Scenes
- Do your scenes ebb and flow well?
- Are the four basic happenings taking place?
- Action - This is the objective of the scene.
- Reaction - What the emotional state of the protagonist is.
- More Action - What they do about it.
- Deepening - This happens only in the most dramatic scenes.
- Do you have a great hook, intensity, and a good setup for the next scene?
Complexity
- What value are you supplying to your reader (values can be life lessons or new opinions)?
- Is there a sub-plot that could be added that would give your protagonist (or antagonist) more depth?
- How will any sub-plots assist you in changing the values of your character?
Dialogue
- Have you used a lot of he said, she said?
- Can you turn any of the dialogue tags into action tags?
- Are you using the proper dialect?
- Contractions. Do you use them?
Characters (this is broken out in the checklists)
- Full Name - First, middle, and last along with any other names they've had along the way.
- Location - Where they live, where they were born, if different, why it changed.
- Age - Includes birthday, zodiac sign, and recent celebrations.
- Physical Description - Height, weight, hair color, eye color, shoe size, skin color, manicure?, pedicure?, hair length, eyebrows (V shaped, bushy, pencil thin, etc...), identifying marks, for women: bra size.
- Mental Description - Self centered, egotistical, timid, brash, vengeful, etc...
- Reasons for Mental Description - What happened in life to make them that way.
- Friends - Other characters. Are they major? Minor? Plot changing?
- Relationships - Spouse, kids, parents - with names and nature of relationship.
- Goals - What their ultimate life goal is.
- Career - What they do or want to do.
- Skills - Any skills they may have.
- Magical Powers - For fantasy or paranormal. Can they shoot fire from their asses? Lightning bolts from their eyes? Levitate? See through peoples' clothing?
- Sexual Orientation - Straight, gay, bisexual, etc...
- Fun - What they do to let their hair down.
Here's the link to the full PDF that has tweaks and little boxes to put checks in: GIMMIE MY FREEBIE!
Enjoy and share!
Have these changed the way you look at your novels?
Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!
Jo