"A passenger on a road journey is in the hands of a driver; a reader embarking on a book is in the hands of a narrator." (Romesh Gunesekera)

2. 1. Make a list of the primary characters in your book. Make a few notes
about each person’s essence—what you want the reader to remember
long after they finish reading.
2. Choose one scene in which we meet a major character. Where does that
first impression come from – what that person directly says or does, or
how someone else (including the narrator) describes them? If it’s not
currently active, what can change to let the person express themselves?
3. What is unique about your protagonist, that keeps them from being a
genre trope or stereotype?
4. What is the antagonist’s goal (if applicable)?
5. How does your protagonist demonstrate agency throughout the novel?
6. How does your protagonist change emotionally over the course of the
book?
7. Does each secondary character serve a unique role?

3. “A passenger on a road journey is in the hands of a driver; a
reader embarking on a book is in the hands of a narrator.”
(Romesh Gunesekera)

8. “Today I'm five. I was four last
night going to sleep in Wardrobe,
but when I wake up in Bed in the
dark I'm changed to five,
abracadabra. Before that I was
three, then two, then one, then
zero.
"Was I minus numbers?"
"Hmm?" Ma does a big stretch.
"Up in Heaven. Was I minus one,
minus two, minus three — ?"
"Nah, the numbers didn't start till
you zoomed down."
"Through Skylight. You were all
sad till I happened in your
tummy."

9.  Does the first-person perspective carry through every
description and every encounter?

10.  Does the first-person perspective carry through every
description and every encounter?
 Is the narrator physically present for everything
important in the plot?

11.  Does the first-person perspective carry through every
description and every encounter?
 Is the narrator physically present for everything
important in the plot?
 At what point in the narrator’s life are they telling this
story, and are their observations and knowledge
consistent with that?

13. He forgets his own name somewhere in
the tunnel to Penn Station. He doesn’t
notice, at first. Too busy with all the
stuff people usually do when they’re
about to reach their train stop: cleaning
up the pretzel bags and plastic bottles of
breakfast, stuffing his loose laptop
power cord into a pocket of his
messenger bag, making sure he’s gotten
his suitcase down from the rack, then
having a momentary panic attack
before remembering that he’s only got
one suitcase. The other was shipped
ahead and will be waiting for him at his
apartment up in Inwood, where his
roommate already is, having arrived a
few weeks before. They’re both going to
be grad students at—
—at, uh—
—huh. He’s forgotten his school’s name.
Anyway, orientation is on Thursday,
which gives him five days to get settled
into his new life in New York.

14.  Does the narrator have their own personality
or presence that directly affects the way they
tell the story--and if so, do I understand
why?

15. One single really bad idea. That's all it takes.
One morning, for instance, a thirty-nine-
year-old resident of a not particularly large or
noteworthy town left home clutching a pistol,
and that was — in hindsight — a really stupid
idea. Because this is a story about a hostage
drama, but that wasn't the intention. That is to
say, it was the intention that it should be a
story, but it wasn't the intention that it should
be about a hostage drama. It was supposed to
be about a bank robbery. But everything got a
bit messed up, because sometimes that
happens with bank robberies.
So the thirty-nine-year-old bank robber fled,
but with no escape plan, and the thing about
escape plans is just like what the bank robber's
mom always said years ago, when the bank
robber forgot the ice cubes and slices of lemon
in the kitchen and had to run back: “If your
head isn't up to the job, your legs better be!” (It
should be noted that when she died, the bank
robber's mom consisted of so much gin and
tonic that they didn't dare cremate her because
of the risk of explosion, but that doesn't mean
she didn't have good advice to offer.)

16.  Does the narrator have their own personality
or presence that directly affects the way they
tell the story--and if so, do I understand
why?
 Does the narrator’s style and language fit the
book?

17.  Does the narrator have their own personality
or presence that directly affects the way they
tell the story--and if so, do I understand
why?
 Does the narrator’s style and language fit the
book?
 Is the voice consistent?

19.  Objective Narrator

20.  Objective Narrator
OR
 Omniscient Narrator
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good
fortune, must be in want of a wife…”

21.  Objective Narrator
OR
 Omniscient Narrator
OR
 Limited (or close) Narrator

23.  Are they consistent throughout?

24.  Are they consistent throughout?
 If it is limited, is each scene filtered through
what that character knows?

25.  Are they consistent throughout?
 If it is limited, is each scene filtered through
what that character knows?
 Is each scene written from only one POV, and
is it the one that has the most at stake?

26.  Are they consistent throughout?
 If it is limited, is each scene filtered through
what that character knows?
 Is each scene written from only one POV, and
is it the one that has the most at stake?
 Is each POV character necessary to the story
and the theme?

27. “There's something uniquely exhilarating about puzzling together the truth at the
hands of an unreliable narrator.”
- Maria Semple

28. Head-hopping is what happens to the reader when a writer,
without warning, changes viewpoint character or POV.

29. Who narrates your novel?

30. First Person Narration:
1. At what point in their life are they telling this
story?
2. Does the story consistently stay within the
narrator's perspective, revealing only what they
experience? If it slips away, what can you do to
bring it back?
3. Are there scenes, or even descriptions within
scenes, where the narrator’s perspective is not
consistent with the character descriptions you
wrote in Lesson 2?

31. Third Person Narration:
1. Does the narrator have an intentional presence and voice in
the storytelling, distinct from the characters, and if so, why?
What do they add to the reader’s experience?
2. Is the narrator omniscient, limited, multiple limited, or
something else? Are there any places where that voice is
inconsistent? What can you do to change those?

32. If there is a single POV (first or third person) through the novel:
 Is there anywhere that the narration strays from the character's
perspective? Do we see things that they cannot know or see? Does the
narrator use words that the person would not use in their normal life? If
so, what can you do to change those?
If you have multiple POVs:
 Make a list of each character whose POV appears in the novel. Are all of
the POVs major characters (protagonists and/or antagonists)? Does each
protagonist have their own arc of plot, with a conflict and resolution?
 If there are scenes that follow the POVs of secondary characters or
strangers, can you cut them, or revise to rewrite from a major
character’s POV?
 Are there any characters whose POV doesn’t start until the second half
of the book? If so, can you modify to bring their perspective to the
reader sooner, or cut their POV completely and show those scenes
through someone else’s eyes?

33. For everyone:
Take one scene from the middle of your work
in progress (or just one paragraph) and edit it
to deepen the narrator’s presence and
perspective. Think about the choice of words
your narrator uses, or the specific things they
notice. How does it change what the reader
sees and understands (and even feels)?

34. Next Class: April 20, 2024
1:00 – 4:00pm
bethjusino@gmail.com