CHECKLISTS FOR NOVEL WRITING

Checklist #1--Continuity Check
My first checklist requires lists of location, players, and objects.  Make the lists, and then scan quickly through each chapter to check that item of the list.

1.  Verify physical details about each major location:  List the locations in your book and check consistency on details such as number of rooms in a house, placement of doors, and anything else that might have shifted unexpectedly as you wrote.

2.  List main characters' names (including narrator) and write down their physical descriptions.  Check each chapter to make sure everything is consistent.  

3.  List major objects, such as cars, favourite possessions, and anything else the reader will keep track of.  Scan to make sure these are consistent throughout.  (I once inadvertently changed a red Fiat to a blue Honda halfway through my book--and luckily I caught it at revision.)

4.  Verify place names.  Make sure these are spelled correctly (if real places) and referred to consistently throughout the book.

5.  Check for unconscious repetition of similar scenes.  My last novel had five breakfast scenes, all with blueberry pancakes.  Easy to vary that, once I noticed it.

6. Check no head hopping through POV-make sure each chapter is one character’s POV only and that it is clear whose chapter it is from the first line in the chapter.

7. Check dialogue tags are not overused or full of exposition. Use a mixture of dialogue tags.

8. Check dialogue moves the story on and is clear what the character is thinking and feeling.

9. Make stage directions relevant by adding meaning to them: using internal dialogue, reaction to moving objects etc.

Checklist #2--Table of Contents against Chapter Titles, Subheads, Exercise Titles, and Page Numbers
1.  If you've titled your chapters, go through them and compare to the table of contents--you'd be surprised how often these are not matching.

2.  If you've used subheads (section titles) and these are listed in the table of contents, check them.

3.  In nonfiction books, authors use exercise boxes, titled sidebars, and other pull-outs--verify these if listed in either a table of contents or appendix.

4.  Finally, make sure everything listed in the table of contents corresponds to its correct page number there.

Checklist #3--Beginning and Ending of Each Chapter and the Book as a Whole
1.  Read the last sentence or two of each chapter.  Then read the beginning sentence or two of the next chapter.  Add an image or other repeating note to link them.  

2.  If the point of view (who is narrating) changes between chapters, check the first paragraph of each new chapter to add identifiers (so we can tell who is speaking).

3.  Look at the opening two pages and the final two pages.  Do they echo each other in some way--via similar image, location, who is present, topic?  If possible, strengthen this "echo."

Checklist #4--Sentence and Paragraph Lengths 

1. Print each chapter and lay it out on a table or the floor, so all the pages line up and are visible.  Squint at the pages until they become a visual blur.  Look for blocks of text without any white space.  Then look for blocks that are too similar in length, whether short or long.  Break all of these up more.  They will feel visually monotonous to the reader, even if they are full of action.  This avoids clunky writing.

2.  In key chapters (in all chapters, if you have energy for it), do the same with your sentence lengths.  Break them up and vary them.  Avoid sleepy, clunky or similar consistent rhythms: short sentences for action, longer for description. Short sentences speed up the narrative, long sentences slow it down.

3. Does each chapter move the story on? 

4. Is the dialogue believable?

5. Is the dialogue full of exposition?

Checklist #5--Final Spell and Grammar Check

1.  Run spell check (and grammar check, if you use that) one final time after you've made all the above corrections.

2.  Read the manuscript aloud to yourself one last time, to catch anything spell check and grammar check doesn't.  Use a yellow highlighter to mark places that still sound awkward.

3.  Check the homonyms that often get misused:  they're, their, and there; your and you're; to, too, and two.  If you're not sure which is correct, get help.

4.  Check all dialogue--make sure opening and closing quote marks are in place.  Make sure quote marks are outside the punctuation at the end of sentences.  (Correct:  "wow," she said.  Incorrect:  "wow", she said.)

Don't forget to ask any questions in the comments box.