I have been writing for a very long time and have picked up quite a few things along the way. I hope this guide can help those thinking about writing novels or short stories in the future.

First, when you write a chapter, proof read right after. Fix any errors you find, but more importantly, replace any "was"s, "were"s, and any generalizations like "everything", "everyone", or "anywhere" with more descriptive words or phrases.

Ex.
Original: The kitchen was so dirty, I could hardly stand it.
Revised: When I plodded into the kitchen the next morning, head pounding from my hangover, my bare foot landed on a ketchup packet, squirting googey red sauce all over the tiles. One of the party goers had knocked the leftover pizza onto the floor and flies had flown in from the open slider for a free meal of rancid tomato sauce and pepperoni that had been baking in the harsh summer sun.

Next, most of a beginner's text is completely dialogue. I began this way and as I have inspired my friends to write, I have seen them begin this way as well. There is nothing wrong with this, but I have some fixes here too.

Don't use "said" after every character states something. If there is a period, we know it was stated. If there is a question mark, we know it was asked and if there is an exclaimation point, we know it was exclaimed. Also, add more detail between lines of dialogue. Often when we talk, we are multi-tasking or fidgeting without realizing.

Ex.
Original:
"Were you forgetting to do something?"
"What are you on about?" She said.
Revised:
"Were you forgetting to do something?" he questioned her as he strode into the kitchen and sat down at the table.
"What are you on about?" his mother retorted, glaring over her shoulder at him as she continued to scramble some eggs she had cracked into her skillet. Covering them and setting her spatula on the counter, she faced him with her arms crossed.

Also when you are writing dialogue, quotations and the action after them should be written like so.
Ex.
Original: "What are you on about?" She said.
Revised: "What are you on about?" she said.
Quotes act like one sentence when you add a character-specific action after them. No need to capitalize "she" directly after the quote ends.
Declarations are different though.
Ex.
Original: "I told him he was going to be late. He should have listened." she huffed.
Revised: "I told him he was going to be late. He should have listened," she huffed.
The correct way to write a declaration is with a comma instead of a period when the sentence at the end of the quote ends in a period.

I noticed a lot of short, choppy sentences as well in many works created by old classmates. Fixing or combining the ideas of a few of these sentacnes can help your story flow easier when read.
Ex.
Original: His mother was a bright faced red haired woman. She was a widow. Her husband passed away in a car accident 4 years ago.
Revised: His friends had such a hard time beliving that this bright-faced, firey-haired woman had lost her husband in a car accident 4 years ago.

Also, many stories need some more backstory into the characters. I often feel overwhelmed with the number of people being introduced at once. It reminds me of when I go to family reunions and meet a bunch of people that I really don't care about. Too many faces to really connect with any of them. However, when you meet a new friend at school, you have time together to connect and learn each other's personalities. Be careful when introducing characters because going too fast can cause your readers to lose emotional connections to your characters. Then, when one of them dies or leaves, the effect will be more like "Well, that guy was kind of random anyway." instead of the desired "Not my, [character]! I loved him so!".

One final thing before I post this, when you begin a story with some sort of premise, such as a disease, national event, war... please include some sort of back story. If your reader does not understand what the story is about from the beginning, it is likely he or she will stop reading before the topic is introduced. Did your English teacher ever let you introduce the topic of your essay in the middle or at the end of your paper? No! She made you put it at the beginning so everyone knew what the heck you were talking about in the first place.

I hope this helped and I hope I can inspire others to write and take joy in sharing their work with others.