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00:01 1. Is my character's want clear enough? 2. Are the stakes obvious enough? 3. Are the stakes high enough? 4. How hard is your character actually trying? 5. Is your character emotionally affected by the plot? 03:30 6. Are you using all the four elements - dialog, action, description, inner monologue? 7. Are you using all 5 senses when describing? 8. Do you have enough moments of reflection? 9. Is your character changing? 10. Does your character have enough people to interact with? 07:05 11. Are there enough twists and turns? 12. Do you have enough subtext? 13. Do you have enough contrast? 14. Does every scene affect the story? 15. Is the writing clear enough? 10:25 16. Is the tension increasing? 17. Are you lacking mystery and secrets? 18. Do you need a ticking clock? 19. Can you remember every scene in your book by heart, in order? 20. Are you bored of writing it?

Great video! You're touching on my greatest fear, that my stories won't be interesting. It all goes back to when I was a kid writing my Lunar Utopia stories about happy people living in a paradise on the moon. I didn't understand the importance of conflict back then. I was just writing about happy people hanging out with their friends and enjoying their lives. My friends told me they were so bored reading it. LOL. Luckily, I've learned a lot since then.

Interesting Characters is my answer. Great video, Ben.

I loved all of these, very much something to think about when going through your work. I loved the one about remembering scenes, I usually can't until I've read it a few times, but then it becomes clearer about what's needed and the like!

Excellent questions. I wish this video had come up in my feed sooner.

Yo awesome video man! These tips are soo useful! Sometimes it's just really good to have a baseline/questions to ask yourself to see if what your writing is actually interesting, or if you're just kind of wasting your time.

Thank you for these great questions, Ben! I wrote them all down. I can't think of anything to add. Number 16 is something I need to take a closer look at in my writing. The tension increases naturally in the way the story unfolds but I want to make sure it's really on the page and not just in my head. And number 19 has challenged me to see if I can make a list of my scenes in order from memory. It will be hard because I've restructured it but it's also important for the same reason.

Very good video, I think this can help a lot of people. Sound and smell as a descriptor is a good one I could probably utilize more. And you bring up a good point with recalling your scenes from memory. However, this can be very tricky with a longer book, especially one with a semi-complex plot line and numerous characters. In that case, I think it's easier to follow the scenes in order by character then see if you remember that way :) But the point still holds, and I think it's quite valid. As for your question, I like to integrate comedy and emotion to make the story more interesting. Taking a risk with silly/funny scenes, then following up with deeper, relatable moments draw me in as a reader, so I try to do the same. Of course, fighting/action scenes are important too, but I suppose the importance of that will vary by genre. EDIT: I have a bad habit of reading my comments later on, then fixing tiny grammatical errors. I can't seem to notice the errors until it's final and posted. Even then, I'm no editor and I know it's no big deal :P