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Craft Elements of Prose

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Structure and Design
• If you are writing a short story, does  your story begin at the moment of maximum tension and end at the most aesthetically satisfying place?
• If you are writing a short story, is the conflict immediately clear? Does the conflict generate some essential change in the characters or their situations?
• For longer prose, how much explanation is in the beginning? Too much? Too little?
• Are your sentences of appropriate length - is there variety, or are there too many choppy/run-on sentences and if so do they serve a particular purpose?

Creating Characters
• Have you clearly differentiated each of your main characters and their primary goals?
• Do they each have a personality of their own?
• Are all of your characters essential? Are there too many or too few?
• If your characters are named, are their names fitting and believable for the story setting?
• If your character has a unique name or a name unusual in their culture, is there a solid reason for it?
• Is at least one of your main characters different at the end of the story?

Writing Dialogue
• Is the nature and amount of dialogue appropriate to the characters and the action of your story?
• To avoid any confusion about who is saying what, have you clearly, and unobtrusively, tagged all speakers of dialogue?
• Are you using a healthy amount of the word said? Do you have too many or too few alternates to said?

Setting the Scene
• Are there descriptions? Are they too long or too short?
• Is the description of time and location believable, detailed, and relevant to your particular story?

Deciding on Point of View, Developing Tone and Style
• Have you carefully weighed which point of view – first person, second person, third person limited, or third person omniscient?
• Verb tense – present or past?

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Contributors: RollingTomorrow, DrMeh, DanielaIvanova