Readers decide in the first chapter. These are the 17 things that make them keep reading, one question each.
Answer honestly about your own first chapter and your score shows the moment you finish. Nothing is sent anywhere until you ask for the detailed results.
1. Would someone who read only your first paragraph want to read the next one?
2. Is something already happening in your first scene, before any setup or explanation?
3. Within the first few paragraphs, does the reader know whose story it is, where they are and roughly when?
4. Could your first chapter only have been written by you?
5. Does your main character come across as a specific person, with their own way of seeing and saying things, rather than someone who could be anyone?
6. By the end of your first chapter, could a reader say what your main character wants or needs?
7. Does your main character make at least one real choice in the first chapter?
8. Does the reader feel what your main character feels, from inside their head?
9. Could a reader say what your main character stands to lose?
10. In every scene, is something or someone pushing against what your character wants?
11. Does your first chapter leave the reader with a question they need answered, without hiding anything your character already knows?
12. When your character feels something strongly, does the reader see it in what they do and say, rather than being told the feeling?
13. Can the reader picture each scene, through details that feel chosen rather than listed?
14. Does every conversation in your first chapter have something at stake between the people talking?
15. Does your chapter move quickly through the ordinary and slow down for the big moments, with no backstory holding it up?
16. Could a reader get through your chapter without once stumbling over a sentence?
17. Does your chapter end with something that makes the reader want to read on?
0 of 17 answered. Your score shows when you have answered them all.