In his inspirational book, Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, Dr. Atul Gawande gave several examples of how checklists save lives every day. If checklists work for hospitals and airlines, how can these simple yet effective tools help you write better and faster? I’ll share four essential yet free checklists for writers, and you can use them as models to create your own.
The Volume and Complexity of Writing
Novels usually exceed 50,000 words and some top 125,000. Packed into all that text, you’ve got structure, characters, plot, and theme. That’s a lot to track.
Add to the complexity dozens of writing principles. Then pile on a myriad of spelling, punctuation, and grammar rules.
Also, like hurdles in a race, your target audience has preset expectations you must clear. If you don’t satisfy readers, they set aside your book and hunt for another.
Get Free Checklists for Writers
These free checklists for writers will help you solve writing challenges. Here are four to get you started.
➨Book Ideas Checklist
Writers often ask, “How do I find book ideas?” The answers are simple, but can get lost in the details of studying writing craft. Get encouragement and 11 surefire methods to discover book ideas.
➨Conflict and Tension Checklist
Opposing forces frustrate the protagonist’s efforts and increase awareness of what he or she must learn before accepting the need to change. Discover 60+ captivating ideas you can use to increase reader engagement.
➨Deep POV Checklist
Deep POV immerses readers in a single character’s senses, thoughts, speech, actions, and reactions. You can increase reader engagement with deep POV, but each writer must decide when to use it.
➨Writing Terms Checklist
Commercially viable novels share common traits that fulfill reader expectations, but there are many ways to write a story. Because the terms and definitions used by writers and teachers vary, focus on common principles of writing, not rules.
Download the Free Checklists for Writers
Create Your Own Writing Checklists
Using checklists reinforces principles and rules. You get the desired results with practice, and when your efforts become intuitive, you write faster.
Build a portfolio of useful guides. Use any of the free writing checklists for writers as a model to create you own.
Above all, have fun!
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Do you use checklists, and if yes, which one is your favorite?