5. Your storyline is compelling

You’ve created a sequence of events that progresses logically and purposefully and that culminates in climax. This sequence is called plot. The plot of a short story can (and probably should) involve just one single incident or main conflict. Conflict is clash. A clash of what? A clash of desires. On the other hand, the plot of a novel — even a short novel — should be a least a little more complex and involve a series of incidents. This is the very thing that distinguishes a novel (or novella) from a short story: a single incident versus a series of incidents. The incidents should progress naturally, yet not predictably, and they should move inexorably toward a purpose or goal, which purpose or goal should be clearly stated early on and restated at least few times as the characters make progress to it. The purpose or goal is also known as the climax — after which, your story should resolve.  If your storyline achieves this, you’ve on a significant level succeeded in writing a good book.

4. You’ve given the reader something about which to be curious

This is what I call a Thread of Apprehension, which is closely connected to the issue of suspense, which in turn is closely connected to the issue of plot. To create such a thread, you feed information gradually to your reader and you build a conflict which will in reason interest your reader. What do I mean by “in reason”? If, for example, your character’s big conflict is what color she should paint her toes and what her friends will think of the color she chose, you’ll not have a conflict of any universal appeal: your characters, being people preoccupied with such superficialities, will therefore not have universal appeal. Neither will you, the writer, who took the time to construct an entire work centered around a shallow character pursuing a shallow goal because she’s motivated by what her friends will think. When you create a thread of apprehension, ask yourself this: is there any good reason that readers should be interested in this clash? Are the desires and values of my characters important enough to be curious about? Remember always, though, and never forget: a good plot need not be physical action in the stereotypical movie and television sense. This is a vitally important point for aspiring writers to understand — because many writers, myself among them, can’t imagine writing such plots. And yet when we’re first learning about plot, which is an extraordinarily complex subject, with many, many (too many) disparate movies and television shows to integrate (and books on top of this to read and integrate), the more we watch and read, the more confusing and overwhelming it can all become. But know this: strong plots can come from three characters in a room. Don’t get stuck in your head that good plotting equals physical action: fist-fights, sword-play, gun-play, ticking time bombs, dog fight in the air, explosions, damsels-in-distress tied to railroad tracks… Instead, read Terence Rattigan plays. They’re brief, exceptionally well-plotted, and not primarily physical in their drama. Observe what he does to set his plots in motion and then keep them straight through to the climax. Pay particular attention to his climaxes. And my most helpful advice of all: conceive your climax first, before putting pencil to paper. Come up first with a strong, convincing climax to the story idea you’re kicking around in your head, and I promise you you’ll be golden. Your novel will succeed. Why do I say so? And why do I say so with so much conviction? Because provided you have a strong, convincing climax, you’ll forever have terminus point which will unfailingly pull your story successfully through. You may have to go back and mend any number of parts in your story where you’ve gotten derailed. But your strong convincing climax will always pull it back and right it. Always. Provided you have such a climax conceived — in your mind, I mean, and not necessarily written first (although if you prefer, there’s nothing wrong with this) — provided this, you’ll aways be dramatically safe. Novelistically, no frustration or discouragement or demoralization or overwhelm imaginable can withstand the colossal power of a convincing climax conceived first. When thinking seriously about a story, therefore, which you’d like to make into a novel, get in your thinking to your climax as quickly as possible. That is the biggest, most helpful novel-writing, novel-finish suggestion you’ll ever receive. (Bonus: in conceiving — i.e. in thinking about possible climaxes for the story in your mind — do not hesitate to copy climaxes you yourself like, from stories and plays you yourself like. Do it. By the time you’re finished writing your novel, with the climax you’ve chosen and copied as your terminus point, your climax will be completely different from the one you’ve copied and admire. Guaranteed. And even if it weren’t — which it will be — it doesn’t matter. You’ve made it your own, and you’ve done so legitimately — by crafting a story set where and when you want it to be, and by populating the story you’ve crafted with your characters who reflect your values, saying what you want them to say, and in so doing you’ve not only not done anything remotely unethical or even untoward, you’ve also paid the writer the greatest homage and compliment she or he could receive.)

3. Your climax resolves your central conflict

Chekhov’s famous rule — “Never hang a gun on the wall in the first act if you don’t intend to have it go off in the third” — compendiates this principle perfectly. (The breach of that rule, incidentally, is known as a “red herring.”) If you create a lot of genuinely interesting conflict in your story and yet can’t bring the conflict together in one culminating scene, your story will fail. One piece of very helpful practical advice a screenwriter once gave me: devise your climax first in your mind and then plot backwards from that, away from the climax, always asking yourself along the way: what sequence of events are necessary to bring my characters to this point?

2. Your characters are remarkable

Readers are interested in exceptional people. What is exceptional? Out-of-the-ordinary and accomplished in some way. People who through their own choices and decisions and effort of will have risen above the average — even villains. Two-dimensional characters, uninteresting characters, characters with no depth, or characters whose motivations are unclear or unbelievable — they bore us. Upon the other hand, characters who are in some way remarkable — and realistically so — grab readers by the balls and make readers want to know what happens to them. To create characters with depth, however, the writer of course must also possess a certain amount. Which is where I fall dismally short.

1. You know why your novel was written

Too often, we read novels written by writers who think that a novel is a journal. Or a memoir. Or a chronicle. A novel is not any of these things. You can in your novel write about mountain climbing or marlin fishing or marijuana smoking or your youth, provided you show us in the work why there’s a reason we should be interested in these things. That reason is called theme. Theme is the meaning that the events of your story add up to.