The Ultimate Self Editing Checklist (Free Download)

Gary Smailes | 5 November 2025

Set Up Your Self-Editing Workflow

The difference between writers who finish strong books and writers who abandon them in revision hell comes down to system. Not talent. Not inspiration. System.

You need a roadmap that moves from big problems to small ones, never the other way around. You need files that do not disappear, names that stay consistent, and a realistic pace that keeps you moving forward instead of spinning in circles.

Plan your passes

Edit in order. Always. Big picture first, commas last.

Pass One: Developmental

Does the story work? Plot holes, character arcs, pacing disasters, scenes that serve no purpose. Fix structure before you polish sentences. You will cut whole chapters here. Do not waste time perfecting prose that might vanish.

Pass Two: Scene and Chapter Level

Zoom in. Each scene needs a goal, conflict, and outcome that changes something. Each chapter needs a strong opening and an ending that pulls readers forward. POV stays consistent. Dialogue drives the story instead of filling space.

Pass Three: Line Editing

Now the prose. Weak verbs become strong ones. Filter words disappear. Sentences flow with rhythm and variety. Voice stays true to your characters and genre. This pass takes the longest because every line matters.

Pass Four: Copyediting

Grammar, spelling, punctuation, consistency. Names stay spelled the same way. Dialogue follows the rules. Numbers format consistently. Your style sheet becomes your best friend.

Pass Five: Proofreading

Last typos, missed words, spacing errors. Print the pages or load them to an e-reader. Your eyes need a different format to catch what the screen missed.

The trap? Mixing levels. You find a typo during the developmental pass and spend twenty minutes fixing commas while your protagonist sits in chapter four with no clear goal. Or you rearrange scenes during copyediting and break timeline continuity you already fixed.

One level per pass. Finish the level. Move forward.

Create a living style sheet

Start this document on day one of writing. Update it every time you make a choice.

Names and Spelling

Jon or John? Email or e-mail? OK or okay? Towards or toward? Write it down. Chapter thirty is not the time to discover you have been inconsistent for 200 pages.

Hyphenation

High school or high-school? Log in or login? Twenty-one or twenty one? Publishers have rules. You need yours.

Capitalization

Internet or internet? Mom or mom when she is not being addressed directly? His dad or his Dad? Pick one. Stick with it.

Numbers

Spell out one through nine, use numerals for 10 and above? All ages in numerals? Dates written out or abbreviated? Time formats?

Timeline

Chapter-to-day mapping. What day of the week does chapter one start? How much time passes between scenes? When do holidays fall? If your story spans months, map it or you will contradict yourself.

Keep the style sheet open in a second window while you write and edit. Five seconds to add a choice saves five hours hunting inconsistencies later.

Version control

Save your sanity with clear filenames and regular backups.

File naming that works:

• BookTitle_Draft1_Complete.docx
• BookTitle_Draft2_DevEdit.docx
• BookTitle_Draft2_LineEdit.docx
• BookTitle_Draft3_Copyedit.docx
• BookTitle_Final.docx

What does not work:

• BookTitle.docx
• BookTitle_Final.docx (followed by BookTitle_FinalFinal.docx)
• BookTitle_Good.docx
• BookTitle_Monday.docx

Use numbers that go up. Use dates when helpful. Make the current editing level obvious.

Duplicate before each pass

Copy BookTitle_Draft2_DevEdit.docx and rename the copy BookTitle_Draft2_LineEdit.docx before you start line editing. If you realize halfway through the line edit that you cut a scene you need back, the developmental version still holds it.

Weekly backups

Email yourself the current file every Friday. Save to cloud storage. Keep a local copy on a different device. Your book is not backed up until it lives in three places.

Read differently

Your eyes lie. They skip words, fill in gaps, and glide over problems because they know what you meant to write.

Print pages

Paper reveals different issues than screens. Pacing problems become obvious. Missing transitions show up. Dense paragraphs look intimidating. Print ten pages at a time, read with a red pen, transfer notes back to the file.

Load to an e-reader

Export a chapter to EPUB or PDF and read on your Kindle or phone. The different format and smaller screen catch rhythm issues and overlong sentences. You see the book the way readers will see it.

Text-to-speech

Turn on Read Aloud in Word or use your computer's built-in accessibility features. Listen while following along on screen or paper. Missing words become obvious. Repeated phrases jump out. Awkward rhythms slow down the computer voice.

