Appendix F — Test Index — Core · The Craft Behind the Story

Every chapter turns its account of a unit into diagnostic tests. Each test asks a question of a draft, explains what a failure usually means, and gives a published exception in which the work fails the test but succeeds. This appendix lists every chapter’s tests in the order of the chapters, with the question each asks, so that a writer can see a chapter’s tests at once and compare tests across the book. The chapter title above each list links to that chapter’s tests, where each test’s usual failure and its exception are given.

Elsewhere the book cites a test by its number within a chapter, as in test 3 (Withholder) of The Reveal (Chapter 15), and gives its name after the number so that it can be recognised without looking it up. The tests are for revision, and each chapter’s page says in what order to run them and how to read their results together.

The Purposes of a Scene (Chapter 1)

#	Test	The question
1	Want	What does the viewpoint character want in this scene, right now, in one sentence?
2	Resistance	Complete: “___ wants *, and* is in the way.” What did getting it cost?
3	Value shift	What is true at the start that is no longer true at the close, in two parallel sentences?
4	Extraction	Remove the scene. What would the reader fail to learn, feel or expect, and which later scene becomes unearned?
5	Domain count	Which domains does the scene serve, as distinct from occupy?
6	Redundancy	Has the reader already received this shift?
7	Summary substitution	Rewrite the scene as three sentences of summary. What is lost?
8	Entry and exit	Does the scene start as late and end as early as it can?
9	Pressure	Does information arrive under pressure, or is it delivered?
10	Register	Is the story due for an action unit or a reflective one, and which is this?

Scene and Sequel (Chapter 2)

#	Test	The question
1	Goal	What does the viewpoint character want at the start of this unit, in one sentence with a verb of pursuit and an object?
2	Descent	Which decision produced that goal, and can I point to the sentence?
3	Disaster	Can I state how the unit ends in a sentence containing but or worse?
4	Cost	What did the character pay, and in what currency (time, money, trust, an ally, a self-image)?
5	Chain	Written as bare events, would each of three links still have happened without the one before it?
6	Three connectives	Outlined with only and then, but and therefore, how many and thens are there?
7	Dilemma	Can I state each option’s cost in one sentence, and would a sympathetic reader disagree with the choice?
8	Criterion	At which decision would the protagonist’s earlier self have chosen differently, and what changed?
9	Reversibility	Could the character drop this decision between chapters at no cost?
10	Beat weight	Does each beat’s page-space follow its weight in the story?

The Dialogue Exchange (Chapter 3)

#	Test	The question
1	Removal	Replace the exchange with one written line of summary. What is lost?
2	Want	What does each speaker want from the other before this ends, in one sentence each?
3	Status	Who holds the upper hand at the first line and at the last, and was it contested?
4	Cost	What does each disclosure cost the person making it?
5	Silence	What does each speaker choose not to say, and who else is in the room?
6	Implicature	Is each turn what was called for? Where it is not, what does the departure imply?
7	Transcript	Strip every tag and action beat and read aloud. Can you tell who is speaking?
8	Substitution	Could another named character say the exchange’s three best lines?
9	Attribution	How many turns carry a tag, how many tags are not said or asked, and what do the action beats do besides identify?
10	Interruption	Who takes the floor from whom, and where do interruptions cluster?

The Descriptive Detail (Chapter 4)

#	Test	The question
1	Removal	Cut the detail. What does the reader no longer know, feel or anticipate?
2	Denotation and connotation	Write one sentence on what it shows and one on what it implies.
3	Genericness	Would it be equally true of another place of this kind in another book?
4	Substitution	Replace it with two other true things. Do they imply different books?
5	Focalisation	Whose attention selected it, and does the selection reveal them?
6	Plausibility of attention	Would this person, wanting what she wants, in her present state, notice this?
7	Recurrence	Where else does the object appear, and what has changed each time?
8	Count	How many discrete details, and how many do you want kept?
9	Modifiers and senses	(a) Count modifiers per noun. (b) Tally details by sense.
10	Inventory	Shuffle the details. Then complete: these details, and not others, because ….

