10 Self-Editing Steps Before Sending to a Professional Editor

10 Self Editing Steps Before Sending To A Professional Editor

Gary Smailes
Gary Smailes | 5 November 2025

Set Up Your Self-Edit

Two steps set the tone for everything that follows. Define goals and reader promise. Assemble tools and a style sheet. Do this first and every pass stays focused.

Step 1: Define goals and reader promise

Write a one-page brief. Keep it tight. Aim for decisions, not musings.

Include:

Quick prompts:

A simple template:

If reader promise feels fuzzy, try this sentence:

Name what you will not do. Example: no present tense, no on-page torture, no cliffhanger ending. Guardrails reduce churn.

Define scope for this pass. Examples:

Finish with a clear outcome. Examples:

Mini exercise, ten minutes:

Step 2: Assemble tools and a style sheet

Pick standards now so you stop second-guessing later.

Decisions to make:

Set up your workspace:

Start a decisions log. One page, simple table:

Other useful entries:

Build a starter style sheet. This grows during editing, so begin with anchors.

Core sections:

Paste a brief sample so choices feel real:

Tool tip checklist:

Protect your work:

Mini exercise, fifteen minutes:

Set up done. You now have a map, a toolkit, and a record of choices. The rest of your self-edit will run smoother, and your editor will thank you later.

Macro Story and Structure Pass

Zoom out. Big choices first, commas later. This is where you steady the spine of the book and lock the reader’s path through it.

Step 3: Diagnose structure

Build a simple outline before touching sentences. One line per scene. Include chapter, POV, location, scene purpose, and outcome. Add a quick note on the story thread touched. Romance A, Mystery B, Career C. If a scene touches no thread, mark it for review.

Check the premise and stakes. Write one sentence using this frame:

Example:

Now test the spine against standard beats:

Track escalation. Risk to body. Risk to reputation. Risk to relationships. If risk stays flat for more than two scenes, raise it or compress.

Scene test, three questions:

If the answer to any question feels vague, the scene lacks a job. Give it a clear job or cut it. Sometimes two soft scenes merge into one strong beat.

Watch for soft middles. A long stretch of procedural steps, errands, meetings, and intel dumps is a warning. Promote a twist earlier. Let a plan fail. Force a choice that costs.

Check for repeating beats. Three confrontations with the same energy level read like stalling. Keep the best one, feed any unique info into it, and delete the rest.

Make the antagonist’s engine visible. List their moves alongside the protagonist’s moves. If the antagonist only reacts, the conflict goes slack. Give them a plan that collides with the hero’s plan.

Theme audit. Write the core question in seven words or fewer. Example: What is a life worth saving. Then verify moments that test this belief across the book. If the climax does not answer the question on the page, revise the final act.

Keep a Fix List. One running document with three columns:

Do not fix while diagnosing. Tag it. Move on. You are mapping the surgery, not operating yet.

Mini exercise, twenty minutes:

Step 4: Audit timeline and continuity

Timelines trip writers more than grammar ever will. Build a scene list that tracks time on the page.

Core columns:

Now run checks.

Causal flow. Read the action chain out loud with because or therefore between scenes. If you need and then, links are weak. Insert a cause, not a coincidence. Or fold the scene into the one before it.

Ages and life math. Birthdays, school years, job tenure, past trauma dates. If the protagonist is thirty-two in chapter one and references a twelve-year partnership, check the dates. If a child’s soccer season runs through December in your setting, verify.

Logistics. Travel time, traffic, public transit schedules, closing hours. A cross-town sprint at rush hour needs a delay. A rural drive at night needs fuel and light. If a body moves from morgue to burial in one day, note cultural and legal norms for the setting.

Daylight and weather. Sunrise and sunset shift by season and latitude. If a stakeout starts at dusk, confirm dusk exists at that time of year. Weather swings matter when scenes rely on them. Snow that arrives, then vanishes, breaks trust.

Foreshadowing and payoffs. Make a list of promises. A throwaway line about a fear of water. A broken watch. A missing dog. Note where each promise seeds and where it pays off. If a promise never pays, either plant it deeper or prune it.

