's an incredible book, however there are so much description and back stories for everything that there is no pace, even in battles. Also, too much description, when it's not used correctly in the first person, makes the character sound dorky.

3. Paragraphing in short stories and running sentences: this needs to be constant, and a reminder that though that one sentence I wrote was super long, it is in no case a paragraph, and that if I want to make it so, well I need to separate it in two shorter sentences. And there, the perfect example of a running sentence, and I can make some that are even longer, especially if one of my characters is annoyed or lecturing someone.

Did you notice that that was only two sentences?

Paragraphs all need to be the same length. Usually, unless you're cheating for an essay that prescribes the amount of paragraphs you need, a paragraph introduces a statement or idea, develops on it and then closes it. This usually takes the form of:

Point: what is the point that the paragraph is trying to make
Explain: explain the point
Elaborate: elaborate on the explanation
Link: link to the next paragraph

4. Clichés and things not to use:

• Pathetically emotionless vampire falls in love with a pathetically emotionless human.
• Poor farm-boy get's his parent's house burned down and seeks revenge on the evil overlord that caused it and it so happens that the farm-boy falls in love with a princess and overthrows the overlord but can't marry the beautiful princess because he isn't a prince and then Oops! Never mind, he's actually a prince.
• Poor guy is the seventh son of a miller and runs away to the castle of the kingdom to become part of the army and then the continent gets attacked so he and his friends get magical powers and he doesn't want to give them back and is portrayed as a very potent magician, then Oops! No, actually he already had powers before getting his other ones, so he's a very potent sorcerer, and then Oops! Sorry, he got merged with his descendant that has very potent powers so his powers double and then the author totally ignores this and says that it's guy himself that's super powerful and that he's a demigod of some sort and after that no, there must have been a mistake, I'm now a god with really stupid god-parents and boohoo I feel sorry for myself. (By the way, this character is in a french series not currently translated in english, so you're lucky)
• OMG!!!!! Like, my boyfriend called, and said he wanted to break up!!!!! And I said no!!!! And he said yes!!!!! And, OMG, I am soooo going to post that on Facebook!!!! OMG, I broke a nail!!!! My life is broken and I'm all, like, depressed!!!! OMG!!!! And my friend, she like, hates me for some reason, and I hate her, and OMG!!!!
• Etc.  for the stories, feel free to leave other things you don't like in the comment section
• Beautiful hero that has everything
• Damsel in distress
• Snobby princess
• Virtuous OR really stupid sidekicks
• Ugly or extremely handsome villain that throws temper tantrums but that doesn't actually do anything until the very end (for those who know me in real life and read a section of my story, that would be Henri XIV, but luckily he doesn't stay for very long)
• That villain has really, really stupid minions (If Spike and Score are minions, then they are the prime of idiocy and we're lucky that they're surrounded by meanies smarter than them)
• Female villain is a prostitute-type slut with boobs hanging out to snare the hero that only admires women on the size of their tits (*gags*, makes me think of Manga)
• Really dorky and shallow girls that spend their time on their cell, on Facebook or in front of the mirror.
• And wait! "And it was all a dream". I know English teachers that can fail you for putting that at the end of a story, especially if the narrative is linear and makes sense.  

I think you get the idea, but I'm currently out of inspiration.

Well, see ya!

Firejay