This is another one that's so important we have to say it again. If you make mistakes in grammer spelling punctuation or, well you know, that srot of thing-like Im doing rite now??? — your just going to distract your reador from the story. And loose them.

Right?

Right.

Here's another link to those on-line resources to help you, if you need it.

Some of the mistakes you might fall prey to are ones that are so commonly made that you might not even know they're mistakes! But that's no excuse, because your reader might know. Here are a few that drive me crazy, and cause me instantly to forget what someone's point was because the mistake itself is so annoying:

	Wrong: Alright. Right: All right.
	Wrong: In it's proper place. (possessive) Right: In its proper place. (no apostrophe)
	Wrong: He laid in the grass. Right: He lay in the grass.
	Wrong: He lay the book on the table. Right: He laid the book on the table.

I'm sure you can list a lot more, so I'll leave that as an exercise for you.

By the way, deliberate misuse of language for a particular style—such as dialogue—can be effective, but only if you have full command of correct usage to begin with. Even so, you should employ such misuse very carefully.