Set up text-to-speech now, before you need it. Practice with a paragraph. Find the speed and voice settings that work for you.

Timebox your work

Set a daily target and stop when you hit it. Editing brain gets tired, and tired editors make worse decisions, not better ones.

Two to three chapters per day for developmental work. You need to see the big picture, not perfect individual scenes.

One chapter per day for line editing. This is where you slow down and fix every sentence. Rush here and you will regret it.

Five to ten pages per day for copyediting. Consistency checks take time. Let yourself be thorough.

Twenty pages per day for proofreading. Final pass moves quickly. Mark problems, do not fix them yet.

Honor the stopping point. When you hit your daily target, save the file, update your progress tracking, and step away. Tomorrow you will see problems that tired eyes miss today.

Keep the checklist nearby

Print the full self-editing checklist and keep it beside your keyboard. Check off items as you complete them for each pass, not each page.

The checklist prevents you from forgetting critical steps. It shows your progress when the work feels endless. It keeps you moving through the levels instead of bouncing between them.

Mark your current pass at the top of the checklist. When you finish scene-level editing for the whole book, check off every item in that section before moving to line editing.

Example tracking:

• ✓ Developmental Pass - Complete
• ✓ Scene/Chapter Pass - Complete
• ◐ Line Edit Pass - In Progress (Chapter 8 of 15)
• ◯ Copyedit Pass - Not Started
• ◯ Proofreading Pass - Not Started

The workflow becomes automatic after one complete book. Until then, the system keeps you on track and moving toward a finished manuscript that works.

Big-Picture Story Structure Pass

Before commas and cadence, your story needs to work. This pass checks structure, momentum, and promise. You are making sure the book you wrote is the book you meant to write.

Clarify your core promise

Write a one-sentence logline that names four things: protagonist, goal, stakes, opposing force. Keep it concrete.

Try this frame: After [inciting incident], [protagonist] must [goal], or [stakes], while [antagonistic force] opposes.

Examples:

• After her sister vanishes during a protest, a rookie reporter must uncover the organizer’s secret funding network, or the city shuts down the paper, while a corrupt councilman feeds her false leads.
• After a botched heist leaves him in debt, a getaway driver must pull one last job to save his kid’s school placement, or lose custody, while a rival crew tracks his every move.

Write yours. Read it out loud. If you stumble, the promise is fuzzy. If someone else reads it and asks, so what, the stakes are weak.

Pin this line at the top of your manuscript. Every choice later should serve this sentence.

Beat check

Mark the big turns. Do not guess. Find the pages.

• Inciting incident at 10 to 15 percent. This event knocks life off its track.
• First plot point at 20 to 25 percent. Door shuts behind the lead. No going back.
• Midpoint reversal at 50 percent. New information flips the plan or reveals the true game.
• Crisis at 75 to 80 percent. Worst choice, highest cost, deepest doubt.
• Climax at 90 to 98 percent. Final confrontation where goal and stakes collide.

Mini exercise:

• Add a comment in the file at each beat. Write the page number and what happens.
• If beats land far from these ranges, ask why. Slow starts often hide prologues, backstory dumps, or duplicate scenes. Trim or merge. If the midpoint feels soft, raise the cost or reveal a hard truth that changes tactics.

Percentages are guides, not handcuffs. The test is energy. Readers should feel a steady build, not a long flat road.

Ensure causality

Scene A should force Scene B. Not Scene A and then Scene B and then Scene C.

Use the therefore and but test. Between any two scenes, write one of these:

• Therefore, because of A, B happens.
• But, despite A, B happens.

Example, weak chain:

• The detective interviews the neighbor, and then she goes to a bar, and then she finds a clue.

Causal chain:

• The detective interviews the neighbor and learns the victim owed money, therefore she tracks the debt to a bar, but the bar owner tips off the suspect, therefore the clue she finds is a plant that puts her on the wrong trail.

Walk through your outline or a list of scenes. If you cannot link a scene with therefore or but, it is a candidate to cut, combine, or relocate.

Track stakes that escalate

Stakes should grow. Personal, then relational, then public. Not louder threats, sharper ones.

Example path for a thriller:

• Personal: If he fails, he loses his job.
• Relational: If he fails again, his partner gets framed.
• Public: If he fails at the end, the city water supply becomes unsafe.

Map your current escalation in three lines. If the last beat is smaller than the midpoint, you have a sag. Raise what is at risk, tighten the deadline, or narrow options so the cost of failure hurts more.

