Cheat Sheet Part 1

Character

Do your characters have desires?

Are your characters distinctive enough not to be types?

Do your characters have contrasting traits that make them complex?

Are your characters consistent despite their contrasting traits?

Do your characters have the ability to change?

Do you know your characters well enough?

Are the right character "round" or are they ''flat"?

Are you showing your characters more than telling about them?

Are you utilizing all four methods of showing---action, speech, appearance, thought?

Do your characters have the right names?

Plot

Do you have a major dramatic question?

Do you have a protagonist with a goal and plenty of obstacles?

Do you have a beginning, middle, and end?

Does your conflict escalate?

Are the events of your middle linked by cause and effect?

Do you have crisis, climax, and consequences at the end?

Is your ending plausible, satisfying, and not too long?

Point of View

Does your story work best in first, second, or third person?

Does your story work best with a single-vision or multiple-vision POV?

Is there any reason your story might work best with the omniscient or objective POV?

If you are using second or third person narrator, how close is the narrator to the characters emotionally?

Are you keeping the POV consistent?

Description

Are your descriptions utilizing all five senses?

Are tour descriptions specific enough?

Are you overusing adjectives or adverbs?

Are you using figurative language and lyrical techniques where appropriate?

Are your descriptions overdone, choking your story?

Are you using telling details?

Are you watching out for such description traps such as cliches and mixed metaphors?

Do your descriptions reflect the consciousness of your POV character or characters?

Dialogue

Are you using dialogue and scenes for the more important points in the story?

Does your dialogue sound real yet also get the point quickly?

Do your tags call too much attention to themselves?

Do you characters sound distinctive from one another and appropriate to who they are?

Is there anywhere your dialogue can be improved by using subtext?

Does your dialogue contain clunky exposition or off-putting dialect?

Setting/Pacing
- Have you grounded your story in a specific place, or places?
- Have you grounded your story in a specific time, or times?
- Do the place and time of your story affect the action?
- Are there opportunities to let the setting enhance the atmosphere or mood?
- Do your characters act in a way that reflects either their comfort or discomfort with their setting?
- Are you describing your settings so much that they slow down the action?
- Have you chosen the right places either to expand to expand or to compress time?


Voice
-Have you picked a voice that works in harmony with your POV choice, the personality of your narrator, and the narrator's emotional distance to the story?
- Do your word, sentence, and paragraph choices support your voice?
- Do your voice remain consistent throughout the story?


Theme
- Have you identified a theme for your story?
- Does your theme surrond your story with a light enough touch?
- Do all the elements of your story work to support the theme?

Revision
- Have you gotten enough distance from your story to begin the revision process?
- Have you considered reenvisioning your story?
- Have you looked through a magnifying glass at all the Big Things in your story?
- Have you looked through a microscope at all the Little Things in your story?
- Have you cut and tweaked as much as you possibly can?

Character
Yes, the characters have desire, they all have feeling thoughts, want things, and think for themselves. Every character is its own mind that thinks and acts for himself/herself. Some characters get along while other fight depending on the situation. The contrasting traits seem to vary depending on the topic they are talking about and their personal views on the situation. In the story the reader meet the characters well enough, also the characters are able to change their minds as any other human in today's world. Yes the characters that a round, are well develop for a successful purpose in the story. Also the less important characters are flat, other wise the story will seem to force too much information together. Yes, the names are right along with the mastery created by the characters that to not posses a name.
Plot
As I read the story i was puzzled that they were together, the husband seemed mean and inconsiderate. This story is simply a narration of moment in someone's life, it doesn't have a protagonist facing multiple obstacles. The women, who I believe is the main character has external problems, she seems to argue with her husband over having the blind man over their house. The format of the story sometimes feel that is a little detailed, however as the story puts it's self together delightfully. As the story seems to get going the conflict decreases as the husband begins to socialize with the blind man.
Point of View
The narrator of the story works fine as the narrator seem to change position. First he tells the story of a women in second person, then the situation changes as they get married and he becomes involved in the story as first person. I like the story on single vision, it meets the soul purpose of one mind rather than jumping around. By changing the narrator the story line, in my opinion, will become weaker since the person wont seem that much closer to what's going on, or related to the problems.

The characters in this story is the Blind man, Robert and Robert's wife.


The plot of this story is that Robert wife is needed for money, therefore one day she saw the newspaper and she an article that said "HELP WANTED- Reading to Blind Man". A few days later she was hired, she work with the Blind Man, which they became good friends. She would tell everything to the Blind Man. One day the Blind Man came to her house to sleep over. The Blind Man was going to get married in the summer, but his wife died. That night they chat, they ate they if there were no tomorrow, and they watched television.

