Read Online The Busy Writer's Book of Checklists by Marg McAlister - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Marg McAlister
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content area
# Drag (Image) Jetpack Widget to Left
Panel area
# Click Widget to open.
# Copy image link from under cover of
book in Photobucket and paste in “Image URL” box.
# Copy URL for the book from Amazon
page and paste into “Link URL” box.
# Set image alignment to ‘center’.
# Save
# Close widget
# Visit site to check that image is
placed correctly and redirects to Amazon Kindle page when clicked.
That’s it. The checklist above has 14
steps, and I know that if I want to add an image to the sidebar after not
having done it for a month or so, I’ll be SO glad that I can refer to this
checklist to do it quickly!
I am constantlycreating new
checklists throughout the year. Once, I used to just scrawl the steps down on
scraps of paper, which I would (of course) lose. So much wasted time! Now, if
there’s anything I plan to do more than once or twice, I write down the steps
and save them without even really thinking about it.
Checklists can do wonders to help you to
organise your writing life and to achieve your goals. Spend time on them to
make them effective and useful. Then share them with your writing colleagues!
Section 2 – Six Foundation
Checklists for Writers
You can see by the suggestions in Chapter 1
that you can create dozens and dozens of checklists. (Hundreds, probably!)
The six checklists in this first chapter
are what I think of as the foundation checklists: getting ideas, plot,
characters, viewpoint, dialogue and scenes. I could have included one on
grammar and language, and I could have chosen to combine characters and
dialogue (because the way they talk is so integral to making characters work) but
in the end, I decided that these six were the most useful, exactly as they are.
No doubt you will not need every item on the checklist; you can either ignore
the ones that don’t apply, or use the checklist as a template for your own.
Checklist 1 – Story Ideas
Not every idea you get will be suitable to
develop into a book. It’s better to apply the items on this checklist to your
idea before you get too far into writing the book – it could save you hours or
weeks of time, and a whole lot of disappointment when the finished book doesn’t
really work.
# Does your idea excite you and make
you keen to start writing the story?
# Have you given the idea enough time
to 'jell'? (Sometimes it takes a while before that 'first flash' develops into
a viable idea.)
# Can you imagine a character onstage
when you think about your idea?
# Can you see where the story is
going? (Even if you don't know all the specifics when you sit down to write,
you should be able to imagine the overall 'shape' of the story.)
# Can you see where you can build
conflict in your story idea? (Remember: no conflict, no story!)
# Can you use your ideas about
conflict in the story to create a series of challenges for your character to
overcome?
# Do you have a clear idea of who your
supporting characters will be? (Secondary characters, antagonist, minor
characters etc)
# Is your story 'big enough' for a
book or should it be a short story? Conversely, is your short story too
complex?
# If your idea is a 'big' one (i.e.
suitable for a story with several strands and twists) can you visualize several
subplots?
# Can you imagine ways in which your
main character will grow and/or change during the course of the story?
# Is your idea more than just single
episodes loosely linked by a character? (Beware of writing the 'episodic'
story. Writers of children's stories and/or fantasies often fall into this trap
- for example, they show characters visiting a magic land and having a lovely
time meeting all sorts of strange creatures and seeing amazing sights, and
then... they return home. This is not a story: there's no conflict, no goal, no
resolution.)
# Is your idea more than a 'slice of
life'? (A 'slice of life' is more like an essay: it shows a scene from everyday
life and is usually heavy
# Drag (Image) Jetpack Widget to Left
Panel area
# Click Widget to open.
# Copy image link from under cover of
book in Photobucket and paste in “Image URL” box.
# Copy URL for the book from Amazon
page and paste into “Link URL” box.
# Set image alignment to ‘center’.
# Save
# Close widget
# Visit site to check that image is
placed correctly and redirects to Amazon Kindle page when clicked.
That’s it. The checklist above has 14
steps, and I know that if I want to add an image to the sidebar after not
having done it for a month or so, I’ll be SO glad that I can refer to this
checklist to do it quickly!
I am constantlycreating new
checklists throughout the year. Once, I used to just scrawl the steps down on
scraps of paper, which I would (of course) lose. So much wasted time! Now, if
there’s anything I plan to do more than once or twice, I write down the steps
and save them without even really thinking about it.
Checklists can do wonders to help you to
organise your writing life and to achieve your goals. Spend time on them to
make them effective and useful. Then share them with your writing colleagues!
Section 2 – Six Foundation
Checklists for Writers
You can see by the suggestions in Chapter 1
that you can create dozens and dozens of checklists. (Hundreds, probably!)
The six checklists in this first chapter
are what I think of as the foundation checklists: getting ideas, plot,
characters, viewpoint, dialogue and scenes. I could have included one on
grammar and language, and I could have chosen to combine characters and
dialogue (because the way they talk is so integral to making characters work) but
in the end, I decided that these six were the most useful, exactly as they are.
No doubt you will not need every item on the checklist; you can either ignore
the ones that don’t apply, or use the checklist as a template for your own.
Checklist 1 – Story Ideas
Not every idea you get will be suitable to
develop into a book. It’s better to apply the items on this checklist to your
idea before you get too far into writing the book – it could save you hours or
weeks of time, and a whole lot of disappointment when the finished book doesn’t
really work.
# Does your idea excite you and make
you keen to start writing the story?
# Have you given the idea enough time
to 'jell'? (Sometimes it takes a while before that 'first flash' develops into
a viable idea.)
# Can you imagine a character onstage
when you think about your idea?
# Can you see where the story is
going? (Even if you don't know all the specifics when you sit down to write,
you should be able to imagine the overall 'shape' of the story.)
# Can you see where you can build
conflict in your story idea? (Remember: no conflict, no story!)
# Can you use your ideas about
conflict in the story to create a series of challenges for your character to
overcome?
# Do you have a clear idea of who your
supporting characters will be? (Secondary characters, antagonist, minor
characters etc)
# Is your story 'big enough' for a
book or should it be a short story? Conversely, is your short story too
complex?
# If your idea is a 'big' one (i.e.
suitable for a story with several strands and twists) can you visualize several
subplots?
# Can you imagine ways in which your
main character will grow and/or change during the course of the story?
# Is your idea more than just single
episodes loosely linked by a character? (Beware of writing the 'episodic'
story. Writers of children's stories and/or fantasies often fall into this trap
- for example, they show characters visiting a magic land and having a lovely
time meeting all sorts of strange creatures and seeing amazing sights, and
then... they return home. This is not a story: there's no conflict, no goal, no
resolution.)
# Is your idea more than a 'slice of
life'? (A 'slice of life' is more like an essay: it shows a scene from everyday
life and is usually heavy
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