Avoid rescues from nowhere. If a solution drops from the sky, plant a seed earlier or cut the cheat.

Verify protagonist agency

Plot turns should come from your lead’s decisions. Not accidents. Not helpful side characters doing the heavy lift.

Quick audit:

• List the five biggest turns. Who makes the choice that causes each one?
• Highlight verbs in those moments. Decides, refuses, risks, sacrifices, betrays, admits.
• If your lead is mostly watching, shove them to the front. Give them hard choices with tradeoffs. Remove helpers who keep solving problems for them.

A passive hero produces a saggy middle. Give them agency or give the plot to the character who already has it.

Make subplots earn their keep

Subplots are not scenery. They must cross the main line and affect the ending.

Do this on one page:

• Subplot A. Purpose. How it intersects the midpoint. What piece it brings to the climax.
• Subplot B. Same drill.
• Any thread that never crosses the main line gets cut or merged. Or rewrite one scene so the subplot changes a choice at a key turn.

Love stories, mentor arcs, and mystery B-plots thrive when they trade information, create conflict, or force a price at the end.

Continuity scan

Readers forgive many sins. They do not forgive time travel by accident.

• Build a simple timeline. Chapter, date, weekday, time of day. Add location.
• Track ages and school terms. A senior in spring does not attend homecoming.
• Map travel time. If you send a character from Chicago to Denver for lunch and back for dinner, readers will notice.
• Note seasons and weather. Leaf piles do not sit under June sun.
• Check moon phases if your plot depends on night light or tides.

Fix contradictions now. Later, you will lock dialogue and rhythm. Moving big blocks then will break work you already did.

Align with theme

Theme is the question your story argues through events. Trust. Mercy. Power without accountability. Pick one sentence. No abstractions.

Example sentence:

• Loyalty costs, and sometimes the price is worth paying.

Mark three scenes where the story dramatizes this idea. Not a speech, an action.

• Early. A small cost that foreshadows the larger price.
• Middle. Loyalty creates a loss that hurts.
• Near the end. A choice that confirms, bends, or rejects the claim.

Check setups and payoffs:

• If your climax hinges on a skill, belief, or relationship, seed it early. Let the reader see it, doubt it, and then watch it matter when it counts.
• If your ending turns on a twist, make sure you planted fair clues. Hide them in plain sight through context, not sudden reveals that break trust.

Quick worksheet to finish this pass

• Write your one-sentence logline.
• Tag the five beats with page numbers.
• Run the therefore or but test across scene joins.
• List stake levels at three points. Early. Mid. Late.
• Audit protagonist decisions at major turns.
• Map each subplot to the midpoint and the climax.
• Build a simple timeline with dates and locations.
• Write your theme sentence and mark three scenes that prove it.

When this pass is tight, the rest of your editing pays off. Now your scenes have a track to run on, and your sentences have something solid to serve.

Scene and Chapter-Level Pass

Time to tighten the screws on every scene. Give each one a job, a spark, and a consequence. Read like a ruthless friend, then fix like a pro.

Goal, conflict, outcome

Every scene needs three things.

• Goal. What does the viewpoint character want right now.
• Conflict. Who or what stands in the way.
• Outcome. The situation shifts by the end.

Mini check:

• At the top of each scene, write three bullets in a comment: want, obstacle, change.
• If nothing changes, fold the material into another scene or cut it.

Example:

• Want. Get the witness to talk.
• Obstacle. Witness aches for a bribe, plus her brother listens from the hallway.
• Change. She cracks, but gives a name tied to the hero’s past.

If two scenes share the same want and no fresh pressure, combine them.

Open strong

Your first lines should orient and invite.

Hit three anchors fast:

• Who. Name or a clear “I” with a clue to identity.
• Where. A concrete place, even if it is as simple as “back lot behind the bakery.”
• When. Time of day or a quick pointer like “an hour after the fire.”

Plant a question in the reader’s mind.

• “Maria shows up at the clinic with a glove in her pocket.”
• “The lock on his father’s toolbox is new. His father died last month.”

Avoid throat clearing. No long weather reports. No generic “getting ready” sequences. Start where something tilts.

End with movement

Close each scene so the reader turns the page.

Use one of these:

• Reveal. New information shifts the plan.
• Reversal. A win flips into a loss, or the reverse.
• Decision. The lead chooses a risky path.
• New stakes. The price or the reward rises.

