It’s not unknown for me to reach a point in a story when I experience a familiar chill of self-doubt drifting around my neck like a winter’s mist. It might be about a particular passage, a chapter or even an important scene. Have I made the characters real enough? Do they have credibility enough to jump off the page or are they paper-thin and unconvincing? Is there sufficient depth to the storyline? Is such-and-such a scene necessary and does it carry weight?
Occasionally, there might be concern about the overall balance of the story. Is there too much emphasis on one particular character at the expense of another? (This question is more important if writing a series with a key ‘player’. Readers who follow the series because of the ‘headliner’ will expect them to take the lion’s share, not be side-lined.) Other questions might be, have I dwelt too much on one scene, simply because it was easy to write? Is there too much of a gap between appearances of one or more of the leading characters, good or bad? If so, how do I correct this?