Can you sum up your story quickly, ideally in one easy to read sentence?
How would you write your blurb?
Do you know whose story your tale belongs to (and therefore are you writing it from the right point of view)?
Show your characters’ thought processes. We readers need to know the way your characters think (or at least to think we know, villains of course seek to deceive). We need to be able to gauge your characters, get a feel for them so to speak so we can identify with them and therefore keep reading.
Do your characters grab your attention? If they don’t, they won’t be grabbing anyone else’s!
Outlines
Outlines are a great way to work out what will happen in your story before you write it. I should say my outlines are not set in stone. Nor should yours be.
Often I’ve outlined a short story to realize as I was writing it the outline would be more suitable for a tale of over 3000 words, way too long for most competitions. In a sense I’ve not been sorry about this as it makes me re-evaluate my outline and story and make it sharper, tighter, bring it down to the bare bones as most short stories are around the 1500 to 2000 word mark so they have to be to the point.
Equally if the longer tale grips me, I look for those competitions which allow for a higher word count and enter the story that. Occasionally the story of this length becomes a good outline for a novel. So keep your mind open to the possibilities. Never be afraid to edit. Never be afraid to change your mind as to where your idea and outline (and eventually the written story) are best suited.
But the biggest advantage of an outline is you can work out ideas first rather than start writing a tale and find you run out of steam. I also don’t allow myself too long to do the outline. A couple of sessions to work it out and then I get writing… Outlines are there to help you write the tale, not to help you procrastinate (and there are so many fascinating writing blogs and books that can keep you away from what you should be doing - writing!).