The Transition (Chapter 5)

#	Test	The question
1	Anchor	Read cold: at what word can you say when, where and whose vantage? Is any delay doing something?
2	Dimension count	How many of time, space, protagonist, causality and intentionality change?
3	Launch	What does the last sentence before the gap do for the far side?
4	Technique fit	Which technique is this, and was it chosen or defaulted to?
5	Momentum	At what word does the new unit’s own business begin?
6	Gap content	Write in one sentence what happens inside the gap. Will the reader need it?
7	Redundancy	Is the reader oriented more than once?
8	Simultaneity	Does the reader know whether this unit comes after the last one or alongside it?
9	Echo	Could the join do a second job, and if it does one, will a first-time reader notice?
10	Consistency	Across the manuscript, does the technique vary with the gap?

The Chapter Break (Chapter 6)

#	Test	The question
1	Proposition	Can I state in one sentence the question this chapter raised near its start? Can I write its heading, In which…?
2	Payoff	Does the ending resolve, escalate, hold open, recast or exchange that proposition?
3	Permission	Is stopping here free, moderate or expensive, and why that price at this point?
4	Stopped reader	Close the file for ten minutes, then write what happened, what is open, what you want and how you feel.
5	Placement	Moved one beat earlier and one later, can I say why the present position is right?
6	Proportion	Does this chapter’s length match its weight in the book?
7	Variety	Across eleven consecutive chapters, are the ending types and lengths chosen or defaulted to?
8	Re-entry	How many words does the next chapter spend before its own business begins?
9	Container	Is this one chapter, or two not yet separated, or one cut in half?
10	Architecture	Reading only the headings, Part titles and first and last sentences, is the book’s shape legible?

Backstory and Flashback (Chapter 7)

#	Test	The question
1	Momentum	What present question is the reader waiting on when the cutaway begins, and how hard is she pressing: low, moderate or at its peak?
2	Register	Run the compression check: keep the scene, keep the sentence, or keep neither?
3	Removal	Cut it and read the surrounding twenty pages: what is lost, and in which domain?
4	Trigger	Is the departure motivated by something in the present, and if not, can this narration afford to go without one?
5	Return	Cover the cutaway and read the sentence before it against the sentence after: does the present resume, or has it changed?
6	Reach and extent	How far back, and how much time covered, and are they in proportion to what it delivers?
7	Chronology	Could a reader at this point write the events in the order they happened? Ask one, and compare with yours.
8	Placement	Name three other places this cutaway could go: would it cost less, and recolour more, at any of them?
9	Completing or repeating	Is it filling a gap the reader knew was there, or returning to material already told, and if so, what does this pass add?
10	Proportion	How much of the book is in the past, and does its declared structure acknowledge that?

Non-linear and Multi-timeline Architecture (Chapter 8)

#	Test	The question
1	Necessity	Retold in story order, in a page of summary, what would the book lose?
2	Strand question	Can each strand’s question be written in a line, and do the other strands’ pages leave it open?
3	Orientation	Within its first two sentences, does each instalment tell the reader which time she is in?
4	Interval	Does the reader know how far apart the strands stand, and does the distance change or hold for a reason?
5	Rate	Do the strands move at different rates, and does a crossing show the difference?
6	Switch	Is each strand left on an open question and entered at a point that pays at once?
7	Convergence	Where the strands meet, does the meeting change what at least one of them meant?
8	Withholding	Does the arrangement withhold anything, and is there a reason in the book besides the order?

The Opening Pages (Chapter 9)

#	Test	The question
1	Contract	Can you point to the words that open each contract within the first two pages?
2	Scene	Can you complete “In these pages, X is trying to *, and* is in the way”?
3	Momentum	Within the first page, does something change or does someone want something, and after how many words?
4	Voice	Could the first paragraph move into another novel, of another genre, unnoticed?
5	Zero context	Given only the first two pages, can a reader say who, where and when, what kind of book, and what she wants to know?
6	Promise	Do pages 30 to 40 belong to the same book as the opening, in tone, pace and stakes?
7	Inventory	Of the details placed in the first two pages, which are redeemed later?
8	Density	Read aloud: where does the breath fail, or a listener ask what is happening?
9	Form	On what page does the reader learn the book’s structural rules: viewpoints, timelines, apparatus?
10	Abandonment	At which sentence would an indifferent reader stop?

