Copyright Information Page
Copyright © 2012 by Marg McAlister. All rights reserved worldwide.
No part of this publication may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form without the prior written consent of the author/publisher or the terms relayed to you herein.
Marg McAlister, Illawarra E-Publishing
PO Box 4047 Shellharbour, NSW 2529, Australia.
www.writing4success.com
Table of Contents
Copyright Information Page
Introduction
Section 1: How to Increase Your Efficiency by Creating Your Own Checklists
Some Tips on Making Any Checklist More Effective
An Example of a Recent Checklist
Section 2 – Six Foundation Checklists for Writers
Checklist 1 – Story Ideas
Checklist 2 – Plot
Checklist 3 – Characters
Checklist 4 – Viewpoint
Checklist 5 – Dialogue
Checklist 6 – Scenes
Section 3 – Setting and Subplots
Checklist 7 – Setting
Checklist 8 – Setting Information Sheet
Checklist 9 – Subplots
Section 4 – Getting Organized
Checklist 10 – Organize Your Time
Checklist 11 – Organize Your Work Space
Checklist 12 – Organize Your Files
Checklist 13 – Organize Your Projects
Section 5 – Critique Groups/Partners
Checklist 14 – Group Meeting Checklist – Mostly Social
Checklist 15 – Group Meeting Checklist – Critique Group
Checklist 16 – Critique Feedback Checklist
Section 6 – Social Networking & Websites
Checklist 17 – Setting up a Website or Blog
Checklist 18 – Your Facebook Page
Checklist 19– Getting Started with Twitter
Checklist 20 – Your Writer’s Network
Section 7 – Getting Published
Checklist 21 – Researching Publishers
Checklist 22 – Writing a Synopsis
Checklist 23 – Publishing on Kindle
A Final Word – and a Bonus for You
Appendix 1: More Help for Writers
Introduction
The idea for a writer’s Book of Checklists popped into my head when I fine-tuning the list of titles in my Busy Writer series. Actually, it more than ‘popped into’ my head – it was more like a blinding flash!
You see, while I was planning the series, I was actually checking items off a list sitting at my right elbow. The checklist was related to my business: I wanted to link my new e-books with my long-established Writing4Success website and Tipsheet, my writers’ e-courses and my assessment service.
Checklists, I thought. Of course!
A checklist is one of the most effective tools any writer can use. In the past, I have used checklists for characters, plotting, dialogue, and a whole bunch of other aspects of technique. I have used them for step-by-step processes, such as uploading pages and products to a website, creating sales pages and linking them to PayPal, and editing graphics and photos.
I’ve also used them for time management, career planning, networking and dozens of other things. I have, in short, found them to be an indispensable tool.
It's likely that you already use a checklist in its most basic form - the good old 'to-do' list. How often do you make a shopping list? A list of household chores? A list of debts to tackle?
When you make a list, you are acknowledging that anything on it has to be dealt with in some way. Calling it a 'checklist' simply infers that you need to tick off the items on it as the desired action is completed.
Checklists ensure that:
# you don't forget anything important
# you know (a) what you've done and (b) what you need to do
# you build your skills in an organized way
This book contains 23 different checklists that you can use for your writing and your business, and I can tell you that they are good checklists. (I know that after getting feedback from them over the years. People who have made use of my checklists in the past have asked me for another copy if they lose them, or whether I have a checklist on a different aspect of writing. One author who bought the Busy Writer’s One-Hour Character suggested that I add a characters’ checklist to the book – which I will do.)
These checklists have been created to help you check everything from your basic ideas (are they worth developing into a plot?) to your marketing plan for your published book (how can you make sure people see your book? How can you encourage them to buy?) You’ll find checklists for plot, characters, scenes, dialogue, viewpoint, and a whole lot more (just take a look at the table of contents!)
However, as I refined my use of checklists, I realized that the best checklists (that is, the most useful) were the ones I created myself, and in the very first chapter I talk about how you can make a highly effective personalized checklist from any one of the checklists in this book.
Let’s look at that in a little more detail: I’ll delve deeper into how you can create your own checklists, and give you a recent example.
Section 1: How to Increase Your Efficiency by Creating Your Own Checklists
With at checklist at your elbow, you can make sure that you don’t forget something essential when you write or edit your book (or when you’re promoting your published book).
What kinds of checklists do writers need? Here are some possible topics:
a. Writing Technique and Plotting.
This is the most obvious type of checklist for a writer, and you'll get off to a great start by using the 6 Foundation Checklists in this book:
(1) Getting Ideas
(2) Plot
(3) Characters
(4) Viewpoint
(5) Dialogue
(6) Scenes
b. Grammar and Language.
What causes problems when you're writing? If there are some aspects of grammar, punctuation and/or sentence structure that continually trip you up, add them to your personal checklist. Some suggestions:
(1) Punctuation - commas, colons, semi-colons, quotation marks, exclamation marks, question marks.
(2) Grammar - past tense, present tense, past perfect tense; first person, second person, third person; who/whom
(3) Sentence structure - conjunctions (and, but); run-on sentences; comma splice; sentence fragments
These are just a few suggestions. Substitute your own particular bugbears, and add more as they are brought to your attention. Unfortunately, you'll probably need feedback from someone else to alert you to errors associated with grammar and language.
c. Career Development.
What do you need to do or to work on to build your writing career? Make a list of anything that seems relevant, then break it down into manageable chunks that you can chip away at. Some examples:
(1) Join or form a writers' group
(2) Buy a book on dialogue
(3) Do a course on plotting
(4) Research viewpoint on the Internet
(5) Attend the next writers' conference in your chosen genre
(6) Do a writers’ workshop
(7) Send out query letters to publishers or agents
(8) Research Indie publishing and how to write, format and upload an e-book
(9) Do a course on public speaking; join Toastmasters
(10) Learn how to build a website or start a blog
(12) Create a media kit for download from your website and/or to hand out to journalists
d. Home Office and Equipment.
(1) Buy a
new laptop
(2) Organise writer's reference library (hard copy or on your computer or e-reader
(3) Buy a new printer
(4) Shop for a new chair
(5) Organise filing cabinet
(6) Investigate or upgrade software
(7) Buy new noticeboard/whiteboard
(8) Organise computer files
(9) Buy external hard drive for backup
(10) Learn how to filter email and create folders in your mailbox
Five More Ideas for Checklists
- Organise a writer's group (e.g. organization and procedure)
- Improve your writing technique (e.g. learning from books, courses, Internet, forum)
- Learn new skills or software (e.g. how to do podcasts, how to create a promotional video or book trailer for YouTube)
- Steps in building a network of writing colleagues (e.g. what kind of writers would you like to know? How can you meet them?)
- Moving from 9-5 work outside the home to freelance writing work (step by step: what you need to do to make the transition)
You will actually find a few checklists in this book that fit the above examples.
Some Tips on Making Any Checklist More Effective
(a) Make it personal! Yes, this bears repeating. Don't leave in anything on a checklist template that you don't need or want.
(b) Break it down into small tasks. Do this for EVERY CHECKLIST YOU CREATE. Keep breaking down topics until every item you have on your checklist is achievable in one working day.
(c) If you have particular difficulty with one item, analyse it to find out why. Do you need to fill a knowledge gap before you can do a task? Or is this something that you don't really want to do? If you don't, how can you make it easier/more palatable? If you STILL don't want to do it, do you need to think more carefully about what you really want? If you need money to achieve it, how can you earn that money? (Sell things on eBay? Get a part-time job? Work overtime? Have a garage sale? Ask for what you want as a combined Christmas/birthday present from family?)
An Example of a Recent Checklist
I have a number of different blogs and websites, and I use WordPress on a lot of them. I wanted to add my Busy Writer books to the sidebar – and, with the theme I’m using, that involves quite a few steps. I wrote them down as I went along, and now I have a checklist to follow every time I want to add a clickable image to any sidebar in WordPress.
Here’s what the checklist looks like:
Checklist for Adding Clickable Images to a WordPress Sidebar
# Using Irfanview, resize images of book covers to 125 px wide.
# Using a new browser window, upload book covers to Photobucket, creating a new album called 125px covers.
# Open all books at Amazon in separate tabs in same browser window.
# Log in to blog.
# Open widgets area (Dashboard/Appearance/Widgets).
# Open Left Panel 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 constantly creating 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 on emotion, imagery and meaning but light on plot, conflict and pacing.)
# If your idea is for a short story or a short children's book, can you imagine a special twist or added humor that will 'lift' the ending and surprise the reader?
# Can you categorize your story idea as a specific genre? (e.g. romance, adventure, fantasy, sci fi, paranormal, mystery, western... this makes it easier for an editor to 'sell' the idea to a publisher.)
# Will this idea lead to the kind of story YOU like to read?
# Is this idea suitable for today's reader, or is it reminiscent of stories that would now seem outdated? (For example, light romances have changed a great deal in the past 10-20 years, and children's stories have also evolved.)
Checklist 2 – Plot
There is nothing more disappointing than a plot that loses its way and perhaps, even worse, just kind of fizzles out. Work your way through this checklist to decide whether you’re starting your story at the right place; whether the pacing will work, whether it’s plausible - and19 other items.
# What is at stake? Wi
ll the main character care? Will the reader care? Do you need to raise the stakes?
# Have you started your story at a turning point or crisis for the main character?
# Does your main character have a clear plan of action throughout the story? When challenged, does he/she opt for a logical change of plan?
# Does the main character have a worthy adversary?
# Is your main character believably motivated?
# Are you clear on whose story this is? Is this made clear by the viewpoint chosen? Is the viewpoint you've chosen the best to tell this story?
# Are the main characters interesting and well-developed, with clear goals?
# Are your secondary characters clearly motivated? Is this believable?
# Problems/Challenges/Complications: can you identify them? How will character overcome them? Are they too easily solved? Are there enough of them for the length of the story?
# Is the story plausible? Could it happen to any of us?
# Genre: is it clear to readers which genre this falls into?
# Is the conflict immediate?
# Are any subplots closely related to the main plot?
# How will the story appeal to your readers' emotions?
# Does the pacing work? (Is there too much non-stop action? Too many slow sections?
# Is action followed by reaction?
# Does the story build to a climax?
# Is there a moment when all seems lost?
# Mood and Tone: Is the general tone of the book clear at the beginning? (Humorous, suspenseful, romantic etc.)
# Setting: Is there a clear and vivid geographical setting? Is there a convincing professional setting (if applicable)?
# Time: Is it clear WHEN the story takes place? On reflection, is the time span of the story appropriate, or too long/short?
# Is there a satisfying ending? (Everything comes together and the goal is reached.)
The Busy Writer's Book of Checklists Page 1