Mar 17 2010
Chapter Checklist
Here are twenty sets of questions to help you check your writing.
1. Is the story easy to read through? Will readers understand what is happening as they read through it for the first time?
2. At the end of each chapter, does the audience want to keep reading? For example, perhaps you make an exciting revelation, leave a character in danger, leave a character on the verge of doing or learning something interesting, etc.
3. Do the characters have high-stakes, urgent goals? If not, check the pacing. When little is at stake, the plot tends to drag.
4. Does each paragraph develop a character or advance the plot? If not, rewrite or shorten or remove as necessary. One common offender here is unnecessary dialogue, such as niceties.
5. Does the plot challenge the protagonists? Is there doubt they will succeed? If the plot is too easy, you could make the antagonists tougher, make side-characters less supportive of the protagonists, make the protagonists less powerful, etc.