The novelist's checklist

[John Dean]

I work with quite a few aspiring crime novelists as they get their manuscripts ready to submit to publishers and I contend that the final checks I suggest they do are absolutely crucial if they want to give themselves the best chance of success.

For authors, it means referring to a checklist which confirms that they have achieved what they set out to achieve all those months ago.

A good method – and the one I always use – is to ask myself a few questions about the completed manuscript. Have I:

* Created a strong story with plenty of twists and turns?

* Created a strong sense of place - the reader must be able to visualise where the action happens?

* Created strong characters who come over as real people?

* If I have created a sidekick, have I made sure that they do their job - passing on information, allowing the main character to react so we learn more about them, acting as a confidante etc?

* Made the villain real, not some clichéd baddie, and given them a good reason to commit the crime?

* Grabbed the reader from the first line then kept the story moving - nothing holds a reader better than a story that keeps driving on relentlessly?

* Produced a strong ending, surprised the reader and included some drama, a chase, a fight, a killing, a dramatic revelation etc?

* Made the reader think? Maybe I wanted to cast light on human nature, or perhaps a problem in society. I should not have preached but have allowed the idea to come through in the story (this point is not so important for some writers but it is something I like to weave into my narrative).

* Made sure that every word on the page deserves to be there and that there is no ‘flab’ which slows down the story?

How do I know that I have met all these competing demands when I am reading my final draft? I always think that the best test is that if I get so wrapped up in the story that I forget that I wrote it then it’s job done.