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first and third points of view are most popular. Of course, with the first point of view a story is limited by what a narrator sees and hears. With the third point of view, the narrator can be limited in what he/she has seen and heard, first hand, and what has been gleaned through speculation and hearsay. However, a third person point of view offers the narrator the opportunity to know everything that is going on with all the characters. Whatever point of view the writer chooses the narrator to have, it must be consistent throughout the story to avoid confusing readers. For example, using the third person limited point of view, it would be inconsistent to write such a statement as, "When the girls left the ballroom, they were laughing with glee. However, one girl was wondering how her Dad was feeling because he wasn't feeling well when she left home." There is no way the narrator could have known that information.

6. Relevance
Everything focused on within the confines of the story should have meaning and relevance to the story, especially with the limited word count writers are confined to - approximately 500 - 2,500 words. If the story started out with a little boy knocking on a woman's door, there should be a reason. Don't finish the story without further mention of the boy or readers will wonder what his purpose was for being brought into the story in the first place.

In addition, unless there's a specific reason for mentioning that the large two-storey house was painted black and white, with grey trimmings along the windows, there's no point in furnishing readers with all of this information. The large two-storey house would suffice, unless the house itself wasn't even necessary in advancing the story along.

Furthermore, if a woman jumped up and down, happily, ten times, unless there's a reason for stating these points, they don't advance the story. A simple statement showing readers that the woman jumped up and down with excitement would suffice.

7. Verb usage
Don't use the same verbs over and over and over. There are only so many times readers want to see a form of the verb "to be" or "to say." "He is a good boy because he is always helping around the house," could easily be written as, "He helps me around the house so much. What a good boy!"

Furthermore, "Julie's going to the party," Donna said.
"Yeah, earlier in the day, Mom said she's also going to sleep over at Eva's for the night."
"Well, I bet she'll have fun," Donna said with a smile.

While these sentences

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