Continuity objects. Injuries, props, vehicles, clothing. A cracked phone stays cracked until repaired. A white shirt covered in wine does not appear fresh five pages later. If a gun appears, track its chain of custody.

Subplot reconciliation. For each subplot, write a four-line arc:

If a thread fades without resolution, either close it or signal its status clearly. Tease for a sequel only with intention and with a satisfying stop for this book.

Dialogue time markers. Search for fuzzy phrases like later, a while, soon, that night, the next day. Replace with specifics tied to the timeline. Tuesday at noon gives firmer footing than later.

Update the style sheet as you go. Add spellings for places, street names, company names, and local jargon. Add rules for date formats and time stamps. Note any recurring holidays or events in the setting.

Mini exercise, fifteen minutes:

One last sweep. Look at how long each day in the story takes. If one day holds ten major scenes, thin it or shift some to the next day. Pacing lives in time as well as word count.

When this pass ends, you hold a story that moves with intention. Your later line edits will land on firm ground.

Scene-by-Scene and POV Control

Step 5: Strengthen each scene

Give every scene a job. State it in one sentence before you edit the text. Who wants what, who or what blocks it, what changes at the end.

Quick test, three answers in thirty seconds:

If any slot stays blank, the scene flails. Fix the job or cut it.

Raise stakes in small, specific ways. Money risk. Trust risk. Time pressure. Health. Reputation. If two scenes in a row risk the same thing at the same level, combine or escalate.

Start late. Drop the reader at the first moment of trouble. Skip arrivals, pleasantries, coffee pours, boot lacing. End early. Stop once the turn lands, not after everyone debriefs.

Before:

After:

Sharpen chapter hooks. Let the last line pull the eye to the next page.

Options:

Trim throat-clearing. First paragraphs full of weather, waking, grooming, commuting, or a recap of the previous chapter signal warm-up, not story. Slide a fingertip down the first page until the first moment of tension. Start there.

Delete redundant recaps. Trust the reader. Search for phrases like as you know, like I said, remember, we already talked about this, to remind you. Cut and, if needed, seed a crisp hint earlier.

Merge soft scenes. If you have two scenes with similar energy or purpose, fuse the best parts into one beat. Place any cut details where they matter more.

Keep actions on the page, summaries in the minority. One sharp exchange beats five lines of explanation.

Before:

After:

When in doubt, strip a scene to beats. Then rebuild tight.

Mini exercise, fifteen minutes:

Step 6: Enforce clean POV and showing

Pick one viewpoint per scene. Stay loyal. The reader lives in one mind at a time.

Head-hopping test:

If you need a switch, use a clear scene break or chapter break. Leave white space. Restart with a fresh anchor to place the new mind on the page.

Limit filter words. They add distance and slow the beat. Common suspects:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

You are not erasing perception. You are letting stimuli hit the reader without a layer of reporting.

Balance action and interiority. External motion without thoughts feels thin. Pure thought without motion drifts. Pair a concrete beat with a meaningful reaction.

Before:

After:

Calibrate narrative distance. Choose how close the lens sits.

Far:

Mid:

Close:

Shift distance on purpose. Use a touch more distance for summary or stage business. Slide closer for high emotion or choice.

Keep sensory detail honest to the viewpoint. A character under fire does not admire drapery tassels. A chef notices knife balance. A violinist hears the room’s reverb. What the viewpoint notices signals who they are.

Guard against mind reading. A viewpoint knows only what others show. Replace guesses with tells.

Before:

After:

Format thoughts with restraint. Italics are optional. Free indirect style often lands cleaner.

Direct thought:

Free indirect:

Pick a convention in your style sheet and hold to it. Less glare on the page, more flow.

When summary hides a scene, surface one beat. You do not need every jab. Give one concrete exchange and one internal hit.

Before:

After:

Anchor scenes fast. First lines should place reader in body, place, and time.