Weak fade-out: “They go home and sleep.”
Stronger close: “He pockets the bloody key and lies to his wife.”

If a scene ends on a pause, make sure the pause carries pressure, not emptiness.

POV discipline

One scene, one viewpoint. No head hopping. Hold a consistent distance.

Pick your range before you revise a scene:

• Distant summary. Wider lens, fewer interior beats.
• Close third or first. Thoughts, sensations, quick takes on the world.
• Intimate. Breath, itch, fear, judgment, all in the stream.

Audit trick:

• Highlight every sentence tied to perception. If you see thoughts from two minds, split or revise.
• Remove observations your viewpoint would not notice. A cop might clock exits. A florist will clock scent and color first.

Dialogue audit

Dialogue should reveal desire, status, and tension. Trim the rest.

Do this pass:

• Cut “on the nose” lines where a character states feelings or themes outright.
• Reduce filler like “well,” “so,” “you know,” unless voice demands a touch.
• Use simple tags. Said and asked disappear on the page.
• Use action beats to carry subtext. One tap of a glass, a pause before a name.

Before:

“Are you angry with me, John, due to the incident at the party.”

“I am not angry. I am disappointed because you embarrassed me.”

After:

“Still mad about the party.”

John lines up the remote with the table edge. “You embarrassed me.”

Read your scene aloud. If a line thuds in your mouth, sharpen or cut.

Backstory and exposition

Feed context where the reader needs it. Not in clumps.

Tools:

• Triggered memory. Tie a small line of history to a present action. The broken window reminds her of the summer she broke into Mrs. Lee’s greenhouse.
• Dramatize. Turn a paragraph of explanation into a quick exchange or a micro-scene.
• Compress. Boil to one clean sentence where more would stall momentum.

Exercise:

• Bracket every sentence that explains. Move each bracketed line to the latest possible spot where understanding depends on it. If the story still reads, keep the later placement.

Pacing variety

Give the reader a mix of sprint and stroll.

• Alternate high-stress scenes with reflective beats or tighter, quieter scenes.
• Watch scene length. Cluster a few short, punchy scenes near a turn. Follow with one longer scene where a choice lands.
• Trim long summary blocks. Replace with two or three concrete moments that prove the same point.

A tip for revision days:

• Label each scene with I for intense or B for breathing space. If you see a long run of one label, adjust.

Sensory detail with purpose

Specifics stick. Vague description slides off the brain.

• Pick one or two sharp details per scene that echo mood or stakes. The burnt sugar stink, the chipped saint on the dashboard, the click of a dog’s nails on tile.
• Favor nouns and verbs over adjectives. “He limps” beats “He walks slowly.”
• Swap general words for concrete ones. Not “food,” but “okra stew.” Not “car,” but “rust-red Civic with a duct-taped mirror.”

If description stalls the scene, move it to places where the character pauses for breath or thought.

Quick checklist for this pass

• Every scene shows want, pressure, and change.
• Open with who, where, when, plus a question.
• Close on reveal, reversal, decision, or new stakes.
• One viewpoint per scene, steady distance.
• Dialogue trims to need, with simple tags and subtext beats.
• Backstory arrives at points of need, not in dumps.
• Pace varies across the chapter mix.
• Details are concrete and purposeful.

Do this work and chapters start to click into place. Pages turn. Your plot has traction, and your voice gets room to do its best work.

Line Editing and Voice Pass

This pass is where prose earns its keep. Tight lines, strong verbs, clean rhythm, and a voice that feels lived in. Small cuts, big gains.

Strong verbs, no filters

Filters shove distance between reader and moment. Look for words like seemed, felt, noticed, heard, watched, looked, thought, remembered.

• Before: She felt the floor shake as the train went by.
• After: The floor shook as the train passed.
• Before: He noticed that the room was cold.
• After: Cold bit through his shirt.

Trade weak verb plus adverb for a precise verb.

• Before: He quickly ran to the door.
• After: He sprinted to the door.

Not every adverb is the enemy. Keep the rare one that earns its space. Most do not.

Quick exercise:

• Search for seem, feel, notice, hear, watch, look, think, remember.
• Replace three in each chapter with direct action or sensation.

Trim the flab

Readers do not need choreography for every hand and eyelash. Cut repeats and stage directions they will infer.

