Scene Setting

Go through your draft and ensure sure that at the start of each chapter or scene you have set the scene correctly. Sometimes when writing the first draft, you can be desperate to get into the flow of writing. Even if you know where the scene is taking place, your reader may not. Check if you cover when, where and who for each chapter or scene change.

When

Give the reader a sense of time. Either let us know how long as passed from the last scene or what day and time of day the new scene is set.

Who

If you have changed perspectives you may wish to establish this in the first paragraph of a chapter or scene change.

Tidy Character Names and Consider Reader Investment

Double check characters names are spelled correctly throughout the novel. You could make a list of character name if this is useful to you.

Check that each name works. If you want to imply a particular region, area, or add depth to your novel, character names are an easy way to do this. Find and replace for any you may have spelled incorrectly.

If your novel is from different perspectives you may chose to use a character’s first or last name or a nickname that the point of view character would use, depending on their relationship with that character. E.g. Olivia, but the point of view character may use a nickname, Livi.

Reader Investment in named characters

If a character is named and they never appear again, you may wish to use something else to describe them to the reader. You can choose to keep all names, if you are going to ultra realism, but even so, the majority of authors use this technique as part of their storytelling tools to signpost to the reader important or less important character. Strip out the names of the lesser important characters and focus the reader on the more important ones.

Resolution

Do things get tied up? Is it realistic or have you put too much in the resolution. Telling or a summary versus action. A summary ending can interrupt the narrative of the story and seem like an unnatural addition to the story. A satisfying resolution makes the best of both. You can have action, but also let it do the job for more than what it would normally signify. E.g add metaphors or similes for exaggeration. Use the action to give a sense of finality or a signal a new change in the point of view character that would open the reader to more possibilities for character growth beyond the ending to give a sense of hope.

How long and how much happens in your resolution

Has too much happened in the end which hasn’t had time for the reader to care about?