What’s wrong with these sentences?
That seemed to be the worst thing in the world Alice could have done. She slipped out of the back door and into the night.
A character might be unsure whether Alice’s actions might be so bad, but the author ought to know. In cases like these, the word “seemed” can be deleted:
That was the worst thing in the world Alice could have done. She slipped out of the back door and into the night.
Most fixes are as simple as that. Compare these two sets of sentences:
He seemed to eat the same sandwich every day. Peanut butter and jelly.
He ate the same sandwich every day. Peanut butter and jelly.
However, I have run into sentences like these before:
The spirit grabbed the curtain. A gust of wind blew at that moment, which seemed to blow him away.
I didn’t know what picture the author was trying to paint for me. The spirit wasn’t blowing away in the gust of wind, so eliminating “seemed” wouldn’t work in this case. Maybe the wind came close to blowing the spirit away?
The spirit grabbed the curtain. A gust of wind blew at that moment, which lifted his feet off the ground, blowing his body sideways.
In this case, the author needs to give more detail about what happened to fix the sentences.