Wondering “is my story bad”? You’ve written your manuscript, but something feels off—and you can’t pinpoint exactly what’s making readers lose interest or agents reject it.

Stop second-guessing every chapter, wondering if your pacing drags or your characters work, or getting vague feedback that your story “just doesn’t work” without understanding why. This comprehensive checklist identifies the most common pitfalls that sink manuscripts, giving you a concrete diagnostic tool to catch problems before they ruin your story.

Whether you’re mid-draft and feeling uncertain or revising a completed manuscript that isn’t working, this checklist helps you identify specific issues—from info dumps and deus ex machina to boring transitions and unresolved subplots—so you can fix them with confidence.

What you’ll catch:

• Pacing and structure problems—info dumps, boring parts, unnecessary backstories, transition scenes that kill momentum, and promises you make but never deliver
• Plot and logic failures—convenient solutions, skills that appear from nowhere, plans that go exactly as described, and problems resolved by coincidence instead of character action
• Character development mistakes—too many or too few characters, generic descriptions, perfect protagonists, fanboy friends who exist only to praise your hero, and romantic interests with no actual personality
• Dialogue issues—characters explaining what readers already know, telling each other secrets in public, and lacking distinctive voices
• Technical consistency—point of view shifts, tense changes, location confusion, and magic systems without internal logic

Perfect for:

• Writers mid-draft who feel uncertain whether their story is working
• Novelists revising manuscripts and needing to diagnose specific problems
• Authors who’ve received rejection feedback but don’t know what’s actually wrong
• Anyone who wants to catch story-killing mistakes before readers do

Just a practical checklist for avoiding the pitfalls that sink stories. Run through the questions, identify what’s broken, and fix it before you send your manuscript out into the world.
PDF format. 3 pages. Instant download.

Catch the problems that kill stories before it’s too late.

This post Is My Story Bad? How Not To Write A Book first appeared on Writing Prizes and is written by adminprincess