a. Please double check your story with these basic things so I can cut my review time in half. I want to work as efficiently as possible and keep this OPEN. 

b. If you find that the below DO apply to your novel, ensure you understand these expressions that I will comment while reading your novel:

1. Show Don't Tell (do)

I've said it many times. 

Examples (fr web): 

TELLING: She went home in a bad mood.
[What kind of a bad mood? How did she act or look?]

SHOWING: She stomped home, hands jammed in her pockets, angrily kicking rocks, dogs, small children, and anything else that crossed her path.

TELLING: My [neighbour] bought a really nice old desk. [Why 'nice'? How nice? How old? What kind of desk?]

SHOWING: My [neighbour] bought a solid oak, roll-top desk made in 1885 that contains a secret drawer triggered by a hidden spring.

2. Pull Your Punches (do)

Avoid info dumping, explaining things to your readers, revealing too much about the plot and characters too early. 

3. Vivid Descriptions? (do)

Does your work have vivid descriptions? Does it appeal to most or some senses? Can the reader imagine himself there?

4. If you saw your cover randomly would you click on it? (subjective)

Does your cover have a pixilated image in the background? Is the text hardly distinguishable from the said background? Does it pop out from the rest? Does it look even slightly similar to the following? 

(Don't worry if it's not exactly like these, some of us don't have the tools to make professional covers, myself included).

5. Jump the gun (don't)

Was there a steady, gradual build up to expressing an idea or information? Or did you jump the gun?

6. Correct your dashes, please!

Punctuation is an area I focus on heavily, but so too is formatting. If you've written something like:

Kyle was pretty angry-not as angry as my mom though," then kindly heed the formatting correction below!

Kyle was pretty angry—not as angry as my mom though. 

Insert the em dash where needed, not a regular dash (-) as it gets pretty confusing.

Em dash (—) - PC - hold down (Alt) + (0151) on num pad
                           - MAC OS - (shift) + (option) + (-)

Punctuation tells us how to read your story. Prioritise it as much as you can.

Comment: 'I'll maybe double check one day.' here so I know you've read this.

7. Unique? (do)

Is your work distinctly different? Unique? Not too many cliches? Cliches that you've turned on their head? Is there anything about your story that sets it apart from the rest in its genre? Think about it carefully. 

*subject to change.