Common trims:

• Nod your head → Nod.
• Shrug your shoulders → Shrug.
• Sit down, stand up → Sit, stand.
• Whisper softly → Whisper.
• Start to, begin to → Do the thing.

• Before: She reached out and grabbed the photo.
• After: She grabbed the photo.
• Before: He paused for a moment.
• After: He paused.

Hedge words weaken authority. Scratch them. Words like “kind of,” “a bit,” “sort of.”

Rhythm and flow

Good prose breathes. Mix short snaps with longer lines. Read aloud. Stumble, then fix. TTS helps too.

• If you run into a long sentence that leaves you breathless, split it.
• If you hit three short sentences in a row, join one to the next.
• Cut the throat-clearing clause at the front. “As he was walking, he thought” often becomes “He thought.”

Micro exercise:

• Mark one page with slashes where your breath flags.
• Adjust until your mouth moves without tripping.

Voice by POV

Voice is diction plus viewpoint plus mood. Keep each point of view consistent.

Ask for each paragraph:

• Would this character use this word.
• Would they notice this detail.
• Does the tone match the beat of the story right now.

A botanist names plants. A line cook clocks heat, knives, and tickets. A seven-year-old will not think “precarious” unless someone taught the word yesterday.

Keep tense and idiom steady for each character. Build a tiny “voice palette” per POV in your notes. A dozen favorite words, a few tells, a cadence. Refer back when revising.

Metaphors and imagery

Fresh and precise wins. Clichés flatten voice. Mixed images distract.

• Before: Her thoughts were a hurricane of fireworks.
• After: Her thoughts scattered, hot and bright.
• Before: He was as cold as ice.
• After: He went numb from the wind.

Anchor comparisons in the character’s world. A mechanic compares to gears, a swimmer to current. If an image does not fit the speaker, cut or recast.

Audit trick:

• Highlight every metaphor in one chapter.
• Keep the two strongest. Replace the rest with concrete detail.

Dialogue polish

Dialogue carries intent and friction. Let it move fast and clear.

• Use contractions unless a character avoids them on purpose.
• Keep tags simple. Said and asked do the job.
• Use action beats to carry subtext. Let hands, eyes, and objects do quiet work.
• Go easy on dialect markers. A touch signals region and rhythm. Heavy phonetics slow reading and risk caricature.

On-the-nose lines drain tension.

Before:

“I am angry with you because you embarrassed me at the party.”

“I am sorry for my behavior. It will not happen again.”

After:

“You’re still mad about the party.”

He lines up the remote with the table edge. “You embarrassed me.”

Read the scene out loud with a flat voice. Bumps reveal fluff and false notes.

Crutch words and pet phrases

Every writer leans on a few. Build a search list and sweep each pass.

Starter list to adapt:

• “suddenly”
• “actually”
• “basically”
• “a little”
• “kind of”
• “sort of”
• “turns out”
• “start to” and “begin to”
• “look” and “listen” used as throat clearing
• “that” used as glue
• “for a moment”
• “maybe” at the start of guesses
• “really” as a booster

Make a tally on a sticky note. If one phrase pops more than once per chapter, prune to one or none.

Emphasis and formatting

Use italics for stress or unspoken thought, but sparingly. One word in italics draws focus. A line in italics grows tiring.

ALL CAPS reads like shouting. Ellipses trail off the rhythm. Keep them rare. If you love long breaks, prefer a clean period or a comma more often than em dashes. Save big visual tricks for moments that deserve them.

Quick exercises for this pass

• Pick a paragraph. Replace two weak verbs, cut one hedge, trim one extra beat.
• Record yourself reading a page. Note where your voice slows or stumbles. Fix those lines.
• Choose a POV page. Swap out three details for ones that only this character would notice.
• Highlight every adverb on one page. Keep two. Cut the rest or trade them for stronger verbs.

Snapshot checklist

• Filters gone. Direct sensation on the page.
• Verbs strong. Adverbs trimmed to the few that earn space.
• Flab cut. No hedges, no obvious stage direction.
• Sentences flow. Length and structure vary, read aloud smooth.
• Voice steady per POV. Diction fits worldview and genre.
• Images fresh and coherent. No clichés, no mixed metaphors.
• Dialogue clean. Natural contractions, simple tags, beats for subtext.
• Crutch words flagged and pruned.
• Emphasis restrained. Italics rare, no ALL CAPS, ellipses and em dashes kept in check.

