REWRITE: Page Awards Judges Notes

I'm on a mailing list for the Page Awards Newsletter, September's came today. They announce 2014 winners in a few days. Below is an excerpt from an article:

PAGE Awards
Contest Updateby Zoe Simmons

Since the last post was about rewriting, I thought this list of common notes judges put on submitted scripts was also useful for looking at a script during rewrite. 

Here are some of the most common mistakes many writers make and things to avoid:

• Large blocks of description. Keep your description down to three or four lines at most.
• Too many parentheticals. Use them sparingly and only when absolutely necessary.
• Writing camera directions and trying to direct on the page. You’re the writer. Directing is the director’s job.
• Unnecessarily long scenes. Start each scene as late as you possibly can and exit as early as you can.
• Superfluous characters. If multiple characters serve the same function, roll them into one character instead.
• Novelistic writing. This is cinema, so make sure you “show, don’t tell.”
• On-the-nose dialogue and clunky exposition.
• Idle chit chat. Cut to the chase in your dialogue and skip the superficial conversations.
• Clichés. Look to subvert our expectations and find your own way to hit genre beats.
• Repetitive action or dialogue. Keep your story moving forward. Don’t cover the same ground twice.
• Convoluted plotting. Clarity is key. Make sure that what you see in your head is clearly on the page.

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Interesting how often we are told essentially the same things.