I posted a rejection letter not too long ago that warned me to watch out for using the introductory participle. Interestingly enough, not too long after the rejection, I received an acceptance that asked for revision as I used the participle phrase too often. She said:
You tend to use verbs ending in -ing a lot…I consider learning to properly use the participle phrase a rite of passage for fiction writers <g>.
So I went through the story and highlighted every -ing I had in there. When I was done I had a page full of highlights. Wow. I went through and did some major de -inging. And then went through it again. Since then I am much more careful of my -inging, (more commonly known as “introductory participles” and “participle phrases”) but I still sometimes take a highlighter to my pieces during the revision process to get an overall picture of how I’m doing. Nothing like a page full of highlighted words that I shouldn’t have used in that way to make me pay attention.
