A while back I saw a blog that named the main reasons that a book’s reviews were less than 5-stars. These were a great condensation of writers tips. When you’re doing your final edit, keep 1, 2, 3, and 9 in mind. When you’re constructing and writing your first draft, keep 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 in the forefront. As a reviewer, these are great suggestions of issues you can point out to help the author improve future works.

1. Spelling errors

2. Too many he said/she said

3. Overuse of person’s name

4. Characters all the same

5. Too many characters

6. Main character forgotten

7. Similar names

8. No challenge

9. Too many adverbs