Checklist for the first paragraph:

Mini exercise, twenty minutes:

Once POV locks, everything sharpens. Dialogue tags settle. Beats feel clean. Readers trust the ground under their feet, which is the point.

Line Editing for Clarity and Voice

Step 7: Tighten prose

Hunt weak verbs. They leak energy from every sentence. The usual suspects: was, were, had, got, went, came, put, took, made, did.

Replace verb-adverb pairs with one strong verb.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

One precise verb beats three weak words every time.

Prune filler phrases. They pad sentences without adding meaning. Common offenders:

Search your draft for "there is" and "there are." Half will vanish when you flip the sentence.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Kill redundancies. Two words doing one job. One must go.

Examples:

Your eye skips these after years of reading, but they slow the pace.

Remove clichés. They signal lazy thinking and bore readers who have seen them a thousand times. Search for phrases like:

Replace with fresh language or, better, delete and find a new angle.

Before:

After:

Watch for echoes. Repeated words within a paragraph create an annoying ping. Vary the vocabulary or restructure.

Before:

After:

Vary sentence length for rhythm. Short sentences punch. Medium sentences carry information smoothly and connect ideas with natural flow. Long sentences, when used sparingly and with care, allow you to build complex thoughts that unfold in layers, though they risk losing readers if they meander or pile on too many clauses.

Read that again. See how the long sentence drags? Cut it.

Better:

Mix lengths on purpose. Three short sentences create staccato energy. Follow with a medium sentence to let the reader breathe.

He opened the safe. Empty. The money was gone. Someone had beaten him to it, and now he had two problems instead of one.

Read aloud or use text-to-speech. Your ear catches problems your eye misses. Stumbles in speech reveal clunky sentences. If you trip reading it, the reader will trip too.

Listen for:

Mark trouble spots and revise until your voice flows smooth.

Target weak sentence openings. Avoid starting consecutive sentences with the same structure.

Weak pattern:

Better:

Vary the entry point. Start with action, place, time, thought, dialogue. Mix the rhythm.

Cut throat-clearing at sentence level too. Phrases like "It should be noted that" or "What's interesting is" signal the real sentence is coming next. Start with the real sentence.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Trust your material. State it clean.

Mini exercise, thirty minutes:

Step 8: Tune dialogue

Give characters distinct voices. Real people speak with different rhythms, word choices, sentence lengths. Your characters should too.

One character speaks in clipped sentences. Another rambles. One uses formal language. Another drops consonants. One interrupts. Another never finishes thoughts.

Test: Cover the dialogue tags. If you cannot tell who is speaking, the voices blend too much.

Before:

After:

Each voice carries personality.

Cut on-the-nose dialogue. Characters who state exactly what they feel or think bore readers. Real people hint, dodge, lie, deflect.

Before:

After:

Subtext works harder than direct statement.

Characters who explain the plot to each other sound like robots. Find other ways to convey information.

Before:

After:

Prefer action beats over excessive tags. Tags interrupt dialogue. Beats show character and emotion.

Before:

After:

The action carries the emotion. No tag needed.

Use beats to control pacing. A pause before dialogue creates tension. A pause after lets the words land.

"You were supposed to meet me at eight." She checked her phone. "It's midnight."

The beat between sentences builds frustration.

Keep tags simple. "Said" and "asked" disappear for readers. Fancy tags like "ejaculated," "hissed," or "growled" call attention to themselves.

Exception: "whispered," "shouted," "muttered" when volume matters.

Avoid impossible tags:

Use action instead:

Format dialogue by Chicago Manual of Style standards:

"I'm leaving," she said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because you never listen."

Did she really say, "I'm leaving"? (Question mark outside.)

She whispered, "Why?" (Question mark inside.)

Cut filler in speech. "Um," "uh," "you know," "like" sound natural in real conversation but slow fiction dialogue. Use sparingly for character voice or awkward moments.

Let characters interrupt each other. Real conversations overlap.

"I was thinking we could—"

"No."

"But if you just—"

"I said no."

The dash shows interruption. The period shows completion.

Avoid dialect spelling unless you are skilled at it. "Ah wuz gonna" irritates more than it illuminates. Suggest accent through word choice and rhythm instead.

