1. Changing the point of view:
This might mean switching from first-person to third-person, or third
to first, or even narrating the story from the point of view of a
different character.
2. Lengthening or adding episodes:
Frequently, you will have passages or sections that can be
interestingly developed; you may also see places where you can add
entirely new scenes. Such additions should add to our
understanding of your main character and to the complexity of his/her
plight. There may also, of course, be scenes or portions of
scenes that you now see as non-essential to our understanding of the
story and that can therefore be deleted.
3. Adding (or deleting) characters:
Your focus can sometimes be sharpened by eliminating extraneous
characters; on the other hand, an additional character may add to the
complexity of your story, allow you to dramatize another aspect of your
main character's situation.
4. Deepening the characterization:
Memories, flashbacks, desires, dreams, fantasies, action,
description, and biography are some of the ways you can deepen
characterization.
5. Filling in or sharpening the sense details:
First drafts frequently are thin in texture because details are
lacking. You may see what you're imagining as you write, but can
your reader? Conversely, are there details that are not needed,
that slow down the momentum of your narrative without adding to its
meaningful texture? Connect details to the mood of your point of
view character.
6. Making greater use of the setting:
Where does your story take place? Why is it important for it to
happen in this particular place? What aspects of the setting can
be used to enhance character development and theme?
7. Sharpening the dialogue: Are
there significant conversations that could be developed, dialogue that
would convey tension and reveal character? Does your dialogue
mimick the rhythm of actual speech? Do your characters use
language appropriate to their age, class, ethnicity, gender,
etc.? Does their diction and syntax convey a sense of
individuality/personality?
8. Refining the style: Is
sentence structure smooth, polished, varied? Look for instances
of possible confusion in meaning and remedy them. Check
punctuation and spelling carefully. You might employ your
computer's grammar/spell check as a starting point, but do not depend
on it. Paragraph structure should also be scrutinized
carefully; look for paragraphs that are bloated, overextended, as well
as for those that look undernourished, incomplete.
9. Strengthening the sense of meaning/theme:
This is perhaps the most elusive of aspects. You may not discover
your story's meaning until the fourth or fifth draft. Once you've
discovered it, you can go over the story again and look for
opportunities to heighten that meaning and better prepare for the
ending.
10. Changing
the structure: Does your story begin in the right
place? Are there more effective ways to arrange scenes, to order
flashbacks? Experiment with moving paragraphs from one place to
another. The best structure may not be strictly
chronological. Is the proportion of summary/scene balanced in
favor of scene (it should be)? Are there summarized passages that
might work better as scenes or mini-scenes? Are there scenes or
portions of scenes that are sluggish and that could be more efficiently
summarized or even eliminated?