Writing Tips—A Writer’s Dozen—Archive

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Two Dozen Questions to Ask Yourself When Doing Your First Rewrite

By Judith—First Posted December 2007

1.  Is your opening scene strong?  Does it immediately draw the reader into the story?

2.  How many characters' points of view have you introduced?  Are there ever several POV's in a clump?

3.  Are your transitions smooth and clean or are they long and drawn out?

4.  Is your imagery as strong as you can make it?

5.  Do you show rather than tell?

6.  Are you consciously striving to incorporate the 5 senses?

7.  Have you overdone passages about food, clothing or the heroine's good looks?

8.  Is there any passage within the manuscript that you're bored with?

9.  Are there any clichés, either in characters, conflict or plot?   Are there any within your writing?

10.  Have you given the reader a sense of place?

11.  Do you frequently have body parts operating independently from the person?  (Eyes following, hands raising, lips moving?)

12.  Have you double-checked your research?  Is there anywhere in the manuscript that you've assumed you know the facts?

13.  Have you incorporated any flashbacks in the text?  Could there be too many?

14.  Have you made a concerted effort to edit out any redundancies in your writing?

15.  Have you overworked pet words or phrases?

16.  Is your sentence structure varied?  Do you ever have three paragraphs in a row that begin with 'she'?

17.  Have you gone through the text and blue-penciled out all unnecessary words and phrases?

18.  Have you used contractions in dialogue?

19.  Have you read your manuscript aloud?

20.  Have you read it from beginning to end in one sitting?

21.  Can you identify your weaknesses?Can you identify your strengths?

22.  Can you identify your strengths?.

23. Is this manuscript---every sentence, every paragraph, every chapter---as good as you can make it?

24. Start at #1 again...