I want you to die. And you will definitely do that unless you are able to use the laser beam to cut the ropes holding your legs, release the hidden knife in your shoe and kink yourself up like a pretzel in order to cut the ropes pinning you to this table. Long, boring speeches to provide information to the reader. See above just longer Also remember that Show vs. Tell applies to dialogue as well as narrative. Having a character tell something is still telling.
All characters sound alike Losing track of who said what.
Having a character hiss dialogue when there s no s in it. A cold read by someone else will point out problems you might not see yourself. And if they don t automatically read it with the same inflections you intended, then you may need to re-examine how you wrote it. Use contractions In school, contractions are drummed out of us by well-meaning English teachers. But you re not writing academic papers.