Here’s a 10 point #writing checklist for new writers about to submit to #literaryagents in 2021:

1. Cut your work until it bleeds
2. Good writing doesn't need to shout at you- it lurks, unaware, & you fall under its spell

3. Characters have a life before & after the story ends
4.Power lies in what is not said.
5. If it feels obvious, it is.
6.There’s nothing wrong with simplicity; ordinariness is the danger area.
7. We read to learn, escape, be entertained, diverted, stimulated, empowered.

8.We read to live lives we can’t live and to help us understand those we don’t want to live.
9. A story that does all the work for us, leaves us no room to feel anything, is limited. Trust the reader to imagine the life after the novel.
10. Write because you cannot not write