CHARACTER
- The characters do have desires in this story. At the beginning the narrator didn't really want anything, he didn't want the old blind men in his house because he didn\'t know him, he didn't like his job or in fact he even seemed mean. But towards the end of the story the narrator began to take interests in different things. Like he began to get closer to the blind men.
- Yes, every character is different. They all have their own personalities and their own goals. They don\'t wait for someone else to tell them what to do. They are indeed their own characters.
- Yes every character has his or her own opinion. At the beginning of the story the narrator didn\'t like the idea of having a strange man that he didn\'t know in his house.
- Yes the characters are persistent. because the women in the story was persistent enough to have her husband be okay with having the old man in her house. also the old man kept on trying to have a conversation with the narrator, and he kept on trying until he succeeded.
- Characters do have the ability to change. because at the beginning the narrator didn\'t like the old man. he like ignored him and barley spoke to him. but at the end they grew closer by drawing the picture of the cathedral.
- the story describes each character in some point which then makes you get to know the character.
- Yes the characters that are round are round, and the characters that are flat were flat. The three main characters were given a personality, while the other characters were just mentioned.
- No in the story, the characters were shown by the description that the author used.
- yes the author used dialogue, description, and other people to describe one another.
- In the story not every character was given a name. the only one that did get a name was the old man, and his dead wife.

PLOT

- my question is: what was the main reason for the old man, and the narrator to draw a cathedral.
- not really every character in the story didn\'t seem to have a set goal that they were trying to reach. the old man didn\'t have a goal, his wife had just died. the women wanted to make the old man feel comfortable, and the narrator didn\'t even have a goal, he didn\'t even like his job, or the old man because he was a stranger.
- yes, they have obstacles that are threw the inside. for example the narrator had the obstacle of trust, he didn\'t know wether the old man was trust worthy or if he had a plan for destroying his marriage when he came. also the narrator had the obstacle of believing, he didn\'t believe in a religion and thats why it was hard for him to describe the cathedral to the old man.
- the story did have a beginning a middle and an end. but the ending was weak, and i thought it made no sense.
- the beginning was used to describe the past of the women\'s life. it was like an introduction to the whole story so you could get an idea as to what expect later on through out the whole story.
- the conflict started in the beginning, when the narrator who is the husband found out that the old man was going to go to stay a few days at his house, and thats how the whole story began.
- the middle of the story does start to show some changes. it shows changes because the narrator starts to feel sympathy for the old man.
- the story didnt have a consequence not even in the middle of the story or the end of it.
- i personally didnt like the ending. i thought it was dry and it was missing description it just left you wondering why they were drawing a cathedral.

POINT OF VIEW

- i think the story was good how it was. it was in first person, but in the beginning it was in second person because the narrator was telling us how his wife got to know the old man.
- if the story is told in third person the story doesnt really inflict the narrator personally. they are just re-telling the story. but if the story is told in first or second person the story affects them more personally.

DESCRIPTION

- the description in the story did use all five sentences. because since one of the characters was blind he did have to rely on his other 4 senses in order to get around.

CHARACTERS
The characters have desires because both the man and the woman want to get jobs and start making money so they can support themselves or even settle down. The main characters or round characters are Robert, Robert's wife and the blind man. At the beginning the characters are shrouded but as we keep on reading we learn more about the characters and their desires in life. In addition the characters are shown more that told about because they described the characters like the blind am who had a beer wearing all brown without a cane or glasses as described by the point of view of Robert.

PLOT
The plot of the story is that two people are in love, one is in the military while the other is trying to find a job. So she enrolls in helping blind people by reading things to them like reports. After a while a connection sets in between a blind man and Robert's wife. Then they start sending videos to each other talking about their life after a year of not seeing each other. Then one day Robert's wife brings the blind man over where he meets Robert. They start to talk and drink and also smoke. After a while they start watching television which was on Cathedrals. Robert explains what is going on and how a Cathedral looks like. Then the blind man ask's Robert to help him draw a catrhedral which Robert accepts and they start to draw. After a while the blind man asks Robert to close his eyes and to draw the picture with him. This story makes you use all five sense to tell you what is going on in the book. Also it has a beginning, middle, and ending.

DIALOGUE
Dialogue is what is making this story realistic. The reason why is that the characters in a sense talk naturally and interact naturally with each other making the story more relistic and that helps the reader see what is really going on instead of being told what is going on.

POINT OF VIEW
The story from the beginning is told in the first point of view because the person telling the story is Robert. Robert gives us a first hand account of what he sees and goes through. In addition the first point of view is appropiate for this story because it's the type of story that is up close and personal and it needs to be told that way.

