(via What’s Happening? How to be sure each chapter is moving your story forward – M.L. Davis Writer)
I like perusing writing advice when I view it as a reminder of things to do. Don’t forget to do this. This is useful. Remembering that could be important. Examples are good, too, when it comes to understanding things like good character development vs bad character development. Sometimes I just want a little checklist of things I’ve written down about a scene or a chapter, but reading back through someone else’s advice on writing sort of shakes out the cobwebs, and I’m reminded to do X, Y, or Z.
In the this case, I’m thiking about the chapter I just wrote and making sure it accomplished something. but what? ML Davis says to ask questions:
“There are questions you can ask yourself when editing a scene/chapter. Is there a sense of place? Can you really see the characters, do they leap off the page? Does this chapter answer a question, or pose a new one? Does this scene show the reader vital character information, a hint or red herring, an important clue, or an essential moment of action? And of course, the question mentioned above, the one I keep going back to. What happens?”
Some other good questions include:
When finishing a novel chapter, it should ideally ask questions like: "How will the protagonist react to this new information?", "What challenges will they face next?", "Will the conflict escalate further?", "How will the relationships between characters develop?", "What new plot elements will be introduced?", and "Will the setting change, and if so, how will that impact the story?" - essentially prompting the reader to anticipate the direction the narrative will take in the following chapter.
Feeling pretty good about this last chapter, and I unexpectedly -- I didn’t plan out how I would do this -- dropped a clue to my sleuth about who she should talk to next?