Line by line, this work is quiet. On the page, the effect is loud. Pages read faster. Voice rings clearer. Readers trust you.

Copyediting and Consistency Pass

This is where you become a detective. Hunt for inconsistencies, fix mechanical errors, and make your manuscript behave according to the rules you've chosen. Not glamorous work, but readers notice when you skip it.

Choose your style guide and stick to it

Chicago Manual of Style dominates fiction publishing. AP Stylebook serves journalism and some nonfiction. Pick one and commit. Your style sheet becomes your personal rulebook for decisions the big guides leave open.

Download a style guide reference or bookmark the online version. You will need it.

Common Chicago rules for fiction:

• Serial comma: red, white, and blue (not red, white and blue)
• Numbers: spell out one through one hundred, use numerals for 101 and up
• Time: 3:00 a.m. (not 3 AM or 3am)
• Decades: the sixties or the 1960s (not the 60's)

Build and use your style sheet

Your style sheet tracks every choice you make about names, spellings, capitalization, hyphenation, and formatting. Start it during your first draft. Update it every pass.

Essential categories:

• Character names and nicknames (including middle initials, maiden names, titles)
• Place names (cities, streets, buildings, fictional locations)
• Made-up terms (magic systems, technology, organizations)
• Capitalization preferences (Internet or internet, Mom or mom when not addressing her)
• Hyphenation choices (twenty-one, real-time, long-term)
• Number formats (ages, dates, measurements, money)
• Abbreviations and acronyms

Example entries:

• Elena Vasquez (never Vasquez, Elena or Elena Vazquez)
• Whitmore Academy (never Whitmore academy or whitmore Academy)
• Twenty-first century (hyphenated as adjective, not as noun)
• Email (not e-mail)
• WiFi (not wifi or wi-fi)

Update your style sheet when you make a call. Search and replace to fix earlier instances.

Typography that looks professional

Smart quotes matter. Straight quotes scream amateur. Most word processors convert them automatically, but check.

• "Curly quotes" not "straight quotes"
• Apostrophes that curve: don't, not don't
• Spaced ellipses: word . . . word (Chicago prefers spaces)
• En dashes for ranges: pages 24–30, 1995–2001
• Em dashes for breaks in thought (though use them sparingly)

Search for straight quotes and apostrophes. Replace with curly versions. In Word, use Find & Replace with "Smart Quotes" enabled.

Dialogue mechanics

Punctuation goes inside closing quotation marks for periods and commas.

Right: "I'm going home," she said.

Wrong: "I'm going home", she said.

Question marks and exclamation points follow logic. If the quote asks the question, punctuation goes inside. If the whole sentence asks about the quote, punctuation goes outside.

• She asked, "Are you coming?"
• Did she say "maybe tomorrow"?

Tag punctuation:

• "I know," he said. (comma before tag)
• "I know." He stood. (period before action)
• "Do you know?" she asked. (no comma after question mark)

Keep thought formatting consistent. Pick italics or quotation marks for internal dialogue. Stay consistent throughout.

Name and term audit

Run a search for every proper noun. Check spelling, capitalization, and consistency.

Character name variations:

• Elena, Ellie, El (decide which characters use which nicknames when)
• Dr. Martinez vs. Doctor Martinez vs. Martinez vs. Rosa
• Mom vs. mom (capitalize when used as a name, lowercase when used as a description)

Place name consistency:

• New York City, NYC, or the city
• Interstate 95, I-95, or the interstate
• Third Street vs. 3rd Street

Invented terms need extra attention. Build a mini-glossary. If you call it a "datapad" in chapter one, do not call it a "tablet" in chapter twelve unless that signals a meaningful difference.

Numbers and measurements

Pick formats and stick to them. Chicago spells out numbers through one hundred. Use numerals for 101 and higher. But make exceptions for:

• Ages: "She turned twenty-one" but "The 12-year-old girl"
• Time: 7:00 p.m., not seven o'clock at night
• Dates: March 15, 2019, not March fifteenth, two thousand nineteen
• Measurements: 6 feet tall, 120 pounds, 35 degrees
• Money: $5.50, not five dollars and fifty cents

Be consistent within categories:

• If you write "twenty-five years old" once, do it every time
• If you choose "St. Louis" instead of "Saint Louis," stick with it

Technology tools with human oversight

Run PerfectIt, ProWritingAid, or similar consistency checkers after your manual pass. These tools flag potential problems. Review every suggestion. Accept good catches. Ignore false positives.

