Checklist For Novel Writing
Checklist #1 - Continuity Check
Our first checklist requires lists of locations, players, and objects. Make the lists, and then scan quickly through each chapter to check that item off the list.
Verify physical details about each major location: List the locations in your book and check consistency on details such as the number of rooms in a house, placement of doors, and anything else that might have shifted unexpectedly as you wrote.
List main characters' names (including the narrator) and write down their physical descriptions. Check each chapter to make sure everything is consistent.
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.)
Verify place names. Make sure these are spelled correctly (if real places) and referred to consistently throughout the book.
Check for unconscious repetition of similar scenes. My last novel had five breakfast scenes, all with bacon sandwiches.
Check no head-hopping through POV. Make sure each chapter is one character’s POV only. Is it clear whose chapter it is from the first line?
Check dialogue tags are not overused or full of exposition. Use a mixture of dialogue tags or none at all in some places.
Check dialogue moves the story on and is clear what the character is thinking and feeling.
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
If you've titled your chapters, go through them and compare them to the table of contents--you'd be surprised how often these are not matching.
If you've used subheadings (section titles) and these are listed in the table of contents, check them.
Checklist #3 - Beginning and Ending of Each Chapter and the Book as a Whole
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.
If the point of view (who is narrating your story) changes between chapters, check the first paragraph of each new chapter to add identifiers (so we can tell who is narrating).
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 mirroring.
Checklist #4 - Sentence and Paragraph Lengths
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.
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.
Does each chapter move the story on?
Is the dialogue believable?
Is the dialogue natural-sounding, does it move the story on, or is it full of exposition?
Checklist #5 - Final Spell and Grammar Check
Run a spell check and a grammar check after you've made all the above corrections.
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.
You can read your book out loud into voice notes or use software for an automated voice on your laptop or desktop. You will be amazed at what you can pick up from this.
Switch up the way you read your book. Transfer it to your kindle, or print out a copy. This will enable you to see your work from a different perspective; a fresh pair of eyes almost.
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.
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.)
Thanks to Jericho writers, Curtis Brown Creative and Masterclass for a culmination of their writing tips.
