Can I write my protagonist’s rule for choosing as a short imperative, at the first large decision and at the last?
If the rule is the same at both, is that the book’s design (a steadfast or refused arc), and is the rule put under real pressure?
Is there a stretch of a quarter of the book or more in which my protagonist makes no decision?
The hinge
Can I name the decision at which the rule changes, and is it on the page, in scene, made by an act?
What does that decision give up that the old rule valued, and has the reader watched that cost grow?
Where is the new rule before the hinge: in another character, or in a moment my protagonist set aside?
After the hinge, does any decision go back to the old rule because the plot needed it?
The confirmation
Is the new rule confirmed by a situation the book has shown before, answered differently?
What about my protagonist is visibly unchanged at the end?
Have I deleted every sentence in which the character, or the narration, explains the change?
The theme
Can I put my book’s theme as a question, and not only as a topic or a thesis?
Does each major character’s rule answer that question, and do at least two answers differ?
Does the opposing answer succeed at least once, or cost my protagonist something to reject?
Who states the theme, where, and would the ending still argue it if the statement were cut?
Exercises
The criterion log. List your protagonist’s six largest decisions in order, with each one’s position as a percentage, the options, the choice, the rule as a short imperative and the cost. Read down the rule column and mark where it changes. If it never does, write a paragraph saying whether the book means that, and if it does not, find the decision that should be made on new grounds.
The answer map. Write your theme as a question at the top of a page. Beneath it, write each major character’s rule as an answer to it, in their own idiom. Mark the answer your book agrees with and the strongest answer it rejects; if the strongest rejected answer would not persuade an intelligent reader, rewrite the character who holds it.
The hinge without words. Rewrite your hinge scene so that the character says nothing about what has changed and the narration reports no realisation. Keep only what the character does and what it costs. If the scene no longer shows the change, the change was in the words, and the scene needs a different act.
The seed. Find the new rule’s first appearance before the hinge. If there is none, give it to another character, early, in a scene about something else, and let your protagonist dismiss it. Then check that the reader will remember it when the hinge comes and will not predict the hinge from it.
The repeated situation. Find a situation from the first third of your book that your protagonist could meet again after the hinge: a call not made, a door not opened, a question not asked. Write the later version, answered by the new rule, and keep one detail of manner or habit unchanged in both.