You should ask these:
- Have you kept the spotlight on your basic theme and main characters?
- Have you developed your characters fully, portraying them through their actions, reactions and interactions, and keeping them 'in character' throughout?
- Has your protagonist changed (or been changed) by the end? A main character who neither changes nor grows in some meaningful way between the first and last pages will be static and unconvincing.
- Is your story logical? Even a fantasy needs to make sense within its own terms.
- Does the story maintain a satisfactory 'cause and effect' sequence, with each event following on logically from what has gone - before?
- Have you kept control of your chosen narrative voice (or voices) throughout?
- Does every scene take the action forward, enrich characterisation, increase tension, or provide a calming or reflective interlude?
- Check every piece of dialogue - is it 'in character'?
- Have you been sparing with description and explanation, leaving room for your reader's imagination to come into play?
- Is the writing strong, evoking all the senses?.
- Have you sustained momentum through the middle section, moving the story on through cause and effect, action and reaction, tightening tension as you build to the climax?
- Have you left your reader feeling satisfied that the whole story has been told?
- Are you absolutely sure your novel is as good as you can make it?
via howtobooks
