I know many of you have a long weekend coming up, and many will be using the extra time to dive head-first into that work-in-progress. If you’re up to editing, and polishing (or even if you just want some tips to keep in mind while writing), here are seven easy tips to immediately improve your manuscript:

• Eliminate hyperbole
  Even if your hero has the ‘cutest butt ever’, or your heroine is the ‘sexiest woman he’d ever seen’, this kind of construction is actually meaningless.
  • First, it’s very subjective: what is sexy and cute (or beautiful, smart, sweet, or any other adjective you care to use) means different things to different people.
  • Second, it’s useless as a descriptor – sexy isn’t a helpful word. Sexiest is even less so. What is sexy? Is it the curve of her hip? The line of the muscle that joins his neck to his shoulder?…