Rookie Mistakes

The other day I was wading through a few fanfiction stories posted online and I was reminded yet again of the fact that there are some hallmarks of rookie writers.  It made me wish that all of them, and anyone who is brave enough to take a creative writing class, could be given a little list of what NOT to do.  I'm not talking about the basics of grammar and punctuation that you learn in English 101 - because even I suck at those a lot of the time. No, in my mind these are the basic don'ts of modern fiction writing.

Here's my list:

- Don't include multiple points of view in the same scene - and especially in the same paragraph.  (This is my single biggest pet peeve.)  

- Don't go more than two paragraphs without dialogue or action.   (I think advanced writers can break this rule easily with no problems, but with beginners it's almost always a bad idea.)

- Don't  use more than two adjectives in a row unless you're doing it as a deliberate, conscious, thoughtful, careful, choice.

- When someone new speaks, or comes into the scene, start a new paragraph

- Don't put in a line of dialogue unless you've actually said it out loud to make sure it sounds like something your character might say in real life.

-Speaking of dialogue - don't use any dialogue tag except for "said," "asked," or "replied."  (Unless someone is actually getting violently attacked or something, then I guess you could use "shouted,"  maybe.)  In fact, don't use a dialogue tag at all if you can tell who is speaking without it.


Though having written this, it makes me wonder what kind of list a more advanced writer might give me.  I'm sure I'm still making rookie mistakes.