DESCRIPTION
Since the story was written in first person there was more description involved. For example, when Robert saw the blind man he described him as wearing a brown outfit with a full beard and no cane. Descriptions like these make the story more realistic and visionary for the reader. Also, since there is a lot of description at the same time though there isn’t so much that it alters the story.

SETTING
The setting of the story for the most part takes place in Robert’s house with the blind man and his wife. But at the same time though the setting is appropriate with the plot and the story as a whole. In addition the place and time of the story is also appropriate in making the story more realistic as it should be. Moreover, the setting of the story is described as much as to not take away the plot of the story and the conflict that is going on.

THEME
The theme of the story is understood at the end. The theme in my view is that sometimes it helps to just close your eyes and visualize things instead of glancing at them and passing by. Moreover, the theme of the story is a gentle touch in the end of the story that intrigues the reader and makes them wonder. In the end though all the elements of the story come in to play and help make a great finish in the end.

REVISION
This story is revised and edited ads it should. I found no mistakes or typos as I was reading it making it the final copy of a story.

the point of this story is that there is a blind man and woman that knew each other for a long time and lost contact with each other. Then the woman goes to the military and they start writing tapes to each other to start communicating with each other. Then they loose touch with each other and then locate each other once again. This time the lady is married and invites the blind man to her house and introduces him to her husband. then they start to drink and smoke dope with each other and they both then have a interesting conversation with each other. this story basically make you try to picture your five senses because the blind man lost his sight and relies on his other senses.

Point of view:
It is the point of view of robert because he is the person telling the story and telling the readers how he felt of the blind man. he told it in a first point of view narration. this is basically who told the story.

Dialogue:
The characters talked with each other in a calm manner and at the end got a great understanding of both the husband and the blind man of each other.

Description:.
In everything the story was alright and was a harder and difficult story to try and understand but i figured it out because of the well description of this story.

Setting:
the plot of the story was not really described as well so i can not really tell if they were in a good fabulous house or if it was a run down house.

Plot:

-Yes, the characters do have desires. An example would be Raymond's wife who desires to enjoy her time with Robert.

-The characters don't seem to be distinctive enough to be types because they all share similar characteristics and therefore aren't distinctive amongst themselves.

-The characters are complex because they have mixed emotions and therefore having multiple ideals.

-The characters aren't consistent because from one end of the story o the other, the characters change their perspective of each other.

-Yes, the characters do change over time as I previously stated.

-The author must know his characters well considering he is one of the characters.

-The main characters (Robert and Raymond) are round.

-The authors uses dialogue to show their characters' traits, so yes.

-The author gives a visual idea of the characters while supplying dialogue and action. Coming from a characters in the story, it also uses thought.

-The characters have the right names.

Character:

These characters do have desires. For instance, the husband was feeling awkward when the blind man was over at his house since he has never seen a blind man before. Yes, these characters have the ability to change. The husband didn't feel comfortable with the blind man in the beginning and later on, he started to feel comfortable.

Plot:

In the plot, there's a husband in the military (Robert) and his wife is looking for a job. The wife started a job to help blind people. One day, the wife invited the blind man over after his wife died. Robert felt awkward and wasn't comfortable around the bind man since he has never seen a blind person before. Later, after drawing a cathedral, the blind man and Robert became actually close and Robert finally felt comfortable with the blind man. This story does have a beginning, middle, and end.

Point of view:

This story works best in first person since Robert is telling the story. This story works best with a multiple-vision POV so you can see everyone's point of view.

Description:

This story is utilizing all five senses and the description is specific enough.

I personally found the plot of the story unentertaining and boring, but it does have all of the basic necessities for a decent plot.

Character

-Yes, all the character have desires. for, instance the man fell very weird being around a blind man for the first time.
- yes, because the narrator, Robert didnt not like the idea of his wife taking strangers in the house and especially because they had a connection in the past.
-

the point of this story is that there is a blind man and woman that knew each other for a long time and lost contact with each other. Then the woman goes to the military and they start writing tapes to each other to start communicating with each other. Then they loose touch with each other and then locate each other once again. This time the lady is married and invites the blind man to her house and introduces him to her husband. then they start to drink and smoke dope with each other and they both then have a interesting conversation with each other. this story basically make you try to picture your five senses because the blind man lost his sight and relies on his other senses.

Point of view:
It is the point of view of robert because he is the person telling the story and telling the readers how he felt of the blind man. he told it in a first point of view narration. this is basically who told the story.

Dialogue:
The characters talked with each other in a calm manner and at the end got a great understanding of both the husband and the blind man of each other.