Heavy dialect:

Light touch:

The rhythm and word choice suggest region without the spelling gymnastics.

Read dialogue aloud. If it sounds stiff or unnatural, loosen it. If characters sound identical, sharpen their differences.

Each character needs:

Mini exercise, twenty minutes:

Consistency, Copyediting, and Final Packaging

Step 9: Run a consistency sweep

Your professional editor will notice if you spell "email" as "e-mail" on page 12 and "email" on page 47. Inconsistency signals carelessness. Fix it now.

Start with the big four: capitalization, hyphenation, numerals, and spelling.

Capitalization

Pick your style and stick to it. Common trouble spots:

Job titles: "President Smith" when addressing him directly, but "the president" when referring to him.

Directions: "She drove south" (lowercase), but "He grew up in the South" (uppercase when it's a region).

Seasons: Always lowercase unless part of a proper name. "Last spring" but "Spring Festival."

Hyphenation

Your style guide sets the rules, but you have to follow them. Common mistakes:

Compound modifiers before nouns: "well-known author" but "author who is well known."

Prefixes: Usually no hyphen (preschool, nonprofit, nonfiction), but check your dictionary for exceptions.

Ages: "five-year-old child" but "child who is five years old."

Numerals versus words

Pick a system. Chicago Manual of Style spells out numbers zero through one hundred, then uses numerals. Other guides use the "rule of ten" (spell out zero through ten).

Exception: Always spell out numbers that start sentences.

Wrong: "15 people attended."

Right: "Fifteen people attended."

Spelling variants

American or British? Pick one. Common switches:

Your word processor's spell-check helps, but set it to the right language variant first.

Names and places

Create a master list. Check every instance. Common problems:

Character names: Is it Catherine, Katherine, or Kathryn? Pick one spelling and stick to it.

Place names: "New York City" or "NYC"? "Route 66" or "Highway 66"? Check real places for official spellings.

Made-up places: Your fictional town of Millbrook needs consistent spelling. Not Millbrook on page 23 and Mill Brook on page 156.

Series lore

Track details across books. What color are Sarah's eyes? How old was she when her father died? Which university did Tom attend?

Build a series bible. One document with:

Update after every draft. Your professional editor will check continuity within the current book, but series-level consistency is your job.

Search for crutch words

Every writer leans on certain words. Hunt yours down. Common culprits:

Run targeted searches. Replace or delete half of what you find.

Passive voice hunt

Search for forms of "be" plus past participles:

Examples:

Passive voice has its place (when the actor is unknown or unimportant), but active voice moves faster.

Tense consistency

Pick present or past tense and stay there. Common slips:

Mixed narrative tense:

Wrong: "She walked to the store. She buys milk and bread."

Right: "She walked to the store. She bought milk and bread."

Dialogue in wrong tense:

Wrong: "Yesterday, I go to the movies," he said.

Right: "Yesterday, I went to the movies," he said.

Software tools

PerfectIt and ProWritingAid catch mechanical errors your eyes miss. Run them after your manual passes, not before. You want to clean up obvious problems first.

These tools flag:

But they make mistakes. Review every suggestion. Accept what makes sense. Ignore the rest.

Create custom dictionaries for your names and made-up words. This stops the tools from flagging "Hermione" or "lightsaber" as errors.

Track your decisions

Log major style choices in your style sheet. Examples:

Share this with your professional editor. It saves time and prevents conflicts.

Step 10: Proof and prepare handoff

You are almost done. This final step packages your work for professional editing.

Fix the small stuff

Hunt typos with fresh eyes. Print a chapter or read on a different device. Your brain skips errors it has seen before.

Common typos spell-check misses:

Fix spacing problems

Search for double spaces. Replace with single spaces.

Search for paragraph indents created with multiple spaces or tabs. Use proper paragraph formatting instead.

Check for orphaned punctuation. Periods and commas that got separated from words during revision.

Format to industry standards

Professional editors expect clean, consistent formatting:

Font and spacing: