Most of the time, I’m concerned with story rather than individual sentences. In my opinion, the most beautiful writing without a story is going to have a tough time. Still, as you climb Mt. Published, you’ll want to think about how you construct a sentence. Here are some common sentence constructions to avoid.
Writing Tip for Today: Writers are often warned against using dangling participles (which we would if we could remember what they were), creative dialogue tags or incorrect pronouns. Here are a few more sentence types to avoid:

• Don’t begin sentences with “it” or “there.” These vague words don’t “buy” very much meaning for readers.
• Sentences beginning with prepositions, especially “as.” Usually, a sentence leading with “as” intends to create the feeling of more than one action occurring at the same time. Readers, however, must process one action at a time, so the effort to make it seem simultaneous is wasted.
• Sentences leading with a gerund (ing). EX: Stuffing the candy into his mouth, the boy screamed and danced out of the irate shopkeeper’s grasp. The action would feel more tightly written as “He stuffed the candy into his mouth, screamed and danced out of the irate shopkeeper’s grasp.” Prepositional openings as well as gerunds slow down the prose, especially if a writer uses a lot of these constructions in a short passage. Makes the writing feel flabby.

Try This! In your WIP, for every sentence you find with a gerund construction (Either opening the sentence with an ing word or a passive is/are/was/were +ing (Such as was walking), try converting to a simple active verb (walked). See if you miss those “ings.”