Description:.
In everything the story was alright and was a harder and difficult story to try and understand but i figured it out because of the well description of this story.

Setting:
the plot of the story was not really described as well so i can not really tell if they were in a good fabulous house or if it was a run down house.

Plot:
the plot of the story is that the blind man gets reunited with his long lost friend that he has lost contact with.

Voice:
They speak with each other in a calm manner with each other.

Revision:

-yes all the characters do have desires because in the beginning of the story the narrator didn't want to meet the blind old man, it seemed like if he didn't want his wife to talk to the blind man, but towards the end the narrator started to get closer to the blind man.
-yes, because the narrator, Robert, didnt want his wife bringing a male stranger into their house especially because she worked for him in the past.
-every character is different as so they have different opinions and ideas. at the beginning Robert didnt like the fact that his wife was bringing a stranger to the house but then towards the end, he liked it.
-the characters do have the ability to change, fro example robert changed with the blind man.
-in the beginning the characters dont know each other as much, but towards the end they each learn something new about each other.

The point of view of the story gave the introspective view of the husband. Its first person and yes, the author utilizes all he needs for his point of view.

-This story best works first person
-this story best works in multiple-vision
- if there were a second-person or third-person narrator they won't be that close to the story because with one narrator is okay you don't need a lot of narrator
-yes I'm using my point of view consistent


-the description in this story is using all five senses
-yes the description are specific in this story, there some parts that are not as specific but mostly they are
-no, i think the us of adjectives and adverbs are good
- yes they using figurative language and lyrical technique appropriate
-the description are fine


-yes they still using dialogue in this story
- the dialogue seems real
-no the tags don't draw too much attention themselves
- the dialogue in this story is really good and it don't need subtext

Chracters
In this story it is basically the point of view a husband of a woman who corresponds with a blind man.
They all have desires whether to see again or meet the blind person. THey have constinent characters despite their conflicting traits like grudging respect to the blind man from the husband. It is shown that the characters change and more specifically the husband learns to like and greatly respect the blind man. The characters are somewhat round because they go deeper than what appears to be in the begiinig of the story. The author tells more of Robert than he does show him in the story. It has succesful methods of showing speech,action, thought and feelinh in expressing the characters. Of the characters only Robert the blind man has a name while the husband and wife do not.

Plot
To me the story does not really have a dramatic question involved. THe story does have a protagoish with a bunch of personal obstacles and a clear begining, middle and end. The conflict escalates when Robert comes to visit the usband and wife because the husband is unsure of what to do. Most of the events are connected by cause and effect such as when the woman meets the blind man and so begins a frienship. However the ending is somewhat plasibable but does not really give a deep ending.

P.O.V.
In the story first and second person will be the best way to tell the Catheral. It would be better with multi-vies P.O.V. since it will show what the other characters aere also seeing. There is no reason why it would work better for an objective P.O.V and the second narrator will be close enough to the emotions to correctly showcase them. THe P.O.V. is constinent throught the entire story.

Description
The description does use all of the five senses by expressing what is heard,tasted, seen, felt and smelled by the main chracter. The description tour is not really specific but there is no overusage of adjectives in the story. Detail usage os great theought the story and does not diminish once. It does reflect the characters P.O.V.

Diagolue
The diagolue is not scenic for the cricial moments of the story.It does sound real and is needed for the story.
The tags do not call that much attention by themselves. There is nowhere that the diaguloe can be improved but it is not clunky and flows perfectly together. The descriptions are not overdone and have a good balance of detail and feeling.

The story is grounded in one specific place and time and that is the home of the husband and wife and is also in the past. The place is not really significant

CHARACTER
* Yes the characters do have desires because they have feelings. They all want something different in life; something they really want so much.
*Yes they are, they all look different then each other and they have different abilities/disabilities. They all have their own mind so they all have different opinions and view on things.
*Yes, there is a character that is blind.
* Yes, because even though the man is blind, he is still smart and can still visualize things.
*Yes, because the woman's husband changes through out the story. He says he's never had a blind friend before and at the beginning of the story he doesn't really want to get along with him. By the end of the story, the woman's husband ends up actually liking the blind man and talking to him as well.
*Yes because they are described through their actions.
* I think they are round because you are learning about them and they seem to be the main characters.
*No, i think itss well balanced. The characters are not only showed but they are being told as well.
*Yes because all the characters have used at least one of the these methods.
*What name is not right? so this is a yes.

