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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40701
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

For starters, even the finest novels are not end to end deathless prose, all books have high points and highlights, so don't beat yourself up if not every page is crammed with shimmering gems.

It is probably time for you to sit down with these gems and with some comparable non-shimmering scenes from your novels and give both some rigorous analysis, the same as you might do is you were critiquing anyone else's work. In fact, it might be that spending some time critiquing other writers work is what you need to do to exercise your critiquing muscles before you set about addressing your own, that way you can practice objectivity.

Consider joining a writing group of some sort if you are not already in one, that will give you access to people willing to read some of your work and you in turn get practice at reading theirs. Even if you don't do that, there is noting to stop you picking up any published novel and critiquing either the entire book and its structure, or cherry picking scenes to focus on.

And it is worth remembering that whole book structure, it may be that what contributes to the perfection of your handful of gems is the mounting your have set them in, the supporting structure. It is possible for a scene to shine brighter because of the way the supporting book directs the light onto them.

So I recommend taking time, practice critiquing but remember to look at your scenes in context rather than isolation. Once you have some working theories as to where the gems work and the non gems don't you will be well placed to start polishing the rest. But don't be afraid to be brutal with the scenes that aren't so good, it might be that multiple scene-ectomies are required. Sometimes you can take out several flabby scenes and replace them with fewer tighter one.

Original score: 7