checklist

Writing Checklist

1. Watch Point of View: No head-hopping. Example: "That's
a great coat," she said, thinking it the ugliest coat she
had ever seen in her life. He smoothed down the front of
his sports jacket."Thanks." He knew she would like this
coat, it was his favorite.

2. Use all five senses. Put me in the scene -- let me see
it, smell it, taste it and hear it.

3. No dumping of information or descriptions. The reader
should get to know the characters slowly through the
story and see the setting through the POV character’s
eyes.

4. Watch for run-on sentences: two separate ideas in one
sentence -- separate into two sentences. Double check all
grammar, while you’re at it.

5. Watch the passive voice: Passive voice means that the
subject of the sentence is having something done to it --
the subject is the passive recipient of the action
indicated by the verb. Ex (from Eileen Wilks) "She was
pelted with tomatoes for using passive voice too often."
Active voice:"The judges pelted her with tomatoes for
using passive voice too often." The poor writer is
still getting pelted, but the subject of the sentence is
now the judges. No more passive voice.

6. Sexual/Romantic tension – If this is a romance, don't
forget to include this wonderful part of being in
love.

7. Begin where the action is.

8. Show vs. Tell – always show, unless you need to
compress time.

9. Inner dialogue – is there too much, too little?

10. Use non-verbal actions to show emotion and thoughts.

11. Don’t use too many clichés – try not to use any at
all (it’s hard!).

12. Don’t forget the emotional baggage – state of emotion
and state of mind that each character is in at
each point.

13. Consistency of character: don’t make the dumb blonde
suddenly rattle off pi to the 50th decimal place.

14. Each chapter should begin with a bang and end with a
bang

15. Make sure the heroes are heroic – don’t make them do
something stupid too often (TSTL -- too stupid to live!).
And don’t have them do something the reader won’t forgive
them for.

16. Is the chapter good enough to send in to a contest or
an editor? If not, work on it some more. At least 75% of
writing is editing what you’ve written.

17. Action: Does it stir the reader to any emotions or
does it simply further the plot? Action is moving
the reader, not necessarily the character.

18. What is the point of the scene? Must be clear within
the first page.

19. What is the emotion you want to convey? Is it done
in a
coherent, moving way?

20. Leave out the exposition: back story told from the
omnipotent view point. And just about anything
told from the omnipotent author’s viewpoint
unless that is part of the book's style or your
voice.

21. Keep flashbacks out of the first three chapters of
the book – those are reserved for getting the action
moving and your hero on the journey toward his goals.

22. Deep POV: use it whenever possible, it brings your
reader deeply into your POV character’s head and emotions
allowing them to live the story vicariously.

23. Avoid adverbs: “Really?” she asked, her eyes lighting
up. NOT “Really?” she asked, excitedly.

23. R.U.E. – Resist the Urge to Explain -- assume your
readers are intelligent, they’ll get it.

24. Don’t interrupt dialogue with too many beats, it
disrupts the scene. But do use them. Fewer
beats = more tension.

25. Make sure you don’t repeat yourself, saying the same
thing in many different ways one right after the
other. If you say it once, it’s enough.
Repeating yourself just drags things out for the
reader, they’ll get it the first time, so you
don't have to go on saying the same thing again
and again. Get it? :-)

Some of these ideas come from Renni Browne's "Self Editing for Fiction Writers."