Maintain proper focus. As with the aperture of a camera, a storyboard can be over- or under-focused. An over-focused storyboard attempts to capture too much visual information in the presentation of a narrative, oftentimes resulting in overly busy frames or even extraneous and unnecessary frames in a narrative sequence. Under-focused storyboards, on the other hand, do not include enough relevant information to adequately represent a narrative, resulting in a confusing or even incomprehensible narrative sequence. Prior to drafting their storyboards, students should jot down the key points of the narrative sequence they wish to represent in the storyboard, including the main characters, the most important actions of the narrative and the physical relationship of characters to each other.
Keep it simple. As with an over-focused storyboard, and overly complicated storyboard appears busy, incomprehensible and difficult to follow. Simple storyboards, on the other hand, are easy to follow, resulting in a comprehensible narrative. Some examples of elements that can needlessly complicate the narrative of a storyboard include attempting to depict multiple characters' perspectives, inter-splicing concurrent actions from two or more different locations and introducing new characters or events in the middle of a storyboard's narrative sequence.
Make the narrative and its elements cohere with each other. This includes narrative features such as characters (are these characters people that are likely to interact with each other?) and events (are these events likely to occur in the order they did), as well as visual elements such as style (are the characters proportionally accurate?) and continuity (do the characters and places look roughly the same over the course of the narrative?) In addition to the parenthetical questions throughout this section, students should evaluate their storyboard draft by asking the question "does this storyboard make sense? Is it logical?"
Include a sense of finality at the end of the storyboard. Though not a necessary component, the concept of closure or finality is a significant feature of many storyboards, particularly storyboards used in lower grade-level classrooms in which narratives are often simpler and more straightforward. Students can check for finality by carefully evaluating each frame of a storyboard, searching for relevant or obvious elements that are not somehow involved in the development and conclusion of the narrative by the end of the storyboard. For example, students might notice a gun that is prominently and obviously displayed hanging over the mantel in the second frame. According to Russian dramatist Anton Chekov, if this gun isn't shown to go off by the end of the narrative sequence, the narrative is a failure.