The Questions You Need to Ask Yourself About Your Book

As a neurodivergent writer, one of the weirdest and most creepy things I do is walk around the house having whispered conversations with myself. It’s constant. This never-ending dialogue doesn’t give up and it can be about anything and everything. 

Sometimes it’s my characters playing out a scene… sometimes it’s rehearsing a conversation I might have in the future… or have already had and feel I should’ve articulated better. Most of the time I’m interviewing myself, asking about the rationale behind decisions I made in my various narratives.

The self-interview is a very useful exercise. As a writer you’re creating something that others will hopefully one day consume. Whatever you choose to do to your characters, you should have a ready answer for the inevitable questions that will spring up on social media, on your Discord server, or during an author event.

What do I mean by a self-interview?

I mean exactly that. Imagine you’re being asked questions, and think about the answers you would give. Usually one answer leads to the next question and the more you answer the more you’ll work out what you’re doing and why.

If you haven’t done this before, and you’re not prone to wandering around nattering to yourself, there are some starting points that can spark the flow. For the sake of my sanity I shall call “character”, Gary, and I shall invent a scenario.

So, why did you decide that Gary should accidentally kill Rachel in the battle?

All too often I see writers throwing their characters into horrible situations, or outright traumatising them, for no reason other than to add drama to the plot. However, it can be difficult to spot when you’re doing this yourself. So, ask yourself the question: why did Gary have to kill Rachel?

If the answer is: because that’s just what happens next… you need to work on your story, your answer, or both. Your authorial choices count and every significant action should either be a prelude or a finale to surrounding action. 

If the answer is: because Rachel was in the way and I needed her gone and killing her was the best way to achieve that while motivating Gary to go on his rampage… you should probably check your sexist tropes and your next question should be: 

Is there another way to get rid of Rachel that allows her to have ongoing agency, just not in the vicinity of Gary and his story arc?

A great way to do this is to have a moment when Gary and Rachel face a fork in the road. Should they go one way, or the other? Well, Rachel can go in one direction and Gary can go on his merry way and we can assume Rachel is off doing exciting things and not dead. 

For the love of all things sacred, think carefully before you make that fork: well someone’s got to stay at home, love, and it’s going to be you.

Because: F**k. You. Gary.

The next question is very important:

Why did Gary react the way he did?

It is vital to follow-up a traumatic event with adequate reactions. If you ask yourself this question and there is no answer, that can mean there is no reaction, which says a lot about what’s missing in your book. Make sure there is a reaction and ask yourself if it’s right for the character and enough to support the level of trauma you applied.

If Gary accidentally killed Rachel and then went on a killing spree… why? Is it enough to pin that level of violence on grief? Is there more to it than that? Is the violence a form of compensation for Gary’s multiple failings? Or is he actually villainous, consciously or subconsciously using his grief to mask the fact that he actually enjoys violence… which calls into question the accidental nature of Rachel’s death in the first place.

What was it that you were getting at when you wrote that arc?

How did Gary get into that situation in the first place?

So Gary was a soldier? A skilled soldier? Is his accidental killing of Rachel a comment on the chaos of battle and the fact that inevitably soldiers would have killed people on their own side out of sheer panic? Is this a point you’re making in contrast to the various depictions of warfare on TV and in movies where this never happens?

Or is it that you wanted to shock people? You needed to show the stakes and Rachel was your sacrificial lamb? That’s fine, we all kill-off the odd red-shirt, but this does raise another important question:

Are you “fridging” her, or is she a “sexy lamp”?

Check out these specific tropes and all the others, because at some point you’ll have to face the reviewers and the critics, and even if you did fridge Rachel you should know what you did and be prepared to admit it.

So moving on…

How was that event significant to the conclusion of the novel?

If it’s a big event, the ripples should be felt throughout. Perhaps you’ve got the trauma going only so far and then you drop those reactions before they should be dropped. This exercise helps to pinpoint those threads. Pick them up again and perhaps refer back to the incident in the conclusion. It was a big deal so don’t just let it… disappear.

Finally:

What were your intentions behind the events in your novel?

Go through them one by one. 

• Why are those events there? 

• What did they achieve in the narrative?

• What did you hope to inspire in the reader’s mind?

Once you answer these questions you can look at your book and ask yourself…

• Did I achieve what I set out to do?

*

This exercise is invaluable. Think of good questions to ask yourself and pin them to the wall in the bathroom. Quiz yourself while you’re in the shower or on the loo. Whenever you have a moment to yourself and a bit of time to chew on the truth. 

Some of the answers won’t be easy. Be prepared to admit some shortcomings. Maybe you are guilty of a sexist trope. Maybe you did something for shock value alone. This is the time to look yourself in the eye like an interviewer on a stage in front of a crowd of critics who have studied every word.

Personally I’ve made a lot of dubious and even controversial decisions in my work. Some people reading or listening to The Dex Legacy will see problematic content left and right. The important thing is: if they challenge me I have the answers, and I only have the answers because I asked myself the questions.