AWJ #9: Write A Book in 2015

By this point you should be done or nearly done with your novel (depending on your genre and commitment). Here are five questions to ask yourself:
1. Is your closer a doozy? It needs to blow readers away. It should be shocking, unexpected, and exciting. And it should be more dramatic with a bigger climax than anything else you’ve written up to this point. You shouldn’t have a scene that outshines this earlier in your story.
2. Does your protagonist face his antagonist? Is there a showdown? Is the crime solved? Or does your protagonist save the day?
3. Does the closer show or tell? The resolution needs to be self-evident. You shouldn’t have to rely on lengthy dialog or a long description or musing to get the job done. As opposed to some experts, I believe in show AND tell as I believe there is a time and place for both. But in the ending or the closer, it is all about showing.
4. Are you using backstory or flashbacks in the closer? That is a big no no! This part of the book needs to about action and resolution. It is not the time and place to introduce new material. By this point you should have set up your story so that this is not necessary.
5. Is the conclusion logical?

ASSIGNMENT–Month #9. Start at the last 50pp of your manuscript and give it a critical review, asking yourself the aforementioned five questions. All you may need to do to fix it might be to cut some dialog or insert an action scene. Or it may require much more, but you must do what needs to be done even if that means cutting several scenes or pages or chapters. Write another 10,000 words if you’re not done yet.