Story Checklist

1. There should be a point telling the story

2. The events in the story should be coherent. The dots should connect
3. Popular stories make us wish it was ours irrespective of either it’s good or bad, happy
or tragic
4. Inner conflict and outer conflict
5. Outer force posing threat to inner moral core of the protagonist
6. Logical VILLIAN, emotional HERO
7. Stakes
8. Conflict = Wants + Obstacles
9. Dilemma between Self and World
10. Choice between Good and Good not God and Evil
11. Subtext
12. Metaphor
13. Adrenaline should spike gradually as time passes and plot progress not decreasing
after exposition
14. The set-up or exposition should not take more than 1/3 of the story
15. Philosophy
16. Irony
17. P.O.V.
18. Life and Death situation
19. Quirks – Character traits
20. Flaw in the Protagonist or Characters
21. Expect the Unexpected
22. Realty Check
23. Subtleties
24. Hero’s Journey to a New World or New Situation
25. God vs Evil or Good vs Evil
26. Beat
27. Unrealistic Dream to get rid of the reality
28. A miserable character who gets a ray of hope
29. Refusal to Call
30. “What if” of the “What if”
31. Plan B
32. Explain your story in a tagline
33. Active Protagonist
34. Two Villains
35. Moral Of the Story
36. Character Dimension
37. Cause and Effect
38. Character’s core values or morals
39. Rhythm
40. A story everyone has lived or no one has ever lived or a story everyone want to live
41. Ups and down
42. There are only three stories
i. Good vs Evil
 ii. Boy meets Girl
iii. Boy becomes Man
43. Arch Plot, Anti-plot, Minimalist and Non-plot
44. Beginning, Middle and End
45. Consolation Prize
46. Character under Pressure
47. Three events at a time
48. Inciting Incident and Key Incident
49. Something Changes after the scene and also at the end of the story
50. Sub-Plots: Love Story, Hero’s Journey
51. Protagonist wants something. But the story doesn’t have to be about that
52. Problems and solutions
53. Real Human Emotions like colleague treating each other as family e.g. Fast and
Furious
54. Central Idea
55. Coincidence is cheating
56. The ticking clock
57. Present serious topic in funny way and funny topic in serious way
58. Character is Action
59. Pen Ultimate Climax
60. Build Tension
61. Stretch. Let the reader and viewer hang in the air. Don’t give them 4, give them 2+2
62. But. Therefore
63. Complication
64. Subplots as a metaphor of the main plot
65. Audience or readers should feel something for the characters either love, hate like
empathy, sympathy, etc. It doesn’t take more than three scenes
66. Remarkable character in a normal situation resulting attention from the Audience due
to interesting scenario
67. Fear of death – Future (Zombie, apocalypse, vampire, evil, etc.) and A Chance to
amend the past (Time Travel)
68. Worst Scenarios to Hero. Hope so
69. More threat, more danger, agony, more humiliation. By whom? Why?
70. Unknown Information. The error and blunder by the protagonist
71. What character (or characters) can act as catalysts that can alter and increase the
reactions of the antagonist or the protagonist
72. What relationships become threatened, broken or suddenly transformed?
73. Additional Conflict
74. Gender change of protagonist?
75. Creative ways to deliver the exposition?
76. Would my story be more interesting if it was told in a smaller window of time?
77. Would my protagonist be more interesting if they had a physical ailment or handicap?
78. Is this the story that I want to spend months of my life writing right now?
79. Use sub-plots for character depth and story authenticity
80. Narration or structure should be different or unique
81. Friends and enemies made on the quest
82. Protagonist should act and response to the situation or threat intellectually according
to their level to tackle the problems not just reacting to or according to it.
83. Give characters different emotions, feelings and scenarios throughout the story to
make them distinct and add depth.
84. Be the character. Think you are the character. Don’t just think you are the protagonist.
You are the villain, also the other supporting characters. Every character you create
switch between them, get into each one’s shoes. Act like the first one, then second and
third and so on. Write and act in the scene being each one, one at a time. And
remember every one of them he is the hero/protagonist
85. Different characters act differently to the same situation. What’s their attitude? What
their RESPONSE to a threat or topic?
86. A character must act verbally or physically irrespective of being remarkable or not
87. A character must answers or questions, accepts or rejects, agrees or disagrees,
motivates or demotivates, asks or suggests, respects or disrespects, supports or
condemns in a scene.
88. Building a Character
i. Past experiences
ii. Failures
iii. Occupation
iv. Intellectual level
v. Headassery
vi. Theories
vii. Maturity level
viii. Empathy level
ix. That extreme thing
x. Close mind about??
xi. Dreams
xii. Outlook on money
xiii. Things they do or say in a scene