Common tool strengths:

• Capitalization inconsistencies
• Hyphenation variations
• Abbreviation formats
• Number style mismatches

Common tool weaknesses:

• Context-dependent choices
• Proper nouns it does not recognize
• Style preferences it was not trained on
• Dialogue variations that serve character voice

Never accept suggestions blindly. Tools help. They do not decide.

Special content checks

References and citations need extra attention. Verify:

• Book titles, author names, publication dates
• Song lyrics, poetry, quotations (plus permission rights)
• Foreign language phrases and their spelling
• Historical dates, events, figures
• Technical terms and jargon accuracy

If you quoted someone else's work, check fair use guidelines and permissions. When in doubt, cut or paraphrase.

The consistency sweep method

Work in focused passes:

Pass 1: Names and places

Search each proper noun. Check every instance. Update style sheet. Fix variations.

Pass 2: Numbers and formattingProofreading, Formatting, and Submission Readiness

This is your final checkpoint. You are looking for typos, formatting glitches, and missed words that spell checkers ignore. Think of it as quality control before your manuscript meets the world.

Change your reading environment

Print your manuscript. Yes, the whole thing. Your brain reads differently on paper. Screen fatigue makes you skip over errors that jump out on the printed page.

No printer? Load your manuscript onto an e-reader or tablet. The different screen size and reading app will help you spot problems your word processor missed.

Take a break first. Step away for at least 48 hours after your copyediting pass. Fresh eyes catch more mistakes.

Read with a pen in hand. Mark errors directly on the page. Do not try to fix them as you find them. That breaks your reading flow and lets other errors slip past.

Run strategic searches for common mistakes

Spellcheck misses the worst errors because they are real words in wrong places. Search for these common confusables:

Homophones that spell checkers miss:

• your/you're (search for "your" and check each instance)
• its/it's (possessive vs. contraction)
• their/there/they're
• to/too/two
• affect/effect
• waist/waste
• martial/marital
• peak/peek/pique

Typing mistakes that create real words:

• form/from
• trail/trial
• quite/quiet
• angel/angle
• desert/dessert
• loose/lose

Layout problems:

• Double spaces between sentences
• Extra tabs at paragraph starts
• Inconsistent line breaks
• Stray punctuation marks

Search each term individually. Review every instance. Fix the wrong ones.

Standard manuscript formatting

Agents and editors expect specific formatting. Follow these rules unless submission guidelines say otherwise:

Font and spacing:

• 12-point serif font (Times New Roman, Garamond, or similar)
• Double-spaced throughout
• Left-aligned text (not justified)
• One-inch margins on all sides

Paragraphs and breaks:

• Indent first line of each paragraph (0.5 inches)
• No extra space between paragraphs
• Simple scene breaks: center three hash marks (###) or insert a blank line
• Start each chapter on a new page

Headers and page numbers:

• Header: Last name / Title / Page number
• Start page numbers on page 1 of Chapter 1 (not title page)
• Use your word processor's header function, not manual text boxes

Clean up your file

Accept all Track Changes comments. Delete all comments and notes. Your manuscript should show clean text with no revision marks.

Common cleanup tasks:

• Remove hidden text and formatting
• Delete extra paragraph breaks
• Fix any hanging indents or spacing issues
• Update headers with correct title and name
• Verify page numbers start and flow correctly

Save a clean copy with "FINAL" in the filename. Keep your marked-up version as backup.

Prepare front and back matter

Title page includes:

• Book title (centered, bold)
• Author name (centered, below title)
• Word count (rounded to nearest thousand)
• Contact information (bottom left)
• Genre (if submitting to agents)

For fiction submissions, include:

• Acknowledgments (if finished book)
• Author bio or note (brief paragraph)
• Series information (if applicable)

For digital publishing, add:

• Copyright page
• Table of contents with linked chapters
• "Also by [Author]" page if you have other books

Keep it simple. Fancy fonts and graphics belong in the published book, not the manuscript.

Test your exports

Create different file formats for different purposes:

DOCX for agents and editors:

• Maintains formatting and tracking capabilities
• Standard submission format
• Test: open file on different computer to verify formatting

PDF for review copies:

• Preserves exact formatting
• Good for beta readers and advance review copies
• Test: verify all fonts display correctly

EPUB for digital publishing:

• Most e-reader compatible format
• Test: open on multiple devices and reading apps
• Check chapter breaks, table of contents links, formatting

Open each exported file. Scroll through completely. Look for:

• Broken chapter starts
• Missing or displaced text
• Font problems
• Broken table of contents links
• Strange line breaks or spacing

Fix problems in your source file. Re-export. Test again.