The Prologue (Chapter 10)

#	Test	The question
1	Higher bar	Can you complete “This must sit outside the main narrative because…” with an impossibility, not a preference?
2	Absorption	Write the material into Chapter One, then cut it entirely: what breaks each time?
3	Label	Would anything change if the prologue were headed Chapter One?
4	Axis	Which of time, place, viewpoint and register carries the load, if any?
5	Register	Rewritten in Chapter One’s voice, does the material survive, go flat, or become impossible?
6	Closing	For each element the prologue opens, on what page does the book next touch it?
7	Plants	Which specifics recur, once or more, and which never?
8	Skip	Can a reader who starts at Chapter One follow the whole book, and what does she lose?
9	Genre contract	Do the prologue, pages 40 to 60 and the last chapter share pitch, pace, mode and scale?

The Middle (Chapter 11)

#	Test	The question
1	Value-shift log	Do neighbouring sequences repeat both the shift and the stakes?
2	Option list	Does the list shrink between the end of the beginning, the midpoint and the start of the ending, and does each shrinkage have a cause on the page?
3	Reorder	Swap two sequences in the summary: does anything break?
4	Midpoint	What is different near the centre in the protagonist’s goal, knowledge, mode or fortune?
5	Opposition	In each quarter of the middle, does the opposing force act, on the page or through a consequence the protagonist feels?
6	Clock	Is there a deadline or limit, does the protagonist know it, and does the time left shorten visibly?
7	Cut	Delete the weakest sequence of the middle and reread the ending: what has the ending lost?
8	Question	What question is the reader carrying at 40 per cent and at 60 per cent?

Arc and Theme (Chapter 12)

#	Test	The question
1	Criterion	Is the rule behind the last large decision different from the rule behind the first, and if not, does the book mean it to be the same?
2	Hinge	At which decision does the rule change, and is that decision on the page, made by an act?
3	Price	What does the decision at the hinge cost under the old rule, and has the reader seen that cost grow?
4	Seed	Where is the new rule in the book before the hinge, held by another character or glimpsed and set aside?
5	Constant	What about the character is visibly unchanged at the end?
6	Enactment	Is the new rule confirmed after the hinge by a situation the book has shown before, answered differently?
7	Question	Can the theme be put as a question to which two or more of the book’s decisions give different answers?
8	Answers	On the answer map, does the opposition hold an answer the book lets succeed, or makes costly to defeat?

The Viewpoint Shift (Chapter 13)

#	Test	The question
1	Necessity	Could report, inference, reassignment, document or ellipsis carry this vantage’s scenes, and what would be lost?
2	Domain	Which domains does the grant serve, with a passage as evidence for each?
3	Investment	Before the first grant, can the reader say what this character wants?
4	Distinguishability	Swap two hundred words between two vantages, changing only the names: could a reader tell?
5	Page-share	What share of the book does each vantage hold, in how many sections, from when, with what longest gap?
6	Declaration	On what page does the reader learn the book has more than one vantage, and is it before her first deep investment?
7	Late grant	Does the payoff cover formal surprise, attention withdrawal and cold start?
8	Knowledge boundary	Does the vantage know only what it could know?
9	Scene integrity	Inside a continuous scene, does the narration stay with one mind, and if not, has the book established the right to move?
10	Character compression	For each named character with no viewpoint: how many scenes, whose explanation of her motives, what repeated tag?

The Subplot (Chapter 14)

#	Test	The question
1	Engine	Can I state the thread’s goal, conflict and consequence in three sentences without mentioning the protagonist’s goal?
2	Kernel	At each of its four or five chief moments, could the thread have gone another way?
3	Tax	What does it supply that the main plot cannot by its nature?
4	Analogy	What does it say about the main plot, and what would be lost if it were not said?
5	Convergence	At what point would deleting it break the main plot’s logic, not merely thin it?
6	Proportion	Are its pages proportional to its functions, and to its weight in the reader’s experience?
7	Page-share	What share of the book does each thread hold, and does the distribution match the book I think I wrote?
8	Dormancy	What is the longest gap between appearances, and what does resumption cost?
9	Removal	Cut it on the outline: what is lost, in which domain, and does the loss exceed the pages recovered?
10	Promotion	Would the book be better if this thread were the main plot?

The Reveal (Chapter 15)

#	Test	The question
1	Double reading	Does every passage bearing on the reveal support both a first and a second reading?
2	Teller	Is every passage the reveal falsifies inside the account of a teller whom the reveal names and whose motive it explains?
3	Withholder	What keeps the truth from the reader until the disclosure, and can the reader see it, at the latest when the reveal comes?
4	Alignment	Does the reader learn each fact with, ahead of or after the characters, and is that the alignment the scene needs?
5	Successor	For a reveal before the end, what question replaces the one it answers, and is it as strong?
6	Consequence	Does any character act differently because of the reveal, or does the ending mean something it would not otherwise?
7	Recognition	Is the truth received by a character, in scene, in an act, or delivered as information?
8	Source	Does the disclosure come from inside the book’s causal system?

The Ending (Chapter 16)

#	Test	The question
1	Retroactive	Reread five early scenes chosen at random: what has the ending made of each?
2	Plant audit	List what the ending rests on and trace each item to its first appearance: does anything load-bearing appear first in the ending?
3	Earned	Complete the situation is resolved because…: is the blank inside the book’s causal system?
4	Inevitability	Can a first-time reader predict the end thirty pages out, and can a finished reader build an alternative as good?
5	Domain	Which domains does the ending deliver, which does it gesture at, which does it refuse, and does the distribution suit the book’s mode?
6	Proportion	What share of the book follows the climax, does each thread’s resolution match the space it took, and how far does the book run past its last decision?
7	Termination	Ask a reader of the last two pages whether anything comes after, and what told them.
8	Tonal match	Read the last page against three passages from the middle third: are they the same book?
9	Reread	Reread three passages the ending changes: do they now yield more?
10	Last line	Could the book end on the paragraph before the last without loss?

Series and Genre (Chapter 17)

#	Test	The question
1	Shelf	Where would a reader of the first chapter shelve the book, and does the last chapter belong on the same shelf?
2	Core promise	Does the book keep the core promise of the genre its opening declares?
3	Declared decline	For each declined convention, is the decline shown inside the book within the first quarter, and replaced by a promise the book keeps?
4	Variation	Does the book vary at least one convention, and is its meaning in the variation?
5	Volume question	Can the volume’s question be written in a line, and is it closed inside the volume?
6	Series step	What step does each volume take on the series question, and can a reader name it?
7	Re-entry	Can a reader who finished the last volume a year ago, and one who never read it, both follow the first chapter?
8	Criterion across volumes	Is the hero’s criterion where the last volume left it, and if it has moved, does the volume show the move?

The Structural Edit (Chapter 18)

#	Test	The question
1	Map	Is there a book map built from the draft, with the change column filled for every row?
2	Promise	Can the promise and the governing question be written in two sentences, and do the first and last chapters answer to them?
3	Rung-up	For each failure on the edit list, has the rung above been checked for its cause?
4	Reopen	For each repair, are the tests it reopens listed, and have they been rerun?
5	Economy	Does each repair answer at least as many notes as it reopens tests, and does the edit cut or move more than it adds?
6	Opening last	Were the opening pages and the last page revised after rungs 1 to 3 had settled?
7	Stop	Does a cold read produce notes that do not cluster above rung 5, and is every kept failure defended in a sentence?

The Craft Behind the Story — Appendix F, Test Index. Introduction · Glossary