Here’s ten things you can do before you send your fabulous story to your beta that will improve your writing and cut down on Beta Wear and Tear:

1. Run your word processor Spelling and Grammar check AND fix things. If you don’t know how to fix it, then make a note for your human beta.
2. Use Search and destroy to take out EVERY instance of the following words or phrases, then go back and only put back the ones that are necessary to make a sentence make sense.

Always
At lease
Beautiful

Begin (to)

Decide

Even

Figure

Finally

Guess

Had

Have

Is

It

Just

Little

Manage (to)

Maybe

Not that

Now

Of course

Old

One

Only

Plan

Pretty

Probably

Really

Seem

So

Something

Sort of

Start (to)

Still

Suddenly

Suppose

That

Thing

Totally

Tried

Try (to)

Was

Well

3. Adverbs suck. Take out every single word that ends in “ly.” Rewrite as necessary.
4. Cliches – take them out or rewrite them. This includes Spuffy clichés like calling Xander a Whelp and sex clichés.
5. Present tense – chances are pretty good that you aren’t good enough to pull off present tense. So, in stead of saying “Buffy beats the big bad vampire over the nose with her swizzle stick.” say “Buffy beat the big bad vampire over the nose with her swizzle stick.” It’s so much easier to write and a lot easier to read. 
6. Point of view – Pick somebody and stick with them. Don’t bounce from head to head to head. Pick somebody and stick with them. Don’t bounce from head to head to head. You’ll give your readers whiplash. 
7. Thought, knew, decided – You don’t need them. Don’t say – he thought so and so and so.  Just write out the thought. Bitch thinks she’s better than me! 
8. Show-show-show. Don’t tell us Spike is mad, have him punch Xander or Riley in the nose. 
9. Whispered, cried, yelled, inquired, requested, etc. – How many times have you heard use “said” for dialog tags? It’s good enough for Elmore Leonard and its good enough for you. You can use asked if it’s a question. 
10. Passive voice – it sucks and it’s boring and it will grind your story to a stultifying halt. “She cried for an hour” not “She had cried for an hour.”

 If you’re really serious, buy a grammar program (not Word’s) and run it on every single thing you write for six months, whether it’s Spuffy or a letter to the IRS. You will get better.

Yes, there are exceptions, but you'll be surprised how often the rule works and improves and how very few times the exception applies.