The final sanity check

Read your first chapter and last chapter back-to-back. Do they feel like the same book? Does the ending deliver on the promise your opening made?

Look for:

• Character voice consistency from beginning to end
• Setup and payoff connections
• Tone and style coherence
• Stakes that matter and resolve satisfyingly

This is not the time for major revisions. You are checking that your story holds together and feels complete.

Consider a cold reader

If you have budget and time, hire a proofreader for this final pass. Professional eyes catch what yours miss.

No budget? Trade manuscripts with another writer. Read each other's work with fresh eyes.

If you do your own final proof, wait at least a week after formatting. Read in a different location. Print on different paper. Change the environment to change your perception.

Submission checklist

Before you send your manuscript anywhere:

File hygiene:

• Clean filename (Title_AuthorLastName_Date.docx)
• No track

  Frequently Asked Questions

  What order should I follow when setting up my self-editing workflow?

  Follow the levels in order: Pass One (developmental), Pass Two (scene and chapter level), Pass Three (line editing), Pass Four (copyediting), then Pass Five (proofreading). Leaving big-picture fixes until last wastes time—solve plot, causality and stakes before you polish sentences.

  Use separate files for each pass and treat each level as complete before moving on; this systemised approach to a self-editing workflow prevents you from endlessly oscillating between structure and commas.

  How do I create and maintain a living style sheet for my novel?

  Start a single document on day one and record decisions as you make them: character name spellings, hyphenation, capitalisation, number formats and timeline anchors. Update it immediately when you choose a form so you don’t hunt inconsistencies later.

  Keep the style sheet open while editing and use it when running global Find & Replace; for series work, export the sheet so future books inherit the same house style and save your copyeditor time.

  What file naming and backup routine prevents revision chaos?

  Use clear incremental filenames (eg. BookTitle_Draft2_LineEdit_2025-11-05.docx) and duplicate your file before starting each pass so you can revert if needed. Avoid vague names like "FinalFinal"—numbers and dates sort reliably.

  Keep at least three backups (cloud, local device, emailed copy) and perform a weekly zip and archival routine; your manuscript is not backed up until it exists in three separate locations.

  Which reading techniques reveal problems my eyes miss?

  Change the medium: print selected chapters, load a chapter to an e‑reader, and use text-to-speech proofreading to hear rhythm and missing words. Each format highlights different issues—paper shows pacing and paragraph density, small screens expose overlong sentences, and TTS flags awkward rhythm.

  Use these methods regularly (for example: read aloud or TTS once per revision session) to catch errors that silent reading glosses over and to ensure your prose sounds like you in real reading conditions.

  How should I timebox each editing pass to stay productive?

  Set realistic daily targets and stop when you hit them: two to three chapters per day for developmental passes, one chapter per day for line editing, five to ten pages for copyediting and twenty pages for proofreading. Timeboxing prevents decision fatigue and keeps momentum steady.

  Track progress and honour stopping points; tired editors make poorer choices, so a short daily limit with consistent work beats marathon sessions that lead to backsliding.

  What does a big-picture story structure pass involve?

  Write a one-sentence logline (protagonist, goal, stakes, antagonist), tag key beats by percentage (inciting incident, first plot point, midpoint, crisis, climax), test causality between scenes with the therefore/but framework, verify escalation of stakes, and ensure the protagonist makes decisive choices. This big-picture story structure pass ensures the plot has proportion and forward momentum.

  Also run a quick continuity scan—timeline, travel time and ages—so you fix paradoxes early rather than unraveling polished prose later.

  How do I know the manuscript is ready for submission or a proofreader?

  Run your final sanity checks: read chapter one and the last chapter back-to-back to confirm the ending fulfils the opening promise, export and test DOCX/PDF/EPUB files, clean all Track Changes and comments, and run targeted searches for common homophone errors and layout glitches. Ensure your file adheres to standard manuscript formatting before sending.

  If budget allows, hire a professional proofreader for a last pass; otherwise trade manuscripts with a fellow writer and do a final read after at least a week away so fresh eyes can spot what yours missed.

  

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