Plot
*Yes, what is going on in the story?
*I think so because everyone seems to be focused on the blind man & he seems to have some obstacles and maybe even goals.
*Yes
*I don't know
*Yes
Do you have crisis, climax, and consequences at the end?
*Not really
*Yes

Point of View
*3rd person because it seems to be more interesting
*It isn't very close because the character may not really feel or have experience towards what the characters are feeling.

Description
*Not too much, There isn't that much vivid description.

-Yes the characters have desires in the story. In the beginning the narrator didn't really want anything but as the story progressed.
- Yes each character is different in their own way. They each contain their own beliefs and own personalities.
-Yes each character has their own opinion. In the beginning the narrator did not want a strange person that he didn't know in his house.
- Yes the character is persistent. The women were consistent in having their husband being okay with having he strange ma in their home.
-characters do have the ability to change. In the beginning of the story the narrator did not like the old man but they grew to like each other when the picture of the cathedral was drawn.
-the story describes each character and allows you to get to knot them.
-Each character that was round was round and every character that was flat was flat. Some characters had important roles while others were barely talked about.
-No, the characters were portrayed by the descriptions the author used.
-yes, the author used dialogue, description, and other characters to describe one another.
- Not everyone in the story was given their old name.

Plot

-My main question about this is what is the point of having the old man and the narrator draw a cathedral an the first place?
-No, every character didnt have a real goal that they were trying to reach during the story.
-


Dialogue

- Dialogue is the only thing making this story some-what realistic. This is because if it is bieng told to it sounds fake but as a reader, the dialogue makes things more believable.


Point of View

-This story is being tolld in first person and that person is Robert. He is giving us first hand experience of what is going on in the story. The story being told in first person is truely the right way to go with this.


Setting

-the setting of this story takes place at robberts house with the blind man and his wife.the setting s3eems to go with the plot asnd conclusion very well. It doesnt seem to get in the way at all.

Character
*The characters have many desires in the story and the main point is just to progress in life. All of the characters just want to get enough money to live sustainable lives and get to know each other as well. As far as distinctiveness goes, I feel as if they not the kind that will stand out so much and so, I can define them as types of people like the wife, who just seems like any other housewife. As far as traits are concerned, there is s blind man within this story and that is very unique since he can perceive certain things and has to rely on certain things to get by the day. In addition, there is some consistency with how these characters function since they have certain opinions and can stay with them through the course of the story for quite some time; the narrators opinion towards the blind man remained uncomfortable for some time. As far as names are concerned, I feel as if these characters have suitable names since Robert is such a common name and the blind man is common in many ways as for the narrators wife, her name isn't suitable since she doesn't really have a name. I wouldn't say that i know the narrator as much as I could however, I can tell much from what was said about both the blind man and the wife as well.

Plot
*Will the narrator be influence any by the ending of the story in which he was to act like a blind man himself? There is beginning middle and end with the introduction of the blind man, the time spent at the house of the narrator and finally the experience felt between the narrator and the blind man. The wife to me is the protagonist simply because she has the most cause in the story which is to make the blind man feel just right at home in her home; her obstacle was mainly her husband who was very uncomfortable with the blind man in his house. As far as the conflict is concerned, it does not elevate much into the ending of the story but does decrease since the narrator and the blind man are in the man conflict. the ending is not that satisfying unless you really think about it and understand that the blind man and narrator are sharing a certain experience; it's not too long yet just right if you understand. in the middle of the story the blind man and narrator are left alone and the two are together there and actually smoke dope in a wierd series of events.

CHARACTERS
In order to have desires you have to dream and I feel as if the husband isn't dreaming. Yes he and his wife want to start making money but do they really put their minds to it? Maybe the wife but not the husband because at first the feeling of the story and its characters especially the narrator seems to be perturbed and agitated as he stereotypes a blind man who is staying with him and his wife. One who judges so much doesn't deserve to dream.

PLOT
"Cathedral" opens with the narrator telling the reader in a conversational tone that a blind friend of his wife's is coming to visit them. The narrator is clearly unhappy about the upcoming visit. He then flashes back to the story of how his wife met the blind man when she worked for him as a reader. At the time, she was engaged to marry an officer in the Air Force. When she tells the blind man goodbye, he asks if he can touch her face. The touch of his fingers on her face is a pivotal moment in her life, something the narrator does not understand.

POINT OF VIEW
3rd person because it seems to be more interesting and its seems to be more charasmatic from the characters. It isn't very close because the main character may not really feel or have experience towards what the co-characters are feeling.

Character
The character's desires are to make money and to make their visitor feel welcomed. No because the man in the story can be any plain person like a business man. Also the wife can be any ordinary person too. Yes, the man seems less of a host than his wife. Yes, but later on in the story, the man feels more comfortable with the blind man.