Edit like an Editor: A Wattpad Featured Guide ✔

Part viii. Top Writing Errors Most Wattpad Writers Struggle With

This part will focus on the top writing errors that I see most Wattpad writers struggle with. If you are struggling with another that was not listed here, request it to me either in a comment or a personal message. I'd be happy to write up a part dedicated to you.

Let's just jump into it then.

Parallel sentence structure:

The word parallel has multiple meanings, but in regards to sentence structure, it means using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. For example:

He was fast and he was strong.

This sentence is parallel because it has "he was" in each part of the sentence, which is separated by the conjunction "and."

Another example could be:

Nick likes to ski, to swim, and to hike.

Now, this example shows parallelism through the word "to," and is separated by commas, as well as "and."

Properly formatting lists:

No matter how simple or complex the list, it needs to be parallel. What do I mean by this? A coordinating conjunction must properly join similar parts of a sentence.

For example:

A) Tenaya bought a dress, clutch, and pair of shoes for the house party.

Does this seem correct to you?

B) Tenaya bought a dress, a clutch, and a pair of shoes for the house party.

What about this one?

The correct example is B because it is parallel with a in front of every item in the list.

Let's try another:

A) Tenaya wished Kayla would notice her in their shared classes of philosophy, of economic principles, and of journalism ethics.

Is this the correct one?

B) Tenaya wished Kayla would notice her in their shared classes of philosophy, of economic principles, and journalism ethics.

Or is this the correct one?

For this one, A is actually correct, because of its parallelism with the word of before every item in the list.

Do you see where I am getting at here? Now, onto the numerous ways to format a list.

First off, there's vertical.

● You can use bullet points.
● Always make sure you end with a period,
● Unless stylistically on purpose.

1. You can use a sequence of numbers.
2. Just make sure you stay in order.
4. You don't want to confuse your readers and skip a step.

Then there's horizontal. This is when you list a number of items in paragraph form, and is the most commonly used in fiction writing.

Tenaya had never been quick on her feet around Kayla, she had always felt a blockage in her throat whenever speaking to her, and she had wondered if she'd ever get to admit her feelings to her.

This is a simple way of listing three or more items in paragraph form; all are separated by commas. Notice the parallelism?

However, what do you do when you have a list of three or more items with additional information? For example: